[lbo-talk] Marriage and Prostitution

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Sat May 7 13:04:06 PDT 2005


On Sat, 7 May 2005, joanna wrote:


> I have never and do not now advocate the punishment of prostitutes, pimps,
> pornographers, sex workers etc. but if we are only allowed to discuss
> prostitution (of any kind) as a value-neutral activity, then I do not see any
> basis for a critique of capitalism.

For my part, my opposition to your moral posturing about prostitution is in fact based on a critique of capitalism! Try this: by stigmatizing some activity--placing some workers higher in a moral hierarchy than others--you help to forment divisions among workers. To get a little maudlin, janitors, teachers, journalists, lawyers, and (yes!) prostitutes all need to develop alliances and work together to create a better, noncapitalist world. (Yeah, okay, it's bloody unlikely, but that's my goal.)

So in fact the "value neutral" status of sex work is a precondition for any kind of worker solidarity, and thus I suggest you have it exactly backwards: it is the moralizing you advocate that provides no basis for a critique of capitalism and indirectly provides ideological support for capitalist social relations.

Miles



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