Is sex work degrading?

[idgiehkt]

I'm wondering how people feel about it since I was watching Tyra yesterday and there was an escort on there and Tyra asked her how much she made and she said $150,000 a year. They interviewed some street prostitutes later on but I didn't watch that part. The escorts/call girls they had on the part I watched didn't profess to any feelings of degradation. Is it a cultural/ religious myth that sex work is degrading...how do people feel about it? I watched Kathy Griffin today and a friend of hers was telling her that he had gone to a strip club and she essentially said that all exotic dancers were survivors of sexual abuse. I've known lots of survivors in my life, including myself, but none of them have been strippers. I thought about making this a poll, but I kind of want people to defend their answers. It's not a sex thread I don't think because I see it as a political issue in this context.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[xchrom]

2. like everything else in life -- it depends on the individual.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. Overall, no.

I see nothing wrong with being an escort, stripper, porn model/actress et cetera. I do believe that it can be degrading, such as being a street prostitute working for a pimp, but that's completely different than being a porn actress or a professional escort.

I think the only degrading thing about it is the stigma that the anti-sex prudes attach to it. Otherwise, I just view it as providing a service. Someone's body is an asset like anything else, and it's their right to use it without judgement. If people weren't so uptight about sex, then this wouldn't even be a question.

And the issues involving street prostitutes would be moot if we would just legalize and regulate it, like Amsterdam does. God forbid we protect the safety of prostitutes and their johns though.

[idgiehkt]

5. I like this:

"I think the only degrading thing about it is the stigma that the anti-sex prudes attach to it."

I think if I had my life to live over I would just become a stripper for about 5 years as soon as I left high school, save the money and buy a house and take classes at school without ever moving on campus. With the look that I had I could have made a fortune. I got blown away by that woman's salary. A buck and a half grand a year...damn. It just goes to show that the p-word is a commodity and having it criminalized is all about control, who is controlling that commodity. Same with drugs. Street prostitutes have a huge percent narcotic addiction, it's in the nineties but that is just the tip of the iceberg of prostitution in this country even though alot of people don't realize it.

[mongo]

84. Well said

and there's a big difference between the average porn actress or high $ escort, and your average crack addicted street walker.

[blondeatlast]

93. Completely sensible way of looking at it.

I could not have stated my own position better.

:thumbsup:

[Guava Jelly]

4. I think if anyone of free will and healthy mind

Chooses to make a living using thier assets as long as children or animals were not involved it's ok in my book.
I say legalize it regulate it..Make it safer for everyone involved.

on edit ..I see i echoed Harukas opinion..I guess great minds

[mainegreen]

6. Well, I used to be the driver for a couple of local agencies

and from what I learned is most of the girls were simply doing it to make extra money to go to school. Most of them were of the more type A outgoing personality and didn't feel degraded at all. Those who might find it degrading didn't do it. I can't recall too many girls who loved it, but that can be said for a lot of jobs.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

7. depends on the individual circumstances

an escort who makes $150000 has a different set of socio-economic situation from one who makes $15,000 and is addicted to crack...

[kiahzero]

8. Right now, probably

However, it's not something inherent about the trade. When they existed, temple prostitutes were in the upper echelons of their societies. As I understand it, the oiran of Japan were also held in high societal esteem. I think it largely has to do with the demonization of sexuality within our society.

[XemaSab]

9. Depends on the individual

If they are doing it as a legitimate career move, no, but if they are giving 5 dollar bjs in an alley to score crack, probably.

[Whoa_Nelly]

29. Hey, Xemasab!

Check your PMs :hi:

[In_The_Wind]

10. It shouldn't be.

I also think it should be legal. There is nothing wrong with self-employment.

[evirus]

11. Only if the work is forced

there nothing wrong with being sexual you know?

[idgiehkt]

15. but that is where the argument about force comes in

some people feel that women are forced into sex work because of economic need, sexual discrimination, and lack of pay equity in this culture. And that makes the work degrading because if these conditions exist it isn't wholly free will. Of course that is true of any job. Plus some sex workers don't necessarily feel 'sexual' while they are simulating sexuality, they are acting.

