Why do people hate sex work?

Great Debates
1

Hey all… in another thread there is some discussion going on about porn…you know, good ol’ porn that nobody looks at and everybody disapproves of. :rolleyes:

Aaaanyway, I got to thinking about the whole topic of sex work. Sex work is exactly what you think it is: everything from prostitution to stripping to porn acting to telephone sex to domination-for-hire (I’m gonna have to try that one of these days with my sweetie…heheheh) .

There is an attitude in this country, and I think it’s fair to call it the dominant attitude, that there is something fundamentally wrong with doing any of these things. Maybe some people think that stripping is ok but prostitution is wrong, for instance. But I’m gonna make a wild bet here and say that 9 out of 10 of you have a problem with sex work on some level.

Now, I’m not talking about you having a problem with doing sex work * yourself * - it’s definitely not for everyone. So leave that out of it. But sex work by others. Where do you draw the line? At what point does someone’s involvement in sex work render them unacceptable in your eyes, the sort of people you would never associate with or want your (grown) children to know (or heaven forfend, BE).

Most importantly…why? Seeing as this is GD, on the SD, I think it behooves y’all to make a strenuous and logical defense of your feelings on the matter. I’m really interested.

So…?

stoid
Pornographer.
Stepdaughter of a prostitute. (Who became one AFTER she got with my father, and they are together to this day, for 25 years)

2

Well, you know you all are only in it 'cause your parents let you be exposed to porn! :wink:

Anyway, I, for one, have no problem with anyone in the sex industry. I think prostitution should be legal and regulated, I don’t think most women in porn movies are being exploited against their wishes, I don’t think Larry Flynt is the Anti-Christ, and I think your site is cool.

But you don’t want to hear from people like me so I’ll open the floor to the others!

3

No problems either. If somebody wants to do that stuff, more power to them. I’ve talked to a couple of strippers and one prostitute and they all said they enjoyed what they did. The prostitute was a fairly high class one so it’s not representative I’m sure.

The only thing negative about it is some of the industry people who might influence people into doing things that they might not want to do. There is also a problems with pimps who exploit prostitutes and use treats to basically enslave people.

As for the actual people however, it’s a free world IMO and once they’re doing what the want to, or need to do it’s not my place to stick my beak into their business.

4

Nope, no problems with it… unless you referring to ME doing it. In which case, I believe that if I became a stripper, the entire adult entertainment business would collapse overnight (I’m that damn hideous!). This, in my mind, would be a Very Bad Thing (we all love the adult entertainment industry, don’t we? I sure do!)

5

It’s funny. I normally don’t have any problem with it. being a huuuuuge consumer of pornographic material, wanting to be a part of the industry somehow (actually, now I am - three cheers for the internet!) and generally approving of most of it no worries.

But sometimes I’m influenced by how it is portrayed on a goody goody television show.

You know, the suggestion that it’s sad that this wonderful woman, with so much potential, is reduced to being a prostitute to earn a few dollars here and there and bring up her son all on her own, in her run down apartment, where cockroaches rule the roost etc etc blah blah…

When I see images like those, I can’t help it. I see it just as they are pushing it at me. Hook, line, and sinker.

Then afterwards I think, the sex industry should be legalised, regulated, and treated equally and just as openly as any other profession. It’s a service that has a high demand, so should be recognised.

6

The reality is that the sex industry has many faces. As the old canard goes, for $20 you’re a whore, for $500 a call girl, for $5,000 a courtesan, and for $50,000 a career woman.

I am opposed to the whore end of the industry, because I believe that most women who sell sex for a pittance are doing it because of desperate circumstances, not out of a knowing, intelligent, coercion-free choice.

My opposition lessens as the elements of coercion lessen. A woman addicted to crack, with no marketable skills, offers $20 oral sex in the front seat of any car that’ll pick her up. I am against any system that allows or encourages this.

  • Rick
7

Nope. No problem with it. Sorry to mess up your preconceptions, stoid. :wink:

I worked in the industry for about 2yrs. My problems revolve around the shifty, no good, liar-scammers that I worked for, not the industry itself.

