Sex Work: 'Ultimate Commodification'?

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Ingrid wrote:
<<Of course many workers, not just sex workers, receive pay for servicing
pleasure. But no other workers lay themselves so literally and vulnerably
bare to receive their wages.  Which is why, no matter how much we may try
to improve the terminology, being a sex worker will always be a potent
metaphor for selling out. Prostitution, or whatever you want to call it,
represents the ultimate commodification of human activity>>

I don't think that commodifying sex is worse or different than
commodification of teaching and of taking care of children, for instance.
More generally speaking, in what way is it different from commodification
of making goods and of offering other kinds of services, for that matter? I
don't agree that sex work is 'the ultimate commodification of human
activity' as you put it. It is _the way you view sex_ that makes you think
that the word 'whore' is 'a potent metaphor for selling out.'

There are many jobs that involve becoming naked--for instance, acting,
modeling, etc.

Vulnerability of sex workers doesn't come from the commodification of sex
per se. It comes from illegality, moral condemnation, social ostracism,
economic conditions, sexism, etc.--material and ideological conditions of
work.

Yoshie