The Therapist and The Whore
The Therapist and the Sex Worker, Madonna and the Whore in new forms, represent two sides of the same labor spectrum. We can see in the chart below the impact of gendered labor roles and systems, and the nature of this specific relationship. For many, the therapist and the sex worker represent the most accessible resources for care, emotional support, and witnessing, albeit through different mechanisms.
When we examine these structures more, we see the ways in which power and resources move, who’s labor matters and with what title. Whorephobia and whorearchy (the hatred and discrimination of sex workers, and the stratification based on different types of work, specifically within sex worker communities) are tools fabricated to perpetuate the extractive labor system and further dehumanization of sex workers.
Therapists can apply for insurance, get paid leave and attend professional conferences free from harm. Sex workers face hatred and threat of violence just existing in the world, particularly those who do street based work and have more marginalized identities. Do you need an office, to be worthy of basic respect in your work? A name plaque? To be white? Able bodied?
What would it mean for our labor system, if we called out the labor dynamics and stratas? What would it look like to align interests for greater human well-being and care? The reasons someone might choose or find themselves in sex work are valid and important, and not too asimilar to therapy roles. We do know that sex worker is a field with way more flexiblity for parents, those who are neurodiverse, differently abled, traumatized or mentally ill folks.
Until clients stop seeing the sex worker as the object of their hate, dehumanization, shame, fear and isolation (and therapists encourage it), we can’t shift the trajectory of human relating. If someone can dehumanize another, even in a transactional context, they will do so to others in their life, especially the women and queer folks. Sex workers don’t want to be the receptacle for the worst parts of humanity, we want to be a vital resource in the ecosystem of human care.
(One note, some therapists and sex workers are moving in the PMC and are often no aligned with liberation or justice, they are motivated by the same as others in this class structure- proximity to power gives the illusion of success and de-incentivizes changing the system).
