Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Is Prositution Inherently Degrading?

What kind of a question is that?

Is sex inherently degrading? No. But it sure can feel that way sometimes. (Louis CK has a routine where, early in his career, he sleeps with a drunken patron and she wakes up and looks at him and then holds her face in her hands in disgust. He says it's always interesting to find out you're part of somebody's hitting rock-bottom in their life.)

So, yeah. Sex can be messy and sordid and nothing you'd want your parents or your pastor to see you doing. But other times it can be pretty darned nice. Darned tootin'!

So I think it is with prostitution.  Most of the time I'm sure "sex work" is disgusting. For the vast bulk of the people performing it. Other times, it must seem pretty rote and repetitive. (Just like it probably is for a lot of married people.) For a lucky few, it might be extremely well-paying and occasionally enjoyable and fun. No doubt, for almost everyone in the trade, there are a lot of insights on the human condition to be had (if they're sensitive enough to pick them up).

I think I'm going to skip ahead a bit here. I 'll just come out and say that I think a lot of the reason why prostitution is outright loathed though, is because there is, in our society, as in most societies, the feeling that sex is inherently degrading. That sex is bad.

I also think that in our society, as in most societies, women are degraded. Women are inherently bad and inferior.

And, therefore, women who engage in the sex trade get the appellation "WHORE" which is up there with among the worst things that you can call someone. And I think it's the combination of these two toxic mindsets that produce most of the evils of prostitution.

I could probably come up with something more profound and insightful, but that's all for today.

 

5 comments:

Scotian said...

Pithy...simplistic, yet I would say is far more on the mark than off despite that. Since I am about to fall asleep that's all I've got for the moment too.

thwap said...

Well, considering how little research is going into this, I happily accept your "praise."

Scotian said...

You didn't need the air quotes there thwap, I was actually being sincere. Given that the actual subject is so complex and layered your post was simplistic and pithy, and it also was fairly accurate from everything I've ever seen, experienced, and known about prostitution. I also was having trouble focusing my eyes at that point, I really was falling asleep, otherwise I might have made one of my more usual expansive comments

thwap said...

I'd never heard "simplistic" as a compliment before. Even then, I was pretty sure you meant well by it. Not one hundred percent sure though, so I included the quotation marks as insurance.

Scotian said...

Fair enough, and given our history understandable too. I will add that your simplistic post was in my view better considered and more reflective of reality than many much more detailed and supposedly in depth commentaries on the topic I've encountered over the years/decades. That was in part why I added that word into the mix, because sometimes simplistic can better reflect a truth/reality when done right than any far more detailed, lengthy commentary. As a specialist in writing lengthy tomes I should know after all...LOL