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?
I think the confusion results from liberals’ willful conflation of “supporting sex workers” with “supporting the sex industry.” In fact the whole language of support is probably so loaded and compromised at this point that it may be better to abandon it altogether. We don’t “support” sex workers in the sense of affirming their career “choice,” which (as you pointed out) in 99.9% percent of cases isn’t really a choice; rather, we support them as exploited members of the working class who are caught up in an inhuman industry. And a crucial part of that support is wanting to destroy the industry. Thus our messaging to sex workers should be the same as our messaging to the many people caught up in dead-end, unnecessary service-sector jobs: “we get that your job is exploitative, we want to take it away and give you something socially meaningful to do – something which you can be proud of as a human being and for which you will be properly compensated.” That, I think, is a much better way to reach people.