A central problem in the life of many people - if not most people - is the question of work. How do I make a living? What do I do for an income? The global financial crisis and the technological revolution have made this a more difficult problem than it used to be. Once there were manufacturing jobs. For others there were office jobs. Most of these jobs have disappeared or have been automated. Increasingly, people have to find casual work or low paid menial jobs. Even well educated people find it hard to find a long-term satisfying occupation.
The problem for women is especially acute. There are less decent jobs and fewer well-established pathways in the workforce. When all the good jobs are gone, a higher proportion of women have to fall back on lousy employment: waiting tables, serving drinks, cleaning, spoon-feeding dementia patients, and so on. It is estimated that over the next thirty years nearly a half of all current jobs will be replaced by automation. Jobs traditionally done by women will be particularly hit.
According to studies, one of the consequences of declining job and pay rates is that more women are turning to prostitution. Scandalously, it is now not at all uncommon for young female college students to be funding their degrees by working as sex-workers at night or on the weekends. When there is no decent work left, women go on the game. It has always been the way. Inevitably, too, however, crime and drugs follow. As more women go into prostitution just in order to live, crime syndicates, pimps, drug-dealers, bikie gangs and other low-life move in to get their share of the profits. While it might at first seem an easy way to make a quick dollar, women soon find that prostitution is full of pitfalls and serious dangers, not least the ever-present and inherent dangers from law enforcement, disease, deranged clients, and so. It is not a romantic life. It is really only suited to tough-hearted women with strong internal defences. Timid women, submissive women, women who are not good at being combative and independent, are soon crushed and abused and exploited.
The odalisque’s life offers itself as a possible alternative. There are some women for whom it might be an attractive proposition. Certainly, it might be a better option for those women who would otherwise turn to prostitution. An odalisque is not a whore, but her role is sexual and her job is to provide sexual pleasure to men. Specifically, to her Master. An odalisque is a bonded slave. This means that she serves the man to whom she is bonded, but in return she is kept, housed, fed and nurtured - her Master has an obligation to protect and look after her and to meet all her needs. Obviously, it is a lifestyle that only suits women with the right aptitude. Submissive women. Highly sexual women who find fulfilment in sexual service.
Note that an odalisque is a bonded slave. This is in contrast to a hired worker. A whore is a hired worker. So too is a plumber or a secretary or a burger-flipper. Hired workers are paid by the hour. Bonded service is entirely different. A bonded servant is not part of the hired workforce at all. It is an arrangement based on mutual obligation, obedience and fealty. Of course bonded service has no official place in the modern economy, but there are shades of it in the traditional housewife or the trophy wife. As far as the IRS is concerned, an odalisque is just a kept woman. She has no income of her own. Odalisque slavery under Code d’ Odalisque is a system for reviving bonded sexual service on a consensual basis. For some women it might be a solution to the problem of work - at least for a phase of their life. It takes them out of the job market. It offers them a life of leisure. It might be better than cleaning motel rooms for $8 an hour. And it might certainly be a better choice than whoredom.
