"The goal of sexual repression is to produce an individual who is adjusted to the authoritarian order and will submit to it in spite of all misery and degradation." -Wilhelm Reich

There was another Sheroes contest recently here in Humboldt. It's one of those things where people create some kind of art honoring the woman or women in their lives who have served as an inspiration. It's honorable in its own right, but I missed out on doing it this time around. Because of that, I'm going to use "Violence Fetish" as a forum to honor a group of women who will never receive a Sheroes mention, but who deserve it nonetheless. I'm talking about female prostitutes. (I'm not disregarding male prostitutes, but this is for Sheroes, after all.)
Prostitutes are the world's unsung heroes who don't get an ounce of respect from anyone around them. These ladies of the evening, who have a history as rich as that of the Catholic Church, do their job day after day while facing disease, rape, robbery and other assorted violence, and because of this, society looks down on them with disdain, disgust and a false sense of superiority. But let's get serious here, which is more honorable: earning a good sum of money for having sex with a fat, married, business slob, or flipping burgers for him at minimum wage? Face it, the women who service men are far more business savvy than the women who serve them.
Prostitutes provide services that are more beneficial than those offered by secretaries. Prostitues give comfort to lonely men and women. Prostitutes keep married businessmen happy while they're attending conventions. Prostitutes strip young men of their virginity while teaching them the nuances of carnal knowledge so that they may better please their lovers later on in life (at least that's how it works in the movies), but we won't even discuss these things in polite company.
Admittedly, paying for sex is a lot like paying for an interior decorator. It's only done by the foolish and the desperate. Despite that, though, prostitutes still exist and make a nice living in our socity. Why? Better yet, who really should be shunned here? The women who make men pay for a service that other women give away for free in the name of love and not capitalism, or the men who frequent them? Yes, without those men who, in addition to being easily led by their penises, will stick their organs in almost anything that will take them, price be damned. Thus, prostitutes deserve some aswards...especially the Shero honor.
Sheroes can be our mothers, daughters, sisters and wives. And our mothers, daughters, sisters and wives can be prostitutes as well (and most would make damn good ones). Nobody thinks about this, however, when they write an essay about how much their mother has inspired them by working two minimum wage jobs because Dad ditched them for his twentysomething coffee server from Starbucks. They ignore it when they sculpt something that honors the sister they lost to lung cancer because she smoked three packs of cigarettes a day to deal with the stress of working for an ass-fondling, garlic-reeking, overweight, undereducated boss whose only knowledge of sexual harassment came from some definition given to him via an Andrew Dice Clay comedy routin. If these kinds of entries are the norm, then why aren't johns creating art that honors prostitutes. Would the Sheroes contest even acknowledge these entries? Doubtful.
A vast majority of men and women dismiss prostitutes as amoral scum, never once realizing that their own morals are more a matter of convenience than anything else, they shun the very people they should be admiring. Prostitutes, unlike waitresses or data entry clerks, are pioneering spirits. They are rugged individuals. They are the very foundation this country claims to be built upon. They are independence personified, and they should be proud.
Instead of honoring them, however, we arrest them. We chastise them. We chase them out of town. We beat them. We rape them. We tell our daughters that it's better they work at some dead end job for a pig than walk the streets calling their own shots. And then we go to prostitutes whenever we need a little relief and that extra twenty is just sitting there begging to be spent. We know that we are all whores in one form or another, but we hate the ones who are so blatant about it. We hate the ones who sell the one thing we want most. And we hate the fact that we go to them. Instead of changing ourselves, though, we demonize the ones who enable us to somehow feel better at the end of the day. Typical American reaction. Typical religious nonsense. Typical lack of honesty. Is it any wonder our world's a mess?
Prostitutes know what all women know. They understand how weak the male member of our species is. they know how easy it is to manipulate them. They just happen to profit from it. Is there anything wrong with that? Morally, no. It's almost an act of Social Darwinism. Legally, however, they can be arrested for simply providing a service. Why not arrest the cable guy? You have to pay him to install cable. Why not arrest house painters? You have to pay them to paint the house. No, these laws, which claim to have a basis in some sort of moral system are biased against people (primarily women assuming control over their own bodies. That's it. It has absolutely nothing to do with sex. After all, police can't arrest a woman for sleeping with a man she meets on the streets if she doesn't charge him anything, so morals have nothing to do with it. Control and money does, but nobody will readily admit that. Amazing.
Here is a country that tries to tell women whta they can do with their own reproductive systems. Here is a country where laying off hundreds of workers isn't a crime, but smoking pot is. Here is a country where people know more about the cast of "Friends" than they do about our Supreme Court. And here we are telling women how they can and cannot make money when it involves letting other consenting adults use their bodies. It's that same misguided judgement that considers neoliberalism sound economic policy.
These prostitutes, these free souls, are the ones we should be citing as role models. Not presidents who routinely go to war. These are the women we should have our sons and daughters admire and respect instead of overpaid athletes. Prostitutes have done more good for this country than the Daughters of the American Revolution. They have caused more orgasms than Pokemon. They have been the subject of more rap songs than Margaret Thatcher. Isn't it plain to see that the real saints of the world are hookers?
It's a damn shame that in this country, just the act of talkign to a prostitute puts the fear of arrestin a person. It's a public cancer that merely goes to a prostitute if you are socially inept can get you a stiff fine and even jail time, and it says more about the general public than it does the women who service it. It's painfully obvious that these are the reasons the prostitutes of the world will never be given the title of Sheroes ... until today.
I am publicly declaring prostitutes as the Sheroes of the World. Screw Mother Theresa. Screw Barbara Walters. Screw your mothers. Prostitutes are the only ones worthy of the title of Shero, and the next time you're walking around the street and you encounter one, say "Hi." Tell them how much you appreciate their services. Tell your friends and family that you respect them, and tell them where they can find one if they ever need a good hummer. Show them a little respect, people, because they're better than you. After all, has anyone ever written an entire column about how beneficial you are? I think not. Long live prostitutes, the real sheroes of the world!