Silicon Vallley's other Entrepreneurs: Sex Workers

CNN Money had an interesting article recently about “Silicon Valley’s other entrepreneurs: Sex Workers”

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/15/tech...ers/index.html
For the proudly non-edumacated an entrepreneur is a business/job creator. Usually by necessity. Not necessarily more than one job. Silicon Valley is famous for the large number of startup internet/software based businesses it has generated and the very large amounts of money the successful minority of these businesses have made for their founders and core staff (the ones who were paid mostly in stock options).

Computer tech/software is also famous for being disproportionately male and relatively youthful, like the companies themselves. AND, while I am unaware of any actual numbers, the strong sense is that Tech Guys tend to be workaholics and cluster over on the Autistic/Aspergers-y end of the Intuitive-Autistic Spectrum. SO, what is much working, low social skills rich guy going to do when his genitals need exercise? Bring up P411 or the equivalent of course! Just like ordering out delivery pizza so as to be able to keep programming.Except it cost more and takes longer to eat.

Add a lot of highly intuitive, really good looking, Internet-crafty ladies who have been paying attention to were the money is and - Instant Commercial Sex Boom.

Now some people are pleased to call Austin the “Silicon Hills” hoping if they keep doing that it will come true. Maybe Google Fiber will help. And the new Apple expansion, even if it seems to be mostly a call center. And the Texas Legislature’s predilection toward giving away the store to any corporation that lets it be known that they are looking for the largest bribe from state and local government to locate their next investment. Could be a local lesson from San Jose and thereabouts.

The rates mentioned, $350 and $500 an hour are not going to fill the local guys who cannot afford $250 an hour with joy but one of the problems with living in a good place during bad times is that prices go up instead of down as they do in the hard hit places like the rusty Great Lake States or the Desert States where the acres of abandoned subdivision are,but, surely you can feel happy for the winners of Life’s Big Lottery. Can’t you? Ah, never mind.

BTW, one of the offsetting good things about living in a good place in hard times is that ambitious and good looking women head for it to get away from the bad places.

Not everything is complete cool in Commercial Sex World out west. The San Jose policeman says Pros******** arrests are up 35% despite San Jose not having a Vice Squad. It Does have a Human Trafficking Unit, as does Austin, Texas which also has, contrary to popular opinion, a Vice Unit, since 2009 after doing without one for a while.

My personal opinion is that the apparently growing wave of anti-human trafficking sentiment is a bigger danger to our beloved Hobby than the great majority of us realize. Most people are against Trafficking including those who support the (lower case) libertarian view that adults ought to be able to do in private anything that doesn’t harm other people, including buying or selling sex. What very few people are apt to notice is the little asterisk to the small print footnote saying that anti-trafficking activists do not believe that any woman can freely chose sex worker, EVEN IF SHE THINKS SHE DID so that the Law is obligated to rescue her from her suffering even if that means throwing her in jail and her customers too.

The best part of the article is the quote from Belle de Jour that Siouxsie Q gives the the reporter: “you sell the strength of our arms when you dig a hole. Selling our bodies--which everyone thinks of as this big scary thing -- anyone who has a job that require labor does that”. Even, I would add if the job involves sitting in an Aeron chair in a cubicle in front of a computer. An economics professor at UT in the mid-Sixties pointed out to my class that it was not possible to “bring a basket of labor” to the market place and sell it without being personally present while the buyer “consumed” the labor you sold, unlike the seller of a “basket of capital” AKA as “money”. Sex work just requires the worker to be a little more present and maybe to feel a little more “consumed” afterward than cubicle sitting

I think greymoose should be a writer for CNN.

Mouse/moose, whatever! LOL

Iphone typo.

to quote from Greymouse's article, "Sex work just requires the worker to be a little more present and maybe to feel a little more “consumed” afterward than cubicle sitting"

I added emphasis to the word JUST. I disagree with the statement, entirely.

Much more is involved. It requires a very strong mind and healthy body, along with an exceptionally good attitude, and a forgiving heart.

to quote from Greymouse's article, "Sex work just requires the worker to be a little more present and maybe to feel a little more “consumed” afterward than cubicle sitting"

I added emphasis to the word JUST. I disagree with the statement, entirely.

Much more is involved. It requires a very strong mind and healthy body, along with an exceptionally good attitude, and a forgiving heart. Originally Posted by Crystalkitty

Actually, that sentence was my own commentary on the article. I realize that no one with a Y- chromosome is ever going to be able to understand what it is like to do sex work. Not anymore than someone watching a soaring bird through binoculars is likely to be able to understand what it is like to fly. Nevertheless, I try to know as much about what the business is like for my temporary partners as I can, because it is it is interesting.

The lead writer on the CNN article was a woman and I think sex worker rights advocate Siouxsie Q was speaking to the common "straight" woman's horrified reaction to the thought of sex work: that it is "yucky" since involves actual touching(and being touched by! Yikkes!!!) men on or by their spots of maximum yuckiness without the transubstanating influence of a de-yuckifying pre-existing emotion or the comforting memory of a white dress ceremony to make it alright or at least endurable. So Ms Q pointed out that virtually all work requires the use of the worker's body,even if it is just standing up in front of a room sharing your knowledge of a subject.

Obvious working naked takes away some of the "insulation" that makes ordinary work less intense and less draining. There was a interesting but brief discussion here a while back about how draining sex work was for women. Brief because ladies in the business mostly would prefer to conceal how vulnerable the work makes them feel. Or that is my guess as a Y-chromosome handicapped person.

Good explanation, Greymouse.

Yesterday, when I posted, I didn't have a moment to re-read before I hit send. I didn't mean for my tone to sound grumpy, I am not/wasn't. I guess I felt the discussion wasn't completely reflective.

Anyway, thanks for writing about an intelligent discussion/article.

Peace and love,