Setting stigma aside

The other day, I stumbled upon an interesting opinion article on the internet. A university student was defending her decision to work as a porn star as a means to pay off her hefty tuition costs.

Now, when I first realized what the article was regarding, I was immediately overcome with feelings of pity. As thoughts along the line of “poor girl,” and “she must have had a terrible childhood,” raced through my mind, I read on.

A couple paragraphs into the article, it occurred to me that my initial impression was far from accurate—the article was hardly a cry for help, quite contrarily it was a declaration of empowerment. The young writer was challenging these conventional views regarding the sex trade—her stance on the issue was definitely a feminist one, but quite alternative, to say the least.

We live in a society in which status is key and image outweighs substance—one in which professionalism refers to a nine-to-five office job, and where “creativity” and “self-expression” are conveyed through a preference of ketchup or mustard on a lunchtime hotdog. Acknowledging all of this, the author of this article emphasizes her main dispute: regardless of social stigma and societal stereotypes, working as a porn star provides her with a self-sufficient means of putting herself through university and empowers rather than degrades her. Working as a part-time porn star is her decision, not her fate.

While most of us would not consider jobs in the sex-trade to be a staple of feminist empowerment, this young woman does have a point. If getting paid to provide erotic entertainment is her decision and if it is truly her medium of artistic expression, then how is that any worse a situation than one in which an employee of a socially-accepted industry is forced into acting in a way that is not her decision?

When I was a child, my parents would take me out to All Star Wings every Wednesday night—the wings were juicy, the atmosphere was fun, and most of all, the service made my visits! I remember admiring the waitresses, dressed impeccably in their matching skirts, greeting us with their cheerful spirits. Little did I know those glamorous wing-joint workers hardly lived a life of glamour.

Entering the world of part-time jobs came as quite a shock. I had a friend who worked at All Star, and hearing her insider’s perspective of my childhood-fantasy job presented the hard truth we women are faced with: women are too often subject to emotional labour and exploitation in service-sector jobs. My friend’s waitressing job entailed not only providing good customer service and quick waiting skills, but also offering a pretty sight for customers to ogle over while choking down some wings and sloshing down a few beers.

Little did she know upon being hired that she could have her hours cut for neglecting to flirt with male customers or failing to apply makeup. My friend did not sign up for a job in which the requirements included a total disregard for her morals in order to save up for a university education.

Although my friend being subjected to hiking her skirt up or throwing an overly-intoxicated man a wink may sound like a mere inconvenience, she was not comfortable with how she was being forced to present herself or her body.

However, reverting back to the scenario of the university porn-star, that young woman was using her body the way she wanted to use it—influenced by nothing but her own prerogative.

Emotional labour is a serious issue which leads to exploitation of low-paid care and service workers. If inequality in the workplace is supposedly diminishing then why do the statistics come up short?

Timothy Noah, a respected journalist, explains that men earn 60 percent more than women in the fast-food workforce, 73 percent in the tipped workforce, and 83 percent in restaurant-service jobs.
This is not an issue of feminism, this is an issue of human rights; women are simply expected to put in emotional labour for free, while men get a pay boost when asked to do the same thing.

Yes, people can persecute sex-workers all they want, but at the end of the day, aren’t we meant to be protecting our fellow workers rather than sparing ourselves the trouble of expanding our minds to a socially-progressing world as we selfishly strive to preserve the sanctity of “professionally acceptable” jobs?

Because if we recognize the priority of protecting and supporting our fellow workers, societal stigma aside, it will become clear that the vulnerable young ladies working at the local All Star wing-joint are the ones we really need to stand up for—they are the ones being taken advantage of—but, most terrifying of all, more often than not they don’t even know it.