[lbo-talk] anthropologist in a brothel

[Sean Johnson Andrews]

[Someone in my program sent this article around earlier today with the 
note below; the author will be speaking at our Cultural Studies 
Conference “Hotspots: Key Issues in Contemporary Globalization” on April 
16th (free to all if anyone is interested). I thought the comment on 
Kristof was apropos, and noted that the two pieces produced 
diametrically opposed understandings of the Swedish case. Anyone have a 
tie breaker? -s]

In light of the coming conference, I'd thought I'd forward an Op-Ed in 
today's /LA Times,/ written by one of the presenters (a former 
dissertation student of mine at CUNY). Patty tells me that the editor 
slapped on a title ("Legalize Prostitution"), which isn't quite in the 
argument she makes. The editor also misrepresented the facts in the 
subtitle (a third of Mexican states don't criminalize, not the entire 
country)..... So there's a lesson for you in rushing to press.

But the argument, and the evidence -- actual, long-term ethnographic 
study of the business by a feminist anthropologist-- still beat the heck 
out of the puritanical screed Nicholas Kristof has been publishing in 
the /Times/, which draws on faux-data and flawed arguments. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html?ref=opinion

Dennis Claxton wrote:
> <http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-kelly13mar13,1,5719205.story>http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-kelly13mar13,1,5719205.story
>
>
> Decriminalize prostitution
>
> Paying for sex is common. The U.S. should follow Mexico's lead and accept that.
> By Patty Kelly
>
> March 13, 2008
>
>
>