Pornography: The Sweat Shop Secret

Image credit: Photo by thegreenpages on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons

People (particularly women) who work in the porn industry are being abused and exploited.

Think about that statement. (You're already framing your argument, agreeing or disagreeing, aren't you?)

Now think about this one: People (particularly women) who work in the garment industry are being abused and exploited.

Different reaction? From what I've seen and heard, both online and off, I expect so. After all, mention abuse and exploitation in connection with the garment industry, and heads tend to fill with images of sweatshops: forced labor, locked factories, squalid conditions, low wages, sexual harassment, even physical or sexual abuse. But mention abuse and exploitation in combination with porn and suddenly you find yourself in the territory of feminism, religious dogma, sexual mores, free will, free speech and personal beliefs and experiences.

Imagine accusations of sweatshop conditions in the garment industry being countered with:

• "Sewing is an enjoyable activity; lots of people probably begged for those jobs." or
  
• "I have a friend who works in middle management for Nike and she's not being forced to work in a locked factory." or
• "Why is it inconceivable that someone could choose to make clothing? Shouldn't women be free to choose whatever employment they want, even if society doesn't value it? " or
  
• "Isn't work for clothing manufacturers better than working in a fast food restaurant?" or
  
• "Venus Williams is making a lot of money from clothing endorsements. It's outrageous and insulting to claim that she's some poor exploited victim of the garment industry." or
  
• "You're just attacking clothing manufacturers because your uptight religious beliefs don't allow you to wear t-shirts."
  

Yet those same types of arguments -- that not all porn workers are abused, that not all employers engage in unethical or illegal practices, that some people like and choose their jobs and are well paid for it, that some people enjoy decent working conditions -- are exactly the ones that are generally brought forward to counter claims that the porn industry is involved in human trafficking, forced labor, and physical and sexual abuse.

Nike has (and continues to) come under harsh criticism for its labor practices. Yet no one counters these charges by pointing to the good working conditions and benefits for employees in Nike's corporate offices. No one defends its sweatshop work as a matter of personal choice, in spite of the fact that most Nike employees are working for Nike by choice. No one frames the degradation of the female sweatshop workers as feminist empowerment just because Nike employs female executives and runs ad campaigns celebrate feminine achievement and power.

Sex is such a charged subject that when public dialog turns to porn we run off into separate camps: for porn or against. We start talking about whether porn itself is morally abhorrent or not and miss an actual moral wrong: the pain of some young men and women we consume in the name of entertainment. Porn has its sweat shops. Some of those employed in making porn are being abused, just as some of those employed in making clothing are being abused. Yet folks who wouldn't buy a pair of Nike sneakers or who would support regulations or unionization or trade agreements to protect garment workers, probably don't think twice about where that jpeg they just downloaded comes from.

Think about it now.

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I've submitted this to the ProBlogger Killer Titles Group Writing Project, so I'd like to restate my comment policy for new readers: please state your opinions and feel free to disagree, but do so with politeness and respect. Any comments that are disrespectful, hurtful or devolve into personal attacks will be deleted.