A topic worth discussing
Again with the "leftist"????? Yaaaaawwwnnnnnnnn.
And maybe you ought to realize that sex work is the most dangerous and poorly-rewarded, most exploitive industry out there. Maybe, just maybe, a few helpful initiatives could prevent this appalling slavery. But, nooooo, you use it to attack "leftists". Asshat!
Have not read the article yet but some real good discussion in the comments. I am not very educated about this subject, but i am an advocate for women’s health and safety and I feel that criminalization is unfair but i do not know what the likely consequences for legalization would be.
Look at Netherlands!
Anything to increase personal income in the deliberately scarce low wage job market....I am not for this tiny reform instead PEACE THROUGH GREEN JOBS LIVING WAGES FOR ALL @HowieHawkins20
Why oh Why are "leftists" always your target?
Oh, wait, could it be you are a knee-jerk "leftist" hater who only reads stuff that reinforces your dumb-ass prejudices? Hmmmmmmm.......
The writer raises some good points but I think at the heart of this problem is the fact that sex work has existed for all of written history and probably before. Like abortion, sex work is not likely to go away any time soon.
Legalizing, regulating and destigmatising sex work would go a long way to improving the lives of people who find themselves in the sex trade.
There are numerous flaws in this opinion piece:
This is yet another commentary on the subject which makes the incorrect presumption that all sex workers are women and all clients are men.
The people who support the rights of the individual to decide what they do or do not wish to do with their own bodies have nothing in common with so called second wave feminists. They do not fall in to the category of militant left wing crazies as do second wave feminists, who have far more in common with their militant right wing crazy counterparts when it comes to control over people’s bodies.
Like most people of the authors ilk, they presume that simply “getting a GED” will lead those who get in to sex work on a path filled with opportunity and comfort. They can’t really be that naive, can they? Many choose to get in to sex work simply because it is the only opportunity available to them which pays well and provides them and their famiily their one realistic avenue out of poverty and a lifetime of despair (a. la. Ivanka Trump, whose family will never have to live in poverty again).
The very nature of this article proves that the younger generation wants nothing to do with the author and her kinds particular brand of feminism, which is based upon a “big brother” approach operated under draconian control, rather than equal opportunity and treatment in the work place and under the law.
The reality is that men will be willing to pay for sex from those willing to sell it, and society needs to deal with that. Should the men be shamed for not being able to trade something besides cash (time, dinner & a movie, a night at the opera, whatever) to get laid? A whole lot of them don't seem to be able to, and the stigma of getting caught with a prostitute is short-lived, if at all.
By marginalizing sex workers we put them at even greater risk of harm, and make it easier for those exploiting them to get away with it.
If anyone has a good solution I'd love to hear it.
The idea of a woman who is incharge of her work, sex work or other, isn't very realistic, when you look at the numbers. Legalization and de stigmatization would definitely make an essentially exploitative line of work safer, but still, sex work is not a line of work that many women would choose, of their own free will.
@Burner no, it isn't something many women would choose. That could be said of many things people do for money, though.
I think, and have thought for awhile, that sex work should be legal and above board instead of hidden away. The more we know the extent, and who's doing what to whom, the better chance we have of understanding and solving (or maybe just mitigating it a s much as possible) complex socio-economic issues surrounding sex work.
@SeaGreenEyez There are also some very emotionally damaged folks who turn to sex work. And people who are hooked on drugs who turn to prostitution.
There is high end sex trade that's chosen - but then there's the other side - where people are forced into it.
Be great if we could remove those "forced into it". I'm sure you agree.
@SeaGreenEyez Oh I agree - decriminalize it! - I'm all for that!
Perhaps somewhere in there will be a psych exam where workers can get some therapy and be questioned as to whether someone is forcing them to do the work they're doing under duress.
That would be fantastic.
If it's legal it's also way safer from a medical standpoint such as testing.
@Burner yes, and look at not only the fact that prohibition of what people want doesn't work, but causes 5 problems for every one it claims to solve.
Some things just don't have perfect solutions, sometimes all that can be done is to attempt to do as little damadge as possible.
Remember, people suck.
@1of5 look at a same but different job... mining. Assuming miners in "civilized" countries are not slave labor or chattel, they are still selling their bodies... what are reasonable protections for these miners? Sex workers don't have licensing, training, OSHA.. the lone prospector is a thing of the past. How many horrific things need to happen to women, before they get the same protections.