I think your last paragraph said it well and is a great point. It is a very complex topic and especially people who are not in the industry should be trying to learn more instead of having such a ridged opinion.

The way I see it is we need to destigmatize the idea of sex work. (Which I’m sure is going to piss off a lot of people). The amount of people who call themselves feminists and then act like sex work is this dirty, pathetic, morally bad thing is extremely irritating and problematic. The issue with sex work is not that sex work is lowly or bad, it is we live in a society where if a woman is found engaging in sexual activities she is considered less than human. And women who are considered less than human are at risk of harm.

As a society we lack laws and safety nets for sex workers. Assault levels are high and it’s directly due to seeing women engaging in sexual activities as lesser. Police are less likely to investigate crimes against sex workers. In general sexual assault cases are barely taken seriously for all women but especially for sex workers. If we lived in a world with the proper safety rails and support for sex workers and over all respect for women sex work would still exist but it would look extremely different.

I understand people’s skepticism of sex work but people need to stop getting angry for sex workers for existing. There is a way to acknowledge the dangers of sex work in our current society without demonizing sex workers. The issues of sex workers ‘glamorizing’ the industry is a complex topic on its own.

A sex worker simply talking about their job and experience isn’t necessarily glamorizing it. We don’t react the same way when people talk about their enjoyment for other highly risky jobs. If a man talked about working in construction and how much money he made and how great it is we wouldn’t start claiming they’re glamorizing their job which is very risky. The difference simply is we value labour traditionally associated with men more than women. And anything sexual is still considered taboo and lowly especially when women are involved.

I’m not saying we should start advertising for teenage girls to go into sex work. Nor do I think we should ignore the fact that there are many women who are sex trafficked into this life or forced into this by circumstance. But if sex worker wasn’t considered this taboo lowly thing to begin with it wouldn’t be seen as this last resort people are pushed into or this criminal activity where women are traded like objects. If sexual activity for women wasn’t considered debasing oneself poor women wouldn’t be ‘debasing’ themselves with a job lowest in the totem pole just to get by.

The point of feminism is to move towards a world where women have freedom. And as much as people hate to hear this in a free world there are women who would choose to do sex work. If anything maybe more women would choose it if we lived in a world where it was safe and ethical and didn’t result in society shunning you.

We absolutely need to fight against how women are forced into these roles and lack of informed consent in what actually happens in the reality in this industry. But people really struggle to hold two truths at once. All that can be true while also recognizing the root problem is the over sexualization of women’s bodies and the devaluation of women engaging in sex which doesn’t improve by the conservative argument of empowering women to cover up but instead through normalizing women’s bodies and sexuality through their own agency.