roach-works:
someone got really mad at me for being pro-pornography so i’d like to be annoying for a little longer:
-there are enormous problems with exploitation in the porn industry that harm and endanger the people within it, and that harm is carried out mostly against women and minorities
-this is Bad
-however the last century of passing laws against pornography hasn’t actually helped any of those problems, and what sex workers tend to advocate for is the legitimization of their labor, so that they can then access the same protections and regulations that people in other industries can access
-for instance football players, miners, roofers, and warehouse workers are also exploited and endangered by their professions, have to work long hours, and can end up traumatized and disabled by unregulated and unsafe working conditions. these people are used up and thrown away by powerful bosses they can’t individually challenge.
-however because these industries are not de facto illegal to participate in, when these people form unions and demand better working conditions, they can at least fight for their rights.
-sex workers, who engage in heavily stigmatized work that’s also often illegal, have little recourse to demand better treatment.
-even if you don’t like porn, and especially if you don’t like porn, if you care about the women who are exploited in pornography, you need to advocate for the legality of pornography.
-the more illegal the porn industry is, the less safe and fair it is, and people will still be working in it, no matter how illegal it is.
-again: the porn industry should be regulated like any other industry and subject to laws guaranteeing fair compensation for labor, safe working conditions, and legal resources for workers suffering exploitation and abuse.
-once it is legal to do sex work, then women can bring charges against the men who have broken their contracts and abused them.
-and that is why i push back against posts saying that pornography is evil. it is an entertainment product, made by people, to meet an ongoing demand. criminalizing the consumption and production of it may slightly lessen the demand at the incredible cost of endangering everyone involved. and i think that is what’s evil.
This ^
What does not, will never, and CAN NOT help sex workers is pushing them to the margins of society, stigmatized and unsupported, with the police breathing down their necks and at CONSTANT risk of losing their housing, income and social safety nets.
Universal basic income, healthcare, housing, education, labor rights and legal protection, these are the kinds of things which will help sex workers gain autonomy from the industry they are exploited within, same as any literally other worker.
Personally I think sex work is fine, actually, and people should be allowed to do it if they want to, and trying to “eliminate” it is a stupid idea that has consistently failed for all of recorded history, but if you want to reduce the number of people doing sex work, then your political project MUST BE to make sex workers safer, healthier, happier, and more free as sex workers. Only full legal protections and recognition of their status as workers will make it possible to address the structural issues of the industry they work in.
Let me reiterate though: your project must be to make sex workers safer and more free - not the imaginary civilian that you have in your head, the purified person which you are certain the sex worker will definitely become once you have rescued them from their degradation. You have to care for sex workers as human beings AS THEY ARE, HERE AND NOW.
You cannot help sex workers if your only goal is to make them stop existing. If you cannot extend your care to sex workers, but only to the imaginary people you think they ought to be, then you are fundamentally incapable of doing anything to help solve the problems of the sex work industry.
You don’t have to like sex work, you don’t have to encourage it or admire it, but if you want to do a damn thing to help the human beings who do sex work, you have to stop seeing them as a problem to be eliminated and start seeing them as equals who deserve your solidarity.
Anonymous
