Sex Worker Rights

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To liberate the sex workers you crack down and arrest the clients. With fewer clients, there is less business for sex workers. Sex workers are regarded as victims and the clients are regarded as sexual predators/deviants.

Check out the video I linked earlier, it specifically touched experiences with such laws. That suspected Sex Workers could have a great deal of belongings and money confiscated by police, their flats named as illegal brothels (which could follow them into the future), and those that helped them in any way could be called pimps. That frame of mind of simply regarding sex workers as victims is not simply some attitude you put up and thinking you are helping people who are being taken advantage of.

From my awareness, it is actually pretty gross to take some high horse view of either thinking sex workers as immoral hussies that tempt good men, or helpless people that need to be saved by their evil abusers. For one, we really should have moved past the likes of "slut shaming", like they are bad people just because some people are more open or giving of certain things. It is like that awful double standard where men could be congratulated for being with a lot of women, but women get shamed and treated like some sort of dirty worn-out shoe.

Sure, you can get some victims, but making it legal, regulated, and protecting the rights of the workers, will do better to protect than making people enemies of the law. After all, prohibition did not stop alcohol from being drunk, it just gave power for criminal organisations to profit and get power, while putting unsafe products into the market.

Now I want to link to Last Week Tonight's episode on sex ed.

“Prostitution” is what it is. The term is more specific than “sex worker.” “Sex worker” encompasses a broad range of activities in the sex “industry.”

It’s not a legitimate form of “work.” Sorry.

There is simply no way of keeping sexual crimes from happening to these people. It leads to objectification and dehumanizing attitudes and behavior towards the prostitute and women in general.

If people get an itch, they should scratch it themselves.

I doubt very many women actually want to do this as a “profession” when they could do something else. I believe in the concept of free education to open more doors for people who feel they are limited in what they can do to make a decent living.

If your friends feel marginalized, they should explore other career or educational opportunities that are out there.

Why not?



Yes there is. Having regulation that the worker can have rules and stop it at any time. Kind of feels like the calls of being dehumanizing are the likes of people who treat cleaners awfully because they clean up after people. People are worth respect regardless of their jobs, and that includes people who are paid to have sex. It dehumanizes neither them or women in general. Men too can also have the job, but on the opposite end of the scale they often get seen as a joke, which is its own problems.



Not that I have any personal experience, but I am aware there are many who simply cannot.



I won't deny that I too think that free education is a good thing to help free education can be a good thing to help people do what they want. But I also think there is a problem here in how sex workers are viewed, like they should be embarrassed that they paid their way through hard work and giving their customers a good time. There is nothing embarrassing about an industry of sex, as long as everyone is consenting and safe. Those who try to shame them like they are less of a person for doing so, they are the ones who should feel ashamed.

If one thinks that it cheapens human intimacy, then that is a them problem.

This post raises a lot of very interesting thoughts and questions about the human condition actually so I'm chiming in.

In a way I think sex bots could have been something close to the silver bullet on this except for a few key problems - one is how expensive they'll be if they're amped up technologically enough to be in any way interesting, and the other is that even if they weren't expensive, we're talking about tons of artificial materials, pollution, and where I'd agree this could get dehumanizing if we don't handle it correctly - treating them like clothing trends. I think they're more likely going to be suited for taking over service jobs and further reducing the need for people to be paid. IMHO we have to be careful with what we anthropomorphize, we've already reduce ourselves to the value of commodities or something close with the whole-of-life invasion of neoliberal capitalism into every nook and groove of life and the dating apps began to show just how little human values matter.

Where our culture is going will take a lot of maturity to navigate and somehow I don't see us wanting to elect people with any such traits to govern us - ie. it puts a damper on Darwinian evolution and it's part of why our gut feelings rebel against responsibility and sense-making.


Not many people want to sit down at a desk and beat themselves in the face with a brick for eight hours every day either, or she could be working on getting herself permanently disabled while trying to make the 'million in a month' club at the local Amazon warehouse. As the jobs and work world get worse, or as more otherwise intelligent people are stuck working at Walmart to afford a studio flat in some sketchy area of town simply because whatever they should have gotten a degree in is no longer needed, I think the incentives for this will actually continue to go up.

To liberate the sex workers you legitimize what they do for a living and you respect their clientèle's right to spend their money as they wish.

