Or is it?
Mood: Disgusted
Music: Boyz2Men – On Bended Knee
Notes: None
I saw a recent RT (re-tweet) that caught my eye and though I usually try to stay away from these topics, I can’t ignore they are the reason I started blogging in the first place. It’s called “Going Down in The Downturn” from the “Pinched” series on Salon.Com. It chronicles short experiences of a few women who’ve lost their jobs and have turned to sex work to supplement their lost incomes.
The two most striking parts, to me, were the partial interview of a woman who and the reporter’s account of contacting pimps porn and web cam companies to find out more information. In the portion of the 23 year old single mother’s interview, the woman says, “… dude, why didn’t you just work at McDonald’s?” – which is the most sensible thing to say (and actually gives me hope) until she backtracks on all of that good common-sense with some garbage about making more money. Not farther into the article, the reporter segues into the money situation (with what I think she thought was an “in depth reporting” style) and talks about how the pimps web-cam company owners attempt to sweet talk her into working for them – “We have a girl who just made $1,400 bucks from eating popcorn and chatting for 8 hours,” and other such stories.
The feeling I came away with from this article was the reporter simply didn’t want to make a decision – didn’t want to alienate readers – didn’t want to say, in a clear and concise sentence: These women are disgusted with themselves. They’ve sold peace and happiness for a few dollars. No, the reporter didn’t do that, she made silly jokes like “every woman has her price, maybe mine is popcorn.” For God’s sake, the last sentence of the article is “A blow job is better than no job.” While she makes sure to keep her own commentary lighthearted and non-proselytizing, the interviews tell a markedly different story. What should have been a heavy read (one making every reader sit back on their sofa and give a Keanu Reeves-esque “whoa”) seems trite and almost making fun of the stupidity of the women interviewed.
So when will someone come out and tell the truth, no matter who they alienate? When will someone tell what sex work is really like, minus jokes about body fluids taking the main stage? Sometimes I feel really alone in telling the truth. I feel like why am I sitting here talking to three people (I love you guys with your google readers and RSS feeds) about sex work? Maybe that’s the topic for my next blog… what sex work is really like.
-SF
