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Television Vs Sacred Massage

Maggie Sherman
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A petition has been launched against Lifetime Television regarding a new dramatic series that is slated to premier this April starring Jennifer Love Hewitt called “The Client List”. The series follows Hewitt cast as a single mother who begins to work at a massage spa that is a front for a brothel. The connection of sex with massage is creating outrage among Licensed Massage Therapists who believe that the powerful and sacred work they do to heal individuals will be reduced to stereotypical associations with sexual trade.

For more information and to sign the petition please visit:

http://www.examiner.com/massage-therapy-in-national/the-client-list-inexcusable-discrediting-of-the-massage-therapy-profession

 

Image by Nick J. Webb on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing

 

 

 


 

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Comments

It hasn't aired yet

Submitted by muskox on Tue, 03/06/2012 - 17:27.
This makes no sense. Calling for a show to be cancelled without even reading a script is just plain censorship.

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Submitted by Alice88 on Fri, 10/26/2012 - 08:30.

I think this is the cruel truth of today world.The massage parlour is nowadays become the element of suspect because of the news of the sexual harrasment in the different places.I agreed that it become scary sometime.

 

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Ignoring the Bigger Picture

Submitted by un.conventional on Tue, 03/06/2012 - 18:09.

I am surprised that RS has chosen to promote this petition in particular while completely sidestepping a much bigger issue. While it must be frustrating for licensed massage therapists to have their jobs conflated with prostitution, the fact is that many massage parlors are fronts for brothels. This is out of necessity due to the illegality of prostitution. It is impossible to advertise a brothel for what it really is under current law.

Why should Lifetime change a plot that reflects the current reality of prostitution in America? If you're frustrated with your profession being conflated with prostitution, why not campaign for sex workers to have the right to their profession so they no longer are forced to work under the pretense of yours? Why not distinguish massage from sexual massage by advocating the legitimacy of both professions while making the distinction between them?

This kind of petition does more than just try to preserve the dignity and respect given to licensed massage therapists. It also reinforces the kind of sex-negative attitude that permeates this puritanical country and has lead to a society where physical healing is seen as necessary for every part of the physical body but one. This duality between sexual and nonsexual (as if by ignoring the genitals the potential of touch to be sexual just disappears) is a Judeo-Christian moral construction that badly needs readdressing.

What about tantric masseuses who are completely delegitimized by the fact that their work currently falls under the current legal definition of prostitution. Who is defending them? And who is to say that many prostitutes who see clients who are disabled (physically, mentally, or emotionally) to show them love and intimacy aren't also healers who deserve legitimacy and recognition?

There are sacred spaces throughout the US where men and women do "powerful and sacred work to heal individuals" through massage that DOES involve sexual healing as well. These spaces are also treated as fronts for prostitution and several of them have been raided in the past year alone, despite having consistently demonstrated a legitimacy of intention and belief and a group of dedicated followers.

The silence from media such as RS was deafening during these raids. Ironically those persecuted and prosecuted share beliefs around sacred sexuality and the evolution of consciousness that are common within this community but not many others.

But perhaps it is easier to be seen as defending "licensed" massage therapists who are already sanctioned by our society than to stick your neck out and defend those painted with the broad "prostitution" brush, a label that continues to guarantee unbelievable stigma and a denial of basic rights afforded to every other human in our society. After all, that's what we depend on outlets like RS for isn't it? Reinforcing the status quo and unquestioningly re-broadcasting moral panics?

 

Brittany Wollman Love

www.thedailytransmission.com 

 

 

