Ferengi rule of Acquisition no. 13

Ferengi rule of Acquisition no. 13 : Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing For Money

Fascinating article which should be read in its entirety.

"I had never heard of Maggie McNeill before a week or so ago when, in the aftermath of my ridiculously stupid comment about Fox News reporters dressing like hookers, she fired off one of the most surprising Tweets of my life on the information superhighway."

It's not actually stupid, just badly phrased. Fox News attempts to use sex appeal as a weapon because they haven't got the faintest inkling of how to do "fair and balanced" reporting. In this case it is the lowest common denominator. Which in no way whatseover implies that women, be they attractive, ugly, prostitutes or nuns, cannot give insightful commentary (just look at the BBC for crying out loud) - only that Fox attempt to compensate for the lack of proper reporting in the stupidest way possible. Kindof like how Michael Bay attempts to replace proper storytelling with explosions and lens flares.

". Nurses clean shit off of bedridden patients’ bottoms, doctors probe their genitalia, masseuses put their hands all over people’s bodies, day-care workers tend to the care of their children. Yet nobody thinks any of these extremely intimate activities needs to be banned, and nobody pretends that nurses must be coerced into nursing."

Though if people were coerced into nursing I'd suggest that society needs to take a good long look at itself.

"Prostitution is the secret ingredient that makes monogamy possible, which means it isn’t hyperbole to say we make Western civilization possible.

Getting a little bit carried away there, methinks.

"...instead of cherishing that he was only looking and cuddling when he could’ve had sex, she probably would’ve been angry or hurt that he had called me at all. Which is … spectacularly dumb, but typical."

Is it really spectacularly dumb ? Isn't it just that some people have different values than others ?

Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger

Maggie McNeill is a sex worker, a deep thinker, and an amazing writer. The article below is a great introduction to her: it's an interview she recently gave to Jeff Pearlman about the day-to-day of her work, and most of all about the kinds of people who she encountered. It's a fascinating set of stories, and the story of the clean-up worker after Katrina is going to stick with me for quite some time.

There are important things to learn from her writing.

First, that sex work is work. It can be pleasant or horrible, honest or dishonest, fulfilling or soul-crushing, just like any other work can.

Second, that many kinds of sex work — especially the work of escorts, call girls, and the like — are psychologically very complex. It's a mixture of companionship, therapy, desire, and sexuality. If you were to view this sector of sex work on a spectrum with other jobs, its closest relatives would probably be psychoanalysis and diplomacy.

And third, that people are really interesting. Her work has provided her with a chance to see people in profoundly honest moments, and her writing gives you a chance to peer behind the curtains of people's lives, and often see just how human they are.

The interview is a great start, but once you've gotten that, I highly recommend her site as a whole (https://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/), as well as her Twitter feed,@Maggie_Mcneill.
http://www.jeffpearlman.com/maggie-mcneill