The video is targeted to men who want sex without considering the needs of the woman, to change their viewpoint. It is looking at sex work from a particular client’s perspective. It is telling the male client to consider the woman as a person, showing how she is someone’s daughter, not a piece of flesh. The video is denigrating the objectification of women.

Arguments about the agency of sex workers may lead into the realm of whether they are object or subjects, but this video is simply covering a different issue: asking men not to look at sex workers as objects.

I think the ad is actually trying to convey a fear of the dangers of current American sex work to women, our daughters, and that without demand, women would not suffer those horrible conditions. Which is fair enough. Not necessarily the correct method of fixing the perceived problem, but would technically work.

I do find this site’s lack of critique of sex work disturbing, though I agree with the analysis of this video.”

I’m with you and pg, and I am also really surprised at the lack of critique of sex work given the types of analysis y’all are constantly doing on sex-vertisements.
It’s definitely upsetting to hear this “choice” argument all of the time because most “choice” strippers, prostitutes, and other types of sex workers, as EG pointed out, are white and privileged, where as the overwhelming majority of sex workers are not either of these, their perspective, when we actually get to hear it (seldomly) is quite different!

I also notice that some of the arguments on here are lumping prostitution, pornography, and stripping into one big “sex worker” pile – which is okay for some arguments but doesn’t work as well for others. For example, I’m guessing the percentage of prostitutes that are not doing it by choice is different from the percentage of strippers, given that prostitution is not only illegal in most of the country but inherently riskier because of both the potential fluid exchange and the “being alone with a stranger in a private place” aspect. I would guess that most women are far less likely to go into such a risky profession unless they feel compelled to for one reason or another, as opposed to women who see stripping as a convenient way to pay for college, or to have a dance career when “mainstream” dancing didn’t work out. Pornography is probably somewhere in between, but it definitely seems to be on the riskier side. This video, however, is definitely primarily about stripping, then pornography – it doesn’t really seem to address prostitution.

As pg said in so many words, the belief that sex work is a choice is largely a function of privilege; it is only a choice for a minority of sex workers, who are largely middle-class white women. If you want the research, you’re more than welcome to look it up yourself.

I do find this site’s lack of critique of sex work disturbing, though I agree with the analysis of this video.

The “somebody’s daughter” is to mean that you wouldn’t like for your daughter to be treated by men the way women in pornography are treated.

I think it is vital for men, in order to understand prostitution/pornography, to picture themselves used like the women (and “bottom” men) are used in pornography. Think of themselves in her shoes, not the pimp/john/pornophile’s shoes.

re: sources for the 85-95% stat, see a study by the UN’s ILO on the “sex trade”–96% of their interviewees wanted to escape, also

Farley, Melissa, ed. Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress.

Jeffreys, Sheila. The Idea of Prostitution and The Industrial Vagina

MacKinnon, Catharine A., and Andrea Dworkin, eds. In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings.

http://www.oneangrygirl.net/antiporn.html

Stark, Christine and Rebecca Whisnant, eds. Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography

http://www.catwinternational.org

and here’s an essay i wrote last year on pornography: http://demonista.livejournal.com/97248.html (i analyzed it as a system of prostitution)

also, from the first book, I highly recommend Lisa Kramer’s article on the “emotional experiences of performing prostitution.” truly brilliant information is uncovered.

Nobody is trying to say that everyone is in the sex industry by choice, I am just trying to raise questions and challenge some assumptions. What exactly is being sold? Is it “access to a body” or a service? I’d say often, it is the latter.

And the lack of concerns about men do reveal a gendered issue here, as vegkitty mentioned earlier. We are all very concerned about women “selling themselves” when they are really selling a sexual service. Why do we reduce a woman’s self to her sexuality? It’s a symptom of a wider patriarchal society, I think, and it means that men in sex work are either ignored or held to maintain their agency.

I also agree with Inky — we should really look at what this ad is trying to tell us. Does it mean it’s only okay to have sex with another man’s daughter if you’re married? Engaged? In a long-term relationship? This is where the ownership message is coming through to me, and maybe some others — it’s only okay to have sex with another man’s daughter once he’s “transferred ownership” to you through marriage or what have you.

I mean, if we inherently considered all women who were daughters as sexually “off limits” then the entirety of the female population would be sexually unavailable.