"World's oldest profession"... meet... "21st century's Public Relations team"

 “There is nothing free in this world, except the Grace of God.  Everything else must be paid for” (Opening line for the movie True Grit).

During a conversation with a friend about something that happened to me at work, I found myself receiving advice to the tune of always having a CYA (“cover your ass”) folder and never having conversations with coworkers regarding work duties in person, “always use email” she said. When something goes wrong (i.e. you receive an email from your boss asking about an assignment that has been re-assigned to someone else) you can pull out from your CYA folder, an email trail that contains the details of the re-assignment, the person’s reaction to their new assignment—usually a negative one, the reminder email you sent to your coworker regarding the assignment—which was done not because you cared about seeing the job accomplished but just as an extra step to cover your ass— and the unfinished status of the assignment.  Thereby showing your boss what useless hacks most of your coworkers truly are; yes, the ones you have lunch and yap with on a daily basis.  The ribbon on this package of corporate advice was never to forget that throwing people under the bus is a must if one wants to survive in this world.  I flippantly answered, “Shit… I am not so sure I want to sell my soul just to get a 3% raise or my boss’s approval.  I think I will rather sell my body...”  She answered back with, “well hon… that would make you a prostitute; so work on covering your ass at all times and nailing people when necessary otherwise they will do it to you instead”.  Since she was advising me to sell a piece of me by conforming to tattle tale ways I am innately against just to survive in my chosen field, it got me thinking… Body or souls— which would one rather give up? 

Going just by Christian teachings, I’ll go against society's quietly accepted norm and say— sell your body.  You leave it here when you die. Cherish your soul; that’s what’s everlasting. But alas, it is not that easy…    

For most women, I suspect the immediate answer will be, “I will never sell my body”. But as a friend accurately pointed out when I asked for her thoughts … “We all prostitute.  We exchange sex for money, love, companionship, material things or all of the above one way or another.  Most of us don’t stand on the streets to do so, but clubs, bars, college campuses, the workplace… all these constitute as the market place…” so if this rings true, which it did to me, what is to blame for prostitution’s negative brand image?  Prostitution without its usual accouterments of drugs, alcohol, disease, and pain inflicting pimps is just exchanging a “service” for monetary compensation— an activity we all engage in one way or another, so...  

Is the world’s oldest profession just a victim of centuries old bad PR?  Could views be changed simply by making a much needed 21^st century introduction?

World’s oldest profession … meet Lizzie Grubman.  Lizzie is the most popular public relations person in Hollywood, or so says the MTV show Power Girls that starred her and her minions.  

Lizzie… this is the world’s oldest profession, Prostitution.  Prostitution is in dire need of your services, and since you were able to— for a second at least—make the world believe Paris Hilton was someone to watch; we believe you can help Prostitution wipe off this age old grime that has tainted its backbone since the beginning of time.

If you are a woman or a man who enjoys sex solely for the act, why not make money doing something you enjoy.  Your experiences will definitely be shorter than an eight hour work day and with the right PR, who knows, it might make an emergence into society as an honorable profession.

Not advocating anything here since I am not privy to all sides of the story, but the next time we decide to judge people for their choices (i.e. mentally stone the Heidi Fleiss’ of our generation or the supposed gold diggers), it will behoove us to take a mental pause and realize we are all participating in this type of “exchange”, one form or another in order to “make” it in our world.