Asklemmy

If one person demands sex in return for not harming another, it is called rape and we rightly consider it to be a crime. If one person demands sex in return for not starving the other, many people seem to find it acceptable. I would never dare judge someone for the work they are forced to do by their circumstances, but 'sex work' (or whatever you choose to call it) is absolutely not okay. Those trapped in it deserve better.

Sex work is legal here, and I approve of it. It's hard work and I have a lot of respect for the people who do it.

Work is work. It deserves every bit of respect and protection as anything else.

If it is strictly voluntary, it is a work If it is forced for any reason, obviously not.

honestly if my body was anything else, I would try an OF or similar.

yes. why? because regardless of my opinion, when you make it illegal you make things worse for everyone. that goes for drugs, for people moving about on the earth, and all other such things.

Work is work.

Is sex work selling your body? Is doing masonry carpentry or road fixing work anything less than that?

Is sex work ethical? Is working for a weapon manufacture ethical?

I think the point on sex work is a different one: exploitation. That is wrong and should not be allowed or tolerated. But is it avoidable?

The focus should not be on the sex workers tough, but on the clients. The sex workers will always be there as long as there is demand for them.

So, yes, give sex workers the opportunity to work in a safe and not abused environment, so that it can be a choice like any other work. Which means, legalize, regulate, and so on.

Sex work wouldnt exist in an ideal world, as its usually not mentally healthy for the sex worker in the long term.

But since we dont live in an ideal world I would rather legalise it and create laws that protect sex workers instead of criminalising them.

Its the same with all drugs (including cigarettes and alcohol).

Edit3: improved wording a bit, and added info below; forgot to add this edit

Legalize and regulate.

I share this view with other issues our society faces as well.

Edit: forgot why.

Why:

Sex work as well as drugs will never be outlawed or enforced fully; looking at drugs, it is used as an excuse to jail the working class for slave labor as well as other things when you follow the money.^[[1] The Wire - Daniels Follows the Money | 01:34 | https://youtu.be/9PaBt441FBQ]

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.^[[2] https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-13/]

See, I wasn't really sure, but I think this thread has helped convince me that it's probably okay. I was for sex work before, but then I had heard that countries with more lax sex work laws had more human trafficking. But that might just be a result of work in our moder capitalist hellscape. Part of me thinks sex work should be illegal until capitalist is abolished, but part of that is probably just some ingrained puritan attitudes of sex and personal philosophy about its intimacy. It doesn't mean the state should ban people from selling it and it doesn't mean I have to partake if it's legal.

I'll probably keep reading this thread to evolve my attitudes on the subject more, but thanks everyone for the interesting comments on a subject I don't think about much (sex work... Sex itself I think about all the time lol).

My approval is irrelevant. People do it, and people pay for it, so it deserves all the same respect and rights as any other work. No one's value comes from my opinion of what they do to pay the bills, and it is not my place to tell people what sex "should" be.

Yes.

I used to think it's impossible for a human to "want" sex work and default to the idea that it is inherently exploitative. Don't get me wrong, there is exploitative sex work. But if that part is not present and they are willing to work there, what right do I have to stop them?

im a believer in victimless crimes legalization but I do think it should come with big regulation and not just to collect taxes. Advertising should be restricted to the adult establishments (in other words they should all only be able to advertise at their own places so no billboards on the road but walk into a liquor store and it will be all over once your inside). health and safety should be paramount (both johns and hookers should be regularly tested. hookers monthly and doctors should be able to give one a card to say they show no stds after testing on such and such a date you can get once a year). There should be regulation that establishments cannot have over a 20% and can't charge anything additional if they do take a cut.

Yes.

If they hurt no one else and infringe on no one else's rights I have no business policing what two consenting adults do with their bodies, time and/or money.

Edit: it should also be totally legal, like all drugs.

They often say it's the oldest business in the world. Which might not be relevant to how we should treat it as a society today, but what seems obvious to me is that when you de-facto criminalize and discourage something the working conditions are going to suffer.

There probably isn't a place in the world where it isn't practiced yet we love to pretend like we're somehow past that. Not sure how much of that is based in religion and how much is just us being in denial of our own biology-based desires in a secular modern society. Either way it is hurting people who are just as entitled to making a living as anybody else.

If someone is willing to do something I don't want to do and get paid for it, yea, I think it's work.

Yes and no. I generally don't care what consenting adults do between each other no matter if there is money involved.

BUT: I have also seen the ugly side of sex work due to working as paramedic in some not so nice areas. Very often sex work is not really consensual and very often people are forced into it one way or another. We have to definitely handle this situation as a society. This includes more accessible social welfare (and yet we are miles ahead of the US here), very rigid surveillance of the situation and prosecution of people exploiting sex workers.

Funnily enough I think porn by now is far worse than sex work - while someone can get past sex work somewhat easily (I know a consultant doctor who is a former sex worker) by simply changing the environment it is almost impossible with porn. The internet does not forget and while you can always deny doing sex work for porn there is physical evidence that people did that. Add the upcoming AI fakes and it becomes even more of a problem.

Tbh,I have no idea how we should tackle that problem.

I disapprove of other people's choices only when it negatively impacts the life of others. If sex work is legal and regulated and taxed and there is a robust social safety net, then all that's left to disapprove of is the sex itself, which is for religious zealots, not normal people. Sex is a drive honed over hundreds of millions of years, there is literally nothing more normal.

If it has been made illegal, then I may disapprove of the laws which make it illegal (ie: we don't disapprove of anti-trafficking laws), but if such laws are in place, I cannot approve of the illegal work, because unsavory shit comes along with it that negatively impacts other people.

Totally fine, work is work, you decide what you want to do with your life and if that fills the gap more power to you.

We need more regulation though, like Amsterdam where if you're working you have to get weekly check ups, and psychological counseling should be freely available.

Sex work is a good industry but it also harbors trafficking which needs to be cracked down on hard.