8

So that’d be laissez-faire capitalism you’d be against, yes? :smiley:

Anyway, my position and the one I ran on in the election are as follows:

  1. Selling is legal.
  2. Fucking is legal.
  3. So why isn’t selling fucking legal?
    (Apologies to George Carlin)

That’s the hard-nosed end. The more bleeding-heart Kneedipper end is the idea that if prostitution is legal, that permits the establishment of workplace safety codes; eases providing social services to poor women (and men) who become prostitutes; and makes it easier for prostitutes who have been victims of crime to go to the police.

As for the rest of the sex industry, I can’t think of any reason why it shouldn’t go about its business. We just had a really sweet Supreme Court decision that severely limited a precedent called Butler, which had permitted Customs agents to seize shipments of “pornography degrading to women”. (Of course, this ended up letting through Hustler and Penthouse and the like, but keeping gay bookstores from getting their shipments of by-women for-women lesbian erotica.)

9

I agree with Bricker. I think a major mechanism by which the systems abets those “elements of coercion” Rick mentioned is the underground nature of prostitution in most places. Repeal of “victimless” crime laws and establishment of sex industry oversight would help eliminate the more unsavory aspects of sex work. --Say what you will about regulation of industries, at least it tends to prevent widespread abuse of industry workers.
(And, on preview, what matt_mcl said.)

10

Having not thought too much about sex work, my feeling toward it tends to be a general unease. I think that’s mostly on a personal level; that is, I could never be a sex worker. My first instinct is to say that I don’t have a problem with sex work, nor do I think it’s fundamentally wrong. But I am uncomfortable enough with it to admit that I would be upset if my sister told me she was a prostitute.

I think that these feelings come, in part, from a lack of exposure to or understanding of sex work(ers). I saw an interesting documentary recently, Live Nude Girls Unite, about strippers who fought to be unionized. After seeing it, I felt I had gained some insight into what these women are experiencing.

11

Sex should not be work.

That is, if done properly.

12

Um, everyone who avers no objection to pornography and prostitution, did you pay attention to where Stoid says

I find it hard to believe that there are many people out there who would be okay with their sons and daughters doing this (or their moms, whether regular or step-).

13

I wouldn’t want my mother (assuming she was still alive) working on an oil rig either. However, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t worry if she ran a mail order sex-aid company from her home. One can disapprove of a particular occupation as a career choice without denying the legitimacy of said occupation.

14

Anything goes. As long as it’s consenting adults.

Sex is not “dirty”. I’m as open minded as they come. I also think the dumb-ass pornogrphy laws in the USofA suck.

You can thank (most)religion for the “sex is dirty/bad mentality” in people.

15

For all of y’all who are saying that you have no problem with the industry… suppose you’re interviewing people for a job. You notice on someone’s resume that that person worked as a prostitute for four years to pay the bills while going to technical college.

Now granted, that’s an unrealistically ballsy thing to put on the old resume, but still… you know there are people out there who have done this. I know someone who worked as a male prostitute while working on his PhD. It’s not on his resume.

My opinion? I wouldn’t want my kids to grow up to be in the industry, but I’d rather they did that than end up on drugs or becoming thieves. There’s a whole list of things I want my kids to do, and a list I don’t want them to do, and working in the sex industry is definitely a don’t.

16

A clarification… suppose the resume stated that the applicant worked as a prostitute somewhere it was legal to do so…

17

I think there’s something of a Catch-22 at play with the prostitution issue. I would be upset to learn that my sister was a prostitute mostly because I would be terrified that (a) she might be exposed to STDs, (b) the people who run prositution are often hard core criminals which leads to dangerous situations, and © prostitutes are often the victims of crimes that they can’t or won’t report. If prostitution were legalized in the US, a lot of these things would go away, and it might be considered a more respectable career (eventually, not overnight). But, I doubt it will be legalized unless more respectable people enter the profession and demand things like dental plans. And they won’t enter the profession because it is currently unsafe and unrespectable…

Right now, if I saw prostitution on someone’s resume, I would be mostly alarmed that they put something illegal on their resume. To me, this would demonstrate poor judgement and I would be very wary of having such a person work in my office. If it was clear that the person had worked as a prostitute somewhere where it was legal, then it wouldn’t matter to me.

