Comic Strips

Patient zero…was unexpected

I used to know a gal who did SW at night, though at the time I wasn't aware of her occupation. She'd regularly hang out with my buddy and I. One day he was complaining about his back and she offered him a massage, then offered me one as well as I'd been known to have a bad shoulder While it wasn't the absolute best massage I'd had, it was up there above most places covered by my medical.

I could 100% see people paying for company and a non-sexual contact from somebody like that. She was good with people and had a sense for now to relax people physically and emotionally.

sex workers

don’t even have sex on their menus

🤔

Yea this is known thing. Sex can be part of it but it’s not really all that important for this kind of thing. Those men (and sometimes women) are so desperate for intimacy they will literally pay for it.

It’s the macho way of going to therapy.

That sounds like therapy with touching and without the responsibility. Probably not a bad job.

Which sounds nice but it’s really a false intimacy unless you actually go on to develop a long term relationship with that sex worker.

I think one of the biggest contributors to our growing societal sense of alienation is all the surrogates we use for genuine adaptive functions. Everything from fast food to hardcore drugs has been optimized to mimic what are supposed to be honest signals in our brains that guide us toward making good choices in the long run. Intimacy (and feel-good hormones) are supposed to help us survive in the long term by building relationships and strengthening bonds that protect us against all the random risks of life. Building a sense of intimacy with a stranger that you never see again is ultimately going to lead to greater pain and a sense of loss down the road.

If you are paying, she ain’t staying, and that ain’t intimacy— it’s delusion.

Any actual data on that?

I don't think it's supposed to be funny.

Some things can be blamed on the economy — not this. This is a matter of making first things first and not blaming others for our own short comings.

This is connected to economy and politics. Neoliberalism, to be exact. Rugged individualism, individual responsibility, every man for himself... The same myths used for concentrating wealth into teeny tiny minority and making masses poorer, are also making us lonely and isolated.

We are pack animals, we have survived for hundreds of thousands of years (millions if you count non-sapient ancestors) by building communes and taking care of eachother.

I think it's a comment about this artists need for affection more then a commentary about men in general.

both? both.