Hooking and other pursuits

One of the blogs I try to read each time there is a new post is the Scientific Fundamentalist, This post [Are All Women Essentially Prostitutes?] really caught my attention. The title, while provocative, is misleading. He starts out musing about whether men try to impress prostitutes (in this case, think Call Girls, not street hookers) as they would try to impress a "normal" date.

He finds they do. I already knew that. Not because I patronize call girls or know men who do but because men seem wired to do so. I think it is simply human nature to want to impress others. I think it is true regardless of the nature of the relationship. I have met people in bars, at parties, at work, on golf courses, just about everywhere that casual, and transient, meetings happen. Small talk always leads to attempts to impress in one way or another. Male and female alike engage in it.

Think about it. I know I have done this again and again and I would bet that you have too. From dates, to casual meetings at parties and dances (and just about anywhere), I have done my best to impress the opposite sex. But I have also tried to impress teachers, bosses, co-workers, waiters and waitresses, and more. There is a difference in degree, method, and in conscious motivation but the desire to impress was there at some level.

My father was a salesman. It was, to me, an odd trade for a man I saw as reclusive, quiet, stern, and a bit cold. I learned that was just part of his persona. In this post [I think I am turning green], I tried to explain it:

My father, a mostly silent and stern man, would pull up in front of a large store and we would go in. As we passed through the door, his seemingly eternal frown would disappear and a smile would appear. Cheerfulness would fill his face and he would wave and greet people as if they were old friends he had not seen nearly often enough. He would exchange pleasantries, laugh at lame jokes, nod sagely at tales of woe, and be something much more human than the Dad I had known all my short life.

If you are going to be a successful salesman, you have to create a relationship with your clients, they have to see you as something more than a guy who wants their money. You have to impress them. We do this when we want to make a friend, or encourage subordinates, or get treated fairly by a company, or just about any time we interact with others.

At the end of that Scientific Fundamentalist post, this question came to mind immediately:

Isn't everyone a prostitute? In a loose interpretation, that is. The core definition of a prostitute is one who offers one's body for money. That pretty much describes anyone who works for wages. We make a moral distinction when we are talking about prostitution. Throughout my working life, I provided my body (to do some physical work) in exchange for money.

And another thought also entered my mind. This one related to the parent website of the blog. Isn't a psychologist just a rented friend?