Blog Post 4

 

 In this blog post I will be responding and analyzing Christine Chin’s, ‘Cosmopolitan Sex Workers’ article, that focuses on sex workers and how there is prejudice against there profession. Personally, I can admit that prior to reading this piece I could not wrap my head around women enjoying sex work. I can relate feeling this way due to the fact that there is a negative societal stereotype in regard to women and sex work. This is displayed in media, movies, and even literature, making this topic having definite negative prejudice. After I read this article, I stopped to think and was able to find common examples of sex workers who enjoy their profession. Today, only fan’s is quite possibly the biggest success around the world. With sex workers being able to not only be in the safety of their homes, but also get paid through a fixed subscription-based system.

            In the article, I particularly took notice with Chin’s distinction between sex work and sex trafficking. After reading the first three chapter so the book, I clearly understood the distinction. In society, sex work it is seen as a women’s desperate attempt to make money or being forced against there will to do. However, it is clear to me that sex work is paid labor, just like any other job. What makes it appealing is that you can choose to manage your career independently, or higher a representative. In today’s worlds, most things are digitized. For example, social media is the ultimate networking site and can be used to great effect for sex work. In addition, the stigma of sex has definitely begun to decrease, and this profession has also gotten somewhat normalized in my view.

            On the other side of the spectrum, I can relate to those who struggle to find a fine line between sex trafficking and sex work. The fear of sex trafficking has evolved and become directly aligned with sex work. It is also a topic that many have struggled to find a way to track. Today, the ways in which humans can be trafficked is so efficient and so modernized that its hard to distinguish the atrocities and benefits of sex work. However, it is important to intake all the information before coming to a conclusion in regard to intricate topics like sex work.

            As mentioned in the book, Chin goes into how migrant women are able to travel looking for sex work. The ways in which they travel is fascinating, especially the way they need to utilize syndicates to travel from city to city. This makes sense and shows dedication and efficiency through the process of succeeding in sex work. A migrant women will have more success in a location where the demand for sex workers is much higher. London is used as an example in the book in which Chin mentions that “women constitute  82%  of  all  Slovakian  and  71%  of  all  Filipino  migrants, and  the  majority  of  them  are  employed  in  domestic  and  health-related service  jobs  (Vertovec  quoted  in  Dyer,  McDowell,  and  Batnitsky  2010, 640). "There are migrant women, to be sure, who exchange their sexualized labor for wage as well.” (Chin, Page 16). It is important to recognize in this quote that migrant workers and there successes are particularly gendered and alters the definition of success.

            Concluding, this book provided valuable insight and a broader scope to certain professions and the negative connotations that specifically sex work is associated with. This book also highlights the effects of gender in the overall view of ethnic groups, profession, and societal status. I would encourage people to read this book because it allows for a more open and thoughtful outlook on sex work and women. Personally, it represented to me that scrutiny over a particular profession is one sided. Growing up I always admired the hard work my mom would put herself through to provide not only for her family, but for herself. Therefore, professional sex workers should be shown the same reverence and admiration.