The Sex Worker's Plutonian Power: Acknowledging The Unseen in Society

"I also just want to again recognize and honor the sex worker community. I will continue to support and be an ally. All of the incredible people, the women that I've had the privilege of meeting from that community has been one of the highlights of this entire incredible experience."

-Mikey Madison

For the first time in Oscar History, two winners publicly honored the sex worker community in their speeches. Public recognition of the value of sex workers in society is almost nonexistent. Despite it being a profession where the practitioner is on the front lines of warfare, those in the trenches of this vocation receive almost zero acknowledgement, not to mention accolades, from mainstream culture. This makes the speeches of Oscar winners Mikey Madison & Sean Baker for their performances and directing of Best Picture Winner Anora at The Academy Awards all the more groundbreaking.

Sex work by its very nature is Plutonian. What scientists and much of humanity has done to Pluto in the last several years explains this. Relegated to out of bounds and completely rejected as a planet, Pluto represents everything which the Psyche suppresses and represses. It rules the sign of Scorpio, the constellation infamous for secrecy, the taboo, death, sex, money and power. Just like Pluto being rejected as a planet, so too are sex workers all too often ignored and scapegoated by society.

Like Pluto, sex workers have been cast to the margins-- dismissed, denied legitimacy, and stripped of recognition. But just as Pluto remains a force in our solar system, sex workers continue to shape culture, power and intimacy in ways mainstream society refuses to acknowledge.

"I want to thank the sex worker community - they have shared their stories, they have shared their life experiences with me over the years...My deepest respect, thank you, I share this with you."

-Sean Baker

The discovery of Pluto happened contemporaneously as Freud's unearthing of the unconscious. Time and time again, humanity has proven itself, at least generally, to not wish to contend with contents of the unconscious. Examples of this live everywhere in the media and throughout history; shadow projection is omnipresent. Living in those deep waters are bones, un-cried tears, monsters, demons, the chthonic, desire, un-lived potential, fantasy, and archetypal potency. While multitudes of disparate forms of sex work exist, many of its forms meet the seeker in psychological spaces where they have never been met before.

With potentials for joint expeditions into the numinous, why does sex work remain a taboo profession? The opacity of authentic connection in times of AI infiltration and automized immediacy paints a stark prophecy for where humanity is headed. Could it be that sex work will be one of the few professions which won't go obsolete? What do sex workers have to teach about the all too often censored/repressed/suppressed voice and wisdom of the body? How might healing on a planetary level unfold if it became the norm to thank sex workers for their service? And, given that it is a profession often targeted by sociopathic serial killers, how about a holiday for memorializing all who died for their service?

Discoursing about sex work without mentioning patriarchy is like describing a rose while neglecting to mention its thorns. The dark side of patriarchy fuels itself through punctilious obedience to mainstream culture. With its rhythm being one of rapidity, mindless consumption becomes standard practice. This consumption is often at the expense of exploited Amazon Rainforests, wildlife, oceans, and the wisdom of the body.

The sex worker guides the seeker to slow down, to feel, to relate to their own body in ways they have never been invited to before. Patriarchy is confused by this. The sex worker represents dark feminine power, an exhilarating beauty to behold. However, she is defiant, tapping into reserves of knowing inaccessible to the palatable and conventional woman. Patriarchy prefers women to be disembodied and disempowered. When they are disempowered, relying on external validation rather than excavating their authenticity keeps them tame and unthreatening.

The red umbrella is more than a symbol-- it's a call for rights, recognition, and protection. In a world that thrives on the labor of sex workers while denying them dignity, how long will we continue to ignore the people on the frontlines of human connection?

Perhaps this is the reason why mainstream culture, aka Patriarchy, does not offer laws of protection, benefits, or any other form of acknowledgement to the sex worker, except for the occasional unidimensional tropism. The sex worker is moving upstream, against all spoken and unspoken rules of how one "ought" to be. Upon this journey they likely encounter pieces and aspects of the broken society which most other professions prefer not to touch. While they have something incredibly unique to offer through this rare lens, more often than not they are silenced. Silenced by a culture that offers no recognition or room for The Plutonian at their dinner tables, they are banished, like Pluto, to the domain of the underworld.

To have not one but two Oscar award acceptance speeches recognize sex workers illustrates a breakthrough in the collective psyche. Furthering this monumental moment, Sean Baker, who has created multiple films featuring the sex work industry, broke records for taking home the most amount of awards in a single night at the Oscars. Could this signify that the nervous system of humanity is ready to begin unlocking and integrating that which it has feared and misunderstood? Might it be whispering that it is ready to receive the sex worker not as a wayward, but one who has much to teach and offer around the arts of healing?

Alïta Alison Laurén is a spiritual consultant, wildlife rehabilitation investor, and author of Cultural Psychology of Women's Sexuality: The Priestess Patriarchy & The Prostitute. For more information, please visit http://www.eternallymused.com

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