Lately, amid all of the prostitution current event fracas, and the ensuing blogosphere drama (which I stay out of as a rule. I’ve always been mostly a blog lurker at other folks’ online homes, primarily because I suppose I feel like too many people online just like to revel in/enable/create conflict for no good reason) around it, something has occurred to me which may or may not have merit — I’m still ruminating on it — but which I think is worth considering in the spirit of a little mental floss.
That something goes like this:
• Forced prostitution = military draft
• Prostitution/sex work chosen because of being a best financial option, limited availability of or access to further education/life options or particular social/regional limitations = Military enrollment chosen because of being a best financial option, limited availability of or access to further education/life options or particular social/regional limitations (in either case, sometimes these are also temporary situations rather than permanent ones)
• Prostitution/sex work chosen despite having a wide array of other employment/financial options or open availability of further education/life options = Military career chosen despite having a wide array of other employment/financial options or open availability of further education/life options
I think that looking at things this way, we might tend to see (well, I am, anyway) some correlaries when it comes to how many people are in each group for both prostitution and military (and that right now, we’re seeing the most people in both areas of work in that second group, and how those folks get there also have some common factors), and how in that first group, either situation is something one’d probably consider inhumane (though more folks seem to think a forced draft is acceptable, and I’m not sure why), and how, while that third group is where we tend to see the fewest people for both types of work, we certainly cannot deny that group exists.
In both cases we are talking about work which often has dangers many other jobs do not, which often tends to have a short shelf life in terms of sustainability of that work as a career over a lifetime, where after doing either kind of workers workers tend to have wounds, issues or disabilities caused by the work which frequently cost them and are often not paid for (or paid for adequately) by the work they did, and work which people tend to have very strong feelings about which can/do strongly impact the workers.
We also are often talking about two industries in which financially, there is a big divide between the employer/industry or client and the worker themselves, where we often will see certain racial and socioeconomic factors at preferential play. I find it interesting in thinking about both of them together to note that with sex work, we see mostly heterosexual women and gay or feminized men, while with the military we see a majority of heterosexual men or gay or masculinized (or perceived as masculine) women (and the latter is a very recent addition, no less). In the same vein, I think it’s also interesting to note that the clientele of sex work is and has always been primarily male, and the way the military has often been presented is as protection for women and children. Suffice it to say, we’ve also always had very strong links between these two groups in many ways: the military as either clients of sex workers, or as part of forced prostitution, has a long history. As well, we often see many people who, as those served by either type of worker, will defend or champion the work that serves them, but do very little for — or even act in nonsupport of — the workers well-being or care, tangible rights, or social strata, or who rally against a given group of workers yet actively or passively still benefit from them (much like we will sometimes see actively antichoice women as clients at abortion clinics).
It’s perhaps obvious, but I also wonder if looking at this sort of comparison, or some other like it, wouldn’t help to improve some folks’ levels of compassion or understanding for sex workers or about sex work.
Bear in mind I’m talking about these things from the perspective of workers only here (and to be frank, that’s all I’m interested in discussing: in nearly any situation I could give a rats ass about how clients or others who are served by workers benefit before we are assured that the workers have fair conditions where the benefit is at least mutual). I’m not talking about if one or the other type of work or industry has more merit or value, if one or the other is more or less acceptable or positive or how either work or industry may or may not benefit anyone — individually or as a culture or class — who isn’t a worker in it.
So, what do you think? Deconstruct, reconstruct, poke holes, explore, discuss.
(For all I know, by the by, someone else has made this comparison before me, and I’m either reprising it unknowingly, or just missed a page somewhere. If anyone does know anywhere it’s been discussed before or explored, I’d love to know where.)
March 16th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Heather…
This is a lot to digest, so I’d have to reread and ruminate for awhile before I could offer an opinion– and then I don’t know how valid my opinion would be since I’m only married to a military member, not a member of the military. However, after 18 years and six (seven?) deployments and another one on the horizon in three weeks, I’ve seen it from the inside and would venture to say there are as many reasons why people join the military as there are reasons people become sex workers.
I don’t think most of the country is particularly sympathetic to the military except in times of war or whatever they’re calling it now– if then. They pay a lot of lip service to “sacrifice” and “honor” and throw the word “hero” around a lot and give out medals to placate the civilians that we’re the good guys and winning the war against the bad guys, but in the end I think the mentality is “Better him/her than my son/daughter, husband/wife.” The other mentality seems to be that going into the military is a free-thinking choice and is well-compensated (which it can be, if you make it a career), so no sympathy is necessary. I have my doubts when you say: “…I also wonder if looking at this sort of comparison, or some other like it, wouldn’t help to improve some folks’ levels of compassion or understanding for sex workers or about sex work.”
Also, I’m not sure what you mean by you’re “strongly anti-military.” Can you clarify?
Intriguing way to frame the topic and I’ll be interested to hear others’ opinions.
