Steven Spielberg’s daughter enters the progressive world of sex work

Mikaela Spielberg, daughter of filmmaker Steven Spielberg and actress Kate Capshaw, has launched her career as a sex worker. She’s already produced solo porn videos, and is working on getting her sex worker license, at which point she has ambitions of being a stripper. On Mikaela’s Instagram, she claims she is “Just all about being pro Heaux,” using the preferred term of the more intellectual sex worker movement. The glorification of sex work is in full swing.

She told her parents of her intentions, and the legendary Hollywood duo were apparently “intrigued” but “not upset,” according to The Sun. Much of Mikaela’s desire to enter into this industry is a desire to please others. “I feel like doing this kind of work, I’m able to ‘satisfy’ other people, but that feels good because it’s not in a way that makes me feel violated,” she said.

Emphasizing that her parents were exceptionally loving, caring, and supportive Mikaela was candid about her background, during which she suffered sexual abuse and had a dependence on alcohol. She had significant body issues, was unhappy with her weight, and hated her figure. Now at 23, she’s coming around to loving her body, and wanting to capitalize on it.

“I have amazing parents that had their struggles with me, I’ve had my fights and struggles with them, but it’s only out of fear that people sometimes care incorrectly because they want you to be alive and safe,” she said. Their desire for her to be safe must certainly be at odds with their seeming willingness to not try to convince her to abandon her aspirations to sex work. The sex work industry is not typically one that is safe for women to be part of.

Though she has no plans to perform in partnered sex on camera, her solo videos were posted on PornHub. She’s taken them down while awaiting her sex worker license in the state of Tennessee. Her pursuit of this work has much to do with seeking financial independence from her family.

She admits that her fiance has had some trouble coming to terms with her career choice, as have many in her social peer group and community. “It took him a long time to come around to it because obviously in the South there’s so much shame around that still,” Mikaela said. “Chuck’s been super supportive, but it took him a while to get to that spot because he wasn’t sure how his social group would react to it. And thus far, it hasn’t been the best, but that was expected because of the environment we live in right now.”

Mikaela’s journey to public performance of sex work shows how much legitimacy this industry has achieved. More traditional sex workers who perform the act of partnered sex in private are unionized in New Zealand, legalized in Scandinavia under the Nordic Model, which criminalizes the purchase of sex but not the sale of it.

PornHub launched a fashion line in association with Berlin fashion duo Namilia at New York’s Fashion Week, and the consumption of porn has been mainstreamed as a perfectly normal activity. Countless articles abound as to how to talk to children about porn, given that parents must assume kids will have seen this form of media at least by middle school age.

That the privileged, wealthy daughter of Hollywood royalty has opted to sell sex and the fame that can come with sexually exploiting herself shows just how widespread the acceptance of sex work has become. It would not be surprising to hear a little girl proclaim that she wants to be a PornHub star when she grows up, just as so many kids now want to have their own YouTube channels.

The desire for fame and recognition is more potent than the want to do good or to make a difference. No one seems to be immune from this. In the prevalent lack of any actual meaning, being noticed is the only thing that carries any weight. The going wisdom is to strive for self-recognition and stardom.

As our relativist culture blazes into the absurdist future, sex work has become a thing to be celebrated. Progressives can’t figure out why there should be anything wrong with people renting their bodies for the sexual satisfaction of others, so it is acclaimed, applauded, awarded. Legalization of sex work has come at a high price for women who are engaged in the industry. This is an exaltation of an industry that has traditionally left women far worse off than when they began, traumatized them, and vilified them further.

Aspiring to be a sex worker and to be empowered by elliciting solicitous glances from others simply shows off how broken our culture has become. Instead of women valuing themselves and caring for themselves, they see their bodies only as an asset to be objectified and sold. Women should not aspire to be for rent, to be consumed and discarded for the sexual satisfaction of others. Instead, we should see the aspiration to sex work for what it is, desperation to feel wanted in a culture that decreases individual value and worth.