Last week, The New York Times reported that comedian Louis CK has a history of masturbating in front of women without their consent. The following day, CK released a statement admitting that the accusations were true.
I cannot decide if I should be more appalled or resentful of the fact that every time we learn about yet another famous sexual predator, I find myself shocked—both by the man’s behavior, and the public reaction to it.
In Louis CK’s case, people expressed disappointment over the loss of CK’s career for what they felt was an easily remedied issue; one common response was that he should’ve indulged his so-called “fetish” of masturbating in front of women by hiring a sex worker, instead. “Louis CK could have paid a hooker or dominatrix to laugh at him while he wanked it and this all could have been avoided.,” read one tweet. “Oh for f**ks sake!! Why?? Just why? Go pay for a hooker or go pick someone up in a bar! Or keep it in your pants! God damn it #LouisCK I really loved your stuff! Huge letdown that you too are a sad perv,” someone else tweeted.
As if “sad pervs” are the only people who want to masturbate in front of women. And as if sex workers are a quick fix who can and should cheerfully quell serially predatory men’s desires, making them no longer a threat to decent society.
Much of the social media discussion about the sex-workers-as-solution-to-sexual-misconduct was predicated on this idea too. “Louis CK jerked off in front of girls. Your telling me a sex worker wouldn’t be willing to do that?,” tweeted one user. Sure, some sex workers would consent to watching a man masturbate if that was one of the services she offered. Some wouldn’t. There are plenty of hard limits and boundaries and each sex worker makes her own. Another user tweeted, “You’re a sex worker and you’re complaining about Louis CK masturbating in front of women? That’s ridiculous.” The idea that sex workers forfeit any right to assert consent or to be angered when the consent of other women is violated perpetuates the myth that sex workers are inherently morally compromised, or interested so single-mindedly on earning a profit from sexual services that she gives up her right to assert boundaries, agency, and solidarity with those whose consent is disregarded.
I am disheartened and repulsed by the pernicious idea that sex workers are convenient receptacles for the world’s predatory men, eager and able to absorb whatever predilection comes their way, so long as the price is right. Zeroing in on the allegedly anomalous sexual act that Louis CK performed is to lose sight of the criminal act he inflicted on the women who were present for this violation. Believing that sex workers can serve as a Band-Aid for the gaping wound created by masculine sexual entitlement is an avoidance tactic that won’t shield anyone but predators.
Sex workers are not a life hack. They are human beings who have every right to choose what sexual acts they will perform, whom they will perform them with, and under what circumstances. That there exist so many who would deny them these basic acknowledgments is a sicker joke than any of the ones I’ve heard about dead hookers.
Sex Workers Are Not A Life Hack for ‘Helping’ Sexual Predators
QueerAnarchism 