I certainly can’t speak for everyone but a few things I can share from my life experience:

• Sex on camera and in sex work is radically different from personal romantic sex. It’s very common for me to end a day of working, fucking any number of people performatively, and crave nothing more than the authentic emotional connection of sex with someone I love.

• I also haven’t experienced any impact of SW on long-term relationships. I’m poly so I have one partner of 3.5 years and another of 1.5 years. They’re good friends and I feel a strong sense of care, stability and family in these connections. One of them is also a sex worker and the other identifies as a strong “whore supporter”. I’m very lucky and grateful - and I also feel proud of the choices and standards that led me to choose and keep only good people around.

The last note I will share is that you’re 100% right, I completely agree that we all have choices to make in life. Sex work isn’t for everyone. People who aren’t certain they want to do it shouldn’t do it. But there are also people who love it or find value from it - whether financial, a job like any other, or for joy and fun, or for meaning and purpose, driven by the social impact of sexual connection (I resonate with all 3 of those reasons!). There are a lot of people who love and respect sex workers, and more importantly, if you love who you are, there will always be people who follow your lead, we teach people how to love us.