[pitohui]

49. yeah women don't have so many great choices

i notice that young men don't have to take off their clothes to get money for college so, no matter how we try to justify it to ourselves, it is degrading in the sense that women have to do this because we've been dealt a losing hand of cards and we don't have the same opportunities available to get "real" money in other ways

a woman from a good family can go to college without taking off her clothes but with financial aid no longer grants but mostly loans that crush your ability to get started in life...well...it is forced prostitution even if the pimp with his hand-out to take all the money is the college rather than some lowlife -- it's still a situation where many young women are in a place where they have no future if they can't get the money for college by stripping but their degree won't be worth so much and their ability to get hired and taken seriously after college will be greatly impacted if the secret gets out

i don't judge any woman for doing what she must but, yeah, sure, you'd rather have the $150,000 a year AND not have to have sex and lose your appetite for sex because it becomes associated with ugly, old, fat businessmen who don't interest you -- obviously

it's like food, no matter how much you enjoy a food, if you are forced to eat more than you really want for whatever reason (a bet, say, or compulsion) you vomit -- don't you?

"some" sex workers are acting? realistically 99 percent are

nobody's rubbing off some creep with her ass because she's getting anything but butt pimples out of it

[sendero]

62. Millions..

.. yes literally millions of men do work that is inherently dangerous. Sure, there are a few women in coal mines, running cranes, driving trucks, operating heavy equipment, installing wiring, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

Degrading/dangerous are not the same thing, sorry for those who think it is a distinction without a difference.

I feel neither pity nor derision nor anything else for a woman who chooses to be a sex worker. She's made a simple economic decision to use what skills, talents, abilities she was born with to make a living, the same damn thing men do.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

76. Hey -- as a white male, I didn't seem to have all these "great choices"

for paying for my education (and, you know, keeping myself clothed and fed while in school).

I was busting my ass for 10 hours a night for $6.50 an hour in a hot kitchen.

I would have gladly taken my clothes off in lieu of doing that.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

67. There's something not quite right in that line of thought

You could say the same thing about being a garbage collector or a Wal-Mart cashier. Nobody in their right mind chooses those either, if there's any chance of getting a better paying and less harmful job.

[idgiehkt]

90. I would say

different personalities, different "moralities" (I think that's artificial but people who describe themselves as moral don't so I'll let them have it), some have a narcotics addiction to support which can't be carried any other way. Singles mothers are the most vulnerable, or those with disabled/addicted spouses who can't support the family. Trying to make a living wage doing a man's job opens one up to alot of hostility, resentment and hazing from men who believe you don't belong in your job and alot of women can't get throught it.

I just wonder if the cultural values placed on this work disappeared what would happen. Would more people get into it? Or different people? Prostitution is too intimate for me but hell conversation is too intimate for me with most folks.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

12. i wouldn't want my wife or girlfriend doing it.

so I'd say I think it is.

and I certainly wouldn't be a patron (well, I'm still young - perhaps as I advance in my years and women aren't ahem throwing themselves at me anymore AHEM who knows)

but that's me. I'm not judgmental, i don't think I'm a better person than one who does such things. every person has a different set of situations governing their actions.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

13. What you want your wife or girlfriend doing has ABSOLUTLY NOTHING

to do with it.

And despite your claim of not being judgemental, you just were.

[evirus]

14. I think what he meant was...

that sure he think it is degrading but hes not going to raise hell about it like the republicans do.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

19. thanks for the help. but I'll defend my position. n/t

[ScreamingMeemie]

59. Open message board. People can post where they want n/t

[SlavesandBulldozers]

72. thanks for the heads up

any other news flashes?

[ScreamingMeemie]

80. I don't know. Why don't you tell me.

:hi:

[SlavesandBulldozers]

81. no, why don't you tell me.

i said it first. infinity.

