In some perspectives, women as sex workers means women as objects. If a woman is a sex worker, this does not necessarily translate to a woman as an object simply because money is involved. We pay for many things we want that aren’t objects. In some cases, we are paying more because we are want something live and human. We pay for people’s consultation and advice. The money goes towards having someone understand in a safe environment, like talking to a therapist. A sex worker offers a safe place for a client to explore their sexual desires, where other people might find them perverted for, lets say, the pleasure and desire to be pissed on.
I enjoy getting pleasure from my vibrator, but I also like to have sex with a living human. One is an object and one is living flesh. You can pay sex workers for a simple cuddle session if you want, there is a reason people want a warm body next to them rather than a heat up blanket.
Assuming that all woman are sex objects to men assumes that sex is empty of real human emotion and connection, or even attraction and physicality. Sex would simply be a form of getting off, in some circumstances this is true, but like we said before, the experience from a human is separate from that of an object. So what is sex outside of the physical actions and motions? Is there something else going on besides the biological consequences of orgasms and a flow of semen? What does sex mean to an individual? What does sex mean to a couple?
Sex work can be anyone from a prostitute, to a stripper, to pornography models and actors, people who get paid to have phone sex or web cam sex and anyone who is getting paid in the commercial sex trade world. It’s referred to as work, because its an occupation. We can redefine this profession as a source of power for women. We can conjure up the idea of sexual autonomy rather than male domination.
A sex worker can preserve the intimate essence of who they truly are while still getting paid for providing a variety of needs to their client. A client does not own the sex or the woman, to the extent that they can have sex with a sex worker whenever they please. She is selling her time and she chooses when she has sold enough. An object, like a shoes, doesn’t get to say no, we can take it on and off whenever we want. An object does not get to decide its limitations, a woman does.
A very relevant commentary on the prejudices of society towards sex workers… thought provoking. It might be an even stronger argument if the author would care to address the differences between sexual prostitution and prostitution by choice, and how the differences between those trades might be relevant to a discussion of woman as object and woman as being.