Why are prostitutes called sex workers?

So the the ones who do not pay T&NI on "work that is not illegal" are erm..breaking the law?

..and breaking the law is illegal, non?

Yes. Tax evasion is illegal.

Prostitution isn't.

Glad we cleared that up.

Same as any other re-branding to fit it's new image as a trendy acceptable career choice. Clearly the work performed is nothing like that nasty, seedy, exploitative stuff associated with prostitution.

We also know that prostitutes are women. Men are not prostitutes, they are ‘male prostitutes’ if the word is ever used to describe them.

By renaming prostitutes as ‘sex workers’, it takes it a step from describing the oppressed sex and hides their specific oppression among a whole load of other activities.

Prostituted women are called sex workers because it benefits pimps. Pimps are also 'sex workers' by their own identificiation. These sorts of 'sex workers' make up the majority of people in unions and lobby groups, especially those who are influential and powerful. Pimps as sex workers can lobby for law changes which would benefit the pimps, and claim they're doing it for all 'sex workers'.

How many of the women in the so-called red light district of Shameful Leeds does one imagine pay tax on their "earnings" and enjoy the benefits and protections afforded to other workers in our country?

If it's work like any other work do they get holiday pay? Statutory sick pay?

I am specifically asking these questions to people who chant the sex work is work mantra...

Just to be clear I personally do not think that being paid to be used in that way is "work like any other work".

I'm not having a go at the women involved, rather the apologists for the scummy men that use the women.

Prostitution (or whatever you might choose to call it) is in my opinion a particularly nasty example of patriarchy in action.

So the the ones who do not pay T&NI on "work that is not illegal" are erm..breaking the law?

..and breaking the law is illegal, non?

Do prostitutes pay tax and national insurance?

Yes lots do, you can register as an adult entertainer.

Do prostitutes pay tax and national insurance?

If not, why?

How many parents hopeful for their daughter's future, based on years of academic study, would sanction her signing up for a 'Sex Work' degree? What does that tell us about sex work, class and power?

Sex work does not sound any nicer to me than prostitution. Like goose wrote it includes strippers, cams etc.

I am not seeing what others are seeing of it being a euphemism. Anything but.

I think the idea is that it suggests agency. "Prostitute" can be used as a transitive verb: you can prostitute someone else, or you can be prostituted. But you can't be sex workered. The term only works as something that you do yourself.

So yeah - in cases where that agency corresponds to the reality of a person's participation in it, I can see why a sex worker would be offended by someone calling them a prostitute. But in the many cases where it doesn't, calling the person a sex worker is a euphemism because it's attempting to avoid the reality of coercion and exploitation involved. And that's offensive in a different way.

Sex work does not sound any nicer to me than prostitution. Like goose wrote it includes strippers, cams etc.

I am not seeing what others are seeing of it being a euphemism. Anything but.

Fifteentoes - not too literal but offensive, patronising and ignorant of whole discourse around women’s rights and understanding of rape and male entitlement. Don't shift your piss poor reasoning to arguing about OP’s semantics

I'm not quite sure what we're arguing about here. I didn't mean to say that sex work is a good things and certainly not that the coercion and exploitation involved in much of it is a good thing. Nor do I think it's "just like any other job".

That's not what the OP said though. They said that prostitution "isn't work" because (a) it's seedy, and (b) it's illegal.

That just doesn't make any sense. Whether it's seedy in someone else's judgment makes no difference to whether it conforms to the definition of "work". And in most countries it isn't in fact illegal.

Maybe I'm too literal.

Prostitution isn’t work like any other , it’s isn’t sex work. It’s the capitalised degradation of a whole sex.

Marx and Engels had a few words between them about that and so much more. Supporting the right to buy a body has no place in feminism.

Using a euphemism like “sex worker” is an attempt to hide the sordid reality. 85% of prostitutes want to escape the “industry”. As mentioned upthread, they have higher levels of post traumatic stress than combat veterans.
What do you think it does to a woman’s self esteem, to be spat on, raped, vomited or shat on, beaten up, choked and treated with utter contempt by the sort of vile men who use her?
And would you be happy for such “work” to be advertised in job centres? Happy to recommend it to your daughter? No? Just other people’s daughters, then?
We need the Nordic model. Now. Criminalise the men, not the abused, trafficked and exploited women.

I think that we need to examine the reasons why prostitution is legal despite it being surrounded by such criminality, and why while the act is legal, pimping, kerb-crawling, managing a brothel, soliciting and so on are illegal.

If it is just to protect the women who are often forced/groomed into prostitution and recognise that they are often victims, then that puts a different spin on it being a legitimate career.

It would be like saying that children who are engaged in county lines drug running because they are groomed by adults aren’t prosecuted and therefore that means they are employed in ‘drug work’.

It's not really work like any other job though is it? People aren't generally coerced to work in Boots or have to pay a lot of their salary over. They're not deliberately addicted to drugs to get them through the day. They're not targeted to work in the retail industry by people who see them as vulnerable.

Obviously I respect sex workers as people. But the way the industry is run I don't believe for the majority of sex workers that it's a legitimate career choice. There are far too many vulnerable women, trafficked women, addicted women for that to be true. Clearly there are some women that have chosen it but there are many, many more for whom there is no choice.

Unfortunately there are people falling over themselves to be cool about things. The ladette culture or the idea that its empowering to get your tits out for money. Overall, although some women may benefit financially, for the vast majority of us it does us a disservice; it feeds into the idea that we're commodities, not people, and that anyone who wants to can purchase us.

They're called sex workers because the work by having sex. Same as people who work by delivering post are called postal workers. Not difficult, really.

How is it "not work"? A prostitute / sex worker / whatever you want to call it makes an offer to do something for someone in return for money, and if the offer is accepted, does it and gets paid for it. What has the fact that you consider it "seedy" got to do with whether it's work or not? Your moral judgments decide whether something is work or not?

As has already been noted, it isn't illegal in the UK and many (most?) other jurisdictions. But even if it were, what difference would that make? There are forms of work that are illegal.

I don't know whether it's important to sex workers to be called sex workers rather than prostitutes, as a less loaded and judgmental term. If so then yes, you're probably being offensive if you insist on calling them prostitutes.

No one on here would deny that it's a bloody hard life for a woman to end up in. What we do take issue with is the airbrushing of it as "just a job like any other."

Name me another job where rape is an occupational hazard. Name me another job where pregnancy or STDs are an occupational hazard. Name me another job which carries an equivalent risk of common assault from your customers.

And the people who are seedy in this story are the customers. They don't need the "service", they want it and are prepared to use women's desperation for money (where society offers them no other options) to sidestep consent. There's a name for men who don't care about consent.

It isn't illegal and it is work - sometimes hard work! They provide a service for which they are paid. You may consider it seedy but it is still work.

Farm worker- on a farm
Shop worker - in a shop.
Sex worker doesn’t fit this pattern.

There are other patterns:
Farmer - someone who farms
Masseuse- someone who massages
Therapist - someone who provides therapy

And so on

So the correct word would be in this pattern?

I use prostituted women

This gave me pause

But yes that’s the term I use. Not sex worker. Like I’ll never refer to top/bottom surgery.

It's to make men feel like they are using a legitimate service.

I use prostituted women

I don't use sex work as it's not work; it's rape, abuse and exploitation.