Spatial Time

There is something deeper to be said about the notion of “instant gratification” and punctuated time when looking into the industry of sex work and pornography. And it is evident in all the players. The prostitutes, their clients and a young group of anthropology students who sought, in a short instance, to find out more about how prostitutes spend their time on Oxford Road in Rosebank, Johannesburg. 

Report

This report will outline the events of the evening of Saturday the 31^st of March 2012, when said anthropology students set out to become voyeurs of the ladies of the night. As an anthropologist I could not help but study my peers as we embarked on this mission together. It would skew my findings if I did not.

We met at R’s house at 8pm, N was already there, she had been dropped off by her father. He was unaware of the plans for the night, although he was aware that she was there to do a project. I had gotten a ride with L. We convened in the kitchen and drank (rum for those still suffering the ills of the previous night, and coca-a-cola for those who were not of the drinking ilk) as we waited for the last member of tonight’s scouting crew to join us, A. The conversation revolved around sex, play parties and feminism.

A full hour late A arrives. We set off – walking towards Oxford Road, which is a few blocks away. The mood is jovial, conversation between N, A and I is focused on our research proposals. L and R are a short way ahead. They have stopped on the next corner, interrupting two prostitutes at work.

Error one: The prostitutes become hostile as R explains they are waiting for us, and gestures down the road. One of the ladies tells them to get out of their office. This momentary action has caused us to come under suspicion. We learn that travelling in a group is not a wise decision. For two reasons: firstly, it is not inconspicuous. Secondly, it is distracting.

We walk across the road, and lurk in some shadows. Discussing whether to walk on, split up or stay where we are, the decision is made to stay in a group. While we sit, smoking in the shadows. At 9.30pm a cop car rolls by, the ladies send off a whistle down the road, we assume this is to warn fellow prostitutes down the road that a van is approaching (but this is mere speculation). At 9.40 a silver combi pulls up to the corner that the ladies are standing on. They both approach the vehicle. After a brief discussion, one of the girls gets into the combi. The other is left on the corner.

The conversation in the group turns to how long the transaction will take from here on. R wanders how men can just rock up in the mood so quickly, he speculates it will take a while. I counteract him, saying 10 minutes maximum. R does not believe this is possible. The rest of the group join in. A concern comes up of how the ladies clean themselves after each transaction. Although they each have large bags, their contents are not known to us.

The lady that was left on the corner now makes her way down the road towards Corlett Drive. We wander if this is for safety, not wanting to be on the corner alone, or whether our presence has gotten to her, and she is moving to another spot. If it has she does not show a sign of it.

The other lady, who had gone with the silver combi, returns. The transaction has not taken more than ten minutes. R mouths his disbelief.

The lady is alone on the corner. At 10.10pm a man in black walks towards her. They talk, and walk up the road away from Oxford together. L and A set off to follow them. Another cop car drives past shortly after. We did not take down licence plate details. It could have been the same car. At 10.20 the lady who had walked towards Corlett Drive comes back up the street. She walks across the road, stopping midway on the island. She lifts her skirt (already so short that the cheeks of her bottom are sticking out) and flashes passing cars. She then takes some money out of her bag and counts it. She finishes this takes a bottle out of her bag, from where we are sitting it looks like wine, and drinks. She then makes a call. It is a short one, maybe two minutes. With the call finished she proceeds to whistle or yell “hey baby” at passing vehicles.

In this time L and A return, they have lost their targets. By 10.20pm the lady who they had set out to follow returns. She has hitched down her skirt, to below knee length and put on takkis. She looks respectable as she makes her way down Oxford towards town.

The lady on the island makes a phone call while yelling at us that “you will get what you deserve.” We choose this point to leave. The ethics of the situation, which we had been ignoring, now staring us in the face. We head back to R, N is getting picked up soon. We get back to the house and wait for N’s father. R wishes for L and I to stay so that it does not look as if N is hanging around with just R and A (both male). N’s father arrives, and she leaves. We retreat back to the kitchen to discuss.

We talk about the notion of time and living in a culture of instant gratification. Where if one has money ones desires can be fulfilled instantly.

Assessment

The concept of fulfilment has a deeper meaning in relation to time. If we argue that we live in punctuated time, then in this context, of the brief transactions between a sex worker and a client, this assumption would be correct. But this is in relation to a goal; if the purpose is to fulfil ones’ duty as a sex worker, or to obtain sexual gratification, or to study sex workers in periods of time. Then punctuated time becomes a reality, because if you are not fulfilling your task, then time is meaningless – in this context.  

If we look at the above story all that can be perceived from it is moments in time that seem significant to our aim, which is to see how prostitutes spend their time in between and during interactions with clients. The rest of the time becomes irrelevant. But time is nothing without movement in space. Which can also be dissected as time is in our analysis. What is important to this report is that we are on the street, so we do not describe the trees, or the cars driving by that do not stop. It becomes meaningless detail, because we are only reading meaning in relation to a specific goal; although our goal is not mediated by money but by information, which is a form of commodity to some extent.

But in this description it can be seen that firstly it is not just time, but space that can become punctuated. And secondly this perception of punctuation is in relation to a goal, and that the time and space that is not related to the goal at hand is meaningless.

This cannot be true in relation to how we actually perceive things if we want to maintain the idea that people move within time from past to present. That because we share the same space (this planet) that we all exist in the same frame of time. Time, and its meaning, becomes arranged around a subjective goal. Thus each person’s perception of time becomes subjective, as their space is subjective as is their goal. As is their perspective of what meaningless and meaningful time would be.

It seems that our current description of time is objective, that everybody adheres to the same time. But this is impossible because time is nothing without movement in space. And nobody inhabits the same space with others continuously. So at most we can say that time can be objectively spent with others, as in the case of the anthropologists studying the prostitutes in that their goal is the same; but subjective in relation to their previous experience through time and space, and their ulterior goals. But one could not assume that time is linear and we all exist in the same time, for we do not inhabit the same space.

The problem is the notion of moving forward and backwards in time - which creates the illusion that everyone is moving in linear time, from a point in the past to a point in the future and that time is punctuated by events. But in actuality it would seem that we live from meaningful moment to meaningful moment, with meaningless time in between; time that is not spent in relation to a goal. Time need not be conceived as linear but spatial. As our perception of past and future only exist within that space in time, in relation to other spaces in time.

Time is thus only noticeable in relation to the achievement of a goal, but the perception of the fulfilment of a goal must take place within a space. Because our perceptions of space are not linear, our perspective of time cannot be linear, and are not because we perceive time not in relation from one moment to the next, but in a mixed acquisition of thoughts about the present, past and future all embodied in different fragmented spaces.