Do you think prostitution is domestic work? It certainly has some of the characteristics -- beds, sheets, clean, dirty, repetition, boredom, oppression, expression -- I heard epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani speak on Fresh Air last week. The way she talked about her book The Wisdom of Whores, and the bureaucracy surrounding AIDS research and treatment, got me thinking about this. She says this about changing the way we educate about HIV/AIDS: "It would mean spending lots more of the available money on prostitutes, addicts and gay guys, and lots less on school kids, pregnant women and church groups. It would mean making fun things (sex, drugs) safe, instead of trying to make safe things (abstinence, monogamy) fun." I could say that about changing the way we think about a lot of domestic tasks ... we could try making fun things (hanging up clothes, arranging flowers, playing with children) "safe" -- that is, acceptable as domestic work, instead of making the acceptable things (scrubbing toilets, driving kids around in cars, ironing his shirts) fun.I may have to look into finding photos and poems along this line -- that is if everyone agrees with me that sex workers can be considered domestic workers -- (is anyone listening to me?)
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