this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
1042 points (97.2% liked)
Antiwork
8271 readers
1 users here now
-
We're trying to reduce the numbers of hours a person has to work.
-
We talk about the end of paid work being mandatory for survival.
Partnerships:
- Matrix/Element chatroom
- Discord (channel: #antiwork)
- IRC: #antiwork on IRCNow.org (i.e., connect to ircs://irc.ircnow.org and
/join #antiwork) - Your facebook group link here
- Your x link here
- lemmy.ca/c/antiwork
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Such was exactly the purpose of my first comment, that sex work and other work carry full parity in terms of social value and demand full parity in terms of social acceptability, yet the idiom itself should be invoked cautiously.
To my mind, its invocation is never particularly desirable.
The idiomatic expression, like all others, emerged from within a historic, social, cultural, and linguistic context, one that can in principle be elucidated, but whose elucidation would have no bearing on the accuracy of any claim or argument occurring in the current discussion.
My argument requires only three premises, all of which ought to be above dispute...
Therefore, invocation of the idiom should be preceded by caution.
Oh my fucking god dude I've been trying to make one single point that doesn't even necessarily directly dispute yours, and you've been the most insanely difficult person to have this conversation with.
Humor me for one fucking moment. I'm not trying to pull some gotcha moment, I don't even care if you agree. I'm just trying get you to understand the one single thing I've been trying to say this entire time.
Drop the context around the figure of speech for just a second. Once again, I'm not trying to pull a trick or some shit here.
If you didn't have the context around the phrase, would you be able explain to me how sex work is “selling your body,” so to speak, where other work isn’t? I understand this isn't an opinion you hold.
Personally? I'd say no. I can't think of a way that isn't some ridiculous mental gymnastics.
If someone truly believes sex work is amoral because you're "selling your body" and you can illustrate the point I just said you force them into a logical corner. They can either:
Choose to be ignorant and/or hypocrite, stick their head in the sand, and ignore you.
Recognize that sex work is just as valid as any other work.
Or
By taking the time to deconstruct the idiom and point out how idiotic it is (excuse the pun), you can take the power out of the phrase. By doing so you're taking a weapon out of the arsenal of people who want to use the idiom to harm people.
You insist you understand the concept of an idiom, but you have been consistently unable to apply the concept meaningfully in the current case.
Take an example.
Tie the knot is an idiom for entering into a marriage.
Is it a problem that no one would never deduce the overall meaning simply from the literal semantic content?
Do you have a need to deconstruct it?
Amazing xD
They were AGREEING with you all along mate. Please see it. Please.
Jesus christ mate. All that to make a near identical point to the person you argued with.
What a waste of effort.
I wrote a comment that ought to have been received as extremely straightforward and uncontroversial. Its length was only about twenty words.
There was no reason it needed to become a problem.
You're absolutely right! You then interpreted a response which agreed with you as a problem though, and everything that followed made you look a right tool.
Someone was literally just pointing out that the stigmatisation is ironic given the same logic used in the idiom could be applied to many industries. They acknowledged that it wasn't, and that the stigma was associated specifically to sex workers, but basically were just having a chuckle that the logic used to denigrate a whole industry could be just as easily applied to lots of "respected" career paths too.