Prostitution - The Benefits and Detriments of being a Sex Worker.
- Thread starter Jessiedog
- Start date
dessiato
4 years and I still cry sometimes
Yes, I agree, but the thread started out by asking about the perceptions of sex work, not what people wanted from working girls. It is this point that I continue to address.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
Oh.
I wonder what criteria the Job Centre use to decide which you can refuse and which not.
i.e.: "You have to be a masseuse or you lose your benefits !!! ??"
ericjarvis
give a feck for the feckless
Really. I find making music and having sex to be quite similar when it comes to the emotional intensity.
I'll have to disagree with you. Not for moral reasons (Ok, they come into it) but for social reasons. Perhaps anti social ones more so.
If a person has sex with an unusually large number of partners their chances of catching disease and passing it on are far higher than others in the community.
The more men that use her services, the higher the chances of infection spreading around. That's not a go at lasses that do this as the men are equally to blame but they are the hub of the problem.
_angel_
.
Did you happen to see The Big Question this morning? Some bozo in the audience said that being a prostitute was no more soul destroying than working in an office.
I know which one I would prefer.
that seems to be the same level as jessiedogs argument here.
Geri
wasn't born to follow
There was a man on there who had done both, and he said to him "I hope for your sake you never have to find out".
Jonti
what the dormouse said
It's a grubby business, but it's not the state's business.
The point of the "like any other job" argument is not to claim that they're subjectively the same, that the emotional impact of the work is the same as any other job. That's clearly going to vary a lot depending on the person, and no-one has any direct access to someone else's experience so the only way to find out is by asking.
And quite a number of pros do say it's just a job. That may be baffling and hard to accept. But folks might find a squaddie or a hangman's claim that their work of killing people is just a job hard to comprehend.
People are many and various and are bogglingly different in many ways, sexuality included.
The point of the "like any other job" argument is not to claim that they're subjectively the same, that the emotional impact of the work is the same as any other job. That's clearly going to vary a lot depending on the person, and no-one has any direct access to someone else's experience so the only way to find out is by asking.
And quite a number of pros do say it's just a job. That may be baffling and hard to accept. But folks might find a squaddie or a hangman's claim that their work of killing people is just a job hard to comprehend.
People are many and various and are bogglingly different in many ways, sexuality included.
ericjarvis
give a feck for the feckless
My point is that we seem to treat prostitution in a very different way to other occupations. I'm not convinced that some of that isn't down to habit, assumption, and prejudice, rather than any conscious logical beliefs.
My concern is that the things that force some people into prostitution also force others into dangerous, illegal, or psychologically damaging occupations. In my view it's these pressures that need to be dealt with. So when looking at prostitution it's important not to see it as something totally different. Otherwise there's a tendency to focus on the prostitutes as the problem and not the situation they are in.
My concern is that the things that force some people into prostitution also force others into dangerous, illegal, or psychologically damaging occupations. In my view it's these pressures that need to be dealt with. So when looking at prostitution it's important not to see it as something totally different. Otherwise there's a tendency to focus on the prostitutes as the problem and not the situation they are in.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Only if they could claim it on expenses.
tbh there's a lot of muddied waters on this thread and elsewhere between trafficking and prostitution and the sex industry. The three being distinct but overlapping phenomena.
Where's that lazy bugger Crispy when you need him to do a nice Venn diagram, eh?
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Because many people, for whatever reason (usually normative morality and/or media representations) view prostitution through a moral lens rather than a logical one.
While I may have a personal distaste for the fact that a person feels a financial necessity to sell sex, or feel a physiological desire to purchase sex, I don't think that using morality rather than logic to assess the situation is at all helpful. Infact it could be said that reacting on moral terms is a way of insulating oneself from the debate rather than participating in it.
Circumstances certainly contribute. The expensiveness of illegal drugs, for example, or the lack of grant to cover student costs, to give two very workaday examples.
