The other day Renegade Evolution put up a post about a bad experience she had on her job. You can read the whole sordid tale over on her LJ but we can summarize thusly…
- Ren shows up for gig
- Ren gets bad feeling
- Audience begins proving that Ren has good intuition
- Ren gives them a second and third chance to get their shit together
- They fail utterly
- Ren leaves because she has an IQ
This tale is problematic for many of those who are desperate to believe that anyone who has a good body and makes use of that is a downtrodden victim with no spark of intelligence or willpower. You know the type by now… “radical feminists” who seem to spend their time almost exclusively finding things in life to get angry about and attacking any female who dares consider live anything but a constant cycle of oppression and violence. Why is a woman who is not a victim a problem for them? The answer is easy when you look into the mentality that makes them what they are.
Deep down they rejoice whenever a stripper is abused. They get a rush inside whenever tragedy befalls someone. It is the fuel they live on. It is their vindication and their drug. In a very real way they are angry with Ren because she dared to not get raped. They might not have started out like that… but it sure is where they are now.
As usual, Ayn Rand nailed it in this passage from The Fountainhead (page 373 in my copy) where a character who has been steered into social work by family pressure discusses her co-workers and her own decent into enjoying petty power and the desperation of others. I added the emphasis to highlight the relevant parts…
“It’s doing something horrible to me.I’m beginning to hate people, Uncle Ellsworth. I’m beginning to be cruel and mean and petty in a way I’ve never been before. I expect people to be grateful to me. I…I demand gratitude. I find myself pleased when slum people bow and scrape and fawn over me. I find myself liking only those who are servile. Once…once I told a woman that she didn’ appreciate what people like us did for trash like her. I cried for hours afterward, I was so ashamed. I begin to resent it when people argue with me. I feel that they have no right to minds of their own, that I know best, that I’m the final authority for them. There was a girl we were worried about, because she was running around with a very handsome boy who had a bad reputation, I tortured her for weeks about it, telling her how he’d get her in trouble and that she should drop him. Well, they got married and they’re the happiest couple in the district. Do you think I’m glad? No, I’m furious and I’m barely civil to the girl when I meet her. Then there was a girl who needed a job desperately–it was really a ghastly situation in her home, and I promised that I’d get her one. Before I could find it, she got a good job all by herself. I wasn’t pleased. I was sore as hell that somebody got out of a bad hole without my help. Yesterday, I was speaking to a boy who wanted to go to college and I was discouraging him, telling him to get a good job, instead. I was quite angry, too. And suddenly I realized that it was because I had wanted so much to go to college–you remember, you wouldn’t let me–and so I wasn’t going to let that kid do it either….Uncle Ellsworth, don’t you see? I’m becoming selfish. I’m becoming selfish in a way that’s much more horrible than if I were some petty chiseler pinching pennies off these peoples wages in a sweatshop!” – Ayn Rand in “The Fountainhead”
They should be happy that Ren managed to get herself out of a problematic situation… but they aren’t. They are very upset that she didn’t get taught a lesson. That anger manifests itself in the comments to the post where we find this gem…
“Sure there is: it’s called putting a price on a woman’s body. Once you sell (and purchase) a body, you’ve lowered the standards to the least common denominator. Why should these men have different expectations?
As for the lesbians: maybe they don’t tip well because they’re not getting what they want. I don’t think any dancer is talented enough to dance outside of the male gaze.” – “anonymous” in this comment thread
I replied there as well…
“You know, as ignorant and stupid as those guys were – it is the hate behind comments like this one that I find to be much more dangerous.
It’s nice to see that drunk, stupid men and hate filled “feminists” can find common ground in ignorance.” – Soulhuntre in the same thread
Some of the predictable stuff happens then with you’re basic silliness and then we get this comment from “fratgrrl”…
“That’s just another regular nite on the job down south luv. U must be pretty spoiled to think that was weird.welcome too reality.” – fratgrrl playing sock puppet
See the sort of hand wringing glee in there? “Welcome to reality” is effectively in the tone of “it’s about time you got what’s coming to ya, hussy!”. In any case, I think I made a reasonable suggestion (pardon the lousy spelling)
“Then my suggestion would be you find another way to make a living. There are others you know.
Unless you are speaking from the perspective of a drunk, ignornat asshole and your using your girlfriends blogger account to comment. In which case I suggest you kill yourself.” – Soulhuntre in the same thread
Now, all that is a set up for this sadly predictable response…
“Wow. There’s just a little bit of privilege speaking in that statement dontcha’ think? What makes you so sure that this woman – if she’s even real – has other options? ” – faith in the thread of wonder
Which finally brings us to the topic of privilege.
First off, of course I think “fratgrrl” is a fictitious sock puppet. I think this because she clearly has almost no real understanding of the sex work industry and her joy in that ignorance is too rampant.
No. I don’t think my suggestion that someone who hates their job or is the subject of constant abuse might want to find other work has any privilege in it at all. Not least of which because I don’t really find any value in the way the term ‘privilege’ is currently being tortured by activists.
The simple reality is that 99.999999999% of the time, especially in the USA, you can find work other than stripping. Economies that have workers in them with enough disposable cash to pay for strippers (especially incall) often support a whole raft of other service industries and related opportunities. They may be opportunities that the worker in question doesn’t like ( longer hours, less money ) but they exist.
Frankly, I don’t really buy into the whole “think of the poor enslaved strippers who simply can’t manage to do anything else for a living in this horrific society” argument. I suppose there is an edge case where it is true but even then the problem is literal enslavement or kidnapping… it is not a product of a fundamental lack of options in the society or economy.
if you don’t like your work, do something else. You may have to work harder or longer, but you can manage it if it matters to you. That’s not privilege speaking, t
hat’s character and integrity.
