demand curves and sexwork

this is not actually entirely about the title– i haven’t read enough econ yet to write that post– but it will serve for what i am about to mention.

a fundamental disconnect within sexwork is the confusion of implicit and explicit acceptance. one cannot generally get a sexworker to recognise that simply doing the work serves as an implicit acceptance of more extreme choices made with less agency.

it is not the privilege of some sexworkers over others– it is the way the privilege blinds them to their own implicit acceptance of ill done to less-free fellow sexworkers.

the stripper who can jetset to the top clubs and make 2k a night is implicitly supporting the male-dominated superstructure in which managers force employee-style regulations on independent contractor strippers. another case in point is the stripper who willingly follows those regulations ‘because the money’s good’ at x or y or q club. because she only sees her range of options, she cannot see that she is still locked into and supporting a framework that crushes most of the other women in it. ‘i have options,’ she thinks. ‘i can always leave town/try another club’. increasingly and additionally serving as example, (white) white collar women come and go from sexwork because like nonprofit orgs, they can make competitive money to white men without directly having to compete WITH them.

and as long as ‘classy, upscale’ girls are available for sexwork, ones who freely choose their poison, customers will take from that range, but also and in addition to take from the range of girls who are lesser. some must be considered lesser to create and preserve the value of the ones considered ‘better’.

when it comes to sexuality, throwing money into the equation ensures a range of niche markets and a demand curve that increases as more people make themselves available to be for sale that way. but the essence of the curve doesn’t much change, and it looks like a hershey kiss when translated into actual money going to women doing it. huge base of people not earning much overall and a disproportionately narrow top of people raking in the bucks.

this is something people miss. specialising in a niche doesn’t change the hershey kiss. there will still not be much money going to the bulk of people doing it. and thus for those who can earn a little more than the ones at the very bottom to claim they aren’t the problem is disingenuous.