I'd venture to say that most women in the sex industry work in it for money, not for pleasure, just as most women (and men for that matter) in any industry do so for money, not for pleasure. It's only a lucky few who can work in any industry primarily for pleasure and secondarily for money.
Moreover, some young men and women in the sex industry may have very little choice: e.g., undocumented workers whose passports got confiscated by bosses, working to pay off "debts" to migration brokers, in fear of cops and immigration officials in foreign countries.
At 9:51 AM -0400 10/19/02, Anthony Kennerson wrote:
>And what about the genre of gay male and lesbian porn, which
>represents a large portion of the commercially made porn in the US
Gay male porn may have a large market, but I doubt that there is a whole lot of lesbian porn made by and for lesbians (not the fake "lesbian porn" produced by and for straight guys). There are some videos, stories, etc. created by and for lesbians, but it's just not true that there is a huge lesbian porn industry.
Also, while gay male porn, unlike straight porn, may not be sexist, it can reflect and help perpetuate power relations based on class, race, nationality, etc. E.g.:
***** Journal of the History of Sexuality 10.1 (2001) 129-131
Book Review
Q & A: Queer in Asian America
Q & A: Queer in Asian America. Edited by David L. Eng and Alice Y. Hom. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. Pp. xii + 445. $69.95 (cloth); $27.95 (paper).
...Richard Fung's fascinating chapter on the eroticized Asian in gay porn videos best expresses the message of Q & A. Asian men and women are largely absent from the commercial or political imagery of the mainstream gay and lesbian community. In gay porn videos the Asian male is desexualized, usually stereotyped as the passive, submissive geisha, and on the rare occasion when an Asian man fucks a Caucasian, the white man's pleasure is privileged over that of the Asian male. Fung nicely terms this the conflation of "Asian and Anus." These sexual colonial fantasies typify the message of the entire book: the submissive image of Asians is so pervasive in American society that to deconstruct it challenges basic normative principles, even in American queer rhetoric....
Clive Moore History Department University of Queensland
<http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/sex/10.1moore.html> *****
At 9:51 AM -0400 10/19/02, Anthony Kennerson wrote:
>"In the contemporary United States, men generally are trained in a
>variety of ways to view sex as the acquisition of pleasure by the
>taking of women. Sex is a sphere in which men are trained to see
>themselves as naturally dominant and women as naturally passive.
>Women are objectified and women's sexuality is turned into a
>commodity that can be bought and sold. Sex becomes sexy because men
>are dominant and women are subordinate."
>
>Maybe I missed something about those paragraphs, Mr. Berlet, but
>they certainly sound quite puritanical and anti-sex to me.
To be against sexism is not the same as to be puritanical or against sex. There are some feminist sex workers, erotica writers, porn video producers (e.g., "Fun in the Anal Zone," <http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9576>), etc., but they are decidedly in the minority. Porn is not as dreadful as Dworkin makes it sound like, but it sure ain't as fun for women as you make it sound like. The sex industry is no less sexist and dependent on exploitation than any other industry.
In my opinion, Nina Hartley got it right:
***** Hartley sees herself as a mentor, and has made an information video for would-be porn actresses. (Says trade-paper writer Kerns, "She'd like to be the whole world's mother.") Revolution against capitalism is her ultimate social prescription - but, in the meantime, she wants sex work destigmatized. "I would love there to be only women in the movies who love what they do, but I'd like that to be true of every job. Lots of people hate their jobs."
<http://www.walnet.org/csis/news/toronto_99/gandm-990424.html> *****
It is not necessary to downplay sexism, exploitation, and dangers in the sex industry in order to have sex work destigmatized. Treat it like any other work -- no need to glorify it. -- Yoshie
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