before i lose my style

unasenoraviejaenfuego:

loriadorable:

The workers in both industries are overwhelmingly women.

The workers in both industries are overwhelmingly non-privileged women.

The workers in both industries are overwhelmingly exploited.

The workers in both industries are mixed in with victims of trafficking and human slavery.

The workers in both industries are performing stereotypically female tasks that theoretically undermine all women.

The workers in both industries are stigmatized and looked down upon.

The workers in the sex industry overwhelmingly serve privileged men, and the workers in the domestic labor industry overwhelmingly serve privileged women.

Hmmm.

I’m so far past my bedtime that I do not have the energy to look up that one time (but it exists!) when “I Blame the Patriarchy” actually tried to point this out (I know, wild), and the comments erupted in a predictable mix of:

“But what if I pay her more than other white women pay her?”

“But what if I always leave snacks out for her and let her off early on Fridays?”

“But what if I’m recently divorced and not speaking to my mother?”

“What if all my female relatives are dead and I have no friends?”

“What if I want my children to be bilingual?”

“What if I’m one of the NICE exploiters?”

Where are my Good Master points?

If you hung around IBTP back then (*shameface*), you could tell how well those comments would have been tolerated if they’d been made by women trying to justify hiring sexworkers (NOT AT ALL). Still, that is one quibble that remains: Yes, both classes of women are exploited. Yes, exploitation is exploitation.

But it’s mostly not women hiring the sex workers, and even when women are hiring the sex workers—it’s not from pay-the-rent, feed-the-kids need.