[lbo-talk] Neo-Realism: Chapter 2

Bill Bartlett billbartlett at aapt.net.au
Wed Feb 6 17:54:38 PST 2008


At 5:49 PM -0500 6/2/08, Matt wrote:


>If your point was just that all wage work is like slavery, and sex work
>is just like any other kind of wage work, I'm confused why you choose
>to single it out. Perhaps you can elaborate. Because that seems to
>be the point of the espoused quote with which you were disagreeing.

Well, it isn't so much that I chose to single it out, as that sex work was the subject of discussion. Although only incidentally as part of another, now banned, subject. The now taboo subject of whether the big A is a necessary evil, or a wonderful end in itself.

Anyhow, I was simply thinking that the "stigma", as you put it, attached to sex work is probably a vestige of what was probably once a healthy revulsion to servitude generally. I have the impression that was the point Joanna was making, though I can't remember now and don't have the energy to go back and check every word that was written.

Not sure where the notion comes from that we were singling prostitutes out for special reproach, when the opposite is the case. Our main difference is that we argue that, rather than it being unhealthy to regard this kind of servitude as an evil, it is probably the last vestige of a healthy disgust people should feel toward all exploitation.


> > I wonder why you didn't see that? Perhaps people who work for wages
>> find it uncomfortable to be likened to prostitutes? Is that why so
>> many people are offended? I wonder?
>
>I don't know, since I don't have any mind reading powers. Did anyone
>say they were offended to have their wage work likened to sex-work?

No, there's no evidence for that bit of speculation. I'm just trying to stir people up a bit in an attempt to fish for clues as to why people have flown off the handle at such relatively innocuous comments. Sometimes it works, what did I have to lose?

Bill Bartlett Bracknell tas



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