Anonymous Rex’s Weblog

In this installment of the sex-trade blog, I will look at the economics of the sex-trade. If it isn’t clear by now, I have absolutely nothing against sex or even the bizarre sexual practices I encountered in Thailand. The problem is when you combine sex with money. (Money is the root of all evil, you want to be careful where you stick it.)

Furthermore, I am primarily concerned with the damages caused by the production of the sex-trade, not its consumption. There are primarily two arguments against the consumption of the pornography: 1) that it corrupts society, and 2) that it is degrading to women. I think the evidence for both of these arguments is still inconclusive.

Opponents of the first argument—that pornography corrupts society are quick to point out that the Netherlands has a high availability of pornography and a low-rate of sex-crime. Similarly Japan, which produces a high volume of rape-fantasy porn has an extremely low rate of sex-crime. However, correlation is not necessarily causation.

It cannot be denied that sexual practices are influenced by pornography. Most heterosexual couples don’t have sex exclusively in the missionary position and most people don’t read how-to sexual manuals. So the vast array of sexual practices are being transmitted somehow, and much of that is probably through material that would be classified as pornography.

Ultimately, however, I think the argument that pornography corrupts society is a distraction. The production of pornography directly and observably destroys lives. As long as that is going on, how can you justify measuring the attitude changes of naughty suburbanites?

The second argument, espoused primarily by second-wave feminists is that pornography is degrading to women and a de facto form of sexism. After perusing the arguments going back and forth between anti-pornography and pro-sex feminists, I have decided to try to skirt this particular can of worms. I will, however, address the arguments of pro-sex feminists who are also sex-workers.

By the time I got to Phuket, I was fairly sick of Bangkok with its smog and its hustlers. Although Patong beach still boasted hookers and sex-performers, I was in a bungalow in a relatively remote and untouristed side of the island. My daily routine involved getting beat up fighting some psycho from Europe or Australia, then riding my motorcycle to the beach where I would lick my wounds and prepare to do it all again.

It was on the beach where I bought copy of Reefer Madness by muck-racker Eric Schlosser. This is a wonderful book on the dynamics of the American black market. It contains three essays that take a legal and economic perspective of marijuana, migrant farm workers, and pornography.

Adult film is estimated as a $10 billion a year industry. The economics of the entire sex-trade are difficult to measure. Schlosser shows that (until he was finally caught for tax-evasion) almost all of the pornography in the United States was part of a single, invisible empire run by one Reuben Sturman—a man most people have never heard of. Schlosser’s telling of Sturman’s rise and fall is absolutely fascinating. But most interesting of all is that Sturman was not a libertine like Larry Flynt. He seemed to have no interest in sex or the consumption of pornography. He was simply a business man who accidentally discovered a highly marketable commodity. Sturman began his career selling comic-books. He eventually discovered that more people wanted to buy ’sex-pulp novels’ than comic books.

This is the great secret of the sex-trade: it isn’t naughty, it isn’t the victim of Victorian oppression, it is simply an economic system catering to a market. And like all economic systems not regulated by the government, it has grown into a monster. The sex-trade is Wal-Mart; capitalisme sauvage.

In fact, the early days of the American pornography industry are not much different than the worst parts of the Bangkok sex-trade. Schlosser describes the production of the film Deep Throat, one of the first and most famous X-rated films. As with Sturman, this film was the product of greed, not lust. In fact, the producers all had serious ties to Cosa Nostra. Theatres showing the film were required to pay 50% of proceeds to the mob. Linda Boreman, the star-of-the-film testified that her performance was coerced at gun-point and that the entire film was essentially a rape. Granted, in previous interviews Boreman described making the film as “a liberating experience.” But the fact remains that she clearly regrets her involvement now.

Since then, pornography has emerged from the underground. This is primarily because massive hotel chains like Hilton want to show adult films and are so powerful that no one in the government feels it would be productive to oppose them.

However, this has only yielded to a different and more wide-spread type of exploitation. Schlosser explains that there has been a glut of young girls moving to Los Angeles to star in adult films. Obviously, these women have not harbored life-long dreams of being porn-stars. They usually come from working-class families and see this as a get-rich-quick scheme.

The scheme revolves around stripping. As it turns out, there is a hierarchy of American sex-workers. Strippers look down on porn-actresses who look down on prostitutes. (The pattern here seems to be how much of your sexual autonomy you have to sell to make a living.) However, there has been some upheaval in this order because to make the big-bucks as a stripper, a woman needs to first earn a reputation through adult film.

These young women are essentially starring in adult films so that they can get out of adult films: the goal is to star in a few films and then return to wherever they came from to continue stripping for a bigger salary.

This is where the economics of supply and demand comes in: with so many young women from rural America arriving in LA, salaries have plummeted. Many women become “B Girls” receiving only $150 a scene. And to even become a B girl you must be willing to do just about anything. Aspiring adult actresses are often expected to sleep with film producers in order to get parts (which, yes, they do find degrading and often refuse to do), It also helps if they are willing to dye their hair blonde and get breast-implants and, of course, if they were willing to do “nasty things.”

I imagine a similar process goes on in Thailand as young people pour out of the country-side and into the cities. It is possible that twenty years ago, a woman could move to Bangkok and work in a topless bar. Now that same women must also be willing to do a ping-pong show to find employment as a sex-worker.

The emphasis on “nasty things” is also a manifestation of the market. Schlosser describes the diversification of pornography as a perfect example of Adam Smith’s invisible hand. The days when a man like Reuban Sturman could get rich selling pulp-fiction are over. Entrepreneurs and sex-workers must now appeal to increasingly bizarre nich-markets in order to turn a profit. Schlosser points out that there are now numerous websites that revolve around women being induced to vomit.

So, with the evils of the production of the sex-trade laid out, what are the implications for the consumer? Well, if you support the sex-trade (defined as paying money for live adult entertainment, pornography, or prostitution), you should feel guilty. But you shouldn’t feel guilty the way your church wants you to feel. That’s the solipsist argument. Remember, you are already a scum-bag whether or not you choose to support the industry.

Rather you should feel guilty the same way you should feel guilty when you shop at Wal-Mart. When I buy cheap Wal-Mart salmon, I know that the production of that salmon is causing environmental devastation and human rights abuses in Chile. When I throw down money at a strip-club, I am providing the financial incentive that lures young women to become strippers. (Remember, I teach teenage strippers.) That same financial incentive at the strip club is what lures young women to LA to become B girls. It also draws more inspiring entrepreneurs into the business. As these would-be Reuban Sturmans seek out increasingly bizarre sexual tastes to cater to, they create increasingly degrading roles for freshly arrived B-girls. And the cycle continues.

I had hoped to get through everything in this blog, but that has not happened. In the next, and hopefully final installment, I will look at efforts to reform and redeem the American sex-trade.