Prostitutes’ moral adaptation reflects social demand, not innate depravity

Evidence

In prostitution, the relation of the sexes is reduced to its generic content because it is perfectly unambiguous and limited to the sensual act. It consists of that which any member of the species can perform and experience. The most diverse personalities can engage in it and all individual differences appear to be of no importance. Therefore, the economic counterpart of this relation is money, for it, too, is beyond all individual differences; it is at the species level of economic value, the representation of what is common to all. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 360 (#expands, via linked claim)

Some ordinary people, normally law-abiding, unassuming, non-rebellious and unadventurous, stood up to those in power and, oblivious to the consequences, gave priority to their own conscience – much like those few, scattered, singly acting people, who defied the omnipotent and unscrupulous power, and risked the ultimate punishment trying to save the victims of the Holocaust. One would search in vain for social, political or religious ‘determinants’ of their uniqueness. Their moral conscience, dormant in the absence of an occasion for militancy but now aroused, was truly their own personal attribute and possession – unlike immorality, which had to be socially produced. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 476 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Once slavery ended and whites declared that no black woman regardless of her class status or skin color could ever be a “lady,” it was no longer socially acceptable for a white man to have a black mistress. Instead, the institutionalized devaluation of black womanhood encouraged all white men to regard black females as whores or prostitutes. Lower class white men, who had had little sexual contact with black women during slavery, were encouraged to believe they were entitled to access to the bodies of black women. In large cities their lust for black female sex objects led to the formation of numerous houses of prostitution which supplied black bodies to meet the growing demands of white men. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 195 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Poverty and abandonment, not choice, drive most women into prostitution — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1660; Prostitutes’ misery stems from material exploitation, not moral character — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1680; Prostitution reduces sex to species-generic content matched by money — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 360 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Prostitution reduces sex to species-generic content matched by money #expands (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 360
• Moral resistance is personal while immorality requires social production #corroborates (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 476
• Devaluation of black womanhood licensed exploitation and prostitution #expands (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 195