Sex Workers

Hello all. I am too tired for exclamation points. Today I'll be talking to you about women working in the sex industry. The sex industry includes jobs such as exotic/pole dancing, prostitution, porn, stripping, etc. You get the idea.

You already know my opinion on sluts and, by extension, my opinion on women's sex lives in general. It should left alone. To recap, women should be allowed to freely express themselves in whatever way they want as long they're comfortable and not harming anyone else. That's the whole point of feminism, so of course I wouldn't be putting sex workers in a negative light.

The only time sex work is a problem is when women are forced to do it because of poverty and are not protected by legislation in any way. That is the case for most women who do sex work; they need the extra cash to sustain themselves (and their families). Sure, some women do it just because they genuinely enjoy it. I'd take up pole dancing myself if I didn't look like a sloth.

How

Society tends to look down on sex workers. Notice how in the news, the news anchor is more likely to say "a man killed two prostitutes" rather than "two women" and they won't spend more than 30 seconds on the story. This is because prostitutes aren't even seen as people. Sex workers in general are seen as less than human because they're "selling themselves" for money.

Why? These women have lives. They have feelings, thoughts, emotions, dreams, and in a lot of instances, children and families. Yet we never really think about that. We never consider why sex workers do sex work in the first place. We dismiss them instead of really thinking about and understanding what sort of circumstances force women to do this.

There's also that annoying myth of personal responsibility. If you have to "sell your body" (again with the degrading language) to put food on the table, you dun goofed up. You were too lazy and slutty and stupid to be able to have a "good" or "real" job. You don't need experience or training to be a stripper or pole dancer or porn star or whatever, right?

Wrong. Strippers and pole dancers alone need years of experience with ballet and gymnastics. Most pole dancers have dancing experience of some sort. They need to work out every day and stay healthy and fit in order to pull the stunts they do. Do you know how hard it is to physically strain yourself for an entire night and still look damn good while doing it? I look like I got hit by a train after just 20 minutes of light exercise (yeah I'm out of shape but that's not the point).

What is gravity

Also, if you're a porn star, you have to look perfect. That's thousands of dollars of plastic surgery we're talking about. Even your private parts might have to be altered (yes they can do that) if they don't look good enough for those closeups.

Prostitution's a bit different. Many of the women that are forced to be prostitutes are either poor or have been tricked into being integrated into the sex trade. Many of these women are then abused physically, emotionally, and sexually. But, of course, since prostitutes are dehumanized, there's little to no help available for them. Nobody feels the need to help them because they're regarded as parasites.

^A video that promotes a campaign called Stop the Traffik^

Prostitution is still illegal in most places, too, so if a prostitute is raped or assaulted, she can't go to the police because she was breaking the law, which is plain old unfair and unjust. Also, rape culture is a thing. Because the woman is a prostitute, it isn't seen as rape because she has sex all the time anyway. There's also that video up there, which reveals how many women really do end up in the sex trade/industry (there's a difference).

My point is that these women we call "prostitutes/whores/hookers/strippers" are people just like you and me. They're people with their own lives, some including families, poverty, or abuse and exploitation. We all have to make a living somehow, and we shouldn't be shaming other people for not doing it in a way that we personally approve of. I'm not expecting anyone to commend or look up to sex workers, but respect and equal treatment really isn't asking a lot.

- Carli_V