Comments on: Sex worker, other

By: Waking Vixen » 2007 In Review

Waking Vixen » 2007 In Review — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:53:38 +0000

[...] Here’s a wrap-up of my best posts here on Waking Vixen: Sex worker, other and More thoughts on sex worker/other The State of Alt according to Vegas Serious Hunk of Man, and the Shades of Gray – includes a pic of me at 19, with short green hair and a leather jacket How to be an ally to sex workers Authenticity Sex workers, class divides and fun with empowerment and degradation As it turns out, the Internet isn’t the answer to everything Book vs. blog: where to stick all the juicy details How the media is more exploitative than the sex industry Creepy dudes The internet is not a virtual streetcorner Anniversaries: The Museum of Sex Seeing straight ahead: the porn industry’s sexuality blinders [...]

By: queer dewd formerly known as ( )

queer dewd formerly known as ( ) — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 22:30:18 +0000

#commentlist p {width:285px;}

with the semi-colon; without won’t work.

typhos, bane of my existence!

By: queer dewd formerly known as ( )

queer dewd formerly known as ( ) — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:47:31 +0000

dacia — good luck with the thesis and the diy-idiocy in grad school.

my approach would probably be to point out that waitresses used to be considered sex workers (see Dishing it out by Dorothy Sue Cobble and, if I recall correctly, Dishing it Out by Greta Foff Paules. The frist is a history of waitress unions, the second is an ethnography of waitress. I know for sure the first discusses the “tawdry” reputations of waitresses in the later 1800s and early 1900s.)

The point would be to show how an occupation changed over time so that the ill repute associated with it dissipated (though it lives on in subtle ways) and that it became possible for, uh, waitresses to be seen as intelligent people with enough income to put themselves through college. duh.

You could do the exact same thing with actresses and for that I believe you can look at Joshua Gamson’s _Claims to Fame_ where I believe he discusses the “tawdry reputations” of actresses. (There is also a fine piece on Mae West somewhere I can look up. I only had a chance to skim but I blogged it so can find more detail if you need.)

Also, if you want to change the problem with comments overflowing edge of page, here:

in the stylesheet in the admin backend of wordpress, change the line that says this

#commentlist p {width:300px;}

to something more like this

#commentlist p {width:285px}

By: carrie

carrie — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:00:49 +0000

“Sometimes I think IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m very cleverly negotiating the lines between all the different worlds IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve got a stake in, and other times I think the joke is on me.”

current state of my life . . . thank you for the words!

By: tina

tina — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 11:23:23 +0000

I’m a film studies student, working on my thesis on pornographic film. I find it highly frustrating that students are apparently discouraged to write about topics like sex work, pornography or sexual exploration – I have to work with material that’s over ten years old, just because there are not enough people brave enough to do academic research on topics like this.

So please, please stick to your topic nonetheless and thus make it easier for the rest of the academic world. Because once there are a dozen papers like yours, profs will have a hard time not accepting topics that have the word ‘sex’ in the title…

By: Mario

Mario — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:06:31 +0000

Is your professor some kind of Bible-thumping, intolerant conservative? What other possible explanation could there be?

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 21:11:48 +0000

“The prof simply didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t accept the idea that some women would chose sex work or that a sex worker could be an intelligent (or even sentient) being. Incredulous, she said: Ã¢â‚¬Å“ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not as if sex workers are writing masterÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s papers at Columbia!Ã¢â‚¬Â And the whole class laughed.”
But one is isn’t she? The problem is that society as awhole doesn’t look at sex workers as humans. The police term is NHI. No Humans Involved. Whether you should open your mouth on the subject to your prof is a decision that you need to make. Is the point of your thesis and your paper as a whole to be a champion or to get your degree or both. I feel that two of those answers warrant telling the prof. Either way you can always mention that Asia Carrera is Mensa member haha.

By: Amber

Amber — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:07:02 +0000

Mikey,
One example won’t suffice? Really? Even when that “one example” is the person STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU after you’ve just denied that such a person can exist? (“You” in this poorly-constructed sentence referring to the asshat professor, of course.) On the contrary – one is all you need in that case.

By: Meghan

Meghan — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:30:45 +0000

I’m working on my masters right now, too, though in a completely different field (cognitive research!). I completely understand your frustration with academia. I hope it starts being more kind to both of us! Good luck on your thesis and dealing with closed-minded professors.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:18:34 +0000

Sounds like you have more of an economics thesis going. It seems tough to study, does anyone keep statistics on sex-worker wages/employment like they do for other industies? It sounds very interesting.