Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 20:31:50 +0000
From: James Heartfield <James-AT-heartfield.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: M-TH: State-run brothels


In message <v03102801b13f103db9f1-AT-[128.146.43.48]>, Yoshie Furuhashi
<Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu> writes
>
>Nowhere in my posts here or on M-Fem did I say that we ought to single out
>sex work for "special regulation" because it is "exceptional."
>
>I discussed sex work as labor issues, immigration issues, gender issues,
>ideological issues, etc., as marxists would with other kinds of work.

then I'm happy to agree (I am unfamiliar with the discussion on M Fem,
so sorry if I'm just catching up)

>You must be capable of making a distinction between personal disapproval of
>personal emotions, morality, + behavior and *critiques of social relations
>+ ideologies*. Then again, maybe you aren't.

I hoped I was making the distinction. I just don't personally disapprove
of prostitution - I guess I think that people who go to prostitutes are
might well be sad, but not necessarily bad.

>
>In any case, coming from you, James, who made a big deal of condemning
>subjectivities of those whom you see as 'risk-averse' (such as feminists
>who attack date rapes, environmentalists, and so on), your argument that
>subjectivities of johns are above or beneath marxist critiques is simply
>not credible.
>
>Yoshie

I wouldn't 'condemn' anyone for being personally 'risk-averse', but I do
disagree with political strategies that take risk aversion as their
starting point. Is that so incredible?
-- 
James Heartfield


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