Comments on: More thoughts on sex worker/other

By: Waking Vixen » 2007 In Review

Waking Vixen » 2007 In Review — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:55:51 +0000

[...] Here’s a wrap-up of my best posts here on Waking Vixen: Sex worker, other and More thoughts on sex worker/other The State of Alt according to Vegas Serious Hunk of Man, and the Shades of Gray – includes a pic of me at 19, with short green hair and a leather jacket How to be an ally to sex workers Authenticity Sex workers, class divides and fun with empowerment and degradation As it turns out, the Internet isn’t the answer to everything Book vs. blog: where to stick all the juicy details How the media is more exploitative than the sex industry Creepy dudes The internet is not a virtual streetcorner Anniversaries: The Museum of Sex Seeing straight ahead: the porn industry’s sexuality blinders [...]

By: introspectre

introspectre — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:40:21 +0000

Oh hell. I’ve seen that same pic on MySpace. Someone left it in my comments, and I found it so offensive I deleted it!

On the same note, my parents bought my husband the most retarded shirt ever. It has “I’m a computer programmer” misspelled over and over again and scratched out, then finally at the bottom it says, “I write code.” When he opened it up at Christmas I was damn glad they weren’t there to see the looks on both of our faces. What a fucking insult! So, we use it as a cum rag. Touche.

By: queer dewd formerly known as ( )

queer dewd formerly known as ( ) — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 22:02:19 +0000

it is so completely weird for me to read this. i was in a grad dept in sociology that did a lot of qualitative work. the idea that it would be necess. to keep secret one’s involvement in the social group (whatever) being studied is… weird to me. i realize that not all disciplines ‘get it’ and i know even in sociology there is a huge dispute. but there are established where of laying down the groundwork to make it so you’ve got “objectivity street cred” depending on what tradition you’re working out of. There’s everything from the methods people who insist on using lots of mechanistic devices to ensure objectivity to someone like Judith Stacey who brings her research subjects into reading of a draft of her work, engaging in one of the better defenses of a postmodern approach to ethnography.

ANYWAY, with out spilling too many beans, I know someone at who Dacia could go hit up, sitting in a high position of authority who did work with a woman who did her thesis on stripping.

Now said high placed person did not engage in the stripping. Said high placed person only worked with said student on her ethnography of stripping in which, after exploring said stripping, said student BECAME a stripper. And not coz she needed money, but coz she liked it. That was early 1990s. So way before the vogue (supposed) of well-to-do white women becoming strippers after college. (MadeforMetal writes about it that way at any rate.)

By: Josh Jasper

Josh Jasper — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:57:26 +0000

I know this is a terrible, horrible fate to consider, but I think that at some point, your studies may require a trip to Amsterdam, and possibly Australia to do research on sex workers in countries where it’s legal, and visit universities where student-sex workers are attending.

World travel to exotic locations is a grim fate, but it may be necessary that you shoulder this burden, so you can shove some hard data up that ignorant professor’s limousine liberal ass.

But it’s an expensive thing to consider. If Bi Apple is enough to spawn other movies, perhaps more could fund your research. Actually, that’s something you didn’t blog too much about. I know that Bi Apple was a stressful time for you, but I don’t remember if you were turned off of making porn because of it, or if you’d consider making another movie.

Also, I think that as far as academic researchers go, it’s an incredible rarity to have someone who’s been ‘in the trenches’ so to speak. My favorite sex writer, Susie Bright, is actually fairly shy about writing about *her* sex life. I don’t know. It might be wild, it might be mild. But she’s frequently engaging in journalism and commentary from a distance. You being in the middle of it is important.

Looking at the adult industry, media and prostitution, it’s insane that so little actual academic research is done by people who make an effort to understand what life is like inside. Sure, numbers get bandied around, but who’s actually talking to individuals?

Your professor is a double idiot for not being supportive of your research. If no one has done real study of a topic, there are no answers that should be acceptable to academics. Academics should just be brave enough to admit that they have no idea what’s going on in a vast section of the economy, no idea what life is like for those who work in it, and no idea how to find out.

You are a ground-breaker. You deserve serious attention. But unfortunately, you’re probably going to have to bust some heads to get it. I have faith that you’re up to the challenge.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:57:03 +0000

The thing to do when a professor makes such a sweeping generalization is to ask for the source. It is always academically and intellectually appropriate to seek the evidence for a generalization you don’t believe. Challenges to conventional wisdom sometimes prove it to be true, but that is the way we have gotten to our present level of knowledge. Alternatively, quote Gilbert and Sullivan (HMS Pinafore) What never? No Never! What Never? Well, hardly ever!

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 04:00:35 +0000

I would be cautious about revealing that you were a sex worker in class. Your professor might have some reservations about your objectivity when writing an academic paper about a subject that your also an advocate. Your professor might think that it was a bit like RJ Reynolds researching causes of lung cancer.

By: Amber

Amber — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 13:13:50 +0000

No, one isn’t enough for an academic paper, certainly. (As Belledame recently said: “The plural of anecdote is not data.”) My point was that the professor made a sweeping generalization that categorically dismissed the possibility of a sex worker writing a thesis at Columbia. She was effectively saying, “It’s not possible for this type of person to exist.” And yet, there you were, right in front of her. In THAT type of situation? One example is all you need to disprove the ignorant, dismissive generalizing statement. That was my point.