I’m not against those who work for sex, but the idea to earn for a living doesn’t seem nice. IMO, sex should be for 2 people (or more for others who prefer polyamory) who wants to be intimate/romantic with each other. My point is money should not be the purpose.
Why do you get to have an opinion on something between two strangers that otherwise doesn’t affect you
Sure, Im not directly affected, but feel bad for people needing to work for it.
Well that just seems like an opinion on the human mindset dating back thousands of years.
And what about women who marry guys for their money, in order to be trophy wives? Is that sex work?
And what would you suggest incels who are hopped up on repressed hormones and horny intentions do? Would you rather they rape an unconsenting woman? Or pay money to a consent for pay woman?
And what about women who ENJOY sex work? You know how they say never make your hobby your living? Well, maybe that doesn’t apply when you’re taking it in the ass for $1000, and orgasming all over the ancient oriential throw rug.
And what about porn? Should porn only exist from guys who leaked out private sex tapes? Without paid sex models who have no experience in acting, we wouldn’t have such jems as the lemon stealing whores! I LOVE that intro! I’ve never seen the actual porn side of that video, but sometimes porn unintentionally creates cultural masterpieces!
I mean, honestly! Whats better every Saturday night than lighting some candles, putting on some light music, and just wackin’ it to some pornagraphic video that highlights the peak of society. A woman trapped in the washing machine, and her stepbro finding her completely helpless!
And what would you suggest incels who are hopped up on repressed hormones and horny intentions do? Would you rather they rape an unconsenting woman? Or pay money to a consent for pay woman?
I would rather not have sex workers subjected to those people and that they instead get the thearpy that they need. Its crazy that you seem to imply that men who can’t get sex will just rape women.
And if they find sucking some dick less repulsive than sitting in a call center 10 hours a day?
Do you know they need to do it?
Ok yeah im not aware of those people tbh
Out of curiosity, why does sex need a purpose? Why should it be or not be for anything in particular? What makes it any different from, say, juggling?
Sex work isn’t just prostitution, by the way. It’s anyone making a living off of sexual content. If you’re shooting porn or are a cam girl, you’re a sex worker as well.
Prostitution is problematic in that currently, because it’s an illegal service, it’s largely being performed by people who don’t have a choice in the matter. Human trafficking is a huge problem. If prostitution were legalized and regulated, if the societal “we” changed our collective attitudes towards it, life would improve for a lot of people. I struggle to phrase this next bit in a tactful way. If you’re against improving the lives of so many people because it doesn’t align with your view of sex should be for, that’s pretty shitty of you. Not saying that’s the case, I don’t live inside your head, but that’s how I see it.
I’m not against it if they think it will improve their lives. As i said on my other replies, im opening my mind to this topic. I just feel bad for people who gets life ruined because of it. They are not forced to do it, but some need to go hardcore (no pun intended) because that’s their only way to survive during these hard times.
Office workers also sell their bodies.
Builders sell their bodies too.
Sex work is no different than any other line of work.
Adults have the abillity to engage in free enterprise, as long as all parties involved consent I see no issue.
Regarding sex, the only times you get to have oppinions about another persons sex life is…
…when you are part of it.
…when it involves underage people.
Why should money be a taboo reason to have sex? You don’t get to pick and choose what motivation other people have for sex.
You don’t have to engage with this type of enterprise if you don’t want to, so leave other’s alone.
In general, prostitution will allways happen, you can try whatever laws you want, but you can’t stop it. The only thing prohibition acomplishes is to deny sex workers the protections they need to stay safe.
Or if it’s not consensual, we should care about that too.
You generally implied this but it’s worth repeating.
Very true!
Thank you for bringing that to light.
I also condiser passive participants to be part of the activity and get to have a say.
Stuff like exhibitionism, don’t have sex in public view since that forces everyone in view to take part in your activity, even if only passively.
