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Empirically, the vast majority of those who hire sex workers are men. But yes, as I said, it's a gross over-simplification. I would hope everyone opposes sex s
by istjohn 7y ago
Empirically, the vast majority of those who hire sex workers are men. But yes, as I said, it's a gross over-simplification.
I would hope everyone opposes sex slavery.
In the progressive circles I'm familiar with in my midwestern city (Columbus, Ohio), I've never seen anyone make a feminist case for decriminalization or legalization. The consensus among progressives here is that sex work is bad for women. The voices I hear in the national media do tend to be ambivalent if not outright pro-sex-work, though, so I agree it's not simple.
- saagarjha 7y agoI've heard the argument that criminalization fundamentally deprives a woman of the right to choose what to do with her body, which I'd consider a feminist argument.
- perilunar 7y ago> In the progressive circles I'm familiar with ... I've never seen anyone make a feminist case for decriminalization or legalization. Well there's plenty of sex workers online you could ask. They almost universally argue for decriminalisation (not legalisation) on feminist grounds.
- jkaplowitz 7y agoIndeed. I'm curious: Do the sex workers you speak with claim that decriminalization and legalization are two different concepts as applied to themselves, or do they reject the label of legalization as dehumanizing because it implies that a human can be illegal? (Yes, technically no anti-sex-worker laws claim any category of human is inherently illegal, instead defining some of them as criminals through outlawing certain activities, but you wouldn't know it from how much stigma is attached to public discourse about sex workers.)
- istjohn 7y agoLegalization implies decriminalization plus regulation.
- istjohn 7y agoYes, that's why I separated out feminists and sex workers in my analysis.
- jkaplowitz 7y agoI've head opinions and personal life stories directly from current and past sex workers, though I've never been one or been a client of one. I even know of one example who chooses to do sex work despite having lots of privilege and being simultaneously in training for a professional career, simply out of happiness and self-confidence with being desirable and desired physically/sexually without denying their own more intellectual skills and talents. (Not giving more details to avoid outing anyone.) I'm not an expert on exactly what proportion of progressives or feminists are hostile to sex workers. A confluence of societal factors (some but not all of which I mentioned in my previous comment) makes me believe that the subset that's hostile to them is better connected to the media, better funded, better organized, more privileged, and for all of these reasons easier to find and notice and hear on this topic. I don't think that says anything about the broader question of how common different views are or what different credible views have a significant number of adherents, merely something about our current Overton window.
- istjohn 7y ago> A confluence of societal factors (some but not all of which I mentioned in my previous comment) makes me believe that the subset that's hostile to them is better connected to the media, better funded, better organized, more privileged, and for all of these reasons easier to find and notice and hear on this topic. That may be. There is certainly a powerful stigma around sex work that prevents people like your friend from advocating for themselves.