Playing the Whore summary

If you’ve seen Anne Hathaway’s Oscar-winning portrayal of Fantine in the film Les Miserables, then you’re familiar with how prostitution was once seen as a person’s last resort. When Fantine does become a prostitute, after losing her job, she also becomes an outcast from nineteenth-century French society.

Thankfully, things have improved since then.

If you were tasked with improving the working conditions of IT consultants, the first thing you’d do would probably be to seek out the opinions of some IT consultants. Sex workers, however, are rarely asked for their opinions.

There is an ongoing debate about the morality of prostitution, but, when sex workers speak up, their input is routinely dismissed.

In the brothels of yesteryear, conditions weren’t great for prostitutes: their lives were oppressively controlled and they were blatantly exploited. But, in addition to all this, they were often also protected by a matron or headmistress who managed their affairs.

Today, however, especially in countries where prostitution is illegal, prostitutes receive little protection from their employers.

Many people turn a blind eye when confronted by a homeless person asking for spare change. Similarly, prostitution is something a lot of people would prefer not to see.

In this way, society is more concerned about how visible prostitution is, rather than how safe the prostitutes are.

If you’ve seen the TV series Sex and the City, you’ve seen how pop culture might embrace a sex-positive attitude toward women. This is but a minor advancement, however, since society still tends to pass negative judgment on women with an active sex life.

This moral judgment of women is closely associated with people’s feelings toward sex workers.

As we’ve seen in the previous blinks, it can be difficult to shake outdated modes of thinking. And this includes the idea that sex workers are victims forced to work in an unhealthy environment.

The reality of sex work is sometimes the exact opposite. In some places, it’s the workers who have the power over their clients.