While I agree with your argument that prohibition has seldom made anything better, the problem with prostitution is that it often does not happen voluntarily. While the transaction itself might still appear to be, in the background there are dire lives and more often than not human trafficking and extortion.
Germany has tried establishing sex work as “real” and regulated work for voluntary self-employed persons, including healthcare and consulting services. In the end this lead mostly to a steep increase in effectively illegal prostitution, as pimps used cover-constructs. Consequently forced prostitution esp. from eastern Europe flooded the marked with dirt-cheap offerings.
There is no easy solution for this. I believe that as with everything that happens within isolated milieus the only way to effectively tackle this problem is to reach out directly to the affected persons on a broad basis. But this is laborious and costly…
You raise some very good points, I don’t want to pretend to have all answers.
Sex work is vulnerable work, and much depends on all parties involved earnestly waning to make and keep it safe.
As I was typing this, I thought that since we can’t trust the private sector with this, what about forming a government agency to deal with licensing and care of sex workers.
But I quickly realized that the organizational issues are just part of the issues, there have been many, many examples of administrators abusing their position.
There is no quick fix for this, the one thing I can think of is a cultural shift to raise the status of the work, then it could be a way forward, but this takes time.
While I generally agree with your way of thinking, one problem I see is that higher status sex work (i.e. escort services) are not the issue but are already very expensive. The issues get more severe the closer you get to the lower end of the spectrum. And there it gets difficult in judging or controlling what really is voluntary and equal exchange of values.
More governmental control might be a solution worth exploring. This could also be realised by legalising sex work exclusively in controlled establishments. However that again leads to higher cost on all ends.
Sweden has banned buying sex but not offering it, so only the Johns are punished if caught. But that is no real solution imo and I am keen on seeing the long term effects of this.
This is the right answer.
This is where a good ol’ “hate the game, not the player” applies.
I have no judgement of the people who do it to make money. Any issue I have is with the economy and culture that drives some to do it to survive when they wouldn’t otherwise choose to.
Your point about money shouldn’t be the purpose… but some people, especially women, are stuck where sex work is their best paying option. It’s not their fault.
In a perfect world where no one is forced to do any particular labor to survive, when consent is given 100% of the time, and everyone’s safe, I have zero issue with sex work from any angle. In this imperfect world, my issue is with the system and not the individuals working in the industry.
There are two main “career paths” here:
- Those that willingly choose sex work.
- Those that are pressured into sex work.
Imo, the former is perfectly fine (because everyone involved is consenting). The latter is problematic and the actual problem we need to solve.
So many people conflate the two and assume that all sex work is exploitation. All mixed in with the implicit sexism that says women shouldn’t have any autonomy over their own body and sexuality.
It’s a pretty high percentage.
But it’s a pretty high percentage for similar reasons to illegal pot sales funding terrorists or gangs/cartels. The legal status puts it way more in the purview of organized crime.
I mean, is it a high percentage? Feels like the kind of thing that you could fudge figures either way.
And yeah, we need to empower sex workers and give them legal and health support.
In the context of women being literal sex slaves, even 5 or 10% would constitute a high percentage that gave regular purchasers a reasonably high chance of encountering one. (I wasn’t intending to play that semantics game, but it’s worth noting regardless.)
I think it’s pretty high. There are legal places that have some safeguards in place, but in most of the world there’s just nowhere for a woman to say “I’d like to try sex work” and get an opportunity to do so. It’s inherently the people on the fringes of society, the runaways with nowhere to go who end up reliant on a predator, the people addicted to drugs that have no way to get their next fix, the people trafficked. Even the “high class” stuff, because there isn’t any legitimate entry point, is relying on tactics like calling it a modeling gig and then propositioning the models, and there’s an inherent element of coercion* to that as well.
*Coercion isn’t the perfect word choice but I’m blanking on a better one. Even if the intent isn’t explicitly to manipulate the women, the result is a lot of wild emotional swings, then a pitch when you’re still under their influence. And we’ve seen examples of people taken overseas and having their passports taken away, even by an NFL team. It definitely happens at a far more frequent level than we should be comfortable with.