March 17th, 2008 at 8:04 am
I admit that this comparison has occurred to me in the past, but fleetingly, and your detail here makes a strong case. As a former sex worker myself, and having known (and knowing) many, many others, most if not all of the men and women I knew/know in the industry got into it because they were in dire financial straits. Some of them (including myself) were college educated, but not many, and those of us who were were not making a decent living. There are a few people I know who just really like the work and found that it suited them after a while, but th impetus was nearly always financial. Some people could have made more money doing something else, but it would have taken them more time, and they were about evenly divided between a) being too lazy to work more or build something up gradually or b) had children or spouses they were supporting and got hooked by the quick, relatively easy money. Sex work is usually a means to an end, not the end itself.
March 17th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
This is a really interesting comparison. I might like to share it with some of my blog friends. I kills me how so many people think the choice to be in the military is a GOOD one. Usually those people who have never known someone in the military. It’s a shame that sex work, which as you point out becomes a means to an end for some people the same way the military can for others, is not seen in the same light.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
As far as the enlisted ranks go, I’d say that’s an excellent comparison of the whys and hows people get into both lines of work. Not sure it applies as well to the officers, but I’m not knowledgeable enough to say it doesn’t. And I am obviously biased, at least in thought, given my background. I think the danger and the trauma are (or could be?) similar, except one is given lip service and the other is vilified. (In general, in both cases - it’s not universal by any means.)
I’m not particularly articulate right now, but the parallels are strong. Very interesting thoughts.
Question for you, and I hope I’m phrasing this in a way that isn’t offensive. Military personnel in general are supposed to take orders and not think or argue about it. How does that relate to prostitution? Or does it? It’s not necessarily that people aren’t supposed to take initiative or think, but that in a dangerous situation they are to rely on the knowledge and thinking of their superiors. This is probably the biggest reason why I never considered it. Institutionalized sexism was the other big reason. Those, and I’d had enough of someone else deciding where I was going to live.
Does that make sense?
March 20th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Fish - “Military personnel in general are supposed to take orders and not think or argue about it. How does that relate to prostitution? Or does it? It’s not necessarily that people aren’t supposed to take initiative or think, but that in a dangerous situation they are to rely on the knowledge and thinking of their superiors.”
In prostitution you tend to work alone and you need to depend on your own intuition and actions to be safe. Criminalization and other factors can make this difficult to do.
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But back to reasons for entry - sex work and the military. I think it is an interesting and powerful comparison.
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
Kristina: I agree, in both groups, there is certainly a limited sympathy, and a limited understanding as to how a great many folks in the military wind up in it. But I also think you way more often tend to hear disparaging talk about sex workers than military. When a sex worker is injured on the job, I think there’s more of a “Well, they should have known better,” than we see in the same situation with someone in the military.
Per my own military feelings, it really is as simple as being anti-military. I’m a pacifist, and while I recognize that we don’t live in a vacuum, nor outside a worldwide scenario where we have to deal with other countries’ military forces, ideally, I’m just strongly against the ideas of a military, period. Doesn’t mean I’m not sympathetic to many people in it, mind you, I am, but I’d prefer not having to fiscally contribute to war (though calling anything our military has done since the 40’s war is certainly spurious) in any way or have a military.
Bear in mind, too, the first years of my life were also spent in hiding due to a parent resisting the draft, so.
Korina: “Sex work is usually a means to an end, not the end itself.” I think that’s really apt and to the point.
Fish: I think with officers and such, we’re perhaps more looking at comparing them with higher-end sex workers and independents.
Per the taking orders part, I think one place the comparison breaks down (kind of) is when we’re talking about sex workers who are entirely independent — who aren’t street with pimps, don’t use agencies, don’t work for clubs they don’t own, etc.
Of course, it depends on where we’re stopping looking at overarching power structures: if we’re looking at the macrocosm, at the world en large that sex work exists in, and how things go between workers and clients financially and otherwise, it may still hold up. What do you think?
Seska: I miss you, gal.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Most recent comparison at our house between soldiers & whores was an easy one in reaction to the histrionic CNN interview whining at Dacia about how YOUNG Dupre was: “at only 22 how can she be mature enough to make such a big decision as deciding to escort?? Oh! The long term consequences!!” It’s funny how you never hear the same questions being asked by the mainstream media about an 18 year old’s ability to sign on to die “for their country”. Or a 22 year old woman’s decision to start a family, but that’s a whole other thing.
Good stuff!
March 26th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
The age thing: so right! I totally dismissed that parallel, and you’re so, so right.
April 26th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
That is a really interesting comparison, and I do think it’s valid. I recently read another blog post by Renegade Evolution (http://renegadeevolution.blogspot.com/2008/04/whores-other-mercenaries.html) that made a similar comparison between prostitutes and mercenaries. It’s well written and definitely worth reading. If you could find the time, of course.
She didn’t look at the gender implications in as much detail as you did, though, and I hadn’t thought of how the military=masculine people serving feminine people and sex work=feminine people serving masculine people. As usual, the people on the feminine side of the equation don’t get respect, even though it’s a different side for each job.