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If your feminism doesn’t include supporting sex worker rights, than you aren’t a real feminist. Here are 10 reasons why decriminalizing sex work is a real feminist issue. refinery29.com/amp/en-us/2016…
Prostitution is absolutely just another job, as is stripping, pro-domming, cam modeling, and porn performing. These jobs should absolutely be decriminalized and de-stigmatized. #sexwork #sexworkiswork #sexworkersvote
Many intelligent, well-informed self-described feminists believe sex work should never be decriminalized. In fact, the decriminalization of sex work is perhaps the single most divisive subject within feminism today. #sexwork #SexWorkIsWork #sexworkersvote
This divide is the result of a moral blind spot on the part of anti-sex work feminists or “antis.” They conflate all sex work unconditionally with rape, trafficking, and patriarchal exploitation. #sexwork #sexworkiswork #sexworkersvote
Ultimately, this is based on a (very un-feminist) distrust of the loud and powerful testimony of sex workers themselves, who have called over and over again for decriminalization to keep us safe from violence, stigma, and exploitation. #sexwork #SexWorkIsWork #sexworkersvote
1. Representations of sex workers in pop culture are reductive. #Sexworkers make for tidy metaphors. Whether you want to create a modern Cinderella fantasy or portray the very real vulnerability of women to violence, a sex-work stereotype is always readily available.
1-a Representations of #sexworkers in pop culture are reductive. Just like any stereotype, these representations are usually dehumanizing, and they misinform the general public about what sex workers are really like. #SEXWORK #sexworkiswork #sexworkersvote
But all of it is used to sell products. Female sexuality is a powerful tool, and sex work is one way for women to harness that power for their own profit and control. #sexwork #sexworkiswork #sexworkersvote
Stereotypes of sex workers tend to be reductive stereotypes of women, because we’re seen as easy targets. Need to convey desperation? Make her a stripper! Want to show a woman falling from grace? Have her dabble in escorting or simply hang out with escorts.#sexworkiswork #sexwork
2. Every woman deserves the agency to choose the job that’s right for them at the time. Many people assume that all sex workers are exploited. The reason is that people can’t relate to the choice to have sex with someone for reasons other than romantic attraction. #sexwork
Sex work might be the best choice for someone who is economically disenfranchised. That doesn’t mean she loves every second of her job; it means it was one option available to her to get something she needed. She should not be criminalized for making ends meet. #sexwork
3. Sex work stigma is a class issue. There are so many different types of sex work: “full-service” prostitution, professional BDSM, stripping, cam modeling, and porn performing, just to name a few.
Decriminalization of prostitution would positively affect already legal sex work, such as porn performing and stripping, because it would destigmitize it. Less stigma leads to more — and better — options for women.
4. Misogyny against sex workers is misogyny against all women. Since sex workers are more disenfranchised than the average woman, they often become targets of explicit misogyny and sexist double standards.
Sex workers have fought back against this in all kinds of ways, not the least of which is in reclaiming epithets like “whore,” “ho,” and “porn star,” much in the same way that “bitch,” “cunt,” “queer,” “dyke,” and other words weaponized against women can also be reclaimed.
5. Sex workers are scapegoats for rape double standards. Maybe the most disturbing sexist double standard against sex workers is the idea that we can’t be raped.
Sexual assault laws are based on ideologies about sex, violence, and gender, and lawmakers will often use sex workers as scapegoats. When these standards are created, they affect everyone.
6. Women have long gone uncompensated for emotional labor. Sex work, like sex itself, is about more than just genitals rubbing up against each other. Sex workers have to manage the egos, emotions, and moods of their clients. And that a LOT OF WORK!!!
7. Condom profiling makes policing of sex work a public health crisis. Did you know that the police can use condoms as evidence of prostitution? For this reason, many sex workers who are vulnerable to the police don’t carry or use that form of protection.
The World Health Organization has stated that, “Sex workers, their clients, and regular partners are key populations at risk for HIV infection. Contextual factors such as stigma and poverty may further exacerbate sex workers' vulnerability to HIV.”
The removal of laws criminalizing sex work will mean more people will have access to HIV prevention and care. #sexwork #SexWorkIsWork #sexworkersvote
8. Sex work is an option available to trans women, but they aren’t always treated equally. At least one in five transgender people surveyed report experiencing employment discrimination. Sex work is often an option, yet they are disproportionately singled out for violence.
Many advocates for trans women of color, like Janet Mock and Laverne Cox, consider sex work a key issue, and trans women are some of the most hardworking, vocal organizers of the sex-worker rights movement.
If you care about trans rights and representation, then you need to listen to the stories of trans women, particularly trans women of color, for whom criminalization can mean getting stuck in a cycle of disenfranchisement.
9. Conflating trafficking with consensual sex work hurts trafficking victims. This is the most contentious issue in the feminist sex-work debate. All forced labor should be illegal, and that there are many kinds of sex work that are safe and consensual.
But criminalization of sex work can hinder the fight against trafficking — for example, victims may be reluctant to come forward if they fear the police will take action against them for selling sex.
Where sex work is criminalized, sex workers are also excluded from workplace protections which could increase oversight and help identify and prevent trafficking.”
10. You might actually enjoy a world in which #sexwork was legal and destigmatized. #SexWorkIsWork #sexworkersvote
Imagine: If sex work were legal, attitudes about who can hire a sex worker and what it would be like might be transformed.
Think about it. What if you could hire someone who was well-groomed, who would meet up with you when you want, to listen to your problems, cuddle you, rub your shoulders, go down on you, or take you to pound town… and then not blow up your phone with the feelings they’ve caught?
And none of this was original material. Huge shout out to the author Tina Horn!!!
