Blog entry #10

What’s wrong with prostitution?
This article is based on the author’s field study of San Francisco prostitutes. The author discusses three viewpoints on prostitution: radical feminist critiques of prostitution, pro-feminist defense of prostitution, and contextualized feminist approaches to the sex-work dichotomy (Bernstein 95).
The radical feminists’ critique of prostitution explains that is different from traditional wage labor because of the sexual objectification within the occupation. The sale of the body is different than the sale of any other commodity. It is not based on emotional work, merely sex work. Prostitution puts the male within a position of power, he is the one paying and therefore, controlling the woman for the time he is with her.
In defense of prostitution, some feminists say it actually puts women in power. They are free to express their sexuality, going against the traditional gender roles. Prostitution is often thought of as a last-resort option, these women are thought to not have another employment opportunities. While this is true for some of these women, there are ranges of women who become prostitutes. There are also moral stigmatisms that accompany sex-work.
The author found three classes of strippers in her study- upper, middle, and lower classes (Bernstein 102). Classes were determined by their race and physical appearance. The upper class prostitutes are better dressed, better looking, and might not be recognized by the majority of the public as sex-workers. The most important feature of prostitutes is that “… there is no other job at which they could make anywhere near a comparable wage” (Bernstein 104). Prostitution gives women sexual power; they can price themselves and pick and choose their customers. This is dependent on if these women work for themselves or a pimp, who otherwise determines wages. However, sometimes the relationship between pimp and prostitute is caring, and they both look out for each other. The women also face physical violence from their clients and pimps, but are often unable or discouraged to seek medical treatment because of possible law enforcement repercussions or lack of funds. The pimps protect women from other pimps, but not from their clients or the police. San Francisco police are rather liberal, often citing prostitutes with more petty crimes. COYOTE (Call Off Your Tired Ethics) is the national prostitutes’ rights organization founded in San Francisco (Bernstein 110). Most members of this organization are white, middle class, and educated, mostly prostitutes or exotic dancers. COYOTE uses the term sex-workers to avoid the negative connotations associated with prostitution. At one point in their lives, these women crossed a “good girl-bad girl” line, diverting from their upbringing and shedding traditional occupations (Bernstein 112). However, besides economic gain many sex-workers describe the enjoyment they receive from their sex-work occupations. These prostitutes are usually “professional sex-workers”, and not those walking the streets. These women usually meet criteria for avoiding degradation in their occupations, having “… control over their sexuality, meaningful consent, self management and promotion, and alternative life options” (Bernstein 114). Streetwalkers are more often “crack prostitutes”, working for drugs and living a lower-class lifestyle. They are often homeless and make significantly less money than professional sex-workers do. They have little or no options for other professions, and barely survive with the wages they earn.

Sex work for the middle classes
The author begins by citing the biggest obstacles to sex-work as shame and ignorance (Bernstein 474). Technology, mainly the Internet, has opened up a new frontier for sex-work. As cited in the above article, sex-work is not simply a lower-class occupation, many white, middle-class, educated women also participate in sex-work. Jobs for these women are often are to come by and do not pay as much as jobs in the sex-work industry. Sex-work jobs also often seem more excited than typical desk jobs. Women often view sex-work jobs as just a quick occupation when they need money, but remain in the industry because of the money and enjoyment they receive from their jobs. The majority of sex-workers are unmarried and without children, and have a freer and more experimental view of sex than most Americans (Bernstein 478). The success of any sex-worker depends on her built up list of clientele, which people can begin while working for an agency but then eventually work independently. Women are often economically exploited by their sex-work managers, so they desire to move away from them quickly.
The internet is one of the quickest ways for sex-workers to develop clientele. Women can post advertisements, pictures, videos, and more on the webpage to entice and contact clients. Women also organize meetings to discuss their sex-work, including safe sex practices, how to find safe clients, and other professional advice (Bernstein 481). Books and websites have also been dedicated to instructing sex-workers how to create and run their business.
Sex-work also requires certain boundaries. The commodity being sold is sex, not a personal relationship, so it is important to keep interpersonal connections separate from sex-work. However, for the customers, such as those in a strip club study, often find “realness” within interactions with strippers (Bernstein 484). These customers look for natural looking, outgoing women who are easy to talk to. Some of those sex-workers describe feigning loving relationships for their clients because they appreciate it more.

Who’s orgasm is this anyway?
Couples are constantly faced with desires from the outside world, making having a pure, monogamous relationship more difficult. Men are always referred to as unemotional, looking for sexual fulfillment in other women (Duncombe and Marsden 221). Sex-work is not only for prostitutes, but also has to occur within relationships. This exchange of resources between partners usually “… tends to be tilted towards men. Yet male actors do not invariably deploy their power, nor do women always defer…” (Duncombe and Marsden 222). There are several viewpoints on the source of sexual pleasure for women, all giving some degree of power to the men. Relationship satisfaction is hard to reach, especially because one study found most people constantly compare their own relationships to those within the media (Duncombe and Marsden 225), often creating impossible standards. Men were found to want their women to be slightly sexual assertive, while women enjoyed gentle sexual dominance of males. Other studies have also found that married couples sexual activity experiences a decline during the duration of the relationships (Duncombe and Marsden 225). Sex becomes a special occasion, not something frequent and important to the marriage. While each couple may blame it on different things, husbands and wives have both admitted to fault in their sexual relationships. Both partners also admitted a reluctance to discuss the problem.
This lack of sex leads partners to look outside of their relationship for sexual pleasure. These outlets include pornography, masturbation, and different sex techniques (Duncombe and Marsden 230). After emotional distance separates some couples, partners are unable to have sex with their partners. Celibacy sometimes also leads to affairs, where partners can find their sexual, and sometimes emotional satisfaction, elsewhere (Duncombe and Marsden 232). Women are more interested in mutual sexual satisfaction than men are often found to be. However, in time, women often lose their desire to perform sex work as well. Fantasy is also a part of sex-work for both partners, especially as time passes. However, sex-work does become work after the passage of time, and it is unkown how to keep authentic, real, and enjoyable sex in a long-term relationship.

‘Stepford Wives’ and ‘hollow men’?
there are gender differences in emotional work, most important are those concerning power (Duncombe and Marsden 212). Women often bear the burden of the emotional work, trying to promote communication, which is often how they achieve intimacy. This also extends further than just partner relationships, as women are usually responsible for the communication in all relationships. Men’s emotional work is seen in a different way, they usually respond that they do paid work for their family, not themselves, and many of them may think this shows their emotional ties (Duncombe and Marsden 214). They claim that with the birth of their children, they put more emotion work into the workplace. Instead of focusing emotions on their wives and children, men switch their focus to work. One problem people cite for emotion work is that overtime it becomes an obligation, sometimes people do not really care but simply perform the work because they feel they ought to (Duncombe and Marsden 215). People “perform” their gender by performing the carework associated with it. The authentic work usually has little emotional component. Men, especially, report a difficult time performing emotion work, and both genders report feeling pressured to perform different types of emotion work.