Vegas Prostitutes, Misogyny And Pavlov’s Dogs
WRITES Bob Herbet In the New York Times: “It just so happens that the Democratic presidential candidates are campaigning this week in the misogyny capital of America: Nevada. It’s a perfect place to bring up the way women are viewed and treated in this society, but don’t hold your breath. Presidential wannabes are hardly in the habit of insulting the locals”…
The fundamental problem in all of this is that women and girls are dehumanized, opening the floodgates to every kind of mistreatment. “Once you dehumanize somebody, everything else is possible,” said Taina Bien-Aimé, executive director of the women’s advocacy group Equality Now.
A grotesque exercise in the dehumanization of women is carried out routinely at Sheri’s Ranch, a legal brothel about an hour’s ride outside of Vegas. There the women have to respond like Pavlov’s dog to an electronic bell that might ring at any hour of the day or night. At the sound of the bell, the prostitutes have five minutes to get to an assembly area where they line up, virtually naked, and submit to a humiliating inspection by any prospective customer who has happened to drop by.
As Ann Althouse says:
First of all, these prostitutes aren’t at all like Pavlov’s dogs, who heard a bell and actually got physically excited by anticipation that they would be fed. They’re more like doctors who carry beepers. They’ve chosen a line of work where their clients determine when their services are wanted, and they’re being paid for attending to those needs whether they are in the mood or not.
It’s a profession – an old one at that…
Posted: 16th, January 2008 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
