A Strange Day on Planet Earth

BuzzFeed reported on prostitution in Tijuana with surprising honesty (excluding some predictable language and, uh, interesting photographic choices) circa 2018:

For more than a century, the US–Mexico border has been associated with the search for cheap, easy vice by Americans, so much so that in 1920, Mexican Consulate official Alfonso Pesqueira lamented that whole towns along the border had begun “to look like red-light districts.” …

“These areas are associated with doing whatever you want, and getting away with it,” UCSD’s Vera said, which plays into the sense of entitlement that many US customers coming to Mexico already have and expect. While sex work may be legal in Tijuana, sex workers are still treated as second-class citizens.

There are dozens of websites, subreddits, and forums dedicated to the subject of paying for sex in Tijuana, and they read more like guides to big-game hunting than meeting women. Women become “targets” to be observed, stalked, and bagged, with an eye toward quality and getting a good price — down to using coupons and VIP cards for discounts.

I take great personal comfort in knowing the male left has the consistency to break the bonds of brotherhood over such blatant manifestations of capitalism and imperialism. Really, they speak of nothing else, between burning Playboys in the streets. I did recently hear a rumor about a male leftist watching porn somewhere in France, but don’t believe it.

Just as a funny little exercise, though, I will now entertain the nightmare of a world in which most “anti-capitalist” males are vacuous self-interested misogynists. What might a creature of this sort say in response to the written testament of sex slavery?

“They have the money and the power,” Monica, who is Laura’s 20-year-old niece, said with a shrug. “They tell us that’s what we’re here for, that we’re whores, that they’ll treat us as badly as they want to. … They have all the money. You can’t really fight that.”

Please get comfortable while I prepare to effuse on the topic of unionizing for an undisclosed period of time. Who will you unionize against? I don’t believe that’s relevant. No, I don’t condone pimps. I was at G20.

All the sex workers who spoke with BuzzFeed News said they are routinely beaten, choked, and spit on by clients. … “[The john] always says, ‘You stupid Mexican, you Mexican bitch,'” said Patricia, 49, adding that if she refuses to give him some of her meager earnings, he chokes and beats her. … Laura said he also beats up her 8-year-old brother, who has a neurological disorder that affects his speech.

After the revolution, ladies, places of safety will rise from the sea to envelop you and sexism will vanish like a fickle haze. Wait until you hear about restorative justice; you won’t believe it.

You will be freed of your concerns at last — no, I’m not really sure what they are, stop interrupting — and the corrosive temptations of bourgeois feminism, along with all your hypocrisies, and finally be liberated unto bearing the next generation of revolutionaries while producing ethical porn for my personal stash. But as I was saying about unions …

The sex industry in Tijuana is a multimillion-dollar enterprise that employs thousands. It’s become such a major driver of the city’s economy that in 2015, city officials considered basing an advertising campaign around the sex industry. Called the Tijuana Coqueta, or Flirty Tijuana, the short-lived proposal would have used “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”-style ads to lure back US tourists who’d begun avoiding Tijuana because of the drug war.

At least we didn’t let those carceral feminists nag us into affiliating with the state. My conscience is clear. Keep sex work free.

Virtually all of the nearly two dozen sex workers interviewed for this story said they deal exclusively with US clients or that US clients make up 60–80% of their business.

At least they aren’t raping real wo— nevermind. I mean to say, borders will soon be a thing of the past. And racism.

And we’ll give you free abooortions. Proooomise.

Very soon. Meanwhile, you really shouldn’t do shit that divides the working class. No, I don’t mean like watching porn and visiting brothels!

Between payments to the bars and clubs, security guards, and hotels, a significant portion of sex workers’ income is gone before they make it into a room. Add on the cost of transportation, health care, and perhaps maintaining a drug habit, and most sex workers are barely surviving. … Most of Tijuana’s sex workers grew up in Zona Norte or one of the city’s other poor neighborhoods. Some are brought to Tijuana by pimps from Tlaxcala, a small state in central Mexico notorious for sex traffickers.

McDonald’s. McDonald’s. McDonald’s. McDonald’s. McDonald’s. McDonald’s. MCDONALD’S. MCDONALD’S. MCDONALD’S. MCDONALD’S. MCDONALD’S. MCDONALD’S! MCDONALD’S! MCDONALD’S! MCDONALD’S! MCDONALD’S! MCDONALD’S! MCDONALD’S! I AM NOT SHOUTING!

Do I revere McDonald’s? No, that’s not what I’m saying. Obviously. Just that after the revolution we will kill off the capitalist pigs of McDonald’s and unionize sex work.

Also have you considered that there are other professions where workers must encounter bodily fluids such as doctors and nurses? Didja? Didja consider that?

I’m sorry I don’t see the DIFFERENCE between double anal and LOGGING.

But I am not sexually repressed like some people. I get it, though, because I was raised Christian. Porn really helped me heal my attitude toward sex and I let go of all that shame.

Do I want to do it? WHAT? I have body image issues.

Sit at the corner of Coahuila and Avenida Niños Héroes on any given night, and you can witness the parade of US men on the hunt, from the gangs of rowdy college-age teens and twentysomethings pushing through the crowds to men at the upper boundaries of middle age, who walk with the confidence of experience as they clutch the hands of bored-looking young women.

A clear sign of capitalism and its discontents. You should listen to these guys; you might learn something. They’re actually upset about wages.

Hookerfucker1 said he is “absolutely certain” the gender dynamics north of the border are causing more guys to visit Tijuana for sex, even though there’s no way to count them. “We are frustrated with the system that paints everything a man does as harassment,” he said.

Another redditor, who calls himself Tapcofucked and shares Tijuana advice with fellow “red pilled” men online, agreed. “I think it is a large motivating factor for guys … I’ve heard more and more from guy friends who basically say, ‘Fuck this shit. Take me to TJ!'”

I mean, identity politics will do that to you.

The sex workers in this story asked to be identified by first name and age only to protect their identities and the identities of their children.

Once moralizing has ended in the great After, land of generous seas, dried hazes, and ethical porn, society will no longer be hung up about sex. Like me. No more prudishness, no more stigma, no more arbitrary social constraints. Unless we decide to divide up women like on a timeshare basis among us. Because that’s totally a valid option I haven’t ruled out yet.

“It’s not an easy life, being a prostitute.”

Uh pretty sure you mean sex worker. Do you have some internalized whorephobia? Have I been talking to a SWERF this whole time? Because I didn’t consent to that.