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Thursday, February 1, 2007

The Pink Ghetto: With Stigma Comes Opportunity

filed under: Web Sex Index, The Pink Ghetto by Lux Nightmare

(This is part four in our series, The Pink Ghetto, on writing and working sex on the Internet.)

It would be very easy to write piece after piece complaining about the frustration of working from a stigmatized place, to rail against the system that tells us that sex is dirty, that interest in sex is necessarily prurient, that we must hide any and all discussions of sex behind a filter of NSFW.

It would be very easy to do that: it would also be very depressing and relatively pointless. And so, in the fourth installment of the Pink Ghetto, I would like to take a moment to reflect on some of the more positive aspects of operating out of stigmatized territory.

When I was twenty years old, I was a CEO. I was getting interviewed for pieces in respectable national publications, I was being treated as an authority in my chosen field. People respected what I had to say: and even today, even after several years of keeping a low profile, I still get requests for interviews. My opinion, thoughts, and experiences are still valued, still treated as worthwhile.

I got that, I got to this place, because I wasn’t afraid of stepping into the Pink Ghetto: even more so, because I was willing to bring my best efforts, to bring talent and care and charisma, to my Pink Ghetto work. I didn’t shy away from the stigma: I gave it my all. And because I was one of relatively few people willing to do that, I stood out. I gained notoriety. I gained a voice.

I hate the stigma that comes with the work that I do: I’m also fully aware that it is the stigma that makes it so appealing. I go to the places that I go because the aura of the Pink Ghetto frightens away other talented individuals: and in doing so, in being willing to take the risks that I take, I stake out this land as my world, my area, my expertise.

I would love to live in a world where the study of sexuality is viewed on the same level as any other academic discipline, where a healthy attitude towards sexuality is recognized as a fundamental part of a healthy lifestyle. I don’t live in that world, not yet: and so I am happy, eager, to fight for that world, even if it means slipping into the Pink Ghetto. Even if it means taking on the weight, the oppression, the fear of the stigma in order to do it. With stigma comes opportunity: and embracing the stigma of the Pink Ghetto, taking it head on, has given me opportunities, experiences, far beyond any I might have achieved out in the mainstream world.

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