I agree; I gained a lot of my values from my mom without questioning them. However, the value of intimacy was something that I worked through during this situation. The conclusion that I arrived at was the same as my mom. I simply believe that sex transcends monetary value. Birth and death are also biological functions, but I don’t think you can assert a monetary value to human life. I guess equally as arbitrarily defined in an objective sense; just a personal values statement.

I don’t quite understand your point about ‘sin against intimacy’ but what I think you’re implying is we do things out of love and we don’t get paid. And when we pay for them as a service, it’s a non-issue. So having sex for love and sex work would also be a non-issue.

To my prior point about the value of intimacy, I would disagree with this statement. It rests on the assumption that sex can be equated to something like ordering food or washing your clothes. I don’t think sex and intimacy can be treated as a product or service that you can buy. In my opinion, intimacy is earned, just like you need to earn loyalty, trust, or reputation. These things aren’t tangible. But if they’re made tangible, it devalues them. For example, I would value a loyal friendship cultivated over years of being friends, over a loyal friendship that I paid for.

Finally, I’m not making a judgement against sex work. I am friends with strippers, cam girls, even other sugar babies. But my contention is being in an intimate relationship with someone whose values oppose mine. I choose to be friends with and accept people as they are, but I also am the master of my intimacy. To draw another parallel, I’m friends with a lot of people who are on the other side of the political spectrum. But I wouldn’t be in an intimate relationship with them because principles are fundamental to the way we perceive the world. There would be too many arguments or a growing resentment.

Overall, the point I was trying to communicate was a lesson about strategic and contingency planning for relationships, to proactively analyze comfort levels or non-negotiables.

Thanks for responding and sharing. Your views made me reflect a lot!