We're trying to reduce the numbers of hours a person has to work.
We talk about the end of paid work being mandatory for survival.
Partnerships:
/join #antiwork)
I ain’t gonna judge how one chooses to sell their body, time, safety, health, etc. But we do need to treat sex workers like other workers and ensure they have safe working conditions and the freedom to leave their employment at will. Heck while we’re at it we should extend it to agricultural labor too
You're crazy! /s
Especially agricultural work, as there is equally as much (sexual) exploitation happening!
I feel people who equalise sex work with other jobs downplay (immensely) the toll sex work has on the majority of sex workers.
It is really not comparable to construction work or any other job. Even in countries were sex work has long been legalised, there is no other job, by a long shot, which has so many people suffering from PTSD, drug and alcohol abuse.
To be blunt, that's not at all relevant to the fact that they should have the same rights as everyone else if they do choose to do it.
Are you aware of any sources specifically evaluating participation in sex work as a causal factor in mental and substance disorders (as opposed to sex work represented more prominently in populations already affected)?
Yes, this study corrected for reports of CSA, lower income, etc. in people who are drug addicts. For those who are additionally sex workers they found:
increased rates of mental and physical health problems (eg, suicide attempts, anxiety, STDs, and bloodborne infections) and use of some health services (eg, emergency department visits for women and mental health services for men)
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/482625#SEC2
There aren't many studies done which correct for mental health issues before someone starts as a sex worker. Even less which achieve a long-term study over a cohort of sex workers where not ~80 % can't be found anymore for various reasons.
But there are a few on how to protect the ~~Johns~~ sex workers from STDs. I leave the interpretation of this inbalance in research to you. :-)
If two effects are correlated, then three possible causal relationships are possible.
A first effect may cause the second, or the second may cause the first, or a so-called third variable may cause both.
It is possible that an individual who has been afflicted by certain difficulties is more likely to participate in sex work.
It is also possible that individuals from certain populations are more likely to participate in sex work, and also, due to being associated with the population, are also more likely to be afflicted by certain difficulties.
Both possibilities must be considered as alternative to sex work causing such difficulties, to explain the correlation.
I do know how correlation works. The study above shows that, when you correct for previous mental health issues, for lower socioeconomic status, low income, drug abuse, etc. sex work increases various mental and physical health risks and mortality.
Um, law enforcement comes to mind.
Not to say PTSD and unhealthy coping problems aren't a valod concern, but if we're going to try to reduce jobs based on how taxing they are on the human psyche, there are a number of fields that are respected that also qualify.
Off the top of my head, schoolteacher and service industry worker. Cooks amd wait staff.
No, apparently not even war veterans have similar high rates of PTSD.
For sources you can look here, for example: https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-017-0491-y
Or here: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-459170/v1.pdf
When you consider that even in countries like Germany it's almost exclusively poor women from other countries, often single mothers and/or already with mental health issues, who do sex work, I think it's very naive to believe the job is the same like flipping burgers or construction work. Or that these issues only stem from stigma and working conditions.
I believe that all work under capitalism is coercive and workers do not fully consent to wage labor. Sex work is work under capitalism, therefore many sex workers are not fully consenting during sex due to the coercive nature of capitalism. Sex without full consent of both participants is rape.
If sex work is bad because a woman's sexuality should be saved for her husband,
And if the husband's role is to provide work in turn for his wife's sexual access,
And if being gay is bad,
What does it make you when you go work for another man?
JC Denton stands against prostitution
This is ridiculous to equate the two in all cases. Jobs aren’t inherently built around that like sex work is. Jobs, in a capitalist society are but not universally. Sex work is
Sex work is only inherently built around debasing and dehumanizing yourself if you consider sex itself to be debased and dehumanizing. It's a service profession like literally any other.
It is not about sex, it is about money. Because money is something people need to live it calls in question whether or not the sex is freely given or coerced. If a person has sex with someone not because they want to do so, but because they have to, I do not think there is much difference whether or not the threat comes from say violence or starvation. If people want to have consensual sex I think that is great in all forms that can take. If the consent is contingent on monetary compensation I think there is a high chance, though admittedly not entirely certain, that the sex is being coerced in some way, which I would say constitutes rape. Why do you think it is okay to have an uneven allocation of money in a society so that those on the top can do with those on the bottom as they want?
Why do you think it is okay to have an uneven allocation of money in a society so that those on the top can do with those on the bottom as they want?
Of course I don't think that's okay, don't put words in my mouth.
My contention is that sex is morally equivalent to any other form of labor, and I believe that the pedestal we put sex on as a society is a manifestation of patriarchy. It's no coincidence that for most of human history, sex work has been one of the few labor markets where women have an advantage over men, and thus controlling sex work has been one of the major tools at the patriarchy's disposal for controlling women's bodies. The impulse to control sex work is the same as the impulse to force them to wear specific clothing, the only difference is that in Western societies one of those forms of control has had a massive philosophical edifice built around it and the other hasn't.
This is such a lib take that it pains me to read it. The whole post is worth a read, btw.
https://proletarianfeminist.medium.com/the-problem-with-the-phrase-sex-work-is-work-bdac613eb2f0
Such a complete misunderstanding of the industry is the result of a flattening of distinctions between all work and a misunderstanding of Marxist theory. Wage labor is exploitative because of the surplus value extracted from the workers' labor. Prostitution is sexual exploitation because it feeds off of extreme vulnerability to maintain a class of prostitutes, coerces sex through money and power, and exposes those women to high amounts of rape and violence. Not all work involves coercive sex, not all work comes with the high risk of rape and male violence in whatever legal context it operates under. Not all work puts the body and it’s component parts on the market to be bought, sold, and rented at will to the highest bidder.
I read the article and my main contention is that it doesn't establish why we must treat the performance of sex as morally different to any other form of service work. As I said in the other comment I believe that the way we are compelled to treat sex as "different" is a manifestation of patriarchal thinking - there is nothing fundamentally different between a woman who is coerced by poverty into prostitution and a man who is coerced by poverty into agricultural work, and the ways to solve the exploitation in both cases is the same: organization of the workers against the bosses, the abolition of bosses altogether and shifting control of that industry to the workers in it, and ultimately the abolition of the capitalist mode of production that incentivizes maximum exploitation of all who participate in it.
as a sex worker, i don’t find it either debasing or dehumanising
i have a well paying job and i do it because i want to
I honestly don't know if I should up or down vote. The way you phrased that, after rereading it several times, I still can't understand exactly what you're trying to say.
Could you try again please?
"some guy"