Miles: O
Not that I've read everything written on the Spitzer issue (I do occasionally work) but I'm starting to be really bothered by it. Am I the only person who has a problem with the fact that he bought a prostitute? I see a lot of discussion of how prostitution shouldn't be illegal and Vitter didn't resign, and no, I wouldn't be shocked if there was some partisan shenaningans going on in the Justice Department, but not a lot of condemnation of what he did as morally wrong, and publicly morally wrong. You cheat on your wife, it's wrong, but it's a private wrong. You buy a prostitute and it's a public wrong - not because it's cheating, not even because it's illegal, but because consent is a fundamental public value - you just forced someone to have sex with you when they didn't want to.
Yeah yeah, it's a "choice" and why is exchanging sex for money different from any other work and why are you a sex-hating conservative who is totally uncool . . . But that's kind of the point, it's not sex. Sex is mutual. Even leaving aside the reality of prostitution, which is not so much Pretty Woman as it is violence, drugs, and more violence, with some slavery and child abuse thrown in, with a nice overlay of unequal labor markets, when you pay a prostitute, you're paying someone who you know doesn't, by definition, want to have sex with you.
I don't have any bright ideas about legal regulation of prostitution (apart from a general bias towards harm reduction) but that so many "liberals" and "feminists", let alone mainstream media and political figures don't find something deeply disturbing and immoral about this guy getting off on having sex with someone who doesn't want to sleep with him really bothers me.
And I've just figured out why. Like torture, like horrific prison conditions, like immigrant detention camps, it's not about them, it's about us. It's not about whether a particular prostitute was perfectly willing to take money for sex, it's about how wrong and violative of our values it is to ask him or her to do that, and even worse, to enjoy it.
As always, I blame the Patriarchy. And running skirts.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
you're not alone. i'm also still puzzling over the political wife phenomenon. can you shed some light on that?
None. Particularly since it turns out the "not safe" stuff he was getting from hookers was condom-free sex. If the cheating and patronizing prostitutes didn't get you out the door, I'd think the fact that he risked giving her STDs would. Who knows? Maybe they're all on valium, not just Laura Bush.
Post a Comment