Even in the words used to describe certain sex workers, there are certain connotations to their value. “Hooker” and “whore” are used not only as insults and slurs but denote a lower class standing – of both the sex workers and the clients – while “call girl”, “escort” and especially “Madam” seem to dance around the job that these sex workers perform and connote a much higher class standing. Why is there even a distinction?
For most of it, I think money can be made accountable. Oftentimes prostitutes who charge a couple hundred dollars for some of their services are seen as lower class whereas a call girl who charges a couple thousand dollars for the same services are seen as a higher class. Why? I originally thought this could be related to the clients that certain sex workers have access to. If you are a street-level prostitute who has no connections to the industry, a capitalist perspective on getting money would be to lower your prices to bring in a larger customer base. However, Ava Xi’an provides a different explanation that is related to self-worth in this New York Times article: “Tell a guy you’re $100 and they’ll treat you one way -- tell them you’re $1,500 and they’ll treat you better.” This struck me as it reminded me a lot of the ideas of street-level prostitutes being “worthless”. They have huge rates of physical violence and are considered “fair game” when it comes to assault because they are not seen as humans, according to Dr. Phylis Chessler in this Women’s Issues article. Charging more for the same services seems to imply worth to the client – and seems to discourage violence because there is a larger sum attached to the woman. This is yet another example of how we conflate violence with oppressed groups in society.
Further, sex work seems to be "more empowering" for the higher-class sex workers – who can also double-up as part-time “girlfriends”. They do a lot more than just sex during their job hours – this article from the New York Daily News is very blunt about the time spent with clients: "Let's just say that sex lasts for about two minutes and the rest of the time the girl is schmoozing him and feeding his ego." And it seems to take an upper class upbringing to be one of the so-called “escorts” who can afford to charge such amounts for their time and services: “The women were educated, could converse on political issues or on philosophy or in another language. They were women you wouldn't feel embarrassed about taking out to dinner with your business colleagues” (NY Daily News). To me this immediately looks like the needs or wants of the client (often male) supersede those of the sex worker (often female) – and some men don’t want to “dirty themselves” by “slumming it” to have sex. Is this really empowerment if the escort is there to make a man feel better about himself? It also makes me feel like the only way to make a lot of money doing sex work is if you already come from a family that had a lot of wealth and resources - which can also reinforce the stereotypic idea of a poor or working-class street-level prostitute who is "dirty" both literally and metaphorically.
I feel very much conflicted about this topic as a whole – while I want people to engage in work that they find beneficial to them in some way, I am also very alarmed at how much sex work seems to reinforce the patriarchy and socioeconomic inequality. To me, it feels wrong to criminalize and discount sexuality when it is, for a lot of people, a large part of everyday life – but it also seems to be doing a lot of harm to some of society’s most vulnerable individuals. I really look forward to engaging with this topic with all of you on Monday.
Here are the reading links in order of appearance:
I am SO glad you chose this topic! Growing up in Bangkok, I walked passed and talked to prostitutes on a daily basis. I live right next to a very famous street called "Soi Cowboy" (where The Hangover was shot), that is filled with bars, strip clubs, alcohol and drugs. I remember always taking the long way around to get home to avoid going through that street. I remember one night I was with a family member and we wanted to get back home as soon as possible, so we went through the street. There were old white drunk men and young thai women (some almost completely naked) everywhere. Prostitutes lined up the street and were clapping at the men and calling out in english "I am beautiful! Take me!". I was in shock at how the women were letting the men get all over them.
ReplyDeleteLike you talked about, there are also different "classes" of prostitutes. I was telling my mom about what I saw and she just said "well, what do you think Tuk is?" Tuk is the secretary's assistant (a low-paying job) in my dad's office and I've known her for about 15 years. She tells me that she keeps about 3-4 "boyfriends" at a time, only the "boyfriends" are basically the men paying her. She is a light-skinned thai woman and says she wishes she was darker because "the white men don't find her exotic enough". She has a daughter and I heard her tell her 7-year-old "when you see a white men, smile and wave". I was absolutely disgusted that she was already training her daughter in this profession. But at the same time I can see her desperation. Tuk has run away twice to avoid debt-collectors, doubles up as a maid in the office, takes on extra work when people in my building need extra hands during parties, has a shady side business of selling fake chanel perfumes and counterfeit clothes, but she is still in extreme debt. She says that three of her thai "boyfriends" has taken her money and run. She thinks a "white boyfriend" would help her if she married him.
This topic is so important when talking about SES, gender, and race and ethnicity. It's really important to me as it's very strongly linked to Thai culture.
I am looking forward to dialoguing about this topic, as this is an issue that is more in my periphery. I think there are interesting intersections among agency, gender and SES. While within the constraints of a patriarchal society, female sex workers (probably those from higher SES backgrounds as you and the resources reflected upon) have the agency to determine what they are worth. This is still problematic because it commodifies the human body.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to addressing how race and gender (as Alex touched upon) factor in as well.
It is very hard to grasp the complexity of this topic. I found that while I was reading the blog posts, I was disgusted by many of the facts, but also try to see the feminist view of working in the sex industry, as brought up by the Duke University student who said that work was empowering. One of the facts that particularly horrified me is how prostitutes are treated differently because of the price that they charge, completely objectifying women simply as a toy you could purchase. I cannot even put into words how much this topic makes me angry, so I am so glad that it is brought up today.
ReplyDeleteI do have personal insight into the situation with the man in a fraternity at Duke telling his brothers about the woman who worked in the porn industry. That man happened to be the valedictorian at my high school, someone who had been in many of my classes and I interacted with on a daily basis. When the incident happened, it was gossiped about all over my hometown, and his younger brother tweeted many things about his opinions on the event, trying to defend his brother. I think this situation itself is one to unpack, such as the implication that a man felt that he could just gossip about this to his fraternity brothers, and then participate in bullying her because of her means of income. Looking forward to talking about this tomorrow.