I’m not going to legitimize what “sex workers” do for a living because it’s too problematic and raises too many issues or potential issues. There’s no way to ensure safety which is the biggest problem.

Anyway, should we also respect “clients” enough to spend money as they wish when it comes to buying slaves, drugs, or a hitman?

The words “client” and “clientele” these days make my skin crawl. They are used to make many jobs seem better than they are.

@twilightprincess So you're saying this is wrong?

An even better solution is for people to stop choosing this “career path” entirely and for “clients” to stop going to them.

As for myself, I would never go to a "sex worker."

I can fulfill my "needs" in less expensive ways.

I once went to a "sex worker," took her to a movie, then decided not to partake of her "services."

If this sort of thing is legalized, I believe it must be STRONGLY regulated, with regular medical checks by the "workers."

As it stands now, "sex work" is heavily infiltrated by undesirable elements from many sides.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 19 Dec 2019, 8:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

And sex workers want to keep it illegal so that they don't have to pay taxes on their illegal incomes.

I think that there always will be undesirable elements involved whether it’s legalized or not. “Clients” can very quickly and easily cross a line that shouldn’t be crossed.

I certainly believe in programs that would help sex workers find something else to do.

You could say the same thing about almost any profession; bartender, truck driver, bouncer, operator of heavy machinery, snake handler, waitress, clerk in a department store. You can say that about Uber or taxies, that you cannot ensure the safety of the driver, bus drivers even. A lot of things can be done to ensure the safety of everyone involved, from licensing that checks a worker's age, mental health, physical health (such as STDs), and other things that can keep people able to check on them. To clients having to give identification, can be blacklisted for wrong behaviour, and someone on hand that can interject if rules are not followed.




Well, slaves are certainly illegal, don't see how that is comparable. Drugs can mean a wide variety of things and has had some history marijuana was gone after for racial reasons while being mostly harmless when responsible. And hiring a hitman is certainly, more along the lines that you are trying to get someone killed than you are using another person, kind of by the same metric hiring someone for sex work is just masturbation.




Kind of sounds like you watched too many seedy movies. A bookkeeper that looks after the accounts of its customers has clientele. A baker that makes cakes based on what common customers like, has a clientele. It only means something if you have bad perceptions in the first place

You can not “ensure” the safety of a prostitute. She could very easily be sexually assaulted. Punishing the crime after it occurs is not ensuring safety, nor is diagnosing an STD after she gets one.

And yet Americans think having more guns in circulation makes people safer? Sure, any time a woman (or man) is alone with someone else it could very easily sexually assaulted. The intention of these protections for sex workers is to make it incredibly clear of what rules are and repercussions can be expected, a lot of things in life work this way, but maybe even outlets and changing views could actually help. There can even be requirements of other people close by that can come quickly at a sign of trouble, distress technology could be rather simple, cheap and effective if things get out of hand. Clients might also be required to get check ups for STDs before being able to buy services.

Doing these things would be safer than the way things are now, where things are done regardless, the video I linked earlier even had testimony of sex workers saying that a lot of them fear more violence from police than their clients.

I have a limited but significant experience with sex workers and sex workers rights. Because this individual participated in Story Corps and he okayed the interview for publication and stored at the Library of Congress, and talked about sexuality for people with disabilities, I think I can share this bit about what I have learned from and through him.

"Johnny" has cerebral palsy and cannot control hands or feet, or head, or trunk. But his intellect and sexual capacity are intact. Due to his physical disabilities he cannot masturbate.

Through him, I talked to sex therapist who used to work in California where sex therapy workers are licensed to help people work through sexual problems. She told me that she was willing to work with "Johnny" and would not be charging him because it is not licensed in my state. "Johnny" had two visits with her and he was ecstatic about the experience.

From this, I deduce there is some kind of regulated sexual services in California. But I have not checked.

"Johnnie" also has a girlfriend who is a sex worker. She is disabled herself and specializes in serving people with disabilities. You can find her pictures and information on her website.

At the recent Gay Pride parade he participated in in his motorized wheel chair, "walking" with the sex workers, carrying signs for the rights of sex workers.

Sexuality for people with disabilities is a topic that makes people uncomfortable. It is risky, but it is risky for everyone, if you think about it.