I understand that some of the criticism comes from conservatives but the sentiment seems to extend far beyond thst. Of course, I understand it when it’s forced or when someone only does it to survive against their will. But if people genuinely want to do it, why do people hate on them?
I think you are really downplaying the risks here. I have friends who have done sex work. It’s incredibly dangerous. Men may hurt you. They may stalk you. They may give you a std.
Sometimes the woman agrees to a specific service and the man forces her to do something she said she didn’t want to do.
It’s not like they can go to the police.
Police will just say “well that’s what you get for being a whore”.
Trans women in sex work have even higher rates of violence and murder.
Men (usually young) are also subjected to the same risks as women.
Also just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s the best long term option
I mean most of the problems in this world are caused by people wanting things the easy way even if it makes things harder later.
Do sex work in your 20s instead of developing a career. Then when you are too old and 40 with no job prospects and no skills, and no one wants you. What then ?
As do I. Friends and family both. And I have never heard a sex worker say any of the things you ascribe to them.
I’m wondering if you actually know that many people in the industry. Bcs I’m middle aged, everyone I know who does SW is close to my age, so they’re all 35+, mostly over 40, and doing fine.
But if that weren’t the case, the same question can be asked of anyone doing manual labor, once your body breaks down (which happens a lot earlier for manual laborers), what do you do?
To borrow an old quote: If you think that the prostitute sells her body and the coal miner does not, your view of labor is clouded by your puritanical view of sex.
Okay so you don’t actually know anyone who has aged out of sex work .
My “puritanical views”. Is this a joke?
My stance is I’m against human trafficking. I’m against pimps. I’m against workers being hurt by johns. I’m against the promotion of misogyny and objectification of people. I’m against capitalism turning human connection into just another thing to exploit for money. I’m especially against the harms it perpetuates in society.
And I’m against people resorting to the high risk sex work because it’s the easy choice when there should be better options for people.
People have more value that tits and ass. Or a hole.
They actually do.
You can pretend the risks and statistics I gave you aren’t real.
It doesn’t make them false.
Also I certainly don’t appreciate your strawman what-aboutism argument.
We aren’t talking about people who do labor jobs. We are talking about sex workers.
Jesus. How can you possibly believe that sex work is good for women. I mean. Seriously. How fucked up is it to believe that ?
Why would you support the systems that harm women the most. Why. ? Do you hate women ? I can’t see why anyone would think sex work is a great career opportunity for women except people like Epstein and trump.
Cause those are the types of people that benefit from women being exploited this way.
And obviously neither do you. But I do know men women and enbys still doing and enjoying sex work at the age you specifically picked as the age where they “can’t” do it anymore and their life will be over for having done sex work. Which was my point, and one you’ve utterly failed to engage with since you now know you were very wrong.
No, it’s a quote, and I apparently misremembered it, since the original word was “moralistic” not “puritanical”.
To be clear: sex work is as bad as any other form of labor coerced by capitalism, it just isn’t worse than any other form of labor coerced by capitalism. Only the kind of magical thinking that says sex is some special sphere of human activity that should be considered sacred would ever tell you otherwise.
And the pimps, Epsteins, and human traffickers of the world benefit directly from moralistic views of sex. If we treated sex exactly the same as any other full contact sport, there would be far less danger for sex workers who report bad behavior from clients or employers, and there would be far less demand from creeps who want to buy children, because there is a definite correlation (even if no proven causal link) between heavily moralistic views of sex and CSA. This is why religious leaders so often wind up being child rapists.
Finally if you think there’s anything strawman or whataboutism in comparing sex work to any other form of work under capitalism, then you do not understand the point I’m making at all, which is that there is no moral difference between the sex worker and the coal miner in a capitalist society. In a socialist society there’s a discussion to be had about whether sex work is socially necessary labor, but there is no question it is labor.
But it is worse.
That’s my whole point backed up with research.
And it specifically makes the world more hostile for women and girls.
It perpetuates the very systems that harm us under the guise of “sexual empowerment”.
Please think about who benefits the most from sexual objectification of women and girls.
It is not women and girls. No matter how you spin it as “empowerment” or anything else.
I think you are missing the forest for the trees here, a capitalist society is by design hostile to any “second class” person (women, disabled, POC).
You need to ground these ideas and think what policies would work on this. If you try to abolish sexwork the only think you will accomplish it even worse conditions for any informal worker. Any person that was willing to perform that kind of work would be out of any protection.
So what are your policies?
Would people still do ‘sexwork’ in a socialist society? If they have no need to work for shelter or food, would people still do it?
Which is why every one of them supported making sex work legal so they have those protections.
How does making sex work legal help a 40 year old with no skills or job experience?
Decriminalizing sex work is much more effective at reducing crime on the sex workers.
If you don’t believe me, look into the Netherlands.
They have a huge problem with sex trafficking because it’s legal to sell sex there.
It doesn’t protect anyone. It encourages sex trafficking and pimping. Especially for foreign victims and young girls.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_the_Netherlands
https://humanityinaction.org/knowledge_detail/the-audacity-of-tolerance-a-critical-analysis-of-legalized-prostitution-in-amsterdams-red-light-district/
I know it sounds like legalizing it would help sex workers. But the reality is that it doesn’t.
Objectification of bodies never leads to good ends.
https://eclj.org/geopolitics/eu/legal-prostitution-and-human-trafficking-in-the-netherlands?lng=en
How about instead we invest in free education and job training and pay people a living wage so that the dangerous sex work isn’t their best option for survival.