For the ones claiming "censorship" over this article

Submitted by sticksman on Wed, 03/07/2012 - 02:45.
To Muskox and Brittany, with all due respect, you don't understand the industry of massage and bodywork. And it's not your fault since you're probably not in the field but while I can appreciate your knee jerk reactions accusing this article as censorship and in Brittany's case, dismissing the concerns of professional bodyworkers by going off on a rant about tantric masseuses (you mean sexual surrogates or some kind of shamanic sexual energy manipulation? Tantra btw did not originally start out associated with sex but that's for another time) and basically arguing for real sexual healing (which I'm not opposed to), the issue for licensed bodyworkers/massage therapists in regards to The Client List comes down to a few things IMO. One, and the most personal, is that no one wants to be called a whore. Which is what this show is implying. Two, The public and the healthcare industry have yet to fully recognize and accept the value of therapeutic bodywork. I'm a male bodyworker that specializes in therapeutic soft tissue manipulation for chronic pain and have been doing it for 13 years. It's not uncommon for me to hear from clients that bodywork is the only modality that they've ever had real pain relief from. I have seen great responses if not outright complete relief from clients with various soft tissue related pain such as carpal tunnel, thoracic outlet syndrome, back pain, sciatic pain, plantarfasciitis and more that traditional western therapies have only offered corticosteroids and surgery as treatment. Three, soft tissue therapists (massage therapists) who commit themselves to the profession have spent thousands of dollars on their education and business and have had to work hard to disabuse people about the nature of their career. There's only so many times I can smile politely at a party when I tell someone about what I do and I see that smirk come across their face as they ask about how much I charge for a happy ending. There's enough of a perception out there about the industry without reinforcing it through a television show that will exploit the small proportion of the industry that uses massage as a front for sex. Criticisms and backlash against this article are based on ignorance and a prevailing ingrained false belief that massage therapy is sex work. When someone like the author of this article speaks up about it and I read people's criticisms of it as "censorship" it only proves that people's perceptions are so accepting of the industry in this light that it SEEMS like this author is blowing it all out of proportion. She's just another politically correct extremist trying to manipulate and tell people how to think. For those of us who have taken our industry seriously and believe in the work we do, reducing bodywork to simply sex and then to see it being given an even greater branding this way with a tv show is absolutely insulting.

To Brittany for clarification

Submitted by sticksman on Wed, 03/07/2012 - 03:51.
I just re-read your post and I feel like I should address what you wrote a bit more. I do agree that prostitution should be legal and that attitudes in this country reflect the puritanical morality that underlies it. Sacred sexuality has a place in society as a legitimate avenue for exploration of the self as well as healing. But as a bodyworker/massage therapist, I truly don’t think it’s my fight. I'm interested in educating the public about the efficacy of soft tissue manipulation as a legitimate health care treatment. I resent that just because I’m in an industry that gets tied to sex you think it’s my job or any bodyworker’s job to educate society about sex. I understand your meaning overall and I agree with your position in a sense regarding sex education but in my view, what most bodyworkers/massage therapists do is not what you are advocating for. The majority of professional therapists, have so little to do with sex that it doesn’t even warrant the association. That doesn’t mean doing spiritual work with sex isn’t legitimate and doesn’t deserve serious consideration but professional massage therapists, due to the unfair stigma of sex work want to steer clear of the associations. Is it my job as a massage therapist to take a stand for sex workers' rights just because of society's prevailing attitudes about sex and the massage/bodywork industry? Me thinks not. So when I see a show like The Client List I do what I can and signing a petition (which will probably not affect whether the show goes on the air or not) is something I will support to try to reduce the false advertising that massage and bodywork always =sex.

To Sticksman

Submitted by un.conventional on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 01:37.

I am writing this quickly and therefore apologize if I fail to fully address both your replies (I will come back later this week to reply in more detail.)

The two main points I want to mention are that I do understand that the conflation of your work with sex work is probably annoying and delegitimizing but I can't help but feel that you're ignoring the fact that massage parlors are quite often fronts for prostitution and therefore the setting of this storyline is an accurate portrayal of a not uncommon real-life situation. Changing the story in order to prevent confusion between the two, in my opinion, is going about changing things the wrong way.

People associate massage with sex work because there are advertised "masseuses" who actually do sexual services but have to work under a cover story, not because Lifetime television is fabricating and reinforcing some made-up stigma.  I don't see that ignoring this reality and not having a tv show take place in a massage parlor that is clearly presented as a front for prostitution changes anything.

Now I do understand its not your job to campaign for sex workers rights BUT sex workers having the right to do their work openly would take away the association between your work and sex work (that you rightly resent). Although I think a separate issue that one could address is why work that is associated with sex (even jokingly) or being called a whore is perceived as such an insult and what that means for those whose work actually does fit that definition (sexual interaction for money) even though many of these people are also performing a spiritually and physically healing art. But lets leave that aside.

I will say that perhaps I underestimated how often a licensed masseuse has to deal with stigma and if so I apologize. (As a passionate advocate for sex workers rights I know only too well the negative effects of stigma on a person's life.) In the various circles I move in I have never once heard a person treat the massage occupation with anything else than the legitimacy afforded to most professions. Everyone I know understands the health benefits of massage as a healing art. I'm saddened to hear that this is not your experience so perhaps I take this for granted.

