On Coercion

Posted on by Iansã

Read the post from which this is excerpted, and the comments thread.

It is very much like religion, really – it’s all up to her. All she has to do is be obedient, do things right, and she will SHINE. She just has to follow the rules, endure the “struggles,” and remain loyal and faithful, and then the pimp, in her eyes a powerful person, like God, like a parent, like a lover, will be proud of her.

What the pimp is telling this girl is a lot like what we say to people in school and what bosses say about jobs – especially when actual evidence tends to indicate the contrary. This is about the power of the system and of the language it uses.

Axé.

11 thoughts on “On Coercion”

  2. Ah Ha! The rules of engagement. I guess that there are rules to adhere to in any game. “Reckless Eyeballing” is a humorous term to me. True…it can be misinterpreted and even fatal in the wrong situation.

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  4. You may know this, Stephen, but “reckless eyeballing” is a term, if I’m not mistaken, that came out of prison. It’s an “infraction,” punishable by time in the hole (or worse) for looking at an authority figure (typically a guard) with other than respect. It can be as little as a direct gaze — eyeball to eyeball — without looking down. I always thought it was intended to nip any indication of rebellion in the bud.

    Similarly, the prostitute is never to hold the gaze of a man other than her pimp. It is understood that if she does, she’s available to be taken from him. This kind of rebellion can get her killed, at least partly because it’s seen as an indicator that “her man” cannot “keep” “his” women. He can lose his street rep (the most important feature of his identity) instantly and completely over such as this. Brutal retaliation for reckless eyeballing, then, sends the signal to everyone, including the other pimps, that the pimp in question is NOT to be messed with.

    Trippy, huh?

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  6. You never know, huh? We’re all a veritable kaleidoscope of wonderment just under the skin. (Actually, Andey, it’s just that I make it a point to know my enemies.) What’s not fascinating about pimps anyway? Marx described all capitalists as pimps. And Calvin Hernton wrote, “Every woman sees in whichever man she gives her sex the potentiality of her whorehood.” See what I’m sayin’?

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  7. “Marx described all capitalists as pimps.”

    This is one of the key senses of the post – yes. And that Hernton quotation is *smart* !!! I like “kaleidoscope of wonderment” too …

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  8. i like the wimp meaning of you, changeseeker. how have the national security initiatives been treating you?

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