Do you approve sex work? Why or why not?

Cataphract , 37 minutes ago

I’ll kinda take a different approach since everyone’s covered the basics with sex work. The problem with how you’ve presented it, is you’re defining an act on how you perceive and want to regulate it. The simple question becomes, “should people have bodily autonomy?”

Everyone has a different opinion on what can be considered intimate/romantic. Some people feel a full body massage is too intimate, others a dinner with a co-worker is too romantic (not agreeing, just throwing out examples). If we start regulating based on how someone feels something should be perceived than it’s a slippery slope. I can fully understand that you believe sex to be romantic while also realizing that others don’t feel the same way or view it as a positive aspect of it. If it’s not being forced on you then it shouldn’t be a problem what consenting adults do in privacy.

BestBouclettes , 47 minutes ago

Sex work is going to happen whether it’s legal or not. Might as well regulate it and provide sex workers with a legal framework, healthcare, retirement funds, etc.

Sauvandu60 , 51 minutes ago

No. Like sexual liberation, it’s harmfull towards human civillization.

BananaPeal , 1 hour ago

I think it should be legal and regulated. It’s a service that people want and others are willing to fill. We just need laws to protect all parties, particularly the workers.

“Selling is legal. Fucking is legal. Why isn’t selling fucking legal?” -George Carlin

OurToothbrush , 5 hours ago

Sex work is work, and work (tying your capacity for labor to your continued survival) is bad. Sex workers should be supported like any member of the proletariat

Sex labor on the other hand? Sure as long as you have removed the exploitive element that comes with work.

vzq , 1 hour ago

Can you elaborate on the work vs labor dichotomy?

I’m not familiar with the concept, especially because in my language the two would be almost exact synonyms in this context (unless you are Hercules or what not). And Latin languages just get the one.

modifier , 4 hours ago

I think it’s dangerous now, without regulation and protection, and I think it’s a long way from how I feel it will eventually come to be viewed; as something more akin to performance art or a form of therapy.

SoylentBlake , 2 hours ago

Not gonna lie. I know about 50 women with psych degrees. Out of these 50, exactly 2 of them use those degrees and theyre both escorts.

Women should sue higher education writ large for the swindle that is a psych degree. Any promise that it would lead to work was a known lie. That shit is crack to women. Go figure out yourself, and other people, sprinkle in true crime and look at that. Dean’s were more predatory than pimps.

TheBananaKing , 8 hours ago

Sex work is work.

The people that do it deserve respect, and all the social and legal protections that attach to any other kind of work.

Your own preferred attitude to sex isn’t the point.

Funkytom467 , 6 hours ago

But should it be work?

Should we really have a society where selling your body is an opportunity to make money.

For instance, it imply that some poor women are gonna take it regardless the consequence, just because it’s the best alternative to pay the bills.

I can barely tolerate the physical straining we put on some workers. Sex work’s consequences are unacceptable to me in that same sens, sometimes worse.

So sure, no matter your opinion we should respect them, and not incriminate them!

And of course not all sex work is the same… to be acceptable it just requires better conditions. It can’t be something you choose out of need.

Subtracty , 6 hours ago

Regulations would help, but create their own hurdles.

Funkytom467 , 6 hours ago

True and tested.

The best help is probably indirectly having better social policies overall. Although never perfect, the best we are the lesser the problem.

AgentRocket , 3 hours ago

selling your body

i hate that phrasing to describe sex work. no one is “selling their body”, as they are still in control of it. sex workers provide a service, same as a masseuse or hair stylist (except their service involves genitals) and it should be treated as such.

Otherwise one could argue that all (physical) labour is “selling your body”

SorteKanin , 2 hours ago

For instance, it imply that some poor women are gonna take it regardless the consequence, just because it’s the best alternative to pay the bills.

How is this principally different from a poor person taking any shitty job to pay the bills? Like garbage collector or similarly unpleasant/disrespected jobs. The system always forces poor people to settle for shitty jobs. Sex work is not the issue there, the system is.

intensely_human , 2 hours ago

Yes. I am a libertarian.

bjoern_tantau , 3 hours ago

Friend of mine used to be a whore. She says it has been the most fulfilling and fun job she has ever had. She got to meet many interesting people. And she also has a lot of funny stories to tell.

It was also fun for her that she could get tax breaks for underwear and other sexy clothes.

queermunist , 4 hours ago

I don’t approve of work.

Leviathan , 4 hours ago

Yes.

If they hurt no one else and infringe on no one else’s rights I have no business policing what two consenting adults do with their bodies, time and/or money.

Edit: it should also be totally legal, like all drugs.

Rivalarrival , 4 hours ago

The purpose of sex should be defined by the participants, not by third parties. Government (public, third party) interest in the private act should be limited to protecting the participants from fraud, undue influence, unexpected diseases, unexpected pregnancies, violence… Basically, so long as everyone involved in the act is aware and freely agrees to the purpose, the actual purpose is functionally irrelevant.

Sex work is work.

I can see regulations against establishing an employer/employee working relationship, and instead mandating a private contractor relationship: an employee can disciplined or fired for failure to perform, or for refusing to serve the employer’s customers; a contractor can pick and choose their own clients.

The right of assembly; the freedom of association should broadly protect mutually consensual activities.

13esq , 4 hours ago

I think whether anyone approves of it or not is really irrelevant. People have bought and sold sex for thousands of years and will continue to do so.

The only questions is whether you think the sex trade should be illegal or stigmatised. My personal opinion is that criminalising sex work is a fools errand and that it’s no ones business if two consenting adults want to trade money for sex.

shinigamiookamiryuu , 5 hours ago

The choice/situation blends in with every occupation so as long as no aggression or wrongful leverage is involved.

scrubbles , 5 hours ago

I think a great example is OnlyFans. Pornography is close to full sex work, so it’s a fair comparison. Here was a field that was dominated by predatory companies and people in the worst places. Actors and Actresses frequently talked about how they were abused, pushed beyond what they thought was acceptable, underpaid, hurt, raped, and honestly still worse.

Enter OnlyFans, a more legitimate way for workers to create their own content, their own pricing, set their own rules and their own boundaries. By legitimizing pornography and pornographic actors it made the entire thing safer for the workers themselves.

It’s natural that sex work would follow this. It’s wildly known that sex work is not a safe business, and it’s extremely predatory. Taking our opinions out of it completely, if the options are A) let the extremely terrible and predatory underground business continue as it has or B) legitimize the business, add protections, and allow them to set their own rules - well then, isn’t the moral option obvious?