A very silly girl writes about sex positive feminism

I am in a fantastic mood. I've been giddy and smiling so much for the last 18 hours or so that my cheek muscles hurt. You know when you meet someone and you want to talk to them again so much that you have imaginary conversations in your head with them (or is that just me and the voices have gotten out of hand;)) that's where I'm at. I just thought I'd share since you all have been so patient through the summer of crap. I'd feel really dumb about the giddiness, but his co-worker asked him why he's smiling so much. Ha.

Anyway, on to the topic of the day: strippers and the sex industry in general.

I have a unique point of view on the legalization of sex work. We had a recent issue here on the ballot to remove a law that was trying to eliminate the things about strip clubs that make them fun and the people that opposed the law were touting it as a woman's rights issue.

There are basically 2 schools of thought on feminist circles on sex work. Either it is a degrading occupation that oppresses every woman involved in it, or that as long as it is a woman's choice to do that kind of work it is her body to do with as she pleases.

I'm in the second camp for a very specific reason. There are only 2 professions where women consistently make more money than men. Wanna take a guess at what they are? They're related.

Wait for it

Wait for it

Ding ding! It's modeling and sex work. Who knew that the only jobs women earn more than men in involve being valued almost exclusively for their bodies. Well, I did.

So when people start getting all huffy about strip clubs in their neighborhood, I don't see it as a moral values issue but as another example of the patriarchy trying to keep us girls subservient and broke. Give a girl more earning power than a boy and the establishment feels threatened.

But there is another part to this equation, and it's a bit of a chicken and egg issue. The more legitimate the industry, the fewer people there are working in it and the more competitive it is For example, there are certainly more strippers than models, and there are more prostitutes than strippers. So is it that legitimacy is only bestowed on those industries where competition will be high and jobs will be scarce? Or is competition high and jobs scarce because it is viewed as a more legit job to have?

Now I'm going to go back to being giddy.