The Oldest Profession

[sesmo]

Seriously NSFW anti-prostitution ad, and one that comes closer to any I have ever seen to convey to men a visceral sense of how awful it must be to be a woman in the sex trade:


Campaign against Prostitution English version from Black Moon prod on Vimeo.
I should say, as a point of order, that I'm not anti-sex. I'm sure there are out there many

Comments

[mastadge]

Don't like the ad. The "prostituted persons" line is the kind of thing that denies agency to sex workers, which leads to the kind of thinking that conflates all prostitutes with sex slaves, that conflates the people the blogging physician is talking about with people who are working under safer circumstances. (Of course, that discussion opens into a whole other can of worms.) As for the physician's wish that the circumstances that lead to the kind of prostitution he's most familiar with could be eradicated: well, yes. Unfortunately changing those circumstances requires drastic social changes far beyond the scope, I think, of most prostitution advocacy or prevention campaigns.

[evewithanapple]

+1

[lightningxsnow]

This, plus I thought the description of the women's "unattractive" bodies was totally unnecessary. Stretch marks? Really?

hehe so surprised to see this blog here...

[leprofessional]

OT: I have to admit I've been reading Movin' Meat for 2-3 years now, and though on always... well politically correct? (I hate the term oldest profession tbh, another story)... the author is so damn snarky as I read the blog I imagine:

Re: hehe so surprised to see this blog here...

[leprofessional]

*it is not always (getting off the internets now)

[seaweary]

exactly this, what the fuck

[mastadge]

Also, I think it's probably safe to say that the majority of people observed "up close and personal" in an ER are not going to be at their sexiest, given the circumstances.

[the_gabih]

Exactly. And even if you were to walk in feeling sexy, waiting for up to four hours whilst surrounded by screaming children, harassed mothers and various people sitting around in varying levels of pain would get rid of that feeling pretty quick.

[jamethiel_bane]

...

I have actually worked in the sex industry. While it's still an industry that I'm tremendously conflicted about and it did tremendous damage to me and some of my friends, I can say:

The problems he's talking about? The abcesses, and drug use and all of that? Come about PURELY because the sex industry is illegal. You decriminalise brothels, legislate the hell out of them and make them subject to standards and OH & S and give sex workers OPTIONS then you substantially decrease the number of sex workers with these problems. They will still exist, but then you have less strain on the resources that are there to HELP PEOPLE.

Also: I don't have any data

OIC. How about doing some research.

This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Also, heaven forfend that womens bodies not be perfect! Especially from something like childbearing!

[doe_witch]

+1

I don't do and have never done sex work but from what I have seen in the activist community centered around sex workers' rights, none of this stuff really quite speaks to the sum total of sex workers' experiences, to say the least. Also I felt like the descriptive language in this piece was rather dehumanizing.

[jamethiel_bane]

It's--zie's talking about them being sexy and that is NOT WHAT SEX WORK IS ABOUT. It's a job. Unless you're interacting with a worker as a client, you probably shouldn't be worried about how sexy they are! And also, why the fuck should zie find them sexually attractive, zie is treating them as their DOCTOR.

There's a conflation between the job and the person here that I'm finding is making me very incoherently angry.

[temperance_k]

I agree that his entire rant about the 'sexiness' of the women is problematic, but I thought what he meant to do by pointing out that they 'weren't sexy' was to try to rid people of the thought that prostitution WAS a sexy industry, and that these people should stop automatically imagining sexy women walking the streets just ~ready and willing to have sex with them~, because the reality is not like that, and having that mentality is problematic.

Of course, I could totally be wrong and he's just a douchebag, but. :/

[seaweary]

also the use of a senior woman (and the corresponding implications) in the campaign video bothered me.

[red_pill]

i think they just got like, twelve kinds of women. young men arnt the only ones to visit prositutes...

[shadownlite]

This.

[danger0usbeans]

I still can't help noticing that there was only one "conventionally attractive" woman in the ad, and she was only shown walking through the door, not on the bed. The tone of the ad seemed very much to be "prostitutes have to have sex with ugly people".