:7

[SlavesandBulldozers]

16. what you think of my thoughts has nothing to do with it either, when you

you really think about it, which you shouldn't, because I didn't ask. Not that it won't stop you from chiming in, though, God knows I wouldn't expect you to refrain from injecting your opinion into mine.

That said, I think its a good marker indicating whether I think its degrading - whether or not I would date somebody who was in one of those fields. And I wouldn't.

[sendero]

35. I wouldn't date ..

... anyone doing that either but it has jack to do with thinking it's degrading. I'm not interested in sharing my love partner with anyone, nor am I interested in taking the risk or subjecting her or myself to the risk of STDs.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

40. i guess i just don't see the distinction.

i guess its just me being a completely judgmental fascist asshat, ya know. . .that whole thing.

[pitohui]

50. i guess i don't see it either

saying that a job is likely to cause a disease and could spread a disease to one's partner or child that could kill them...i'd call such a job fairly degrading

it's pretty much the definition of degrading someone that you destroy them mentally and physically and as a bonus destroy their partner and any child they may conceive as well

i mean what is more literally degrading than something that degrades the physical body to the point of death?


not all sex work does this, of course -- rubbing off a guy with my ass (lap dancing) does not transmit disease, nor does classic domination where the guy is not permitted any "release" -- but i would be surprised if the poster who said he wouldn't marry a whore for fear of disease would really be thrilled to introduce a dominatrix or lap dancer to the folks either...

we all judge, it's human, even other sex workers judge and have a pecking order...

we have a right to a partner who enjoys sex as a pleasure, not as another tiresome duty to get through to pay-off, be it the ben franklin, be it the wedding ring and the macmansion

[SouthoftheBorderPaul]

66. is working in a child care center degrading?

or in a hospital?

or in the Peace Corp?

there are all kinds of jobs where you run the risk of catching a disease. just sayin'.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

71. wow.

just. wow.

Prostitute. Doctor. Crack-whore. Peace Corp Volunteer - I mean what's the difference, really? Are you serious?

[idgiehkt]

89. not weighing in on the argument on that contrast

can just vouch for that one point, worked day care and caught some shit. Will NEVER do that again. I clean a church and when I'm in the kids room I am very careful to touch almost nothing. There's no condomm for airborne shit that kids carry. I had three sinus infections in a couple of months, and caught some other nasty stuff I won't go into. Bleck. Never again.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

94. oh yeah an ex worked in day care

had a cold every other month almost.

[SouthoftheBorderPaul]

99. who said crack-whore?

The question was about sex workers, right?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

48. You're right, but I still get to respond to posts on DU, much like you did

Considering sex work degrading on the basis that you would not have a relationship with a sex worker is not a very strong argument, however. There are dozens of reasons why someone chooses not to enter into a relationship with somebody, but it doesn't mean that reason is degrading.

[Irreverend IX]

63. I ain't racist or nothin...

But, I mean, would you want one of 'em sleeping with your sister?

[Name removed]

73. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[youthere]

17. I don't know much about it...

except that for me it would be degrading, because I would be lousy at it-entirely too self-conscious.

[philosophie_en_rose]

18. Not inherently, but usually.

I admire kickass people that can work with their sexuality. Sex work doesn't necessarily have to be bad. There's a fine fine line between what is considered sex work and what isn't. If it's a choice, then I honor it.

But there are many people that do sex work, because they don't have a choice. I think sex (of all sorts) is degrading, when it isn't really consensual or enjoyable.

Not to mention, the sex industry is mainly run by people that pimp out women. I don't mind if people share their own sexuality, but I don't think much of people that use others for personal gain. (See "Girls Gone Wild," Nevada brothels, etc).

[Skittles]

20. allowing oneself to be used as a semen receptacle?

of course it is degrading

[kiahzero]

21. Is that an inherent characteristic of sex work?

If not, wouldn't it be some aspect of sex work in our culture that makes it degrading, not sex work prima facie?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. Not all sex work involves being a "semen receptacle." nt

[bicentennial_baby]

31. Can always count on you for the judgmental perspective

of these things...Like clockwork, it is...

