This essay first appeared in Cliterati on May 25th; I have modified it slightly to fit the format of this blog.
Though human beings have developed a highly technological society based on scientific principles, the great majority of them are still immersed in magical thinking. I don’t merely mean a few irrational beliefs which we recognize as irrational; everyone, including the most die-hard skeptics, have such beliefs, and there’s nothing wrong with that as long as we recognize them as irrational and proceed accordingly. What is not harmless, however, is basing laws and policies on primitive superstitions such as the idea that inanimate objects can be evil, that talismans or inscriptions can grant power over others or turn evil actions into good ones, and that innocuous actions which violate cultural taboos can render a person ritually impure. Many of the systemic evils of modern societies (such as the drug war, censorship and police brutality) spring from one or more of these beliefs, and the “taboo” principle is the source of most of the harmful laws and social stigma surrounding sex work. But today I’d like to discuss another magical belief, the principle of contagion, and demonstrate how it generates some truly bizarre and harmful discrimination against sex workers.
The principle of contagion is the one which underlies most sympathetic magic; it is the belief that once an object has been in contact with something or someone, it is forever affected by that thing. This is why old-style barber shops in New Orleans used to offer to put newspaper on the floor to catch one’s cut hair; superstitious people feared allowing the clippings to come into the possession of an enemy, who might use it to inflict harm via black magic. Similarly, relics of saints are believed to share in the saint’s holiness. It is this belief which underlies the absurd behavior I mock as fear of “sex rays”:
The dirtier and more “illicit” the sex, the more intense the sex rays …BDSM and swinging produce concentrations that can contaminate surrounding objects, and sex work produces such intense levels that sex workers cannot be allowed near children ever again for the rest of their lives. Even objects we handle (including money and virtual objects such as emails) must be kept far away from “children” (including young adults), and the danger is so great that kids inadvertently exposed to the dreaded rays must be quarantined from other kids…
But it isn’t only children who are believed to be harmed by the contaminating touch of harlots; adult human beings in the 21st century actually behave as though commercial sex inflicts some magical taboo radiation into bedclothes and other surroundings, while amateur sex does not. Nobody is disturbed by the knowledge that any hotel bed one occupies has previously been shagged in by complete strangers, but apparently sex workers carry pernicious and undetectable cooties which we deposit everywhere we work, and which cannot be removed from bedding without washing it in holy water and soap made from the fat of virgin lambs:
The owner of budget hotels in…[England] has admitted prostitutes have used his properties…Tony Burlingham…said he was taking action to tackle the issue, but said the law made it hard for hotel owners to do so…“One in five hotel bedrooms have got a prostitute in them. Police have taken the crime off the street and have moved it into [hotels]”…selling sex behind closed doors is legal, as is buying sex…“What we have done is turned the internet off and have put car park restrictions on”…He said switching off the internet aimed to stop prostitutes in his rooms [going online]…and…limiting the number of cars would prevent pimps from parking in the car park…
For now, let’s just ignore the absurdity of calling sex work a “crime” in one sentence while admitting it isn’t in the next; let’s just wonder how any sane, modern adult believes that sex for pay in a hotel room is somehow intrinsically different from “free” sex in the same room. The principle of contagion is even more obvious in this story about Airbnb, a website which allows people to rent their homes to strangers for short periods of time. A person would have to be hopelessly naïve to imagine that none of these renters ever have sex in their beds, yet when money is exchanged for the exact same activity we get this:
Hookers are using…Airbnb…to turn prime Manhattan apartments into temporary brothels…One apartment…belongs to publicist Jessica Penzari…But when a hooker got slashed by a client in the…apartment over the price…Penzari got a call from cops…Airbnb put her up in the swanky InterContinental hotel in Times Square for two nights…and also paid to change her door locks, clean her apartment and replace her pillows and other belongings…Airbnb said…“we have zero tolerance for this activity”…
They replaced her belongings…why, exactly? Because of contamination by sex rays or malignant magical microorganisms, obviously. The story (or others like it) inspired this incredibly loathsome scheme:
…The landlords of swanky Manhattan buildings are hiring private investigators to smoke out tenants who use Airbnb to illegally rent rooms – including to prostitutes and drug users…investigators respond to ads featured on the online home-sharing service…[then] gather evidence — including photos, receipts and copies of keys — to [enable] landlords [to] evict [them]…Landlords [supposedly] hire the private investigators after [busybody neighbors] complain…about…unfamiliar visitors in the building…[Vincent] Parco also uses a team of attractive women — who sometimes pose as hookers — to catch the…tenants…It’s illegal for tenants in New York to rent out apartments while they’re not on the premises…
When this story broke, some sex workers questioned why it was necessary for the hired rats to pose as honest sex workers, if any subletting is illegal. The reason, of course, is whore stigma; if the fake renter was pretending to be a sweet, virginal secretary, a judge might side with the tenant against the sleazy, spying landlord and his hired snoops. But let the fake pretend to be a whore and all sympathy goes out the window; after all, no measure is too extreme to prevent filthy strumpets from contaminating real people’s beds with their invisible cooties.
Lovely. Simply lovely. I really enjoy your writing.
I don’t see how the first case is an example of contagion per se, simply a business owner tangentially connected to the trade wishing to be seen as against it with all his power.
Maybe, but to me the vibe read as “I’m trying to keep dirty hookers out of my rooms and scary ‘pimps’ out of my car park.” Trying to keep whores out of hotels is as ridiculous, bigoted and offensive as trying to keep obese people out of buffets.
“a highly technological [what] based on scientific principles”?
Actually, concerning the Airbnb story, I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason they replaced her belongings was because they were either broken in a struggle, or got blood on them. The story did say that the victim was slashed.