Perhaps if we legalised drugs and legitimised prostitution we could at least close out some of the more distasteful current realities of prostitution, and also stop legally penalising those who do sex work.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
They're not at all alike. Both transactions may have consequences, but the severity of the immediate consequences are vastly different.
Jonti
what the dormouse said
This is true, but it doesn't get us very far. There's an awful lot of people in jobs that they'd chuck in tomorrow if they could get another, even at the same wages.
Economic coercion affects us all. Prostitutes are just like the rest of us in that respect.
_angel_
.
Why don't they consider prostitution then?
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Which begs the questions: Why do they differentiate, and, what are those differentiations based on?
Jonti
what the dormouse said
We're talking about the issue exactly because some do consider it; and some of those go on to sell sex for money.
I would find it very, very difficult if my mother, sister, wife ended up in that line of work. and i think i would find it difficult no matter how liberal and accepting our society would be toward prostitution.
it's got something to do with the nature of sex, i suppose.
but then it would be absurd to just base policy on my opinions! what do i know!
it's got something to do with the nature of sex, i suppose.
but then it would be absurd to just base policy on my opinions! what do i know!
Nah.
It's got more to do with nature of the environment that you were socialised within and, therefore, the prejudices that you've imbued therefrom.
Self awareness is a critical, if burdensome, virtue.
Woof
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
I must admit that while I have worked in a number of office jobs, many of which were demeaning and unpleasant, I have yet to work in one where day-to-day activities involved simulating mating rituals with complete strangers and having them pump bodily fluids into me. Though I suppose I'm just being oversensitive and that would really just be the same as changing the toner cartridge or something.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
It's not a very good Anthropology 101 then - people might conclude from some posts that there was no difference, anthropologically speaking, between carrying out demeaning manual tasks out of economic necessity and carrying out sexual behaviour out of economic necessity.
For many, many tens of millions of peeps, sex work - whether long-term full time, long-term part time, short-term full time, short-time part time, sporadically here-and/or-there, or any other permutation inbetween (or outside-of,) and including the occasional "one-off" ....... is simply a "job".
And, thankfully, one that happens to pay much, much better than anything else available.
In my view, there's nothing wrong in any way with taking advantage of that opportunity in whatever way possible in order to feed your extended family.
And those that are conned into buying the prohibitionists' agenda are, no matter how well meaning, damaging the welfare of huge numbers of poor people.
Start listening to the sex workers about what they want.
Not marginalisation, crimilalisation, ostracism, condemnation and moral judgement.
But rather normalisation, decriminalisation, inclusion, acceptance and moral tolerance.
Almost every prostitute on the planet will speak out against undue coercion, enslavement, abuse, violence, kidnapping and "trafficking".
Tens of millions would agree.
And yet, the trend seems to be to try and shut "prostitution" down as a bad thing in and of itself and put millions out of work while not addressing the real issues surrounding prohibition, globalisation and poverty.
Madness.
Woof
And, thankfully, one that happens to pay much, much better than anything else available.
In my view, there's nothing wrong in any way with taking advantage of that opportunity in whatever way possible in order to feed your extended family.
And those that are conned into buying the prohibitionists' agenda are, no matter how well meaning, damaging the welfare of huge numbers of poor people.
Start listening to the sex workers about what they want.
Not marginalisation, crimilalisation, ostracism, condemnation and moral judgement.
But rather normalisation, decriminalisation, inclusion, acceptance and moral tolerance.
Almost every prostitute on the planet will speak out against undue coercion, enslavement, abuse, violence, kidnapping and "trafficking".
Tens of millions would agree.
And yet, the trend seems to be to try and shut "prostitution" down as a bad thing in and of itself and put millions out of work while not addressing the real issues surrounding prohibition, globalisation and poverty.
Madness.
Woof
quimcunx
imprimeo, lamino, distribuo
I dare say there are some people who would commit sex acts for money but find fetching coffee for people in a meeting in an office sufficiently demeaning that they would refuse to do it.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
I'd sell sex acts for money waaaaaaaaay before I'd ever again dig roads in the cold, or clean toilets - if I could.
Woof
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