[SlavesandBulldozers]

39. wrong response

delete

[Skittles]

42. am expressing an opionion

being paid for sex is degrading, period. You can dress it up all you like but it is extremely degrading. If you have a problem with me, put me on IGNORE. I'll do that for you right now.

[kay1864]

44. Saying it twice doesn't make it true

If you're going to make an assertion like that you really should back it up.

[Skittles]

52. back up what?

I believe it is degrading for people to be paid to perform sexual services - what's to back up? And to the other respondee - I already put your sorry ass on IGNORE so do not bother interacting with me ever again

[bicentennial_baby]

47. Well that's entirely lame of you...

Ignore wasn't really necessary, as I am willing to discuss it with you....Regardless, I don't see how you can make a wholesale judgment on women in the sex industry....Do you generalize about all people, in all jobs? It's ok if you don't like it, but just b/c these women (or men) are degraded in your eyes, it does not mean that they are degraded in their own...

[Phillycat]

65. Skittles, have I told you lately that I love you?

YES INDEED. :loveya:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

83. It's degrading because they're semen receptacles? Hmm.

That has a number of consequences, if you think about it.

[bridgit]

23. i am able to understand where it could be...

i'm sure i did this life all wrong maybe, but when i was going to college, men used to throw their business cards into my car at a traffic stops...always thought it was odd behavior

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

24. I have about a dozen cards from bars.

If I was straight, I would so totally have a sugar daddy.

[bridgit]

26. pft, when i was dancing in NYC, lesbian business women all dressed...

up tight & buttoned down round the edges in their $1,000 suits would ask me to just sit there in my underwear and listen, or just talk to them...this is not so much even a sick world (though it is that), as it is so lonely :cry: they'd offer money, but i never took it

[idgiehkt]

28. wow.

"this is not so much even a sick world (though it is that), as it is so lonely."

that made me sad to read that. :(

[bridgit]

30. huh...

:(

[idgiehkt]

34. my favorite poet is a former prostitute.

She writes about it alot. A line from one poem she wrote about it called "Economics 101":

"There's still no work to replace selling your mouth or your cunt or your breast or your ears for cheap therapy/which may be all you've got to sell in this great american cesspool of a dream..."

Chrystos

She was a street prostitute hooked on heroin...it is a great poem and there are others she's written about it.

[bridgit]

36. i like it...

B-)

[lildreamer316]

57. NAIL ON HEAD.

Thanks as always for being succinct,brigit. 3/4 of the time this is exactly how, and why, I make money, and the biz exists in the first place. Except I get mostly men still....

[bridgit]

61. cheers, lildreamer...

:toast:

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. Only if the sex worker thinks it is.

[Kali]

27. It certainly can be and is for many. But then so are a lot of jobs.

[Vidar]

43. Good answer.

[deadparrot]

32. Generally? No.

As long as it's a conscious decision made by the individual (no force or abuse on the part of a third party), and they're reasonably satisfied with their living, I don't see why it has to be harmful. Certain elements have the potential to be degrading, but you'll find that in many--if not most--careers. There may be more exposure to danger than in most jobs, but IMHO that just underscores the need for the industry to come above ground, and for the people who work in it to be under the protection of the law.

So much of the debate over the sex industry, however, is colored by the proportion of the population who get their panties in a twist over seeing a quarter of a second shot of Janet Jackson's nipple.

[bicentennial_baby]

33. Lots of jobs are degrading

As are many types of working conditions...I think it's more about how the individual feels about their particular line of work, how they feel at the end of the day....Completely subjective.

[sweetheart]

37. No it is honest.

Then there is no denial, that we are fucked for money, that we
bend all our morals around economics, be they rape, murder or
slavery, some raging anus has a glory to share.

[bertha katzenengel]

38. Don't know - never done it. IMHO it ought to be made legal in the U.S.

Legalize it. Unionize it. Protect the workers' health.

[tigereye]

69. best answer so far, Bertha

if there weren't an undercurrent of exploitation and the women (and I suppose men as well, did have control of the means and payment end of things....

