Spitzer, Sex Work, And The Bigger Picture

Ever so briefly, my thoughts on the Spitzer prostitution scandal:

(1) Sex, more clearly than most realms, gives the lie to the supposed public/private split fundamental to political Liberalism.

(2) Sex work is not inherently demeaning, as some claim, though it is often exploitative given sexist, racist, anti-labor structures of the larger capitalist economy. It’s easy to scapegoat because there’s already so much anxiety and moralizing surrounding the topic, but gender oppression pervades all industries, not to mention domestic relationships. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to reduce harms, but we need a comprehensive approach to do it.

(3) The rampant misogyny, whether violent or patronizing, directed at Ashley Dupré all over the web is absolutely sickening. She is a person, you assholes.

Fortunately, there are a lot of folks who get that the problem lies in the exploitation, not the occupation. F’rinstance, the poster above is from a show that BGLTSA, H-Bomb, and RUS helped bring to Harvard last month. I didn’t get to go, but I heard it was so packed they had to turn a bunch of their own organization members away. Cheers for workers empowering themselves through unions and humanizing art.