Prostitutes.
I can’t think of a better day to talk about them then today, Tuesday.
This semester I am in a class about memoirs and stories about race written in the graphic novel form. To save space (and not sound like a jackass trying to church it up), I’ll just say the course is a study on big comic books. It. Is. Awesome. In graduate school and reading comic books? Neat!
Of the three books we have read, all of them deal extensively with sex (surprise!) in some shape: a lesbian coming out to her parents and then dealing with her father’s suicide only months later, a young teenagers recollection of his first love, a man’s experience giving up the “evil institution of marriage” and only having sex with prostitutes. RECORD SCRATCH!! What was that?!
Yes, this week we are reading the graphic memoir, Paying For It by Chester Brown. And to be frank, it was one of the most interesting books I have read in a 
millennium. A man thinks that monogamous relationships are awful because they are inherently possessive and always lead to resentment. He argues that people were not meant to romantically love only one person; it’s not in our nature. After three unsuccessful relationships, he swears off girlfriends and signs up for whores (his word’s, absolutely not mine). Paying For It recounts several years of his sojourns with prostitutes. Each chapter features a different woman or experience. And let’s just say, Brown is not shy about laying it all out there. I’m pretty sure half the book is him lying naked in bed with a woman, just talking. The nudity is not the most interesting part I referred to earlier, however. It’s his firm, nearly staunch belief that this is the way to go. He has hopes that only a few generations from now, we will all be paying for sex and it will be normal and the thing to do. He would like prostitution to be decriminalized, but not regulated. He believes that prostitutes should not pay taxes on what they earn, should not be forced to go to the doctor, should be allowed to run their business without the shame and stigma that is so firmly planted now.
I just can’t get on board with this proposition (so to speak). Brown includes a lengthy appendix to back up his argument and (attempt) to fight the protestations that his idea is sure to garner. That is to say, he didn’t go into this book without being 
prepared to defend himself. But, for all his claims that women feel empowered by this line of work, that sex is sacred and therefore should be commercialized so that everyone can enjoy it, and that prostitution does not sexually objectify women, I cannot agree with him.
So what do I like about this book? I admire his bravery for being so candid about his experience. I respect him for his own decision, yet his reserve to not force this type of idea on everyone. In a literary sense, the book is very thoughtful and complex, although stylistically simple; it’s a very well-crafted comic book. Most of all I like how it challenged me to think on a subject in an alternative way, without being pushy or making me angry. Mostly it mad me sad, because I wish he could experience a reciprocal love that left him fulfilled and not jealous or resentful.
Being loved is one of the greatest feelings of all.
photos courtesy of en.wikipedia.org and comicsbeat.com, respectively
A Broad At Home 