If landlords have a problem with AirBnb — and they are probably justified since subletting is usually illegal — just go with the contract violation. No need to invoke the demons of drugs and sex.
I love the photo of the flannel sheets. You might want to wash those in hot water.
Tell Weird Al Yankovic; they’re from one of his videos. 😉
Lol!
well thought and written.
Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed.
Wow. You know what, this article is a brush dipped in paint and a sword smeared with blood at the same time. One can see the mockery and feel the anguish. Loved it
Thank you! Others have used the sword metaphor in the past. 🙂
Hope at least ‘brush’ was new !
It was, but I like the sword metaphor so I’m always glad to see it again. 😉
As they say, “Pollution is matter out of place.” We all have our notions of cooties…. but you are totally right, this stigma is nothing but hurtful, a result of our complicated hatred of sex…. hehehe
An interesting perspective!
Reblogged this on GoodOleWoody's Blog and Website.
Thought provoking, I had never entertained this perspective. Thanks for the post.
I was just thinking about this subject. For some reason I came across Japanese omamori charms yesterday, and realized I had grown up around some that obviously belonged to my Uncle. After researching the topic it became clear that he had not ritually disposed of them by returning them to a shrine to be burned at the end of the year. That is not the only connection or the most pertinent. Ritualized debasement surfaced in the literary community recently when Moira Greyland outed her mother Marion Zimmer Bradley for sexual abuse and child rape. There is a link to her statements on my blog if your interested.
“…let’s just wonder how any sane, modern adult believes that sex for pay in a hotel room is somehow intrinsically different from “free” sex in the same room….”
Of course there is no such thing as ‘free’ sex (which is presumably why you put it in quotes too).
At the very least we all pay for the sex we get by offering our bodies up for sex. Or you could say both parties pay for the pleasure/ love/ spiritual connection of sex by making an effort before, during and hopefully for a while after too (cleaning your teeth, wearing something nice, making each other feel desirable, being flirty, being nice, being considerate, lighting some candles, changing the sheets etc …)
After banning prostitutes from hotels the next logical question should be: Should hotels allow couples to use their rooms if the man (perhaps married) has bought the lady (perhaps a coworker or employee) dinner and bought tickets to a west end show? Such arrangements are prostitution in all but name (and often lacking the honesty that would elevate the transaction to the level of prostitution).
I feel the moral issue (the idea that it even is a moral issue) is just a smokescreen to cover the REAL issue. Hotels do not want to (a) get on the wrong side of the law (b) drive customers away. And customers are driven away by the idea of people who engage in illegal/ unlawful/ criminal goings on staying in the same hotel as them.
Therefore the stigma against prostitution in hotels is largely created by laws which have driven it underground, not by the idea of prostitution itself.
“..They replaced her belongings…why, exactly? Because of contamination by sex rays or malignant magical microorganisms, obviously…”
To be fair it was probably because they got splattered with blood and/ or broken in the (I assume) struggle. I haven’t read the full story, but I can’t imagine a slashing that would leave no damage to the apartment owner’s belongings. Just saying.
Also, I do think the *historical* aversion/ caution/ stigma against sex workers has a lot to do with the complete lack of contraception and sexual health care available throughout most of human history. Until fairly recently the only sure way for anyone (‘pro’ or ‘amateur’) to avoid pregnancy and/ or creepy crawlies was abstinence.
This is why purity (virginity) was so highly valued and why being promiscuous (which used to mean any sex outside of marriage) has traditionally been seen as shameful. Stigmatising sexual activity outside of marriage WAS the main method of contraception/ sexual health for most of history.
Now that contraception/ abortion/ antibiotics etc are available and affordable we tend to see those attitudes only in terms of moral hysteria…. but really they had their roots in practicality. In basic survival.
Feminists lie when they claim the shame associated with liberated sexual activity (especially for young women) was all part of ‘male oppression’. In truth the stigma came as much from other women (mothers, aunts, grandmothers etc) as from the men. A horny farm boy passing through the area is not going to tell a young village girl sex is shameful. He’s going to tell her it is a great idea. It is the girl’s mother and extended family who are going to pile on the shame because families simply could not afford for their daughters to get knocked up without first securing a man and getting him to literally sign a contract obliging him to provide her and the future children with resources. Likewise men could not afford to marry a young girl with a promiscuous past who had a veritable petri dish between her legs – which could cause her to be infertile, and cause the man’s dick to fall off 😉
Plenty of careers have carried unfortunate health risks throughout history. The term ‘mad as a hatter’ refers to hatters who went mad due to (I think) handling mercury to clean top hats with …. or something along those lines. It would get into their bloodstream and make them loose their marbles.
Of course the other reason why sex work is stigmatised is that other women (particularly those of a feminist persuasion) just don’t like the competition! Every man paying a prostitute for sex is another man NOT taking a woman out and buying her dinner, and slinking back to a (respectable) hotel to get his reward…
Superb post. I found the bit about ” pernicious and undetectable cooties” especially funny. This is all so true. People don’t think twice about the prospective of random strangers fornicating in the very same bed that they are going to sleep in or have slept in. I am glad I stumbled upon this. It is awesome.
Reblogged this on normanjeremaih1 and commented:
I always carry sprays for personal comfort for my love one’s
I remember drawing an “X” at the base of my thumb in 4th grade to prevent cootie infections. I never got cooties. Of course I still don’t know what cooties actually are (or were) but if you didn’t have the vaccination, you were presumed to be a carrier. Such was peer pressure at age 10.
This same sort of cooties mentality is behind separate drinking fountains and segregated schools. There were other things at play, but a lot of it was cooties. And yeah, hookers are the socially acceptable cootie carriers of the day. May we out grow that like we did the fear of sharing a drinking fountain.