It would bother me a lot less if it were legal and safe and not exploitative. Although I can see the argument that many forms of employment are run by men and that women sell many other types of services, I can also see why there is a such a polarized view of it - some of us probably have a hard time with the overt concept of sex work as it triggers the "women as sex objects" button - an early fenminist issue.....

[johnnie]

41. This question is too hard to answer completely for me on here.

I think that it can be degrading and at the same time I don't think it is. I don't think it is as much of a cultural/ religious myth as much as it is that we have drives that are too confusing for most people.

I also don't agree with the "prude" idea either. Sex is the root of most things evil in my opinion and there is too much to look at to make a blanket statement about it all. It would take me a few essays worth of material to put my thoughts into a cohesive enough thought to make any sense here.

It's late and I am going to sleep, but I think this is actually a good subject to think about. There is a reason why some escorts make that kind of money. Who is really degrading themselves in that case? The person who makes the money being an escort or the man or woman who will pay that kind of money to be seen with someone beautiful?

[noamnety]

45. Degredation, promotion of rape and violence

Prostitution is damaging to ALL women, as it promotes the idea that women's bodies are a commodity, something to be bought and sold, or owned. It promotes the idea that men have a right to buy vaginas on demand. While individual women may feel it's empowering to become a dehumanized object for the gratification of men, the research shows that this is the exception, not the rule.

Prostitution Research has some good studies on this. http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/


"HIV infection is not the only physical consequence of prostitution. No other “employment” other than war combat has comparable rates of physical assault,
rape, and homicide. One woman explained, “What rape is to others, is normal to us.” The symptoms of profound emotional distress that result from prostitution and trafficking
are off the charts: depression, suicidality, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, dissociation, substance abuse."

... The Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) receives millions of dollars a year for AIDS prevention from Bill Gates. This group of mostly women pimps promotes legal prostitution while controlling a multibrothel prostitution/trafficking complex that houses 60,000 women and girls in Kolkata. Pimping other women is one way to get out of prostitution. Yet the DMSC is under the control of the same gangs that Friedman wrote about in 1996."

http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/Unequal.pdf

Pointing to the 10% of women who are happy being prostitutes as justification for allowing the other 90% to be trafficked as sex slaves as part of a system of submitting to rape as a means of survival is incomprehensible to me.

"I fall into the 90%. And what confuses me and hurts me so much is that women whom I would call sister don't appear to give a f*** about the rest of the 90%. Sure, they say that no woman should be in prostitution who doesn't wish to be there, but when it comes down to it all they can talk about is the 10% who fit the happy hooker mold. All they can talk about is the rights of that 10% and how those rights should trump the rights of the other 90%. They carry on and on about how prostitution is freeing and spiritual and healing and yet, in so doing, they completely disregard the voices of the 90%.

...That 10% is the scapegoat for all the men out there who wish to be able to use us women as though we were animals. That 10% is what they're using to excuse their treatment of us. Everyone in this society cares about that 10% and I'm here to say I don't. I don't care about them. I'm sick and tired of hearing the desires of the other 90% who are living an existence that the 10% can't even begin to fucking fathom, be lost in the wake of selfishness. And yes, it IS selfishness. It's all about selfishness.

I know that this post is barely coherent, but right now, I'm barely coherent so perhaps it is fitting. I was a child. I was a f***ing child and those men raped me. They raped me because they believed they had a right to do so. And they stood upon the shoulders of the 10% who are screaming how great and wonderful and healing it is to be a prostitute to excuse their behavior. And it sickens me that these women, this 10% who are screaming so loudly to be heard to make sure that we give them the same weight as we give the 90% who are miserable, are so goddamned selfish.

How can you stand in the faces of the 90% who want out and claim that your happiness is just as important as their daily rapes? How can you look a woman in the eye who has experienced the violence that men have forced upon her and tell her that you having to change jobs is just as important as the pain of her being raped?"

http://bitingbeaver.blogspot.com/2006/07/90_22.html

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

46. What about legalized prositution, such as in the Netherlands?

Pornography?
Playboy?
Phone sex lines?

