Thread by @v_veidt

I was talking about my film yesterday and someone asked me why I care about sex workers so much. I thought I’d take the time to explain why I care about sex workers and you should, too. #SexWorkIsRealWork 1/

Full disclosure, I was a survival sex worker while I was #homeless. I used to carry a lot of shame over it, but I’ve made my peace with the experience. My experience is not universal. 2/

For starters, you should care about sex workers because we’re people, and there is a basic level of empathy that any decent person should maintain for others. I could end right here. 3/

There are many reasons people use to justify withholding empathy from sex workers and I’ll aim to tear down the big ones here, starting with the opposition to sex work as legitimate work 4/

I feel I should explain #SexWorkIsRealWork Sex work is the trade of labour via a service in exchange for the ability to meet basic needs. That may be exchange for money or for goods, services, or access to basic needs. 5/

My first experience with sex work was trading sex for a dry, warm, optimistically safe place to sleep. I have also traded sex for medical care and other basic needs that were not otherwise available to me. 6/

Without getting too far into my political persuasions, it’s fucked that access to basic needs is so tightly restricted that anyone, even a single person, can fall through the cracks. 7/

Sparing the gruesome, traumatic details, sex work was an option that was available to me to keep me alive, but once again, my experience is not universal. People have different reasons for getting into sex work. 8/

Some simply enjoy the work, others enjoy the social connection that often results from the work, some do it for the flexibility in scheduling, or for accessibility, some do it because it pays better than other jobs they are considered qualified to do. 9/

To be clear, there are many other reasons people get into sex work, this these are just the ones that come to mind immediately. Now, what makes sex work legitimate? 10/

There are many reasons people dismiss SW as illegitimate. There’s entitlement to sex, there’s the persistent regressive belief that gov’t should be able to limit bodily autonomy, there’s puritanism and the belief that one’s religion should be the universal basis of morality, 11/

But what I find most often is a misunderstanding of sex as labour. Clients, consumers, and armchair philosophers of sex work without experience as sex workers simply do not understand how taxing sex work is. 12/

Enter what I call the myth of leisure and luxury. Often, people believe that because sex is socially expected to be enjoyable, that sex workers are essentially being paid to have fun. 13/

That comes with the expectation that sex work is a leisure activity and not a taxing one, and that sex workers are somehow cheating the order of the world by double dipping and receiving enjoyment and compensation. Leisure and Luxury. 14/

Let’s get into some basic labour theory. At its core, labour is understood to be the trade of one’s time, effort, and prowess in exchange for goods and services (by way of money) that enable an individual to maintain a livelihood without being self-sufficient. 15/

Labour is basically the social construct that allows us to direct our lives without needing to embody an entire society as an individual. Imagine for a moment a world in which each individual needs to procure their own food, shelter, and other basic needs. 16/

Now apply that to a society as advanced as Earth in its current age. Imagine needing to be your own doctor, your own tailor, your own construction worker, and your own farmer. Life would be unmanageable and our society as it is could not be supported. 17/

By specialising, individuals are able to offload responsibilities onto others and trade for access to goods and services. Labour is one’s means of selling a portion of one’s very life to secure the necessaries of life. 18/

This also empowers leisure time so that life is not a constant cycle of toil and sleep, which in turn creates both demand and the opportunity to specialise in entertainment. Further implications abound, but let’s get back to sex work. 19/

Sex work fits into the puzzle of labour in the same way as entertainment. The demand created by the opportunity of leisure for the consumer necessitates specialists to provide leisure goods and services. 20/

That means people specialise in providing goods and services that allow others to enjoy their lives. While a consumer may enjoy music, and a performer may enjoy creating and performing that music, labour is still being provided… 21/

For sex workers or other types of entertainers, a consumer does not pay just for the good or service, but for the specialisation that goes into it. Just like you pay a carpenter for the skill they have developed, not just to provide a body to do work. 22/

A sex worker is someone who specialises in the performance of sex, just like a musician is someone who specialises in the performance of music. Sex workers are putting on a show for you. 23/

This applies to strippers, porn stars, full service sex workers, and any other form of sex work. A lot of work goes into nurturing the sexual fantasy of the consumer, and that work is based on skills developed by the SW. 24/

People complain, however, because sex work has a low barrier to entry compared to, say, musicianship. Let’s talk about “entry level jobs” a bit. 25/

Using the example of fast food workers, there is a regressive belief that because the labour provided is not dependent on an extensive history building skills, these jobs should not qualify for the same benefits as other jobs. 26/

