The example of sex work that I will be discussing is prostitution/escorts, mostly women. I will be contrasting this specific work in different countries and across different socioeconomic statuses.
The first point I will be talking about is attitudes of the women within this field. Many of these women support each other mentally and emotionally. These women all have a mutual understanding of why they chose this way of life or why they have to do it for different reasons, such as financial reasons. This makes me think of how in chapter 6 of Camming, Jones states “I’ve come into contact with so many like-minded people…” (142). When individuals that do these controversial jobs come together, they all know what it is like to be in this field so they know how to be better friends to each other when the society around them wants to tear them down.
There are many different ways prostitution is viewed in the United States. According to HG.org, “…many people feel prostitution is a victimless crime, only made dangerous as a result of its unregulated status and the fact that prostitutes cannot turn to authorities for help when exposed to violence or other criminal acts.” While others think that “…the prostitutes themselves are often the victims…”.
In the United States, almost always the demographic in charge is the male, especially when you look at women who are escorts. The institution that is in charge is the government, considering that prositution is illegal almost everywhere in the country. This fact causes many prostitutes not to report any violence that happens to them because they are afraid of their own sake and that by reporting it they would get themselves in trouble as well. A good representation of this is the television show Law and Order:SVU. There are countless different episodes that show how scared escorts are to report a sexual assault because that would involve outing themself to a jury or scared that people think they deserved it because they are prostitues.
Prostitution in the Middle East is much different than it is in the United States. For example, prostitution is legal in the country of Tunisia. Many people view the Middle East as very conservative and that there is a very strict government, but it is surprising to find out that porn is just as common there as it is in the United States. Many women during the Iraq War had to work as prostitutes in order to make ends meet. Many of them were poor refugee women that fled into Syria because of the United States invasion.
One similarity between prostitution in the Middle East and the United States is that women tend to turn toward this line of work when they are in financial trouble and see no other way to get out of it. Also similarly to the United States, this is a male dominated field. “The local women in Damascus working as prostitutes were forever complaining in my conversations with them about how these Iraqis were bad for business, because they charged less than the going rate,” (salon). No matter what these women have to rely on the men in order to make their living. Another similarity is how the institution in charge is the government. Even though prostitution is legal in Tunisia, it is illegal in Iraq and Syria so these women are also risking their safety from the government in order to work.
Question:
Before this week’s assignment did you realize how extensive and potentially rewarding the sex work industry could be?
Works Cited
Clark-Flory, Tracy. “Unveiling the Middle East’s Sex Industry.” Salon, Salon.com, 27 Sept. 2010, http://www.salon.com/2010/09/27/bradley_qa/.
Hg.org, http://www.hg.org/legal-articles/prostitution-in-the-united-states-30997.
Jones, Angela. Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Work Industry. New York University Press, 2020.
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