Privilege is a word commonly used these days to attack any quality that alleviates victimization. It is designed to imply that you have achieved nothing on your own, that you have no positive qualities and no talents. You were simply lucky or privileged.
- Olympic athlete? Privileged and lucky. Ignore all the dedication, hard work and willpower.
- Gifted musician? Who cares! You were just the recipient of random talent and a family who could afford to buy you lessons. Your not special.
And so it goes. Who then are the people who achieve something? Why only those people who cannot be labeled privileged. In this worldview only those who can claim themselves to be victims can ever achieve.
The measure of your worth to these people is in line with how much of a victim you are.
Is it any wonder then how crucial it is to them that they be seen as victims? That is the only way they can be anyone special. And if you dare to have self esteem while you are not a victim, or imply that they don;t have to be victims you are shaking the whole foundation of their self worth.
They only succeed when they drag you down.
Eh. What I’m reminded of, when I see these people try to interpret everyone as being victimised, is the emotional dynamic of a support group. I’ve only ever been in one support group, and it’s the only social atmosphere I have ever encountered which isn’t riven with classism and attempts to impress others with your status – instead ‘no, I’m not living well, yes I have been hurt by life, and yes I do have problems’ is something it’s okay to say. I imagine that for some that incredibly rare feeling of acceptance becomes a badge of belonging. And a lot of things I’ve read from radfems – the way they refer to ‘triggers’, to ‘safe space’, etc – makes me feel that some of them are experiencing a category error between ‘support group’ and ‘real world’. (And what’s the point of getting support if it’s not supporting your life in the real world?)
So yeah…my feeling is that a stripper-as-victim can be treated as if she’s part of the support group, can be offered validation and care, and people say that it’s okay, even part of belonging, that the people in the group aren’t privileged. A stripper saying ‘there’s bad days, but life is mostly good, I’m not much hurt, I retain some privilege’ does not belong, so must be informed that life does, in fact, suck.
That attitude is messed-up as all hell, but I think the place it stems from – the very rare idea that it’s okay to say that you’re really disempowered compared to others – is valuable.
Firstly, I would appreciate it if you would stick with your day job, because you obviously flunked Legilimency at Hogwarts. That said, I think there is a semantics problem going on here.
Just because Ren didn’t get raped doesn’t mean Ren wasn’t a victim of bad behavior. But I think the semantics issue here is in the definition and value each side assigns to the word victim.
Antifeminists define the word to mean someone who walks around perpetually in emotional pain and feeling sorry for themselves.
Radfems (and other feminists) define the word to mean someone who’s had something bad happen to them, regardless of their reaction to the event.
Where antifeminists get disingenuous about this is assuming that radfems operate under their definition, not the radfem definition. When a radfem says Ren was the victim of attempted rape, the antifeminist gets offended and pretends the radfem is saying Ren has a bad attitude.
You know perfectly well what you’re doing, and I suppose you’re enjoying it, but if your ultimate goal is some kind of happy medium between radfems and sex workers, this is not the way to get there.
By the way–Ayn Rand? Was a fiction writer. F-I-C-T-I-O-N. I will not deny that so-called “helping people” has become a power trip for a segment of the population, but I don’t buy that those “helpers” began as decent folk and then became degenerate by means of the help they were giving. I think they were power-tripping assholes to begin with and they found their niche. Odd that Rand never even considered that, but I guess everybody has to justify their own assholishness, and likewise she had to justify being a self-centered parasite. Whatever worked for her, I guess. *shrug*
Ohh, and this lovely little bit about Rand came up on Punkass the other day: http://punkassblog.com/2007/12/15/before-ayn-rand-philosophy-was-crap/ =)
Thene: “That attitude is messed-up as all hell, but I think the place it stems from – the very rare idea that its okay to say that you’re really disempowered compared to others – is valuable.”
Of course there is value in the idea of having people who can help you with your feelings of powerlessness. Sadly I most assuredly have seen pissing contests in support groups centered entirely around the “who is the bigger victim” thing.
Humans are humans. Once you reward their stories of powerlessness with more love, more acceptance and more credibility there will always be those who realize this and profit by it. They will claim their victim hood as a path to moral high ground and the power to judge and attack.
Anonymous: “Where antifeminists get disingenuous about this is assuming that radfems operate under their definition, not the radfem definition.”
Not at all. The issue is much simpler – it’s that Radfems make up perceived intentions and problems then unilaterally declare anyone they like to be victims of it all the while ignoring whether the problem, or the incident, even existed the way they define it.
Of course they need to do this – without the ability to unilaterally declare others victims of imagined conspiracies they would have to deal only in facts and / or actually listen to other peoples opinions… and you know they won’t do that.
Anonymous: “Was a fiction writer. F-I-C-T-I-O-N.
You just referenced Hogwarts as if it mattered. Let’s not worry about my grasp of fiction ok?
Anonymous: “I don’t buy that those “helpers” began as decent folk and then became degenerate by means of the help they were giving.”
Some of them have, some have not. Many of them have always been scum, just like you mentioned. They are often filled with hate and self loathing that they externalize via lots of things – especially activism.
Anonymous: “Odd that Rand never even considered that”
Here’s a thought – actually reading the source material before you try and make a declaration like this… it just kills your credibility. Not only did Rand consider it, but it is the much more common template for such people in her work.
Thene: Thanks for the link, it was pretty amusing. Of course it just shows how little so many people really understand about Objectivism. But it’s still funny