Finally I wanted to add that I do not so much resent this petition in particular so much as the fact something like this gets posted on RS while underreported and misrepresented news regarding the actual legal deprivation of basic human and religious rights through raids on tantric temples and daily arrests of sexual healers remain unpublished submissions. There are few media outlets whose audiences are conscious enough to process reporting on tantric temples in any other than a tabloid fashion (as they were reported on in the mainstream media) and it seems a shame that RS missed out on the opportunity to provide a different discourse. That was the larger point I was trying to make and does not take away from the concerns of licensed masseuses regarding the stigmatization of their profession.

Brittany Wollman Love

www.thedailytransmission.com 

To Brittany

Submitted by sticksman on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 02:18.
Thank you for your reasoned and emotionally clear response to my posts.  I understand your position and if I hadn't made my career in bodywork i might be able to stand on your side of this debate because it is true that massage is used as a front for sex for a minority of the people in the industry.  Of course there's no way I'm going to want to anchor that impression into the public any more than it already is which is what this show does.  Just because sex in massage is a reality is hardly a reason to allow it on the air.  The spectrum of types of work in the bodywork industry runs from sex work to specialized therapeutic for serious myofascial ailments.  Of course a television show is going to fixate on the sex. Bodywork as it's taught in massage schools does not educate students in the serious disciplines of conscious and spiritual sex work so therefore students aren't properly trained to work with this approach.  Any massage therapist who goes through massage school and does sex work I would imagine either has done their own studies independently or is simply offering themselves for more money.  With prostitution being against the law, it betrays the whole industry from the ground up.  I think that this show will probably air, and while showing a slice of reality within my industry, is still exploiting the illegal side of it which ignores the majority of therapists' experiences in the field. 

Re:The Law

Submitted by Anthrogonebust2810 on Tue, 03/13/2012 - 23:43.

I'm glad that sticksman mentioned  the law.  In my own approximation after spending years training for a healing modality and living with a girlfriend a massage therapist for 4 years, it is clear to me that the LAW is really a PROBLEM regarding sexuality.  I will never forget the amount of frustration I had listening to story after story of Bill Clinton's sex life on national public television.  Hey, but that's OK, right? Or, how many times my licensed massage girlfriend had to deal with inappropriate behavior from clients who "wanted something a little extra"? I think airing the show would be a start for LOOKING AT SEXUAL ISSUES.  But, because we still see sex,money, and power as a packaged deal and too much money is made off it anyway, do you really think people in their own busy lives will have the time? :)

I really like reality sandwich, and I am particularly delighted by the dialogue here.  I get that intelligent conscious people already exist and it's heartening.  Thanks. There will be more on sex; I can assure you.

Tantric work

Submitted by sticksman on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 02:25.
Brittany I have to admit I know absolutely nothing of raids on tantric temples and general suppression and oppression of people who do sexual healing work.  I'd like to read more about that so if you have links to stories or sites that discuss this please post them in a response.  I think it's a subject that is worth discussing and sounds like a missing link to legitimizing sex work.

Re: Tantra

Submitted by un.conventional on Mon, 03/12/2012 - 15:40.

Hi Sticksman just saw your reply.  I know we still don't quite agree 100% but I think we've really bridged a lot of gaps and its refreshing to have that kind of discourse in a comment thread.  I wrote a piece on the tantric temples that were raided last Autumn which you can read (link below), there are also links there to the people who organized to protest what was going on.  

I wish there was somewhere besides my own blog that I could point you to for this, but as the story was presented universally in the mainstream media as an open/shut case of a brothel posing as a church, and nobody seems to have picked up on it (or bothered to research what actually went on in the temples.)  It's really a sad state of affairs as anyone who watched the temple founder speak for a minute could have no doubt of the intentions and belief systems of herself and her followers

http://www.thedailytransmission.com/2011/09/23/21st-century-religious-persecution-police-raid-tantric-sex-temple-in-arizona/ 

I'm for anything Rush is against

Submitted by Ra-ho-Tep on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 14:54.
And my neck is killing me.

Reality Sandwich

Submitted by Maggie Sherman on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 21:46.
This was covered because it is interesting...and so are the comments that have followed. I hope that LMTs get what they want from this petition, but ultimately I don't think anyone has to wait long for this program to be pulled off the air. The era of sexploitation is coming to a close. Anything that creates conflict lacks love and will therefor cycle out of our lives. maggie sherman

I am taking a massage class

Submitted by allenjony on Mon, 07/30/2012 - 03:16.

I am taking a massage class and hoping to pick up some rocks for hot stone massage that will have more meaning to me than ones simply bought online. also looking for the adventure.

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Nice expose! I'm really

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