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There are two main "career paths" here:
Imo, the former is perfectly fine (because everyone involved is consenting). The latter is problematic and the actual problem we need to solve.
So many people conflate the two and assume that all sex work is exploitation. All mixed in with the implicit sexism that says women shouldn't have any autonomy over their own body and sexuality.
It's a type of entertainment. As long as the people involved are of legal age and gave consent... I don't see a problem with it
It's just work, and it's just as valid as any other kind of work. I 100% approve of people who are of legal age and mental capacity that willingly do sex work.
Sucking a dick or fucking someone for 100 bucks is no worse than someone doing construction work.
I think within a capitalist system it is going to exist regardless of how illegal you make it so it should be made legal so that it can be more thoroughly regulated. However, I don't believe anyone should have to sell their body to make a living no.
So while I disagree with prostitution as an industry because of how it commodifies people (especially women) I don't think making it illegal within a capitalist society is a solution that helps anyone. Ultimately I would hope for a society in which prostitution would never be necessary for someone to meet their needs, one where love could be free but that isn't a realistic goal at the moment
I think sex work is more honorable than many lawful professions. It's really unfair that prostitutes have higher rates of workplace violence than insurance sales.
Maybe fair is the wrong word.
Are you suggesting folks working at insurance companies should experience any workplace violence? It'd be better if both experienced as close to zero as possible.
Not encouraging violence against anybody. Just observing that some businesses routinely treat their customers worse than prostitutes treat theirs, and that courtesy isn't always reciprocal.
Yeah, I rubber stamp it all.
It’s isn’t for me or anyone else to approve or disapprove of what others do for a living. If they aren’t hurting anyone, it’s none of anyone’s concern.
Adults have the abillity to engage in free enterprise, as long as all parties involved consent I see no issue.
Regarding sex, the only times you get to have oppinions about another persons sex life is...
...when you are part of it.
...when it involves underage people.
Why should money be a taboo reason to have sex? You don't get to pick and choose what motivation other people have for sex.
You don't have to engage with this type of enterprise if you don't want to, so leave other's alone.
In general, prostitution will allways happen, you can try whatever laws you want, but you can't stop it. The only thing prohibition acomplishes is to deny sex workers the protections they need to stay safe.
Outlawing prostitution is the same as outlawing drugs, it doesn't fix the problem, it just makes it unregulated...
While I agree with your argument that prohibition has seldom made anything better, the problem with prostitution is that it often does not happen voluntarily. While the transaction itself might still appear to be, in the background there are dire lives and more often than not human trafficking and extortion.
Germany has tried establishing sex work as “real” and regulated work for voluntary self-employed persons, including healthcare and consulting services. In the end this lead mostly to a steep increase in effectively illegal prostitution, as pimps used cover-constructs. Consequently forced prostitution esp. from eastern Europe flooded the marked with dirt-cheap offerings.
There is no easy solution for this. I believe that as with everything that happens within isolated milieus the only way to effectively tackle this problem is to reach out directly to the affected persons on a broad basis. But this is laborious and costly…
You raise some very good points, I don't want to pretend to have all answers.
Sex work is vulnerable work, and much depends on all parties involved earnestly waning to make and keep it safe.
As I was typing this, I thought that since we can't trust the private sector with this, what about forming a government agency to deal with licensing and care of sex workers.
But I quickly realized that the organizational issues are just part of the issues, there have been many, many examples of administrators abusing their position.
There is no quick fix for this, the one thing I can think of is a cultural shift to raise the status of the work, then it could be a way forward, but this takes time.
Or if it's not consensual, we should care about that too.
You generally implied this but it's worth repeating.
Very true!
Thank you for bringing that to light.
I also condiser passive participants to be part of the activity and get to have a say.
Stuff like exhibitionism, don't have sex in public view since that forces everyone in view to take part in your activity, even if only passively.
This is the right answer.
The choice/situation blends in with every occupation so as long as no aggression or wrongful leverage is involved.
Do I "approve" of sex work? It's not my place to either approve or disapprove of what other people do with their time, their money or their bodies. The question is loaded to provide justification for your moral outrage.
If you feel like money is a corrupting factor then don't hire a sex worker.
