sex and the left

billbartlett at dodo.com.au billbartlett at dodo.com.au
Wed Oct 23 11:07:33 PDT 2002


joanna bujes wrote:


>Please explain to me how prostitution is liberating?

Selling your body for sex may not be liberating per se, but perhaps it may be comparatively liberating. It may liberate you from starvation, or even from the need to prostitute your mind and body in other more degrading ways.


>>You don't have to like what other people do with their bodies, but as long as they respect the integrity and the sensibilities of other people, I don't think that their personal sex lives should be an issue for condemnation.
>
>Please explain to me how I am respecting the integrity and sensibility of a woman (or man) whom I pay for sex....not to mention my own integrity or sensibility.

How is this any different from paying someone to provide any other service, which they would be unwilling to provide without money? How is it different to any paid work?


>I am raising these issues not because I think porn should be outlawed or because I think prostitution should not be legalized. But the fact of legality and the fact of liberation are quite different.

I agree that performing a service only in exchange for money is degrading. But that's how we live. Only the ruling class are free from the need to so degrade themselves, the rest of us are all prostitutes. Talk about respecting the integrity of other prostitutes is a form of denial, as is the opposite extreme of the pot calling the kettle black.

Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas



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