<特集論文>「やっとホントの顔を見せてくれたね !」 : 日本人セックスワーカーに見る肉体・感情・官能をめぐる労働について

Abstract

本稿の目的は、日本におけるセックスワーク(売春)の性質を、肉体労働、感情労働、官能労働の3つの労働から理解しようとするものである。資料は5人の日本人女性セックスワーカーたちへのインタビューに基づく。セックスワークは、1970年代に作られた言葉で、売春をほかの仕事(ワーク)と同じく合法的な活動(サービス産業)ととらえるべきであるという主張がこめられている。しかし、このような主張には、根強い批判が認められる。ひとつは、セックスワーカーが人身売買の犠牲者であって、セックスワークを合法化しようとするのは、その犯罪性を隠蔽することになるという主張である。二つ目は、セックスワークは若くて未熟なワーカーが喜ばれ、価値もあるという点で、熟練度が重視される通常の仕事と同じだとみなすべきではないという主張である。最後の批判は、本来私生活に属するセックスを仕事とすることで、ワーカーたちは多大な精神的被害を受けるはずであるため仕事とはいえないという批判である。本稿では、セックスワーカーたちと顧客との親密なやり取りについての語りを分析することで、これらの批判の妥当性を吟味した。日本のセックスワーカーは、1時間から2時間を単位として顧客と限られた時間を過ごす。彼女たちは、顧客の支払額を増やすためにできるだけ長くいること(延長)を顧客に求め、また収入を安定させるために繰り返し一人の女性を指名する常連を増やそうとする。顧客はワーカーが自分に好意を示し、自分との性行為によってオーガズムに達することを好む。このような顧客の要望に応じるため、ワーカーは「感情労働」を通じて好意があるかのような演技をする。オーガズムについては、あたかも女性が感じているかのようなふりをする「官能労働」が必要となる。本稿のデータから明らかなのは、どのワーカーも自分を犠牲者だとみなしていないことである(だからといって、日本のセックスワーカー全員が犠牲者ではないとはいえない)。また、素人が好まれることから、素人のようにふるまう技術を身につける。さらに、顧客の気づかないところで気を遣い、暴力を回避するための交渉を行っている。顧客の要望に応じて、感情労働や官能労働の主体として彼女たちは積極的に顧客と接しているのである。たしかに、セックスを仕事にすることで私生活に影響が出るが、これはむしろ合法化することで解決可能だと考えられる。問題があるから合法化すべきでないというのは本末転倒であろう。

This article aims to understand the nature of sex work in Japan in terms of physical, emotional and erotic labor. My analysis is based on interview data with five Japanese female sex workers. The word, "sex work, " was coined in the 1970's to promote the idea that prostitution is a legitimate work of sexual service. Prostitution should be considered as the same kind of service work as you could find at a burger shop. Therefore, prostitution should be legalized and we should improve its working conditions. There are three opinions against the above idea of sex work. The first one is that a sex worker is a victim of human trafficking. Then, legalizing prostitution would mean a justification of such a criminal act and a double standard of the patriarchal idea behind it. Secondly, prostitution is not proper work, because unlike other works, most of the customers prefer young untrained sex workers to old experienced ones. Third, prostitution is an inhuman work. By using sex, which is private in essence, for work, which is public, prostitution transgresses the boundary between public and private. It may have a lasting impact on the mind of prostitutes. In spite of their strong criticism, there are few academic publications dealing on interactions between sex workers and their customers. In this article I try to demonstrate that these opinions are not tenable with my interview data. First. I show that sex work is divided into three labor modes. One is physical in a sense that a sex worker uses her body to please her customers. The second is emotional. The sex worker needs a certain number of regular customers in order to stabilize her income. She uses emotion to attract her customers. They come back to her because they feel happy with her and liked by her. This concept of emotional labor was invented by A. Hockshield, an American sociologist. She uses it as distinct from physical and intellectual labor. It is an essential part of service work. In addition I propose the third concept of erotic labor. It is labor regarding female orgasm. A female sex worker in Japan is often asked by her customer if she experiences orgasm with him or not. She tells him "yes" to assure him of his masculine supremacy in sex. It is a labor specific to sex service. It has become clear that those sex workers I interviewed do not consider themselves as victims of patriarchy. They are more or less independent of their shop managers and customers. There is a space of negotiation with them. They have to develop skills for negotiation and protection of their minds and bodies. They must be skillful enough to pretend to be inexperienced. So even if the customers prefer young girls, it does not necessarily mean that they are unskilled laborers. Sex work may have a negative impact on the mind of the sex worker. Therefore, it goes, we should abolish any kind of sex work. My data show that some cannot develop normal love affair and regard sex being for money, not for care and pleasure. The activists for sex work do not deny its negative nature. However, they claim that this negative nature is overcome only by legalizing it, not by abolishing or criminalizing it. As far as it remains illegal, the sex worker must develop a skill to avoid risks, physical or psychological. Here again she needs to be professional. To conclude, by referring to three types of labor modes, this article shows that sex work is a more complicated process than normally expected. The sex worker is not just a body to please her customer. She has to be an agentic and knowledgeable being in order to control the interaction with him and protect herself.