I also know that male prostitution is a thing, and “women” isn’t comprehensive. But it’s mostly women.
I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said. I’ve just seen “it’s a high percentage” to be a dogwhistle for “all sex work is inherently exploitation so we should ban it.”, so apologies for assuming.
5-10% is far too high, yes. I don’t know if I’d agree with that figure (it really depends on what you consider sex work, tbh), but exploitation is a serious problem that needs fixing.
I don’t judge at all. Not all sex work is sex for money, but even in that case, I think it’s fine. There’s nothing magical about sex. And there can be lots of reasons a person might not get all their needs met within a relationship.
I do worry it can be a trap for some, but I think it’s a valid choice. Idk. I’m specialized (trapped) in IT work and whore myself out to corporations for money. Ultimately there probably isn’t that much of a difference.
I like looking at pictures of naked people, so I’m grateful to those naked people.
If sex is the question, I think yes (or thank you) is really the only appropriate answer…
Eh, sometimes “No, thank you” is also appropriate.
This is true. 😊
I think if it doesn’t affect other people, and nobody is being exploited/everyone is participating willingly, then it’s none of my business what others choose to do.
I’m actually trying to help sex workers, particularly porn Creators, use the fediverse to take control of their social media. I want to help them keep control of their own destiny - https://xxxiver.se
Sure it’d be great if basic needs like food, shelter, healthcare and yes, sex, weren’t commoditized, but until we get
SexicaidSexicare for All, I’m fine with people making money from sex and paying for it. Legalize and regulate it for the safety of the workers and the customers.^Someone please come up with a better name than Sexicaid^Sexycare, or maybe sexicare?
omg I’m an idiot I was trying to riff off Medicare for All and used Medicaid instead, Sexicare definitely works
Neutral. Everything depends on the people involved and the context. A lot of jobs don’t seem nice and money shouldn’t be the purpose. That’s more a criticism of the economy than of sex work.
Do I “approve” of sex work? It’s not my place to either approve or disapprove of what other people do with their time, their money or their bodies. The question is loaded to provide justification for your moral outrage.
I approve of it in that it’s legitimate work, unlike being a landlord, and lots of vulnerable people end up doing it as the only method of supporting themselves, as well as a lot of single moms trying to deal with making an income and parenting, etc. I would not disparage anyone doing it. Would I worry about their emotional and physical health and safety doing it? Yes. We have a sex workers collective drop-in center in my city who make efforts to try to help keep them safe, such as testing, condoms, etc, which is great. But I can’t help but wonder how someone’s mental health would be affected by just being a glorified blow up doll. There was an Ask Reddit once about what people saw on porn sets, and someone who worked on one said all the girls seemed really fake and unhappy and vacant emotionally, and that concerns me. I would not want anyone hurt by doing this work is my point, but I don’t object to them doing it of course. Just please take care of yourself!
Edit to add: last weekend my church took a potluck to the local park where there is a small tent encampment of unhoused folks and invited them to eat with us, which they did, which was nice, and although they were shy we all talked a little, and some of them were clearly sex workers from what they talked about. One had what I think was scabies on her skin, and that’s the kind of thing that worries me.
I have no stake in anything sex related, but I’ve known others which can be described as insatiable. If they are willing and able to do that for of work, then what’s the harm?
I like this answer, but he deleted. It’s still in my inbox so I’m gonna share but not mention the commentor’s name
In germany sex Work is a normal regulated job like any other. You are insured, receive vacation days, etc. It is accepted here as completely normal work like any other. Because it is. was once in a brothel with a friend. While he was in the room with a lady, talked to the others and asked why they were doing this job. The answer was “I like dicks” and “Its fun and pays very well” To be honest, the ladies seem to enjoy their work more (and earn a lot more) than any job I’ve had in my life.