Pecunia non olet? (was: Gender, Race, and Publishing on the

Carrol Cox cbcox at rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu
Tue Jun 16 21:16:39 PDT 1998



> Demeaning of sex workers plays two functions: (1) glorification of paid
> employment, of _any_ work other than sex work; and (2) letting marriage off
> the hook.

Every two or three semesters I would ask students in a class to come up with an acceptable male alternative for "slut." Some would propose "gigolo," but most noticed that it didn't really have the same force. The most common suggestion of female students was "asshole." They consciously gave up the search for equivalence in gendered epithets. I think they were probably right.

Assigning specific functions to a complex such as the "demeaning of sex workers" (which has a long history, going back before capitalism and wage labor after all) seems a bit iffy.

Carrol



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