In the last two posts we reflected upon the connection between poverty and sex work, domestically and globally. A point we didn't explore very much was the issue of criminalization. If liberals do have a concern about the stigma of sex work, it's here where that concern has impact upon the material conditions of sex workers. That is, because sex work is stigmatized, it's also criminal. Which causes thousands upon thousands of women to be arrested for sex work every year. Historically, it was the woman who was arrested (the seller) rather than the John (the buyer). And while this has begun to change, with many police departments arresting the Johns and helping the women, this is by no means a consistent practice.
The point here is that the decriminalization of sex work, at least for the sellers, would go a long way to easing the lives of many women forced into sex work. Prostitution is unpleasant and dangerous, largely because it is criminal, and I don't know how humane or just it is to throw women into jail or have them pay fines on top of everything else they are facing on the streets. And that we don't pass legislation to ease this burden is, yes, due to cultural stigma.
To be clear, I don't claim any expertise in the areas of law, public policy, or public health when it comes to sex work. I'll let the experts share the pros and cons concerning the decriminalization of sex work. My only point is that I do want to recognize that a liberal concern over stigma does affect the criminalization of sex work, and that the criminalization of sex work materially affects the fortunes of women caught up in prostitution. Prostitution, as they say, is the oldest profession. I expect it will be with us forever. How best to protect the women involved in prostitution should be a moral and social concern. And the stigmas surrounding sex work does affect what policies and laws we deem appropriate or inappropriate.
That said, I do think the the larger argument from the last two posts still holds. That is, even if we decriminalize sex work there remains the larger economic forces that force women into prostitution, let alone the women who are caught up in domestic and global sex trafficking.
Back to Chapter 7 of The Case Against the Sexual Revolution.
Having discussed prostitution, Perry ends the chapter by talking about the various ways our culture has turned sex into a product to buy and sell. She returns to the issue of online pornography. She discusses how many women have monetized themselves through sites like OnlyFans. The progression is predictable. Sexy selfies posted to social media generate views, likes, and followers. It only makes sense to monetize that attention by selling more explicit content to viewers willing to pay. Perry also discusses dating and hookup apps like Tinder.
I don't want to get into a moralizing debate about online pornography, OnlyFans, or Tinder. Again, I think a lot of secular liberals would say keep your Christian values out of my bedroom. If I want to make money selling videos of myself in the safety of my own home, who are you to object? And who I hookup with on Tinder is none of your damn business.
Fair enough.
But I think a point Perry is making that is worth considering concerns the commodification of sex, treating sex as something to be bought and sold and approached transactionally. Making this argument, Perry goes back to a point made earlier in this series concerning the "disenchantment of sex." Capitalism, we know, has a perverse power to disenchant. A forest is disenchanted when it is reduced to lumber, its sacred magic stripped away to become a commodity that is bought and sold. Something similar has happened to sex in the modern world. Sex is something we buy and sell. Sex is a product we consume. Sex is something we monetize.
Sex has been disenchanted, stripped (literally and metaphorically) of its sacred, startling, special and surprising magic. So it's worth asking ourselves: Is that magic something you might like to remember, recover, experience, or find?