[pitohui]

51. the netherlands

you don't think it's degrading to have to stand in a window and wait for people to buy you?

i actually felt a little bad that i went sight-seeing in the red light area of amsterdam, netherlands has pretty good health care and social services, i've got to assume these girls have no choices and no skills whatsoever to end up standing in those windows, it's kind of depressing actually, it isn't like they are all these lovely call girl types, they just looked like losers with a capital L, while we're laughing and having a good time they are just on display as if they had no more feelings than a side of ham

i'll be honest, shoot me now, who here would be willing to live that life?

[Heidi]

53. Perhaps they have skills that some of us don't understand or value.

:shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

85. Are you talking about prostitution?

Or the modeling industry?

[PVnRT]

64. As long as our society views sex as prudish as it does now

there will be sex workers, legal or not. Same as drugs, so long as they remain tantalizing and mysterious, people will want them, and others will be willing to supply them because they can easily earn a profit despite the risk. The solution is similar to that of drugs - crack down (sexcrime?) or legalize and regulate.

A change in society's attitude, but that is not going to happen overnight. Until then, there is going to be a demand for stirppers, hookers, etc.

[raccoon]

68. Even if society's attitudes changed, there will be people out

there like a man I remember on an episode some news magazine show did about prostitution some years ago. He said he went to prostitutes because, "People I'm sexually attracted to aren't sexually attracted to me."

And of course that could be the case for a person of either sex.

[Downtown Hound]

54. I think criminalization of it makes it more degrading than it needs to be

It will always be degrading for some of the women. Other women involved in the trade may be able to reconcile their feelings towards it and not feel ashamed. But adding jail and criminal records to these women only makes it harder for them to escape the life if they finally do decide they've had enough of it. That's why I am in favor of legalized prostitution.

There are also forms of sex work that don't actually involve sex. Professional dominatrices for example, rarely have sex with their clients, and if they do it's strictly on a hush hush basis. I've known a few of those women, and they actually quite enjoy their work. I've also known strippers and women that do phone sex, and most of them seemed to me to be pretty neutral to the whole thing. They didn't feel ashamed, but at the same time they weren't overly enthusiastic about it. To them it was just a job, nothing more and nothing less.

[idgiehkt]

55. lol

"To them it was just a job, nothing more and nothing less."

Sounds like a lot of married women I know. Yes, criminalization is insane. It's culture's revenge on the power that these women aren't supposed to use in a predatory fashion. That might be taken wrong. It badly needs to be decriminalized, just like most drugs, and regulated in some fashion.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

82. i agree wholeheartedly.

criminalization marginalizes unnecessarily. absolutely.

it makes a mountain out of a molehill.

[lildreamer316]

56. I've gotten into this so many times here I don't have the strength to

do it again right now..especially since I just came home from work.
(AT A STRIP CLUB).
This is for the OP's benefit only, all others are probably tired of my going on about it anyway:
I am a stripper, have been for 12 years now, have never been abused, have never done any drug except one for recreation ONLY (I do not do it at work).
It IS a myth that sex work is degrading. Now, to some people it is..just like any other job, really.
I found retail to be degrading. Sometimes just going out to a regular bar has been a much worse experience than work ever was.
idgiehkt; if you want more info from me, or input, feel free to ask or PM. I'm just very tired right now and have to sleep.

[idgiehkt]

87. thanks

"I found retail to be degrading." Amen to that, truer words have never been spoken. I have to say I'd almost prefer giving one blow job an hour to having to smile at 50 different folks and kiss their ass in the same amount of time. Retail is the most exhausing work I've ever had. When I worked loading trucks, having to act 'just so' and flirt with drivers and listen to their dirty jokes and be sure not to act in any way innattentive to them lest they unleash their frustration and fury they'd pent up from driving interstates for the last 8 hours was degrading and exhausting.

