Re: SEXPLOITATION? What is at stake in Cuba?

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Doyle:

>how does
>one make a distinction then about sex work on class levels as you imply with
>regard to what we want and don't want in a social system?

In an analysis of prostitution, one can easily see the working
conditions of self-employed adult prostitutes who cater to very rich
clientele are very different from those of child prostitutes sold by
parents into debt bondage & prostitution (and there are many
gradations in-between).  Just as the working conditions of generals
are different from those of grunts.

>If one steals to
>make a living, for example a high class jewel thief, do we then want to
>decriminalize jewel stealing?

Vice crimes -- such as drug use, prostitution, etc. -- can be
decriminalized even under capitalism, as they have been in some
countries.  Decriminalization at least makes prostitutes safer from
arbitrary raids & brutalities inflicted by cops.  Also, in countries
in which prostitution is criminalized, cops often make a business of
extorting money from prostitutes.  One wants to stop that.

>What is the work that sex performs in creating relationships?  Does the
>prostitute really do the same kind of work as a sex partner?  Where the
>partners in a really existing sexual relationship are same sex who is the
>prostitute and who is the John?

Under capitalism, there can't be very good relationships -- even
under the best of the circumstances -- between service workers (of
any kind) and customers.

>A prostitute provides sex without regard to building other kinds of social
>relationships.

You mean prostitutes don't have families, friends, & other personal
relationships outside work???  If you mean ostracism, that's the
fault of hypocritical society.

>I would guess that the fetish of whipping someone is a product of compulsive
>cognition.  Is that really serving the needs of the disability involved?
>Put in a more common context, does smoking cigarettes serve the needs of
>people who are compulsive smokers?  Is that necessarily a moral question?  I
>would say it is not a moral question about smoking because the health risks
>involved need to be addressed over whether or not something is "bad".  In
>fact public health often clashes over morality, since libertarianism wants
>to make a smoker safe from prohibition and government regulation.

Health risks should be considered, but outlawing cigars might create
some problem for Cuban Socialism (Fidel has quit smoking, though). :)
Are Cubans libertarian because they make & smoke cigars?

Some prostitutes serve the sexual needs of the disabled who have
disposable incomes.

>But people who do reject smoking then go through a process of creating an
>understanding about smoking in which they "feel" they don't want to do
>something.  A value system is typically how people try to express that
>without resorting to calling that a moral system.
>
>The problem with that labeling is that it neglects what exactly goes on with
>developing a "feeling" as a really existing labor process in building social
>networks.

Feelings & moral values of sex workers -- which are diverse -- then
should be considered also, instead of citing an article that refers
to prostitutes as "these people" (objects of pity & contempt).

>You propose if we have a revolution that human beings who provide sex
>services would then be able to provide the labor without laws regulating
>those practices, except you see a need perhaps for compulsory STD exams.

Everyone must undergo compulsory STD exams, *if* they are indeed to
be instituted in the interest of public health.  It is not as though
only female prostitutes have chances of getting STDs.  Teenage
heterosexuals (non-prostitutes) are at a high risk.  I don't know if
all of us want to do so very often, though.  It's a balancing task
between public health & civil liberties.

As of now, the only attempt at "public health" has been set up to
protect johns from prostitutes, not vice versa.

>However, I see a clash in that between what people need in building social
>relationships, and providing food in a cafeteria, sex in a brothel,
>bathrooms in porta toilets.

I don't know what to say if you are also against cafeterias.  :)

Yoshie