Of sex workers in time of pandemic
(A note after watching a report from a local radio station in Cagayan de Oro which interviewed a prostitute or a sex worker talking about her life and difficulties in times of pandemic.)
Beyond the narratives of income generated by sex workers in Cagayan de Oro, including minors who were forced by circumstance to become prostitutes, are stories of risks, physical harm, untold discrimination, lack of education, and psychological abuses.
I am uncertain if it's logical to approach prostitution as a simplified health issue, which may connote condescending tolerance of an ancient practice of sexualizing women because there is lack of opportunities for them to live and earn with dignity.
Many years ago, when I was a law student, during semestral break, I used to visit a high school best friend who worked at Davao city's assessor office. From her desk, I saw several beautiful women, who'd passed through her office toward another office, whom she said will get a medical certification that they are HIV-free sex workers. I was so shocked the first time I saw them. That brought a different level of awareness about prostitution or the trade of flesh and which sort of depicted the legalization of sex as an industry in a third-rate economy. From then on, it brought a chill when I will see women, including minor youths, staying in the dark corners of the street as the face of poverty within a rich city.
The same sad feeling when, at a conference, I tried to check-in in a hotel in Makati, adjacent to a red zone, where prostitution thrives like a normal industry. A female friend said there is a sophisticated resto where a person can liberally get into and everyone understood you are freelancing for a sex-for-pay -- much like a sex industry drive-thru. It's disgusting, it's pathetic, it's a pity. But what scared me more is how a feminist co-participant talked about it as a normal social phenomenon.
That reminded me about a woman I saw while I was on my way to a pharmacy who walked fast and ignored a foreigner behind who had been calling her. I felt she was fleeing away. So when I leveled her on the sidewalk, I asked if she knew the man. She simply brushed, "no, I don't know him. We just can't agree on the price." I was so speechless realizing that was a red-zone negotiation.
Was it indifference or social acceptance to make prostitution an economic alternative? We're all wallowing in different levels of poverty, albeit the fashion, the fresh make-up, tidy looks, eloquence, and moral uprightness. Here we were talking about sustainable development agenda, peace accord implementation, and rural development but outside the confines of well-architect air-conditioned temporal abodes are nagging realities of abused women in a street's sex industry and their stories could be like a certain chapter lucidly written as a literature of a book An Adultery.
