Why are prostitutes called sex workers?

"Sex worker" is the gender neutral "comfort women".

Sex work is what used to be called weasel words and are part of the same queer politics that took over universities in the 80s and changed women's studies to gender studies.

So by substituting words with real meaning for ambiguous ones you can then make any arguement to further your agenda.

Any one on FWR will be aware of the slippery slope that was caused by more and more people saying gender when you are actually talking about sex. Now there are whole generations of school children who have grown up thinking they are the same.

And when the students educated in the 80s and 90s moved into journalism they change the style bible of newspapers so that this manipulation of deliberately misleading words became not just the norm but the absolute.

And in the same way as those who argue that sex should be a choice they also want the prostitution of women to be a choice, hence sex work.

Whereas, as with gender reinforcing sex stereotypes, sex work reinforces the notion that women with few employment opportunities "choose" prostitution. (Funny how unemployed men aren't expected to make this "choice".) So not only does this mean women become available to be exploited by men, it re-inforces the notion that women aren't worth training or being given education to get better paid and more valued work, but characterises women's "assets" as being her body.

(And I suspect those in social work and elsewhere were also part of the education system that was part of the back lash against women's liberation politics, which was about demanding women's autonomy, at home and in society. But instead reinforces the notion that women or a certain class - and race - will only ever have the "choice" of being prostituted so lets patronise them by pretending it is work of the same status and most jobs.)

A more accurate description is 'prostituted women'.

It also includes pimps, because they work in the sex industry as managers, apparently. So the "sex worker lobby" usually includes and is run by them. What other trade union includes the bosses?

And if it was really "work" the level of PPE you'd need to do the "job" safely would render it impossible.

This is a really good point I've not seen before.

It's a euphemism to attempt to sanitise the reputation of a brutally exploitative industry.

It has a higher rate of PTSD among exited women than among combat veterans. It recruits/exploits from a pool of women massively more likely to have been victims of child sexual abuse than the general female population. The women doing it are at massively higher risk of rape and assault than the general female population.

And if it was really "work" the level of PPE you'd need to do the "job" safely would render it impossible.

What noblegiraffe says.
Im expecting to hear of young women having their job seekers allowance stopped because they didnt want to interview for a role in the sex industry within my lifetime.

In some social service areas, sex worker began to be used because the groups they served weren't all necessarily prostitutes, but were in some way working in the sex industry. Strippers, cam girls, pornography, for example.

It's also used now to try and gloss over the nature of prostitution, but there are legitimate uses for the term.

I think now we know that many women and girls are trafficked into prostitution, held against their will and forced to be abused in this awful way-we really should stop referring to women as sex workers. In reality men are paying to rape them which is vile. Many of the women have histories of abuse and are very vulnerable-often drug addicts.

Because by referring to it as ‘work’ it can be touted as a valid career choice for women (who often lack any other options or are groomed/ordered into it) and men can feel less bad about purchasing women’s bodies. It’s merely paying for a service! Like a massage!

It’s legal where I live ( NZ) so they’re referred to as sex workers when featured in the news etc. eg a recent article about their drop in business during Covid. I don’t remember if they’re classed as self employed.

Prostitution isn’t illegal, in the UK at least.