News broke in late March of a curious proposition being broadcast to all of America. A self-proclaimed avid Phillies fan posted an ad on Craigslist stating that she would have sex in return for tickets to the World Series. For reasons that go without saying, the public quickly got wind of the posting and alerted the authorities, who then launched a full-fledged investigation. In the end, the woman promised an undercover officer sexual favors, semi-nude pictures and explicit e-mails for tickets, and was found guilty of attempted prostitution.
As silly as it seems, this news bite opens up a proverbial can of worms when it comes to the issue of sex and power. Prostitution is clearly illegal due to the fact that it endangers women’s lives and is viewed as the ultimate moral taboo. It seems to cross the threshold of indecency in terms of the value (or lack of value) attributed to sex.
But is that belief actually rooted in the fear that intimacy and affection can be reduced to something as crass as money, hourly shifts, and pre-determined pelvic thrusts? Does it somehow ruin it for men to know that women wield the agency to charge money for something so seemingly sacred?
Going back to the example specifically cited in this article, offering sex for baseball tickets doesn’t really seem that far out of left field (pun intended). As Samantha from Sex and the City once said, “Money is power. Sex is power. Therefore, getting money for sex is simply an exchange of power.”
While this notion can easily be reduced to a debate centered on ideology and semantics, the truth is that the balance of control and safety within the sex industry carries with it a whole slew of cultural problems. When a woman can make as much money being a prostitute (per hour) as being a lawyer, and unlike law school, prostitution requires a minimal initial investment of time, energy, which one becomes the obvious choice?
Furthermore, what would it mean for our society if we embraced the fact that women’s most sought-after skills are not theorizing, writing, or reproducing, but anal and oral sex?
In short, the World Series article obviously made an impression on readers, not due to its inaccessibility or shock value, but for the bleak realization that it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. When it comes to sex and capitalism, nothing is off limits anymore.