Can national sexual conversations change? sex and money in the USA

Sex in America: Can the Conversation Change was published 13 Feburary in the Huffington Post by Cory Silverberg. The framing of the topic, the idea that a national mindset might change, suggests that we don’t have to be stuck forever in the same rut. One of the sub-topics he would like to see change concerns Sex and Money:

We desperately need more critical, and less politically charged, conversations about the intersection of sex and money in America. Ironically (I think it’s irony) individuals who have the most grassroots experience of this, those who pay for sex and those who get paid for sex, tend to have the least amount of influence on public discourse about sex and money. That’s changing, thanks in part to sex worker run projects like Bound, Not Gagged, writers like Audacia Ray and academics like Laura Agustin. But there’s still a ways to go.

They are holding an event you might want to participate in if you’re in New York:

Cory Silverberg will join Esther Perel, Amy Sohn, Leonore Tiefer and Ian Kerner for a conversation called “Sex in America: Can The Conversation Change?” The symposium is co-sponsored by the Huffington Post and Open Center and will take place in New York City on Friday, February 20th. Click here to register.

I’m not an academic, by the way, in the sense of being employed by any academic institution.  I just do and write academic things amongst others. But one of those has been to question the assumption that the presence of money ruins sexual relationships, rendering them always exploitative and bad quality – which leads to the mindless conclusion that all those who sell sex are victims. The nexus of sex and money as evil is the sexual and cultural conversation that one hopes to change – and not only in the USA. I call this the Cultural Study of Commercial Sex, and include everyone involved in sex-oriented businesses, the whole sex industry, not just those who buy and those who sell sex.  To change the conversation, whether on a personal or national level, we have to be able to tell what we feel and do, without worrying that some outside authority will condemn us as immoral or amoral. There are many moralities, as there are many sexualities.

2 thoughts on “Can national sexual conversations change? sex and money in the USA

  1. Pingback: Posts about Huffington Post as of February 17, 2009 » The Daily Parr

  2. Pingback: Sexual Conversation | America | Cory Silverberg | Huffington Post … - ezineaerticles

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