Review: Paying For It by Chester Brown

Paying For It - Chester Brown (w/a)
Drawn and Quarterly, $24.95, ISBN: 978-1770460485

Paying for It is likely to be one of “those” books that will be endlessly blogged-about, make every best-of-the-year list, win countless awards and do really well for the artist and his publisher.  And fair play to them, Chester Brown has been a consistently great creator over the years — a real master of the form and a national treasure in his native Canada — and D+Q have unfaltering in their support of him.  It’s also one of “those” books that would naturally get people talking anyway — in hushed tones, with nudges and winks, or blushing cheeks — since it’s about sex… with prostitutes… and why that’s a good thing.  It also contains lots of depictions of sex, with the author’s penis on full display.  If recent events have told us anything, it’s that there’s nothing better than a crotch-shot to fire-up the public.

Perhaps that last remark sells this short, though, since Brown has never been one to capitalize on the sensationalism of sex, rather using it a catalyst for storytelling and self-examination, as in his 1992 book, The Playboy.  Rather than simply being an introspective account, though, Paying For It is more politically charged, with wider implications for conversations surrounding prostitution.  After his long-term girlfriend leaves him (for the drummer of Broken Social Scene), the Brown of this memoir abandons the idea of romantic love altogether and comes to a realization that hiring prostitutes for sex is a better alternative.  Throughout and following his liaisons with various sex workers, Brown meditates on the semi-legal status of prostitution, what it means for those who work in the trade and the greater political implications for Canada.

Most of these arguments are articulated in conversation with fellow cartoonists Joe Matt and Seth — with a lot of awkward deadpan humour (is it just coincidence that Brown’s cartoon avatar is a dead ringer for Larry David?) — but also included are fifty pages of text at the end of the book, written in a more overtly polemical style — not surprising, considering that Brown has twice run for office in Canada over the last three years — and for the most part, his arguments are convincing.  His libertarian stand-point on the issue is clear and logical, but it’s the humanizing of prostitution in the preceding pages that gives it its real weight — most arguments around the sex trade treat the clients and providers as soulless automatons, a quaint Victorian view of “unfortunates” and desperate lechers.  Brown’s encounters with the women in the book paint the profession as altogether wholesome and modern.  He never encounters any pimps, or any signs of violence or abuse, nor do any of the women appear to be sex slaves.  When presented in this way, legalization seems all the more appealing and liberating.

It’s the above argument on taxation where his vision of legalized prostitution falls down, and one with which it’s easy to take exception.

Keeping the government out of the bedroom sounds like a noble idea but the fact is that every time you slip on a rubber, it has been tested and certified by a branch of the government (Health Canada in Brown’s case, or the FDA in the US, the EU in Europe, etc.).  It’s this kind of kneejerk reaction against government intervention that lends his politics an air of stupidity.  And as for bringing the tax exempt status of churches into it — surely Brown should be advocating to make the churches pay tax, not pointing like a sniveling schoolchild trying to get out of trouble, “But, miss, they were all doing it, too!”

If he maintains that prostitution is not a business, then that changes the narrative somewhat and seems to suggest that Brown simply wants to be able to get whatever he wants.  If sex is too private an act to be influenced by the government, does that then extend to sex aid manufacturers?  What about duvet and bed manufacturers? Should Canada’s socialized healthcare system not cover sexually-transmitted diseases? It’s cloud cuckoo land economics and self-interest politics of the worst kind.  It practically undercuts his entire argument, since it shifts his intentions away from what’s best for people working as prostitutes and onto his own desires to freely sleep with women for money.

It’s a pity that this chink in his armour becomes such an Achilles heel on closer contemplation.  It would nice to think that his book does some good in furthering the cause of legalized prostitution, but when it comes to the policy-making, let’s hope they leave Chester Brown out of the picture.

-- Gavin Lees

Posted in: Gavin Lees,Review