I was watching a documentary called "Hot Girls Wanted" because why wouldn't I? It's about the amature porn industry and how there's no shortage of young women, all 18 and over, willing to do it. The Neflix decription mentions exploitation and that got me thinking, if it's an adult doing it of their own free will, is it exploitation? It's not just about porn either. I've seen the term come up in discussions about football and MMA and pretty much anything where someone is doing something, that someone else doesn't like.
Thoughts?
Poll on the way
I was watching a documentary called "Hot Girls Wanted" because why wouldn't I? It's about the amature porn industry and how there's no shortage of young women, all 18 and over, willing to do it. The Neflix decription mentions exploitation and that got me thinking, if it's an adult doing it of their own free will, is it exploitation? It's not just about porn either. I've seen the term come up in discussions about football and MMA and pretty much anything where someone is doing something, that someone else doesn't like.
Thoughts?
Poll on the way
[NOTE: to be in-keeping with the spirit of the question posed by this post, the following excludes the very obvious exploitation of "workers" who are physical forced or mentally coerced or wholly destitute]
This form of exploitation focused by X Factor's post isn't specific and isolated to "anything where someone is doing something, that someone else doesn't like", it very much includes most all forms of employment, for the overwhelming majority of people employed are underpaid. And increased wealth, more free time, and the like are motivating factors for USA citizens to become porn actors and MMA fighters.
MONETARY:
Paying workers the least market-allowed amount maximizes profits, which results in a disproportionate payout to employees verses owners' earnings. Exploitation occurs whenever worker compensation is so low it results in and perpetuates an increasing discrepancy and massive gap in wealth distribution.
The overwhelming majority of workers worldly are massively economically exploited. But even if porn actors and MMA fighters were paid proportionally to owners, are their jobs exploitative? OR, is self-employed porn exploitative?
MORALITY:
What this post by X Factor speaks to is a moral exploitation more so than a monetary failing, however. It speaks to choosing a field of work many find indecent. But because people who find employment in positions that go against society's moral norms of modesty, privacy, and physical and mental health, it's not automatically exploitative, as these people's morals may differ. That could be what drew them to choose porn, stripping, or fighting. It's good money with a high income potential; 1) and the work is acceptable or; 2) to do what they enjoy and feel they do best.
Risks like social stigma and head trauma and other inherent social/health complications are understood by porn workers and MMA fighters yet they still choose to participate either amateurly or professionally. Alternate work options simply aren't as appealing by comparatively lacking in high potential income earnings and social status, e.g., an MMA fighter, even a minimally successful one.
SOCIAL FAILING:
The working poor are not destitute, but they don't live comfortably. In an environment where mostly only low-status and -pay work alternatives exist, some find porn and MMA provides a more preferred and better lifestyle. If higher pay for low-end jobs existed, fewer might choose self-employment in porn and decide to fight professionally and risk great injury.
So, yes, porn actors and MMA fighers are exploited, but so too is everyone else. Worker exploitation is a scale, and one's value is determined by where their job rests on that spectrum of exploitation. And those who earn the least, who give up the most, , who have the fewest options and freedom, who have higher social and health risks, are more exploited.
But among American citizens, miners might the the most exploited (very low life expectancy). And one could also argue the working poor who work hard and earn so little in return are more exploited than porn workers and MMA fighters.