cmsa;while i've been up north a few years raising kids, sexual politics and feminism has been undergoing a huge shift down here in LA. Yesterday's open studio and public painting event brought it home for me. I found myself chatting on the couch with three beautiful young women, and one beautiful young man. As a person with social phobias, i was amazed at how confident and comfortable in their own skins they seemed to be, way more than i have ever been (even tho i was atleast 40 years older then they). Despite their youth, they all made a comfortable living (something i still haven't managed) and seemed self confident to a degree well beyond their years...Plus they were kind and friendly, generous really, patiently answering all my questions about how they got to be so self assured. So what college, self improvement program produced this new and improved model of youthful humanity? NONE! They're autonomous independent contractors in the sex industry (film and web cam from home, specifically)…I’ve been wondering ever since how my own painting career might have gone differently if I could’ve started out feeling as empowered as they? I’m also marveling at their “empowerment” because, back in my youth, that was not a word you would normally associate with the sex industry’s treatment of women. The “times they are a changing”, and sometimes for the better.
