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You keep on using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means, James Harkin

tigtog

Talk about missing the point of feminists getting upset about sex trafficking.

There’s a big difference between illegal immigrants choosing consensual prostitution and illegal immigrants being lured with false promises and then abducted into sex slavery, moron.

Thankfully the commentors at the Guardian’s Comment Is Free mostly don’t fall for his argument about open borders (really, to argue for open borders he had to defend sex trafficking), except for the inevitable few who don’t think Harkin blamed feminists sufficiently in the post.

The real question is what is more immoral-the creation of a neoliberal world order which impoverishes so many and gets them to work for a dollar a day or the fact that some women might want to use their phzsical attractiveness to lure a lonely Western man who can provide for her without having to deal with Western women who seem cold, egotistical and obsessed with their careers.

This is a point made strikingly in Michel Houellebecq’s novel Platforme ( 2001 ). When whole swathes of the old Soviet Union were reduced to destitution because of shock therapy or where South East Asia is forced to reform by the IMF and introduced competitive neoliberal capitalism there the inevitable result is sex tourism if not out-and-out prostitution.

Feminists might well react with ‘moral disgust’. After all, who wants a system of neoliberal perfect competition in sex with a new supply of attractive and unspoilt women from countries where they value the male contribution?
Robin Brown, posting from Hungary

Nice.

7 thoughts on You keep on using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means, James Harkin

  1. I find it interesting (sarcastically so, I guess) that this is labeled a “feminist” issue. Is there some weird DNA strand on the Y chromosome that outlaws empathy or something?

    Or has teh patriarchy just gotten into everyone’s heads that f’ing much?

  2. “unspoilt”???? Hahaha!!!! Better check the expiration date on those vaginas, ladies!

  3. The real question is what is more immoral-the creation of a neoliberal world order which impoverishes so many and gets them to work for a dollar a day or the fact that some women might want to use their phzsical attractiveness to lure a lonely Western man who can provide for her without having to deal with Western women who seem cold, egotistical and obsessed with their careers.

    I love how he says this as if these are two distinct world orders. They’re not, idiot. That same neoliberal order that impoverishes so many is to blame when dirt-poor fathers sell their daughters to sex traffickers.

    Or maybe those crafty maquiladora workers are just using their cheap labor to lure lonely Western investors who can provide for them without having to deal with Western untermenschen who seem cold, egotistical, and obsessed with minimum wage laws.

  4. I love how he totally equates prostitution with displaying all the attractive, man-appreciating traits that will guarantee that Western men would rather marry them than a Western woman contaminated by feminism.

    So many layers of bullshit.

  5. oh ew ew ew, yes by all means let’s layer in some good old fashioned colonialism and what the hell racism (oh, those demure exotic women from East Elbonia, so much better than “our” women) along with the rest of the fuckwittery. gah.

    and yeah, since when the hell is a system in which -some- (okay, a lot) of people are working for a dollar a day and others take one of the other options that seem mildly more attractive not possible? Is he trying to suggest that those possibilities are mutually exclusive, or those are the only options anyone could or should envision, or what?

  6. As tigtog noted, this guy got flamed good and hard in the comments section of his page. Good. His article was completely disgusting.

  7. Or maybe those crafty maquiladora workers are just using their cheap labor to lure lonely Western investors who can provide for them without having to deal with Western untermenschen who seem cold, egotistical, and obsessed with minimum wage laws.

    Shira, you are teh awesome.

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