Response to Avalon

I was going to add a comment to the last post, responding to Avalon's comments, but I realized that that my response was long enough to require its own post.

Avalon wrote:

I didn't consider myself to be a "sex worker" for a long time because I never had sex with anyone. But over the years, I see how stripping is grouped in the same category.

The line between sex worker and "civilian" is pretty arbitrary at times. A fashion model is basically a clothes horse; she's paid to present clothes to potential buyers with a certain amount of flair and stylishness. But if a model becomes popular and is hired by Sports Illustrated to appear in the swimsuit issue, she's not selling clothes. The men who buy the magazine aren't going to buy the bikinis. The models are selling the opportunity to look at their bodies, which is part of what strippers sell. So a model who isn't hugely successful is a civilian, but a model who becomes well known, is a role model for young girls, and is able to earn massive amounts of money through endorsements and merchandising deals, is a part time sex worker. That is, she's a sex worker if strippers are sex workers. If supermodels aren't sex workers, then neither are strippers.

There's a range of types of models who sell the opportunity to look at their bodies. Porn models sell photographs and videos of themselves having sex. Erotic models make their entire bodies available for view, but omit the sex acts. Glamor models pose without clothes, but their poses aren't as revealing as the poses of erotic models. And swimsuit models pose provocatively, but cover their breasts (usually) and crotches. Where do you draw the line between sex worker and civilian? Which group is not earning money from sexual attraction?

There's some movement back and forth between stripping, escorting, and porn. That doesn't automatically make stripping sex work. Most strippers don't move to escorting or porn, and it wouldn't make sense to classify stripping as sex work just because some strippers do make the move. Some fashion models also move to escorting or porn, or supplement their modeling income with escorting or porn, and it seems to happen about as often as it happens with strippers, but we usually don't classify fashion modeling as sex work.

The rules seems to be that if it involves displaying your body and its disreputable (e.g. stripping), it's sex work. If it involves displaying your body and it's not disreputable (e.g. bikini calendars), it's not sex work. If it's disreputable, everyone will talk about the link to escorting and porn. If it's not disreputable, no one will talk about the link.

As I said, it's pretty arbitrary.

On the topic of religion, Avalon wrote:

I don't know much about Buddhism, being raised by a Christian preacher. Religions fascinate me though, they are designed to make us live better lives and be better people...

We have similar backgrounds. I was raised as a Presbyterian. My father wasn't a preacher, but I was required to attend both church service and Sunday school every single Sunday for the first eighteen years of my life. When I was ten, my father made me take notes on the sermons and then give a summary and analysis afterwards. Ugh.

The paradox of Christianity is that it is intended to make us lead better lives without making us better people. Christian doctrine holds that we are sinful by nature, and that doesn't change when we are saved. Whether we're saved by grace alone or by a combination of grace and works, the underlying person is inherently sinful, and therefore salvation doesn't make us better, although it saves us from the consequences of sin.

Buddhism teaches that there's no soul, or inherent nature, and therefore there's nothing that can be better or worse. The idea of becoming a better (or worse) person is a delusion. But "right action" is still important, because our actions creates the conditions that lead to liberation or that block the path to liberation.

Both teachings are hard to live with. Most of us want to believe that better behavior makes us better people. It's hard to accept that superiority is what religion is trying to save us from.