Posted on June 25, 2009 - by Rasham
Legalized Prostitution
Sitting at a coffee shop on a random Thursday afternoon afforded me the displeasure of witnessing an interview process from start to finish, a linear transgression of varying interviewees sitting before a constant interviewer. At first, the unavoidable scenario was an enormous distraction, like a pawing puppy at the heels of a seamstress at work. But then something exciting happened: it occurred to me that what I was actually viewing was simply a form of prostitution: a buyer, a seller, and the potential for monetary compensation in return for service.
Although the candidates differed, the substance of the on-going dialogue remained the same: each interviewee spoke of themselves, of their strengths and favorable characteristics, of their experiences and history, while the receiver nodded in encouragement of the conversation. The energy permeating the space around the subjects was tense, as the contestants, in the uncomfortable silence that would befall the pair at the end of a brief, nervously awaited approval from their host. They feared rejection, humiliation, embarrassment, and this fear was present in the slight movements of their hands and legs, and the awkward inflections in the tones of their voices. They were selling themselves, placing themselves on the shelf marked ‘for sale’, elaborating on the benefits of that which they were offering.
We do it everyday, in every aspect of our lives. We sell ourselves as thin, fit, healthy, intelligent, witted, and funny. We buy what we value and pay for that from which we benefit. It rules our civilized lives; we are constantly concerned with maintaining the well being of our bodies and our minds, decorating and educating ourselves so that we may one day be highly valued by our peers. We are conditioned by media and market, by economics and mainstream ideals to respond to the egoist impulse to strive and achieve, and we have fused the idea of happiness and success with knowledge and wealth, appraising those accomplished individuals for greater worth than those who have neither the brains nor the goods. A poorly valued individual is like an unattractive hooker: she struggles to survive in the business of life because she lacks that which makes her appealing to potential employers: she may be disregarded, discounted, and placed in the half-off bin with other useless items and moral waste.
Although illegal in its most sexual application, the essence of prostitution is that upon which our modern day society is constructed, survived by the philosophy that if you have nothing to sell, you simply don’t get the job.
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July 2, 2009
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July 5, 2009
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I love this image. There is also, as a man, seemingly without a certain way about himself, a type of physical exterior, what have you. A professor once said that during your interview, what you are interviewing for is also whether or not you will enjoy being with these types of people and similarly, they will pass the same judgment on you. Sure, you have to be qualified, but in the end, there’s the fact that this will be your second home.
Beyond this, in this very transaction you speak of, there is almost full control by the other party to hire you are not. When an opportunity becomes available, as has been happening to me, I realize there will be no health care and the wages will be brought down to such a point, that they are not livable when you consider the true cost of living, which is planning financially for the future, having a house, perhaps some children (which I cannot imagine given the cost and context of insecurity).
In essence, our country is becoming more and more unable to compete. As globalization ensues, our competition will simply be that group in any country that will do the work for less. And sure I understand your sexual metaphor, because in essence that is what is going on. Women want security and men will have to manifest that financially. To sell yourself to what crimes imply in establishing yourself, note the robber barons, and those in the stock exchange, our system in general, is based on what value you bring to the “company,” the company of friends and the company of employees. Sadly, many of us do not have what it takes, even seeing the insidious inequality in even the seemingly most equitable environments reaffirms this truth. As I get older, I feel this more and more. I look about at the fellow lonely ones, and I see in their loneliness, the very fact of which they are as promissory to no breakthrough, except that in like people, they might find solace, befriending those as lonely as themselves. This is the opportunity for us to work on. Over time, there are more on the outside than on the in. We have to bind together and help ourselves and not participate in the companies that represent this ostracization. When you go to interview speak of the truth about how you feel. Yet, another professor says, “Never be negative.” I do not know the answer to what for sure will become more real. I was reading yesterday a short story in Grant about Traveling Writing. It was about a Honduran barista, who had had children with a man who abused her. She left him but had to work in another town, at this cafe, where he bossed “sacked” her, and while her children lived with her mother, her only communication with them was via Web-cam. It wasn’t until the writer came along and bought her a ticket to visit her children. Sadly, it seemed like she ended up on the same position. Also, I love the website. Congratulations!