For my part, they're some of the chillest people I've gotten to know, and they're not hurting anyone just by their existence.
Not to mention that literally every action that even tangentially ostracizes or criminalizes sex work has horrifying blowback against victims of human trafficking and against sex workers in positions of vulnerability.
The Craigslist purge for example led to waaaaaaaay more dangerous working conditions for sex workers since it removed one of the few tools they had to reliably vet possible clients.
There's literally no approach to sex work other than just letting them fucking be that doesn't end up causing exponentially more harm to completely innocent people than could ever morally justify doing anything except just letting them fucking be.
What is your purpose, trololo? I’d really like To know.
Office workers also sell their bodies.
Builders sell their bodies too.
Sex work is no different than any other line of work.
If both sides can choose who to engage with, would that sway you? It doesn't necessarily have to have the sweetness of intimacy or romance to it, it can be a fantasy and a means to an end.
It is also called the world's oldest business. They have done it long before I could ever judge it, and they will continue afterwards, whatever my judgement may be.
Sure it'd be great if basic needs like food, shelter, healthcare and yes, sex, weren't commoditized, but until we get ~~Sexicaid~~ Sexicare for All, I'm fine with people making money from sex and paying for it. Legalize and regulate it for the safety of the workers and the customers.
~~^Someone please come up with a better name than Sexicaid^~~
Sexycare, or maybe sexicare?
omg I'm an idiot I was trying to riff off Medicare for All and used Medicaid instead, Sexicare definitely works
My point is money should not be the purpose.
Take this and apply it literally every aspect of western culture. It seems like you personally have strong feelings about how you think sex should be, but there are many, many people who disagree. We live in a society, I say mind your own business if someone's doing something you don't like that also doesn't affect you
This is where a good ol' "hate the game, not the player" applies.
I have no judgement of the people who do it to make money. Any issue I have is with the economy and culture that drives some to do it to survive when they wouldn't otherwise choose to.
Your point about money shouldn't be the purpose... but some people, especially women, are stuck where sex work is their best paying option. It's not their fault.
In a perfect world where no one is forced to do any particular labor to survive, when consent is given 100% of the time, and everyone's safe, I have zero issue with sex work from any angle. In this imperfect world, my issue is with the system and not the individuals working in the industry.
Yes. All the issues with sex work come from cultural and systemical issues. For example that it's very opaque for people outside of the industry, the stereotypes you have to deal with, people judging you constantly or it's not illegal everywhere.
And not to say there's not some fucked up shit happening in the industry.
I think the argument should be the same like with drugs: it's generally good, but it can be a problem and just for the transparency and oversight we need to make it legal everywhere but well regulated. That's my opinion.
I don't judge at all. Not all sex work is sex for money, but even in that case, I think it's fine. There's nothing magical about sex. And there can be lots of reasons a person might not get all their needs met within a relationship.
I do worry it can be a trap for some, but I think it's a valid choice. Idk. I'm specialized (trapped) in IT work and whore myself out to corporations for money. Ultimately there probably isn't that much of a difference.
Do you not believe in casual, not romantic sex?
Yeah i forgot about casual thingy. Maybe i should edit my post to include that, but the idea of money being involved is not something i'm comfortable with (yet? - i'm keeping my mind open for this discussion)
It's not for you to be comfortable about unless you're planning on paying or getting paid for it. That's like someone who paints their miniatures and agrees to paint the miniatures of a friend not feeling comfortable about money being involved, because he's doing that for other reasons, but there are professional miniature painters.
Anything you do for fun you're likely to be uncomfortable charging for, but you need to remember that that's not your job, and regardless of what your job is there's a good chance that someone out there likes to do the same thing for fun and would feel uncomfortable charging people for it.
It doesn't appeal to me either but I can imagine for some people it would
I like looking at pictures of naked people, so I'm grateful to those naked people.
If sex is the question, I think yes (or thank you) is really the only appropriate answer...
Why do you get to have an opinion on something between two strangers that otherwise doesn’t affect you
I have an opinion because it affects anyone sexually active that is not in an exclusive relationship. Legalized sex work would increase sex worker healthcare, directly reducing national STD numbers.
