Women in the Sex Industry: Should Pity, not Envy

Marketers loves to glamorize the sex industry and make you think strip dancers, porn stars, and prostitutes live healthy liberated and fulfilling lives doing things that everyone craves, getting attention, and getting paid a lot of money to live it.  They would have you think sex is very empowering for women.   Even some of it’s participants would perpetuate this propaganda to sell something, but nothing could be further from the truth.
  As it is written:

“For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome, by him also He is brought into bondage.”  II Peter 2:18-19

I explained in a previous posts how porn or erotica can damage it’s viewers but what of the people who work in the porn industry, the strip clubs, and the prostitution rings?    What is the real life of these women like?  Scripture and experience are surprisingly closer than you would think.

“Thus says the Lord God: you shall drink of your sister’s cup, the deep and wide one; you shall be judged to scorn and held in derision; it contains much.  You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow.  The cup of horror and desolation.  The cup of your sister Samaria.  You shall drink and drain it, you shall break it shards, and tear at your own breasts; for I have spoken.  Says the Lord God. Therefore thus says the Lord God: because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore you shall bear the penalty of your lewdness and your harlotry.”  Ezk 23:32-35

First, the harlot’s life is a cup of horror.

According to the testimonies of women who have lived this life, the single term that best describes their experience would be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and that on the order of what soldiers endure who have undergone state sponsored torture.  To persist in these industries, a woman must be willing to subject herself to ever increasing levels of degradation or she won’t get paid.  The average shelf life of a woman in the porn industry is nine months to two years.  The ability to do ‘soft’ porn is always reserved for the younger, fresher talent.  If you want to continue to find work, you have to be willing to do the more sadistic things.  Dancers have to contend with the sexual harassment and abuse from their clients throughout their shift.  Prostitutes have to endure being ravaged by strange disgusting old men.  To endure these traumatic ordeals and survive, a woman must learn to disassociate from her body and the experience altogether.  Many of them develop split personalities in this process.

Secondly, the harlot’s life is a cup of drunkenness

Drug and alcohol use are often accelerated by women in these industries because they help numb the pain and assist in the disassociation.  If they did not use previously, they will certainly start it once inside the industry.  Drug and alcohol addiction only sets up a vicious cycle for them to spiral further downward in this lifestyle. 

Thirdly, the harlot’s life is a cup of Sorrow.

Most veterans of the industry would tell you that the great majority of participants were victims of previous incest or rape, runaways, homeless, and poverty stricken girls.  Some pressured by their boyfriends or even kidnapped against their will.  Their abuse in the home/life situation makes them starved for love, attention, and security.   Their desperation for this love and their need to seek it out often makes them unable to enforce personal boundaries, recognize danger, and prevent further abuse.  Riddled with pain, physical and emotional abuse, the life of woman in the sex industry is also filled with tremendous sorrow.  Losing hope when they feel trapped by the industry.

Fourthly, the harlot’s life is a cup of desolation

Being labeled ‘a harlot’ carries a very bad stigma in society.  The porn star’s video becomes a permanent record of her past deeds.  Dancers and prostitutes also have clients capture video of their activities and post them to the web for all to see, sometimes without consent.   This footage can forever blacklist them from finding other suitable work, even long after their careers had ended.   Many are forced to resort to different forms of the industry (prostitutes become dancers, dancers become prostitutes, etc.) just to continue to pay the bills.  These stigmas often create a sense of loneliness and isolation for these women making them untouchable. 

All of these horrible things become the lot of a woman in the sex industry.  Such a life should be pitied and not envied by others. If more women knew this, they might be less inclined to follow in their footsteps and preserve their own life.  If more men were aware of the impact this industry has on women, they might be less inclined to indulge in it.   I will share more on the effects these things have on society in later posts.   

Related Links:
 Sexual Immorality: Cannot Drag to Heaven. Be Washed to be Saved
Why Should I avoid Sexual Immorality?
Prostitution, Harlotry: You cannot buy Real Love
Tramps, Sluts, Nymphomaniacs: The Prophetic Destiny of an Unrepentant Dirty Girl
Beauty & Fashion: They never bring Love if only Skin Deep
Immodesty, Public Nudity, Exhibition: also exposes loose Morals 
Virginity, Purity Standard: Heart, not the Hymen
Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Do you have to learn the Hard Way?

References
(1) againstpornography.org/Women in the Sex Industry