You see this come up in living wage debates. #fightfor15 campaigns are a good example, even though many of them are fighting for a minimum wage that is still well below a living wage. 27/

SW is often compared to “entry level jobs” because people can get into it without first having the background to perform at a high level of skill. I have a rant prepared about “entry level jobs,” but this is not the time. Essentially, it means that one can learn on the job. 28/

This leads to a belief that if sex is to be paid for, it should have a low price because it is a job available as “entry level.” What is not taken into account in this regressive belief is the amount of work and cost that goes into the performance. 29/

Wigs, makeup, lingerie and other clothing, sex toys, locations, security and vetting, health supplies, and so many other factors drive up the cost of this supposedly “entry level job.” 30/

With sex work, clients are paying for billable hours, not simply the act of sex. Clients pay for the spectacle, the skill, and the trappings of the experience. It would be silly to suggest that someone build a house for $15/hour with no budget for materials… 31/

It would be just as silly to offer a musician $15/hour to perform without covering instrument and equipment, venue, and supporting staff costs. That’s not even factoring skill into the equation. 32/

Once you consider skill, it would be like getting legal advice and instead of paying a lawyer, just saying that it was just talk and anyone can do that, then leaving without payment for services rendered. 33/

These are silly scenarios, but they will be relatable to the sex workers reading this thread. SWs hear it all the time, that sex shouldn’t cost money, that SWs are unskilled, that anyone could do the same job and someone out there will work for less. 34/

Then there’s the aspect of financial security. A sex worker could charge a low rate for their services, but that would necessitate constant work. With constant work comes instability and the inability to maintain certain standards. 35/

Think about a musician again. A skilled musician can entertain a crowd for an hour, maybe two with breaks, after which the ability to continue is impaired. Voices strain, fingers tire, athletic performance feats wear out the rest of the body. 36/

Watch a @lizzo concert and try to tell me you could do that 8 hours/day five days/week. 37/

Sex workers need to prioritise livelihood. SWs need to figure out how much they need to make ends meet, then divide it by the amount of work they can actually perform while considering how much clients are willing and able to pay. 38/

That’s not even considering the emotional labour and personal hardship that goes into the work. 39/

By now, dear reader, you should see the difference between recreational sex and sex as performance. Once sex work is understood as work, there comes the question of why to care about these labourers. 40/

There is also a baseline I expect of a decent person to extend empathy to all labourers, who are part of the tapestry that keeps society functioning in its full richness, but then there is the layer of stigma. 41/

When empathy is withheld from sex workers, people die. There are a lot of emotions tangled up in there, but without a core of respect for the humanity of sex workers and our needs to maintain a livelihood, we are targeted and harassed, injured, and killed. 42/

This is similar to the dehumanisation of people experiencing homelessness. We are often portrayed as vermin to be exterminated, and there is no difference between that line of thought and any other target of genocide. 43/

I care about sex workers not simply because I was one, but because I recognise that not caring about sex workers has deadly consequences. There’s more nuance here, and I’ll elaborate if asked, but for now I’ll concentrate on the extreme. 44/

This begs the question: why don’t sex workers just do something else for work? To that I’ll first reply, would you ask that of your favourite musician, painter, actor, etc? Remember, sex work is performance. 45/

I’ll post another thread about criminalisation and the social benefits of sex work in the future, but for now I’ll stick with the labour and humanity ingredients to the conversation. 46/

The “why don’t you just get a different job” argument against sex workers neglects the demand for sex work. Remember when I was describing basic labour theory? Yeah, sex is just as in demand as music. 47/

Sex workers, and this is an argument in favour of decriminalisation, provide an in demand service. That demand will not disappear in the absence of sex workers. Expanding on that goes down a ghastly road that I want to avoid for today. 48/

Now may be a good time to mention that in my experience as a sex worker, I did experience a period where I was trafficked and my labour was stripped from my control. Someday I may feel comfortable enough to talk about that openly. 49/

The point is, sex workers fill a niche that is and forever will be in demand. Sex workers are also labourers, just like any other. I care about sex workers because we are ordinary people and deserve the level of empathy people provide to their in groups. 50/

Make no mistake, we are among your social circles. By embracing sex workers, we can prevent violence against real people based on an arbitrary emotional reaction to their job. 51/

We wouldn’t target food service workers, carpenters, musicians, or any other labourers with violence because of their trade, so why are sex workers an exception? 52/

If you found this thread enlightening or useful, please consider pledging or spreading the word about my documentary Distance: Sex Work in the Pandemic seedandspark.com/fund/distance-…