A response to Professor Jackie Orr:

For seventeen years, Mastercard’s slogan has been “Priceless…and for everything else, there’s Mastercard.” Even your credit card company acknowledges there are certain things money can’t buy. Should sex also be priceless? In a morally indifferent, capitalist society, perhaps nothing is priceless and nothing really matters as long as there’s consent from both parties. Sex, then, can be just another business transaction. And the best way to improve the transaction, says Associate Professor Jackie Orr, is to legalize, regulate, and tax prostitution.

The problem with this moral framework is that you forfeit your ability to identify actions, conditions, or behaviors like prostitution, slavery, or sexual assault as fundamentally degrading to the human person. Further, prostitution and sexual assault often imply a match-up of stronger on weaker, wealthier on poorer, educated on ignorant. For Professor Orr, this is all okay, as long as Johns follow the rules. Let the lions eat first, as long as they chew with their mouths closed. Good luck.

Professor Orr accurately identifies various major groups supporting decriminalization of prostitution. In theory, “prostitution can be safe, legal, and moral.’” But does this theory apply to the situation at hand? Is Kavajecz really the “victim… on the altar of heteronormative sexual ‘morality’”? Are we really okay with one of our leaders engaging in something deeply degrading and objectifying toward women in our community?

Let’s move the parts around a bit. Would we be okay with one of our deans paying one of his or her professors for sex, or one of our professors paying one of his or her students for sex? Absolutely not. In both circumstances, the differential of power calls into question the lesser party’s consent. Why should it be any different for Kavajecz’s victim on Salina Street? Does this human person have any less dignity than our professors and students? The differential of power was perhaps even greater. And lastly, would Professor Orr–or anyone else with a stake in this discussion–be willing to do some personal “research” selling sex on Salina St? Well, no, probably not. It’s easier to be an academic, so someone else can absorb the risk.

It’s on US, SU, to call foul whenever the unique dignity of each human person is challenged, especially in matters of sexuality. Don’t look for an ally in Professor Jackie Orr.

Joel Morehouse
Masters Candidate in Choral Conducting ’17, Syracuse University