Click here to access to this interview with former sex worker Rachel Moran conducted by Mickey Z. posted on World News Trust.
I think that there is an additional reason why so many women and men are supporting the liberalization of the sex trade. Once again I use class analysis contributed by generations of Marxists to understand the hostile division in this debate that Moran describes so well in this interview.
I can offer this analysis only as a theoretical argument because I have nor been in the sex trade or studied it thoroughly. But is the sex trade so unique in capitalist culture from all other issues so that unless one has been involved in it, one cannot understand it?
I think that this hostile divide between proponents of liberalization and those who see it as a very harmful gross exploitation is very similar to low-wage workers in general who know from experience the feeling of exploitation and abuse that they have experienced as low wage workers in a capitalist system versus those who have enjoyed the security of a middle class background. The common element shared by wage or salaried workers in general and those in the sex trade is the commodification of their work. The somewhat unique feature added to sex work is the patriarchal nature of capitalist history which predates capitalism. Thus my analysis will only focus on what capitalism has contributed to work--the commodification of work.
So, what is it about capitalism that results in commodification of nearly everything? That is easy to understand: capitalism results in a society that is obsessed with obtaining money which, not only brings security, but is often accompanied by power in a capitalist organized society. But, what is commodification and why is it so harmful?
This is much more difficult to understand especially for those of us who have been immersed all their lives in a capitalist society where one has been, and continues to be, thoroughly indoctrinated in the values and practices of a society is which a market oriented economy has assumed the authority of a religion.
What I see as a process of commodification is the extraction, out of all things social in character, values that can be marketed. It is this extraction that distorts and produces the harm for all social relations.
This phenomenon can most easily be recognized in the sex trade where the most intimate relations between human beings are refined (much like coca leaves into cocaine) into a commodity to be marketed for private monetary gain by the seller, and into a extracted form which can be enjoyed as the "high" of an orgasm by the purchaser. Gone from the sex trade are the human features of caring, mutual respect, and wanting to share sensuous pleasure with another human being.
Those who have enjoyed the benefits of a middle class background (education, economic resources, opportunities for leisure, etc) can be lured into the sex trade by the easy money it offers especially in a time when opportunities for the middle class are being adversely impacted by the steady concentration of wealth in the hands of the capitalist ruling class. Middle class people are especially susceptible to capitalist indoctrination because they often experience more years in educational institutions and because of the many other benefits they have enjoyed. Their experience has taught them to believe that nearly everything that can be bought and sold is virtuous, or at least acceptable. Thus, they often have little qualms about turning the most intimate of human relations into a commodity.
Because of the security provided by their middle class background, they are protected from the worst forms of exploitation and humiliation that lower class sex trade workers experience. (This is similar to middle class occupations compared with blue collar work.) Middle class sex workers also likely have middle and upper class customers which provides them with more security. Because these sex workers enjoy easy money, greater security, and respect, they aggressively oppose the criticisms of people like Rachel Moran who have been deprived of opportunities, comforts, security, respect, etc that capitalist society has to offer middle class people.
