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?
Absolutely. Personally I have considered it before because I’m nigh destitute. The fact that I’d let strangers do those things to me when my relationship with sex is otherwise very complicated and requires a lot of trust to get to that level in any normal relationship says a lot to me about how fucked it all is. I’ve had relationships fracture and disintegrate because my partners felt it necessary to engage with the sex trade. There is no comparable feeling to knowing your partner is being raped for cash, while you just sit there and wait for them to get home, just hoping they don’t get murdered. Telling your partner your worries yet knowing they’re an adult and you can’t and shouldn’t control them – them responding “I need the money.” Is this what liberation looks like? Is this what fucking feminism looks like??
However to your main point my experience with it doesn’t mean my opinions outweigh others’ on the subject either, of course. There is some truth to liberal idpol and laning discourse culture that kills fruitful conversation in its tracks. The problem arises when people who have done no studying, have no experience, and are not at-risk make shitty dehumanizing takes from no authority… “no investigation, no right to speak” as it were. But laning is not conducive to healthy conversation, either.
I know how you feel. I have dear friends who have recently started escorting. They say they feel “powerful” and “liberated.” They’re also relatively privileged people who don’t actually need to exploit themselves. They just like lonely rich men paying for their vacations and luxuries.
Which is just another example of how the people who “benefit” from this rehabilitation of the rape trade are often petite-bourgeois (sex entrepeneurs to be more correct, not “workers”) and how the rape trade actively exploits and harms men as well.