• masquenox@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Sex work differs from most other type of work in one very significant way - it’s an industry in which capitalists cannot really control the means of production unless slavery (ie, a person can become the private property of another) is legalized and institutionalized. In other words, a sex worker - for the most part - is not as easily coerced into selling their labor to capitalists like most workers can be, and capitalists hate when people have a way to opt out of being hosts for their parasitism.

    Sex work also has a way of subverting patriarchal norms upon which the status quo rests.

    This is not to say that sex work is automatically a revolutionary, anti-capitalist or even “empowering” thing by itself - there are plenty of ways in which our socio-economic systems allows and enables de facto slavery without calling it slavery - but it certainly doesn’t fit into the neat class hierarchy that capitalists wants society to be trapped within.

    • stella@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Sex work also has a way of subverting patriarchal norms upon which the status quo rests.

      cough, what? No, it reinforces those norms. Men in power get to have women at their beck and call.

      This isn’t a capitalist thing. Just look at how profitable the sex industry is in Nevada.

      It’s a “holier than thou” thing that we just haven’t been able to get rid of in our society.

      As much as I like calling out greed for what it is, this simply isn’t one of those cases.

      • masquenox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        cough, what?

        You read correctly the first time. It’s a lot more difficult to entrap sex workers in patriarchal hierarchies than a housewife (for instance)… this should not be too difficult to understand.

        This isn’t a capitalist thing.

        All sex work in the world today exists under a capitalist mode of production - as far as I can tell, there is (officially, at least) no such thing as “publicly-funded” sex work… and that is unfortunate.

    • cricket98@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I disagree with this entire claim. Sex workers are notorious for “having a price” to do nearly anything. I would say they are more susceptible to doing disgusting shit for money. There’s a reason why there’s an ongoing joke about sex workers getting shit on during their trips to dubai.

      • masquenox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Sex workers are notorious for “having a price” to do nearly anything.

        And what do you think the rest of us do, eh Clyde? How many sex workers have to piss in bottles to make Jeff Bezos richer?

        There’s a reason we don’t use the term “prostitute” any more - it’s got something to do with the fact that understanding how capitalism works very quickly makes it real clear who the real “prostitutes” are…

        • cricket98@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I think sex workers are pressured to get into progressively more disgusting shit because that’s what pays. The market is flooded at this point and the only thing you can do to stick out is either be famous or be willing to degrade yourself.