What's the Psychology Behind Women/Men Selling Their Bodies Or Using their looks exclusively to make money?
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Yes for me, because IMO, they are losing their dignity, morals, self-respect in exchange for this easy money. For some people dignity, morals, self-respect is everything. Obviously these kind of people don't care.
You correctly point out that this loss of dignity, morals, etc. is "IMO" - your opinion. But then you say: "Obviously these kind of people don't care." Notice that you shift from your opinion about how YOU see these people, to asserting a claim about what they care about. You are making absolutist claims about the motivations of people who you don't know, and who you have never even talked to.
Of course you have the right to your own opinions and the right to state your views, but I would suggest that you take a few deep breaths and think carefully about what you are claiming. How much do you really know about the inner thoughts and motivations of other people? I've known some sex workers who have NOT lost their sense of dignity, who have higher-than-average moral character, and who have plenty of self-respect. The key thing to understand is that people can be DIFFERENT without necessarily being "worse than" or "better than" others.
Think of this statement: "Lisa enjoys helping people." Based on this, I'm guessing you would be inclined to say that Lisa is probably a good person. We could list the ways in which Lisa enjoys helping people: She enjoys making people laugh. She enjoys cooking food that people like to eat. She enjoys providing conversation and companionship for old people in nursing homes. She enjoys giving massages. She enjoys teaching people how to make quilts.
If this is all that you know about Lisa, then I'm guessing you would be inclined to say that Lisa probably has a reasonable amount of dignity and self-respect. She probably has what you would call good moral character. Suppose Lisa is a professional comedian who make a little extra income by offering quilting and cooking classes at a local community center. Does making money through comedy, quilting, and cooking make Lisa a bad person? Now add that Lisa enjoys helping people achieve orgasm. Does this make her a bad person? I'd say no. I'd say that the mere fact of accepting payment for sexual services does not imply that a person has low morals or has lost self-respect. In order to know whether or not a person has lost their self-respect, etc., you need to know more about the person. Sex workers, like everyone else, are complex human beings.
You have the political right to say that sex workers have low self-respect, etc., but you do not have the logical or moral authority to make these claims. You end up doing more harm than good in the world when you publicize opinions rooted in ignorance and based on stereotypes.
This thread seems to be directed at sex workers, but what about sperm donors, egg donors and surrogates? They make money off thier looks, intellectual attributes, athleticism and the selling of thier bodies. Like sex workers, I have no problem with that but I'd be curious to hear your thoughts and if you think of them differently.
"sperm donors, egg donors and surrogates?"
Rep. Very good point! kind of interesting that if you take the sexual gratification part of it out it becomes more acceptable to many. Apparently 'Sex for money for reproduction' is ok, 'Sex for money for gratification' is not ok
You correctly point out that this loss of dignity, morals, etc. is "IMO" - your opinion. But then you say: "Obviously these kind of people don't care." Notice that you shift from your opinion about how YOU see these people, to asserting a claim about what they care about. You are making absolutist claims about the motivations of people who you don't know, and who you have never even talked to.
Of course you have the right to your own opinions and the right to state your views, but I would suggest that you take a few deep breaths and think carefully about what you are claiming. How much do you really know about the inner thoughts and motivations of other people? I've known some sex workers who have NOT lost their sense of dignity, who have higher-than-average moral character, and who have plenty of self-respect. The key thing to understand is that people can be DIFFERENT without necessarily being "worse than" or "better than" others.
Think of this statement: "Lisa enjoys helping people." Based on this, I'm guessing you would be inclined to say that Lisa is probably a good person. We could list the ways in which Lisa enjoys helping people: She enjoys making people laugh. She enjoys cooking food that people like to eat. She enjoys providing conversation and companionship for old people in nursing homes. She enjoys giving massages. She enjoys teaching people how to make quilts.
If this is all that you know about Lisa, then I'm guessing you would be inclined to say that Lisa probably has a reasonable amount of dignity and self-respect. She probably has what you would call good moral character. Suppose Lisa is a professional comedian who make a little extra income by offering quilting and cooking classes at a local community center. Does making money through comedy, quilting, and cooking make Lisa a bad person? Now add that Lisa enjoys helping people achieve orgasm. Does this make her a bad person? I'd say no. I'd say that the mere fact of accepting payment for sexual services does not imply that a person has low morals or has lost self-respect. In order to know whether or not a person has lost their self-respect, etc., you need to know more about the person. Sex workers, like everyone else, are complex human beings.
