Sex is Good and Capitalism Will Kill Us

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Capitalism is ruining the internet. In lots of ways, but today's grievance:

I just wanted to know if I'm the only trans boy who wants to wear a vaginal plug just around, and enjoy the fullness while just doing things in life. And I'm not, but I had to put up with legions of non-relevant search results and install the Reddit app (I hate Reddit), to end up on a sex toy seller's page with a review sharing my interest and experience. And that sucks.

The internet, in its essence, is a communication tool connecting people. But that communication is getting more and more degraded as companies chop it up, turn it into a place where we are speculators rather than participants, marks to be sold to, chaff to be processed. "The internet is for porn," was a silly mantra, but it was also kinda true. The internet had many, many places people had set up to share and talk about the things they found sexy. But more and more, puritanism and Finance are invading and restricting sharing and access. And it's not even that things are behind paywalls, though that's also a palpable presence. Credit card processors crack down on NSFW content, and start squeezing sites to restrict what they host to those processors' stipulations.

And the arguments for why don't hold water. None of it actually protects anyone, and vulnerable communities are put in more danger, as our very existence is up for "political debate". Like, sorry, no, we as trans people deserve to be alive, and your restrictions on us receiving healthcare or even being acknowledged as existing around minors are fucking goulish. Disabilities make work/finding a job/keeping a job/financial stability in general difficult to even impossible, and are fucking expensive in the first place, and many disabled individuals turn to sex work. And there's nothing about sex work that actually makes it more exploitative or demeaning than "regular" work. But demonizing it, making it harder for sex workers to find clients and communicate with one another to help keep each other safe puts them in so much more danger. The fear mongering and pearl clutching around trafficked individuals being coerced into sex work doesn't help those trafficked victims, in fact it boxes them in and makes them less safe, grants them fewer paths to escape or protection from abuse, AND it presses those who weren't coerced into tighter corners and worse situations. It gives more strength to pimps, and keeps the money, power, and freedom out of the hands of the people who need it.

And oh, "If I were in a bad Situation, I would simply Not Be a Sex Worker," except, brainiac, there's no fuckin social safety net. This garbage capitalist system is working exactly as designed, work or be homeless, work or don't eat, work or don't get the medicine you can't live without, work or just fucking die. Sick? TOO BAD. Injured? TOO BAD. Chronic pain? TOO BAD. "Stop being weak, clearly you deserve to die, if you just can't cut it." That's the message we all hear, loud and clear, every fucking day.

And none if it has to be this way! There is no reason for any of it. We have enough. We have plenty. Literal tons of food tossed into the ocean to keep prices up, while people literally starve. Homes kept absolutely fucking empty at an appalling scale while people live homeless. It's disgusting, and it's totally avoidable. All this scarcity is entirely manufactured. We have enough. We have more than enough. And it can be so much better. But we need to tear down the structures keeping us apart, keeping us weak, keeping us tired, and starving, and in fear. Because those structures of power are our enemy. Because whether we fight or are compliant , they'll kill us either way.