This is an issue that has puzzled me for quite some time, and I never really took a good moment to think about it until it sprang up on another blog. I’ve always wondered: can sex workers be feminists? Simple question, indeed, but no easy answer. Feminism has done quite the job of making "choice" an essential part of female living—so much so that a new subset of feminism has spawned: choice feminism. Essentially, choice feminists argue that no matter what a woman does—whether she becomes president or a stripper—her choice is always a legitimate one as long as she wasn’t coerced or goaded into it by some extraneous discriminatory circumstances (i.e., sexism, force, etc.). The logical extension of that argument, however, is that even women who willingly become prostitutes, strippers, porn stars, or any other profession normally considered oppressive or mysogynistic can call themselves feminists. See the tension here?

One of my favorite blogs, feministing.com, initiated this discussion on its site and sparked a flurry of angry responses and page-long diatribes, while others simply took their opinions to similar blogs (http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/03/03/do-migrant-sex-workers-need-saving/). Honestly, I am a feminist, yet I am not too quick to believe that any choice a woman makes, no matter what it entails, typifies a feminist action. Just look at the structure of that argument: A) Feminism is about choice. B) Sex work is (sometimes) a choice. C) Therefore, sex work can be considered feminist (assuming that the woman isn’t forced into it, however). But who decided part A? I’ve never believed that feminism is only about choice. Yes, that’s part of it, and I’m sure that the second wave of the women’s movement championed the rights of women to choose their own career (as opposed to settling with the only ones available to them as women). Yet, such a definition is way too broad, and often ends up leading to actions that are more regressive than subversive. Feminism is more so about ending gender oppression. We don’t just want women to be able to choose their career; we also hope to see more women in traditionally male fields (politics, technology, upper-level management), subverting widespread and all too often innaccurate stereotypes. This doesn’t mean that women who choose to strip or work in escort agencies aren’t making legitimate choices. But "feminist" choices? I’m not so sure. 

The issue got even more complicated as I was sitting in lecture for my "Images of Women in French Cinema" class. We were discussing one possible interpretation of the film, Belle de Jour (1966), in which an upperclass Parisian woman, unbeknownst to her husband, joins a brothel and becomes involved with a local gangster. She had been sexually abused as a young child and frequently had masochistic hallucinatory fantasies (like getting gang raped, being verbally insulted and beaten, etc.). My professor argued that in eventually taking pleasure in prostitution, Belle de Jour (the psuedonym of the main character), was using her sexuality to defeat masculine power (from the sexual abuse and being unable to copulate with her husband due to his impotence). This is a similar argument to what some "sex-positive" feminists opine: that female power is sexual power and in choosing to handle it as you so please, you’re essentially refusing cultural expectations of women and sexual double standards.

You see? It’s complicated. Just writing about two different viewpoints confuses me even more; I’m not going to lie. Truth be told, I’m tempted to say that sex work is not feminist (what is so socially progressive about identifying yourself only in terms of your body or sexual capabilities?), but I’m also quite swayed by the counter-argument. l’m never one to stay stuck somewhere in the middle, though. I’ll definitely be thinking about this one for a while.  

Aisha Wells