Oprah's new take on sex worker rights

A day in the life of a prostitute? How dare Oprah title today's show in that fashion. It would have been more truthful to say a day in the life a drug addict, a day in the life of a rape survivor, a day in the life of a teen runaway, a day in the life of a battered woman . . . . nothing was revealed that couldn't be said about many women who are addicted or have been battered or raped or molested - regardless of how they make a living.

While Oprah took great pains to tell us that "not all truck drivers see prostitutes," she didn't take the same approach with her sensational expose on a narrow aspect of the prostitutioni profession. Not one mention of other prostitute's experiences. Quite the contrary, she goes to great lengths to generalize her pseudo-science to all prostitutioni. "Nothing Glamorous about Prostitution" Oprah warns.

"They have just used me up so much. They turned me into a nothing" says one properly contrite and reformed prostitute. And the audience applauds her self-loathing and shame.

Oprah asks her if she "still feels dirty." Then she takes the woman in her arms and tells her "she knows better so she will do better." Her patronizing attitude lays against my skin like self-righteous slime. Especially against the backdrop of all the gratuitous "journalism" relentlessly probing for the titillating details which will sell Oprah's show - how many clients a day did you have sex with? How much did you get paid? What did you have to do for the money? How old were you when you first had sex? How many men have you had sex with?

Well Oprah has come a long way from a show she did years ago when she profiled Marianne Macy's Working Sex: An Odyssey into Our Cultural Underworld. At that time Oprah actually encouraged her entire studio audience to applaud in favor of legalizing prostitutioni. I can't help but wonder what has poisoned her mind in the intervening years.