Also working waitress or hostess in any capacity as well, something a friend of mine refers to as being a 'food prostitute'. One of the great frustrations I've had in my working life is that as a female (and perhaps men feel this too), you have to donate so much of your pre-dictated demeanor to each and every customer that you might as well just drop to your knees and service them. It does not come naturally at all to me, although it does to some people. I have always gravitated toward manual labor, jobs where I can just work with my hands and don't have to interact with other humans at all. Anything else just absolutely wears me out. The key, especially in this economy, is finding a way to make a living wage, and sex work is one of the few fields that pays one. I posted the OP because partially because I wanted to see if anyone would state the obvious correct answer, which is a)ask the sexworkers, b)honor what they tell you.

[Withywindle]

58. I look at it like this...

I'd rather make $50 with one 10-minute blow job than with 10 hours of retail at $5 an hour.

Why? Cause with those 9 hours and 50 minutes, I could be writing, reading, thinking, dreaming, doing political work, sleeping, studying, making love to someone I care about, volunteering, hanging out with friends and family, you name it.

It's TIME that is the most precious commodity nowadays, frankly. The most degrading thing is to have to sell that at criminally cheap rate just to survive.

[ScreamingMeemie]

60. It is what the person employed thinks it is.

In my opinion, it isn't inherently. But, I would feel degraded if I chose to pursue a position. No pun intended.

[leftofthedial]

70. no matter what you do in a capitalist economy

it's prostitution

"degrading" is a matter of cultural programming

[mark414]

74. i think this is the winning post

tens upon tens of millions of people in this country who would never in their wildest dreams do sex work are degraded every single day

[mainegreen]

77. Yup. nt

[lildreamer316]

97. HELL yes.

Exactly. Thanks so much.

[lildreamer316]

98. dupe.

[Radical Activist]

75. Working for a large corporation in a cubicle is degrading.

I've never had sex for money so I don't know if that's degrading or not.

[Jade Fox]

78. To quote a friend and former.....

prostitute: No one should be punished for Sex Work, but no one goes into it for any other reason except major low self-esteem.

[cwydro]

79. I think it really must depend

on the individual involved. I personally would feel it was degrading, more to the point, it would totally gross me out. But I have had a few jobs I considered degrading, so it really has nothing to do with the sex aspect.

[Oeditpus Rex]

86. I don't think anyone can be degraded

unless they allow it.

[mondo joe]

88. No more than flipping burgers for minimum wage.

Or telling someone how much they need a new-off-the-lot car.

It's all just work. The variable is the person doing it.

[Taverner]

91. If you believe it is, then yes

If not, then no

[Nikia]

92. In most cases, I think that it is

It is about is not about the sex worker's sexuality, only the customer's. It about performing sex acts (or simulated sex acts in the case of stripping) for whoever is willing to pay. In some cases, where a woman feels that she has no other choice for her economic well being, especially if she has children, it could even feel like rape. Even for women who do have more options, they might not really want to perform for a particuliar customer and feel that they are forced, especially if they work for someone else. I think that some forms of sex work are more degreading than others. Performing a dozen tricks everyday as a street walker or even in a legal brothel or window in Amsterdam is probably more degreading than an escort who has no more than one "date" per night and might spend the majority of the time doing something other than a sex act.
Although it might be culturual, the majority of people, including most of the sex worker's customers, look down on sex workers. Why I don't agree with going along blindly with society, it is foolish to say that it does not impact the sex worker, who is most likely not doing something that she really wants to do anyway. I also think that it is foolish to say that sex work is just like any service work because it happens inside a woman's (or in some cases, man's) body is is more personal than other kinds of work.

[RedCloud]

95. As a former stunt man for the industry...

It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it!

Psst. Some of my post may actually be too incredible to be believed.

[dback]

96. Depends on if you HAVE to do it, or if you WANT to do it

If you're forced to by circumstances, poverty, addiction, parents, a pimp, etc., that's one thing. If you're an attractive young man or woman who really likes sex and likes to help people, and is looking for a lucrative career, and has no shame issues, then really, why not?