LonelyGhost said:
I think that the 'thesis' that the only way a woman could become a sex trade worker is through a traumatic event (documented by a psychiatric evaluation and diagnosis of PTSD) is really just another means of (de)moralizing/valuing women's sexuality.
I agree, but you'd be surprised how many women will use that (and make something up, if need be) as a convenient excuse for their foray into the sex trade when confronted by a judgmental friend or family member, seeking sympathy in a church after being "converted," or trying to win over a potential mate among those men who can't and won't accept their past.
If society as a whole weren't so devaluing and denigrating of women's sexuality in the first place, no one, whether in the in the field of psychology/psychiatry or not, would feel a need to relate women's presence in the sex trade with PTSD or child sexual abuse. Society looks for ways to make womankind the victim and remove responsibility for her behaviour from her own control.
"The poor, dear creature. Well, she is one of the 'weaker sex' after all, she doesn't know any better. It's up to the rest of us to save her from herself."
It's a great way to keep women from having any sense of power or self-esteem too, because if you don't have to feel responsible for your behaviour, you don't have a sense of empowerment, and without that sense of empowerment, you have no basis for positive self-esteem. What motivation does one have to feel good about themself if they feel that they're always a victim and have no control over their life?
Too any of us buy into it because sympathy is very seductive when you haven't had a perfect life, but if you buy into it too much, you end up feeling powerless to make things better in your life and stuck in a miserable rut because of it. Which makes a woman ripe for being "rescued" by that proverbial "knight in shining armour" who often ends up treating her like dirt because she's dependent on him and that makes him feel a sense of power over her to do whatever he wants to her. And no one genuinely respects someone they have that much power over.
It's not just about sex, it's about
power. A woman's sexuality
is her power and that's why it's always being devalued by society. Society can keep women weak if they can make her sexuality shameful or the result of some terrible misfortune that wasn't her fault.
Obviously, society still feels threatened by the notion that women are sexual beings too.