Yes, sex sells. What are you going to do about it?
Posted by: Jenny Penny in Body and Soul, Books, Economy and business, Feminism, Sex and sexuality, Sweden, WorkIn the arts section of yesterday’s Dagens Nyheter, there is an article called “The glamorous prostitution” (Den glamorösa prostitutionen). It starts: “They say sex sells. And the luxurious and happy whore sells even better. Now the Swedish books are here. But why is everyone so happy?”
Well, after reading that intro, I just knew what was coming.
The article then talks about pseudonymous London call girl Belle de Jour and Tracy Quan’s “Diary of a Manhattan call girl”. Now, a former Swedish stripper, Caroline L Jensen, is telling her story in “Champagneflickan. En svensk strippa berättar” (The champagne girl. The story of a Swedish stripper).
The author is (predictably) critical of the subject. In the end, the not so objective article reads (my translation):
Publishers are thus putting out books that portray prostitution and stripping as exotic occupations - but without caring about what signals they are sending out. A lot of the themes addressed in the books (buying sex, exploitation, the “happy whore”, free choice and so on) are of course pure mine fields. Behind the tough girls in luxurious packaging lays a lot of unanswered questions. As a reader you have to be careful not to be tricked by the glamour and the shiny covers.
You know, I have nothing against critical examination of the sex industry (or the publishing industry). I have read neither of the books, but I can buy that they might have been published more for cheap thrills and money than for their actual literary qualities. But then, isn’t that true of a lot of books?
To me it seems as if the article writer, Matilde Sköld, doesn’t want voices like those of Belle de Jour or Tracy Quan and Caroline L Jensen to be heard. Should the books include a mandatory chapter about the downsides of the sex industry? Advisory stickers on the covers? Or should they not have been published at all, because they don’t fit Sköld’s understandings of how sex workers are supposed to behave and feel?
And since then does publishing houses have to care about what “signals they are sending out” by publishing one book or another? You know, there are a lot of books out there which in detail describes sadistic murders and torture. In which sick and twisted individuals are portrayed without much, if any, criticism. In which the bad guy is getting away. And people that have done pretty awful stuff have published memoirs and biographies. Should books like those also be questioned on what “signals they are sending out”?
Belle and Tracy and Caroline have the right to tell their stories and to own their experiences and feelings (just as those who have terrible experiences of being sex workers have the right to their feelings and experiences). If they say they are happy, who are you to question them?
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March 30th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Thank you. I would like to add, though, that the lack of nuance in the article about my book is flabbergasting. I spend at least half of my 330 paged book talking about “the downsides” of the sexindustry and in the end my conclusion is that it is a grey world populated by grey people, with lots of people standing on the sidlines thinking that it is an oh so glamurous life to live. And it is´nt.
As far as the literary qualities are concerned I have to say that I wasn´t very surprised that miss Matilda didn´t find my book too impressive - the subject is such that it overshadows the possibility to get a fair judgement when a reader is so obviously against the whole subjectmatter, and the partakers, in the first place.
Apparently (according to the jounalist) my language is to mature - and not in a good way. Aw hell… I guess I´ll have to adapt a more hip lingo next time I write a novel *grin*. Until then, thanks again and I do hope you read the book and make up your own mind.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Caroline, thank you for commenting! And I will certainly pick up your book and read it. I read the interview with you in Aftonbladet and from that it was pretty clear that you don’t only focus on the glamour and luxury, but also on the negative sides. I think it was very dishonest of Matilda to ignore that and to say that it was another “happy glamorous whore”-story, just to get it to fit it in with her very subjective article.
Again thank you for taking your time to comment, and best of luck with the book!
March 31st, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Unfortunately, I can’t understand the piece in Swedish but I would like to see it for myself. Thank you for posting this.
Caroline, hello. It’s nice to meet here. Thank you for bringing us together Jenny.
March 31st, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Tracy, thanks so much for your comment! From reading the article it seemed as if the author was unable to comprehend what you were saying to her in the interview, I think she is too colored by here preconceived ideas about how sex workers should “be”. She writes: “English speaking magazines have hailed the writers as both sexy and smart, a combination which seems to fascinate and surprise”. Well, Matilde seems pretty surprised (and not too pleased) herself, now that sex workers who are not just the definition of a “perfect victim” is speaking out.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Hi. I’m the one you call a perfect victim. I was a stripper and model and I hated it. Bottom line. I got into stripping because the boyfriend I was with at the time manipulated me into doing it and I wanted to get away from my step-parents house. And I, me, I’m sick of how this is being shown as some kind of exciting life in books and so on baceuse you see nothing of it there. Most people I knew don’t write books. It is easeier for the happy people to write than for the ones who are doing bad. And I guess what I write here won’t be listened to either.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:59 am
Of course you should be listened to! I’m sorry you had a terrible experience, no-one should be manipulated or coerced into sex work. Never!
The thing is, I don’t think the current way of looking at the sex industry here in Sweden (I don’t know if you’re Swedish?) is helping either those who are like you, hating it and are forced into something they don’t want (either by being manipulated or by being trafficked or whatever), or those who have chosen it freely and say they actually like it. All sides should be listened to. And that is not the case now - in the article you are given the idea that the Swedish book by Caroline L Jensen is glamour and champagne all around, when half of the book was about how it is not glamorous at all and have a lot of gray and bad sides (see her comment above).
The discourse today is so dishonest, and I think that isn’t helping anyone.
Perfect victim, I hope you are happier with your life now and you are more than welcome to comment again.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
I don’t relate to the “happy” stereotype either! My books are about neurosis and secrecy, feeling torn between two worlds. I found prostitution to be a very challenging tough job. But you know what, human beings are not entitled to happiness — sometimes we have to make our own happiness. I still didn’t read the article, but thank you for the summary. Some journalists are intellectually lazy. It may be a hazard of the profession.