I’ve encountered a few of these studies. They are echoes of our increasingly liberal (to use the word in its extreme) society and the valid feminist viewpoint that a woman owns her body and should be able to chose what she does with it.
The problem with it is that a prostitute enters dangerous emotional and physical territory in the practice of her vocation. Even well-screened clients can be unpredictable under the influence of desire and the sense of freedom that he’s paid for what he wants.
Remember that high class patron, Patrick Bates? Remember that violence knows no economic boundaries.
Erm, is there anybody (here or elsewhere) arguing that sex work doesn’t carry risks? A key part of the “liberal” and “feminist” arguments is that there are more risks when it’s driven underground through criminalisation policies.
Thank you for posting this, Eustacia. I know how hard it was to post that in a public forum. Your example of strength and courage in how you survived are a neverending source of great inspiration for me.
My armchair theory on this (that is, why there is a correlation between sexual abuse and women going into porn, stripping etc) is that in some people when they are sexually abused they their brain goes through a Stockholm Syndrome like process.
In other words, instead of doing what you would instinctively expect them to do, which would be to close up and not want to do anything sexual again, they in fact do the opposite which is become hypersexual. Sometimes during times of abuse the brain does funny things that seem to go against logic. The victim becomes endeared to the abuse or abuser.
Another aspect of it is probably a self hate component. Although most of these women will deny this, it would stand to reason that many of the think the abuse is somehow their fault or because they are not “worthy” as a person – therefore as an act of self destruction they go out and sleep with lots of people and engage in other dangerous activities. I don’t think its coincidental that many of these women also consume large amounts of drugs and alcohol.
Reminds me of the LazyBoy rant “Underwear Goes Inside the Pants”. I heard it on car radio in New Zealand and was laughing so hard I almost drove off the road.
Your theory is exactly the same as mine, which I arrived at based on my experience. Down to citing the Stockholm syndrome. I realized I finally had mastery over my own personal autonomy the day I decided to quit stockholming all such creeps who would prey on me.
Yes, in answer to your question. It is true that the expectation would be to avoid sexual contact, and some do. But, there are many that feel their bodies are not their own and any type of sexual advances that are put upon them, they just ‘don’t fight’ as they’ve been taught that their body and sexual needs are not for their purpose but for the person who is making the sexual advances, this is what the abuse has taught them. The younger they were when it started, the worse the belief system is. I was four, I told my mother and she replied ‘Don’t tell fibs.’ So, I was betrayed twice.
Every parlour that I ever worked in, all the girls there were survivors. Although, I wouldn’t say that moving into prostitution is a sign of ‘surviving,’ it simply means we didn’t off ourselves, not that most of us didn’t try in some way.
People who have experience child sexual abuse go one of two ways, they either do what you mentioned and live a life of solitude and shut themselves away; or, they give up and just do what they’re told by the ‘john’. I was very promiscuous as a young teen. When I was fifteen I was asked to topless dance and it progressed from there. I basically thought that if I’m going to just give it up to anyone that makes advances, I might as well get paid for it. And that’s how most of us think. Luckily, having a son is what snapped me out of the lifestyle and got me on the straight and narrow, I haven’t looked back. Ironically, I never took drugs or drank. I was so far gone, I was already numb!