Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please don't bring religious flamewars onto HN.
Sorry. Won't feed the trolls again.
Thanks. But it's clear you were trying to help, so don't be sorry.
Going undercover as a sex worker
231–236 of 236 posts
Re: Going undercover as a sex worker
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please don't make this into some stupid men vs. women debate. If you want to do something about men who are forced to take terrible jobs, go join one of the many labor rights organizations in the world. Don't slander people focusing on a specific kind of coerced labor.
Labor rights organizations cannot change the fact that shitty jobs exist and someone needs to do them. If you actually want to eliminate terrible jobs, become a physicist or a nanotechnologist or an AI researcher or...
It's not a question of eliminating shitty jobs, it's a question of ensuring that people get paid a living wage, or at least work in reasonably safe conditions. For most businesses, the resources exist to keep people safe and well-compensated, but sometimes the people at the top choose to cut corners and that's where labor organizations come in.
Re: Going undercover as a sex worker
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many (most?) of the women involved in these situations don't go there out of choice or with full knowledge of what they're getting involved in; they're either lied to and subsequently trapped, sold by their families (which is where poverty is a big factor, and certainly is not a choice made by the girls themselves), or outright kidnapped. That's the difference in your man vs. woman scenario - someone working in a coa…
Male hackers doth protest too much, methinks. I am amazed and saddened how the top comments and comment replies exspend all their energies declaring that men have it just as bad as women, that labelling it human trafficking and the women as victims is so unfair to men! The next most frequent and popular comments declare that the real problem is that we haven't yet legalized prostitution. Discussion of the tragedy and…
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Re: Going undercover as a sex worker
#234When reading works like this one I tend to find three stories being merged into one. It focuses on slavery where most of the evil aspects of humans tend to come out, as in order to reduce a human person into something that can be traded, everything that gives that person a social context must be torn down. This is where the "break down" period comes from and it's a common theme in everything from the African slave tr…
I disagree with your last assessment. men who need to take terrible jobs are often disposable cogs, but when women have to do it they are victims, a call to action is needed, etc. I had spoken to several women who entered 'the trade'. they got money for flight,plastic surgery,room, and board. because of that, a lot of their money is kept until they 'finish their contract' and go back to their home country. human slav…
The third story is that people in desperate situation sometime takes desperate actions in order to bring food to the table. Those people are sometimes victim to circumstances, heroic in their action, and judged by society differently based on gender. Being seen only as victim or only as heroic removes half the truth, and hurting those persons in the process.
I don't think there is a call for action, rather a call for understanding. Labels like victim and hero frames the narrative, which is why they are often found in the introduction.
Re: Going undercover as a sex worker
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree. The line between consensual, coerced or exploited are sometimes vague but they are real. It's like the pornography line. It's vague, some things are grey, it's culturally contextual but it is a real line. people usually know it when they see it. When extremely disempowered, poor and desperate people interact with much richer, more powerful people who see them as just a means to an end and are completely c…
I would argue that that 'Pornography line' is a very personal distinction you've made. Pornography still crosses the line into coerced and exploited. Read the firsthand accounts of women who have left the porn industry. Watch documentaries about people going into the porn industry. These are people who are desperate and taken advantage of, hurt and abused. I've seen a few statistics, but all of them have said that th…
I didn't mean pornography's moral/immoral line, I meant the "what is pornography" line. The obscenity line.
I just picked it because it's a famous example of lines that are very difficult to legalistically define, but most people can recognize, at least culturally similar people.
Re: Going undercover as a sex worker
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are the prostitutes in Australia typically poor immigrant women? Wealthy, powerful women with a broad spectrum of choices do not typically choose prostitution.
Urban brothels are the most common type of sex work in Australia, and are legal, inspected (and frequented) by the police, very well paid, and generally women of all classes, primarily born in Australia but also China and other Asian countries. See http://www.nswp.org/sites/nswp.org/files/NSWSexIndustryRepor... There are other interesting things including 'Sex workers’ reasons for choosing current workplace' was 'Hou…
According to that study, only 27% of all women are historically from Australia and recently only 18% are. The rest are from China, Thailand, and "other Asian". A few stragglers from elsewhere. A majority of them are unable to speak English competently.
It does seem like it's primarily foreigners who cannot get a job. This seems exploitative. And the article you cite doesn't paint a rosy picture of everything being great with legalised prostitution.