cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/265775

My opinion is that sex work should be legal. It would enable involuntary virgins to get a good sex experience for payment; they will be guaranteed a good sex experience with a sex worker: no harassment, good education, and a fun time.

Sex work gets shamed by people puritans because of payment for sex and it’s “sinful”; yet these same persons puritans get and have sex for free out of “passion” or marriage; they also discriminate against minorities in sec.

EDIT: Apparently there is an implied difference between sex work and prostitution. I mean sex work.

I also found out that the USSR and all AES made prostitution illegal. (I personally disagree with criminalized prostitution; it could lead to victims getting harmed.)

(There should be an ask community…)

  • DoghouseCharlie@lemmygrad.ml
    71·
    2 years ago

    I don’t totally have my opinions fully formed so I’m open to any kind of critique but… Working under capitalism is inherently coercive. And sex work is work. And when coercion is involved in sex that’s the definition of rape. So sex work is rape. I’ve seen plenty of people that say they enjoy it, and maybe people would keep engaging in it if they didn’t need money and fair enough. But to me that isn’t proof that sex work is some wholesome or freeing thing, that just tells me that most other work under capitalism is so bad that rape is preferable to some people.

    • KiG V2@lemmygrad.ml
      41·
      2 years ago

      I don’t know, calling it “rape” kind of diminishes people who uhh…get raped. Like you’re making a choice to and getting paid for it, yes not working = death and yes work sucks ass but if it really felt like RAPE rape I think people would choose McDonald’s. Are there people miserable doing it because they have a felony or drug addiction (etc.) and can’t get a normal job to keep up with the price of being poor? Yes, and that’s terrible. And certainly there are some people who probably feel terrible doing it and hate it. But “rape” is…that’s something else.

      • DankZedong @lemmygrad.ml
        7·
        2 years ago

        Hi, I work with victims of human trafficking. These victims make up most of all sexworkers. They are forced to do so, and get punished in various ways if they refuse. This is rape. They do not have a choice in having sex. Just because they get paid for it does not make the rape any less. It is absolutely as traumatizing as ‘standard’ rape.

        Edit: also, there’s a whole lot of reasons these people get in these situations. It’s not just addiction or felonies. Kidnapping, immigrante, people with mental illness, ‘normal’ people, victims of loverboys, rich people, poor people, the list goes on. Anyone can fall victim to forced prostitution.

        • KiG V2@lemmygrad.ml
          2·
          2 years ago

          Hello, thank you for the information. I knew that there were prostitutes that were sex slaves but I guess the ratio of free/not free wasn’t so severe in my head. I definitely would never suggest people in such a position weren’t be raped, I meant people who do it of their own accord, but if this is a relatively small portion of total sex workers then I have been misjudging the proportions.

      • redshiftedbrazilian@lemmygrad.ml
        6·
        2 years ago

        Considering that there are some researches showing that sex workers experience a high rate of depression and PTSD, I wouldn’t say calling it “rape” downplays the suffering of people who get raped outside of sex work.

        The 2 links I shared above are from South African and the other Australian sex workers. These are two very different countries but somehow the results are similar. I’ve also seen this kind of research about brazilian sex workers with similar findings.

        Also, I think Mia Khalifa’s recent fight against the porn industry, although it’s about a specific kind of sex worker, can help us understand better the overall problems with their working condition under capitalism

        this article is in portuguese but maybe using goo*le translate you can read it, its very good.

        Sorry for the shitty sources in the last paragraph btw