The Joy of Selling Sex

I don’t buy into the myth that sex industry workers as a whole are more emotionally damaged than your average Joe – perhaps just “damaged” in a different way. Regardless of whether you’re a Wall Street titan or a Times Square stripper, mental health is sacrificed when you’re seduced into letting your job define who you are. That said there are a vast variety of personalities drawn to the sex trade. In fact, professional S&M can best be described as the bastard child of the sex industry in the way that the transgender community is to the gay world (having little in common, only lumped in there with the rest of the marginalized). Unlike stripping and hustling, sadomasochism isn’t directly about sex – sexual desire is merely a byproduct of power play. It is also nondiscriminatory and an equal opportunity employer since a dom/sub can be any age, weight, race, sexuality, gender, transgender – any human being under the sun! S&M is riddled with contradictions, as the best tops are not “bitches” but maternal/paternal and slaves are far from submissive since the bottom is really the one in control. Which leads me to wonder. Why is prostitution of the body illegal, while the prostitution of the soul accepted, and of the mind encouraged? Unlike corporate hustlers, all the male escorts I’ve known at least wholeheartedly believed in what they were selling.