The other things mentioned – selling sex toys, phone sex workers, stripping – these are not for me personally, but I don’t have a problem with other people doing them. I would be much more upset if I found out a family member was working in a circus with animal acts. Now that scandalizes me.

18

I have no problem with the people who work in the sex industry, and when I meet a stripper I don’t think I treat them much different than I would treat any other stranger I might meet. BUT, I would never want my children to get into that line of work.

First of all, as much as I disagree with it, prostitution is illegal. I can’t understand why anyone would be okay with their children being in any career that is illegal, with all of its instability and dangerousness.

In my mind, porn is not as bad, as it is illegal, but I still would not want children of mine getting involved in it for several reasons. For one, they will have to deal with the stigma of having that profession, which is not fun to deal with among “normal” folk. Secondly, I’d have to worry about all those STD’s, even if this can be mostly stopped by using protection. Third, and this is probably because I have trouble understanding the profession myself, I would have to worry if something like this might affect his/her personal life. I mean, one of the things that makes a relationship special in my mind is that there are certain personal things you share only with your SO. You no longer have anything like that when your on film doing it with others; there’s already enough strain during a relationship without having to deal with that as well.

I would mind stripping the least, but I still would not like my children to get into that business. It seems to me that it can be very seedy and corrupt, and it still does have that stigma attached to it that would make dealing with other people strange at times.

But on top of all those things, I would always encourage my children to try to get a career which uses their mind, not their body, which stripping, prostitution and pornography are the epitome of.

PeeQueue

19

Oops, third paragraph should reas: as it is legal.

PeeQueue

20

Ok, Stoid, I’ll do my best.

I think that repressive attitudes (not laws) about sex are healthy. Why? Because no form of contraception has yet been devised which is one-hundred percent effective at preventing either contraception or disease. Contracting a disease may be a legitimate risk one can choose to take, but I believe that creating an unwanted life, regardless of what happens to it before of after birth, is one of the most profoundly undesireable acts imaginable, nearly on par with taking a life (which is often the result). It should be avoided at nearly all costs. I suppose that to be a prostitute is no worse than be equally promiscuous and undescriminating without engaging in prostitution, though I doubt very many prostitutes are quite as undescriminating when they have sex for pleasure. (There aren’t that many women standing on streetcorners trying to flag down any and every passing car, who aren’t prostitutes, after all.)

Pornography (at least soft-core) may not involve the same risks, but it encourages them. Don’t give me that BS about providing an outlet–when I see naked women in lustful, provocative poses, it makes me want to have sex! Even if I take, er, other steps, it still increases in me the desire to find a partner. Besides that, pornography promotes a more casual attitude towards sex. I, at least, get a lot more turned on by the sight of a promiscuous college girl flashing for a camera than someones parents going at it the bedroom. In our society, some of us, at least, ahve been taught that sex is something special and spiritual that can lead to deeper love and intimacy between people. While not every one find this to be true, it is hardly an “unhealthy” attitude to have or promote, especially given the possible concequences of free sex. A great many people in our society, however, are moral hedonists, and not even “enlightened” ones. People increasingly seem to believe that if something feels good and doesn’t obviously and immedialtely harm someone else, do it. We have little understanding or appreciation of the virtues of patience, self-discipline, and self-examination. I think that doing anything that indicates or encourages the view that human being are nothing more than playthings is morally wrong.

[hijack]BTW, Stoid, I visited your website. (Purely out of intelecutual curiousity, mind you!) It is very nicely done, but I have to confess, I found something about it slightly creepy. No, not those pictures of my grandmother. (Where did you get those?!?) It’s just that many of those pictures were taken when the unintended concequences of sex could be much worse! In the back of my mind, I kept seeing images of mercury being used to treat syphilis and back alleys used for abortions. Not quite the intended effect, I am sure![/hijack]