Re: Re: Re: Falling for a Provider
Originally posted by Space
You seem to be saying that:
Secondly, of course love is conditional -- if you screw up bad enough, any friend or gf with any brains will stop loving you and move on.
I agree and would add wife or husband to the list.
Therefore, holding aside the issue of what is or isn't love, to the extent that is true, now all we are talking about is price.
Which is to say that the relationship that a man might have with a provider is no different than any other he might have.
A conditional relationship is a contract. I do this in consideration of your doing that. You do this in consideration of my doing that.
The range of ersatz, putative love relationships between a man and a woman who is a commercial sex provider is no different than the range of such relationships between a man and any woman.
At one end of this range, whether it is in dating, marriage, extramarital liaisons, or commercial sex, is the exchange of sex for economic value. At the other end of the range are relationships in which the sex and economic considerations comprise only a small part of the total consideration exchanged which has grown to include profound appreciation, intimacy, affection, caring, understanding, and true friendship.
While it may be true that many relationships with commercial sex providers are limited to the exchange of economic value and sex, so are many marriages. But it is ridiculous to believe that it is not possible to have a fuller, more developed relationship with a commercial sex provider, just as it is ridiculous to assume that that a relationship is anything more than such an exchange because it is within a monogamous marriage.
Our society has created a structure and stereotypes for "sex for pay" relationships, which includes the concept that such relationships are in some way fundamentally different from other relationships that a man may have with a women. We may choose to believe in those concepts because in some way we think they will protect us from the pain that “real relationships” have the potential to create.
The problem is that the entire paradigm rests on the rejection of the fact that providers are also human beings. And as much as any of us may be in denial, I don’t think that is really something any of us can do.