I see sex work as somewhat analogous to coal mining. It’s not that it isn’t real work, or that those who work in that capacity don’t deserve rights, dignity, or a society that works for them. The problem, of course, is the ever-present exploitation of the workers coupled with the severe unpleasantness of the occupation which ensures that the people who do work these jobs are those with few other options. That isn’t to say that all sex workers and/or coal miners are miserable. Even so, the patterns around this kind of work are unmistakable.
Given these facts, I think most reasonable people understand that sex work should go extinct. That isn’t to say that you can’t make pornography or have sex with strangers. However, it’s impossible to gauge enthusiastic consent when money is changing hands, and enthusiastic consent is a vital component for an ethical sexual encounter.
My question for the community is how exactly this is meant to be accomplished. How can sex work be abolished without harming the very people it’s meant to protect? The number one problem western sex workers face, more so than creepy clients, is the cops, who profile them, steal their wages, and arrest them on a whim. Clearly, criminalizing sex work hasn’t done much for sex workers. What are some alternatives?
Coal is (or at least was) a necessary product. Sex isn’t and never was. And the people who can’t function without it need psychiatric treatment, not reinforcement of their illness which will absolutely make it worse.
The issue of consent. If you can’t get paid for your blood because that constitutes coersion and therefore invalidates consent, why should it be different for sex, where the propensity for permanent, life ruining harm is orders of magnitudes higher than blood?
If two consenting adults just want to have recreational sex with each other, why is payment a necessary element? And if they wouldn’t have had sex without the payment aspect, then it isn’t recreational sex. Just find a person (or people) you vibe well with and who is interested in having sex with you if you want to do it in moderation, or if you suffer from sex addiction, seek professional help and bring yourself past that.
And for that “well these people are doing sex work to provide for themselves and their family” the fact that there are people doing that is a sign of a broken system that is utterly failing to support them and their families through other ways. If they like it, it’s not the paid sex they like, they like the fact that they and their family are not starving. It’s basically Stockholm syndrome.
That’s the important part: banning sex work is not banning recreational or extramarital sex. Adults can still have sex with each other if they want, and by taking the payment aspect out of it, it can be even more fulfilling and conducive to forming long-term bonds. A la Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs, get the survival requirements squared away, then people can move onto deciding if they want to have sex for free on top of that, and if they do, they can find confidence in knowing that they’re likely doing it of their own accord, because they like doing it or because they like the person they’re with, and not because they need money.
Good points
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I’ve read quite a few testimonies on the page, and they don’t seem to be glamorising or even saying they enjoy prostitution; what most seem to be saying is that they would like not to be seen as criminals, which is a fair demand as it prevents them from accessing resources.
Several people in the thread either were sex workers or know sex workers. One of the proletarian feminist writers linked to in another thread, Esperanza, was formerly a sex worker. It’s not like they’re being ignored.