You have the political right to say that sex workers have low self-respect, etc., but you do not have the logical or moral authority to make these claims. You end up doing more harm than good in the world when you publicize opinions rooted in ignorance and based on stereotypes.
I understand what you're getting at, but this analogy is still a swing and miss.
If "Lisa" was your daughter, would you still have the same opinion?
I understand what you're getting at, but this analogy is still a swing and miss.
If "Lisa" was your daughter, would you still have the same opinion?
And there are people in some countries and even the US that have wives and daughters that go to work in the sex industry every day. The morality is societal issue. It is no more wrong than Homosexuality, sex outside of marriage or any other issue that is driven by society/religion.
I don't think that prostitution is easy money. It's tough and very dangerous money. Most prostitutes are either forced into the business, human-trafficking victims, addicted to drugs or something else that overrides their ability to think logically, or they were sexually abused as children and thus decide they may as well get paid for giving pleasure that they feel they have to do.
it really depends on where the sex worker is. in the third world, you're probably right for the majority of them. there certainly is a lot of forced sex work, ppl doing it because they have absolutely no other means of raising money, etc etc. of course many of the same circumstances can be found among sex workers here in the more developed nations, but the situation on the whole isn't nearly as bad.
if you live in a major city (let's say you're in the US) such as los angeles or NYC or vegas, there's absolutely no shortage of young, beautiful women who see it as a very quick and easy means to making lots of money. i know this because i've lived and partied in all three cities over the past decade or so and have come in contact through my circles with such women quite often. they are most certainly not the abused, broken women many imagine them to be (although some certainly are, but you can find them in any population, not just escorts). many also move in and out of the profession as they see fit - for instance, i recently met a girl who was doing it because she'd been slapped with a DUI which can set you back $10,000 or more. she had no intention of continuing down the path after it was paid off. i've also met girls who used it as a means to reach some financial target early - for instance, one 24 yr old i knew "retired" from the profession after she had saved on the order of a few hundred thousand dollars she had made from the profession. in other words, it's a bit of a stretch to claim that "once an escort, always an escort".
as to your comment abt the danger involved - yes, that's certainly true. but it's a risk most willingly take on, and even so, it should be pointed out that there are numerous ways in which this risk is mitigated (but never really eliminated). no risk = no reward, i guess.
it really shouldn't surprise anyone that a woman that has the looks and the opportunity to cash out, does just that.
I understand what you're getting at, but this analogy is still a swing and miss.
If "Lisa" was your daughter, would you still have the same opinion?
If I was convinced that she was doing this because she enjoyed this kind of work (and, yes, there are some women who enjoy this sort of work), then YES, my views would be the same. (There are victims of trafficking, drug abuse, etc., and these are serious problems, but my point is that these problems are exacerbated by the sex-negative attitudes of general society.) Obviously young people don't always accept the advice of their parents, but if she freely chose sex-work, I would do everything I could to encourage her to continue her education and pursue a holistic/healing-profession approach to sex work. This approach is exceedingly rare and difficult within the sex-negative context of American society, but it CAN be done, and I would encourage her to take this approach.
And one final note: On the idea of "enjoying" one's work: Virtually every form of work becomes WORK to some extent - which is to say, there are some things you need to do in your job that you don't totally love. You'd rather be doing something else at a given moment. A doctor or a teacher, for example, might love her work, but this doesn't mean that she loves every moment she spends with her patients or students. Even though she "loves her work" a nurse might still find some aspects of her work to be annoying, frustrating, or "yucky". No one should expect sex-work to be any different. The key question is: How do you feel about the work overall? Is it rewarding? etc.
There is absolutely no reason why, in principle, a sex-worker couldn't feel that sex-work is rewarding. In reality, of course, the sex-negative atmosphere (the constant pressure of people telling you that you must feel degraded, you must lack self-respect, etc.) makes it extremely difficult to think of sex-work as rewarding. The stereotypes against sex-workers are overwhelming, but nevertheless some women do, in fact, find sex-work to be rewarding. For the most part these women tend to be highly educated (most have advanced college degrees) and they have a rebellious nature that makes them feel proud to flip a finger at the sex-negative laws and attitudes. This is just who they are, and if my daughter were one of these people, I wouldn't try to make her feel bad about herself. I'd support her and love her just as much as I would if she were a psychologist or an engineer.
I don't remember that booth at Career Day in my high school. And I would think that I would remember a booth like that.
Your career day didn't take place in Australia or Switzerland, or any other country where prostitution is legal, though. Or the state of Nevada, for that matter, haha.
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