The Subjugator and the Oppressed

The Subjugator and the Oppressed

by: Erin Pembroke

3/01/13

     There are professions that oppress more than others, especially that of stripping and prostitution. These occupations exploit women either indirectly by their consent or directly against their will. In these two jobs, there are two kinds of women; the oppressed and the one that over-comes being oppressed.

                                                                       

     To begin with, the occupation of stripping indirectly oppresses women by capital means. When women enter an agreement with the strip-club owner and with the customers for money, they become addicted to the amount of capital they make per night. Most jobs cannot compete with the substantial amount that strippers make, thus, some strippers stop looking for other employment and solely rely on their profession. These women become bound by their job and enslaved by the money.

                                                                                                     

     They work hard for their money and at odd hours, just to be enslaved by their addiction of making an ever flowing amount of cash that allows them to gain many materialistic objects. In other words, the strippers represent the concept of operant conditioning by B.F. Skinner where the cash becomes the positive reinforcement to their addiction or operant behavior. The strippers keep seeing that their actions have worked before and they were awarded for it by capital means and will keep stripping so long as they are awarded by a great amount of money.

     Strippers are also imprisoned by their appearances or how they appear to others; one can witness that strippers constantly apply make-up on their faces several times in one full day and must appear to look beautiful at every given moment on a 24-hour clock. They are afraid to publicly go “natural” or without make-up. They are afraid to show their true selves. They are afraid of their natural physical flaws and must cover them up.

     They are confined by how men view them. They are tethered by the natural beauty of other women they deem more beautiful than themselves. They are simply oppressed; chained by beauty and appearance that they appear vain and shallow. Everything is superficial about their appearance because in their occupation, they must learn to be shallow and give and fit all the fantasies of every man they come in contact with or are around.

     Unlike strippers, prostitutes are different. They sell their bodies because they desperately need the cash. They are less bound by addiction of money because the money is their source of food and housing. A prostitute can be bound by appearance but perhaps less than a stripper. A prostitute's goal is to appear beautiful to get their client so that they can do their job and leave. They seldom get lost or invited to parties and other social events that strippers go to.

     Dissimilar to strippers, prostitutes are directly and more-so shackled by men that repress them. Most of their clients and their client's behaviors are shady. The prostitutes can be tied to men with abusive, violent behavior or may not even know what she is getting into until the last minute. Thus, they are oppressed from liberty and freedom of expression as well. These men may beat, abuse, misuse and kill prostitutes. Some prostitutes feel repressed from going to the police and others feel they cannot lead safe lives.

     As men use their bodies for their own gratification, these women feel that they are only men's play toys and nothing more. Their self-worth and confidence diminishes and they become broken. They become emotionally damaged. The more they seek money, the more they receive men of worthless substance and rely on those men as “sugar-daddies” to take care of their financial means.

     Unfortunately, sometimes strippers can become prostitutes. For instance, when the strip-clubs that the stripper works at are not doing financially well and her options become limited, she might turn to prostitution as a second source of income. She may do this for many reasons such as: not saving money and running out of funds, having a large amount of debt that accumulated by her expensive materialistic tastes, and lastly, having a child that she cannot continue to support by such means.

      In elaborate continuation of this topic, there are two types of women in these professions; one that becomes oppressed and the other that over-come subjugation. In witnessing one account of each, I will now contrast these two kinds of women. The oppressed allows factors such as addiction to making money, gaining material wealth, appearance and men to continue to subjugate them.

     They forget their real goals and get lose in the muddled illusions and details. They get lost in what their lives at the moment provide for them, whether they are parties or food on the table. They get lost in the operant conditioning and positive reinforcement. They think their lives will always be like this and do not plan for the future nor make any changes. Women in these occupations accept where they are at or get too comfortable in their jobs.

                                                                                                                 

      Whereas, the once subjugated women in these professions are enslaved by several means, becomes the subjugator of the situation and of their lives. These women may have had a goal and never forgot their purpose. They worked to full-fill their purpose and once it was accomplished, they simply stood up to the tyranny and left the situation. Another instance could have been that they saved up their money before having a lack of it (and while being pulled into different directions or different oppressors), finally realized that they have had enough of being restrained by several different means. Ergo, they left their occupation and their oppressors.

     They could have also coped with their subjugators (with money saved) by continuously isolating themselves (such as staying home and not making an income or disassociating oneself) away from all the things that chained them. Thus, their isolation became a negative reinforcement against their oppressors which lead to the extinction of their behavior in relying on their subjugators for monetary means or as a way of living and the extinction of their occupation.

     The subjected stay emotionally broken in their old occupations and become severely damaged. They repeat old patterns and behaviors. Contrary, the newly freed woman breaks all ties and starts a new career or goes back to school. There is a new sense of hope for his kind of woman. She can begin to repair what has been damaged when in her previous state, if she was damaged. In contrast, the other type of woman will go on living a dehumanized version of herself and a dehumanized life that will continue to break her.

     To conclude, women in the occupations of stripping and prostitution can be held captive by money, appearances, and men. Several may turn for help in the wrong places and seek other sources of income. Some women may continue to be subjugated whereas others over-come their oppressors and lead new lives. The choice is theirs whether to face their oppressor or to continue to be the oppressed.