Sex work is work

In countries with criminalisation(or partial criminalisation) there is no distinction made and all sex workers are classed as victims. One of the reasons why some people and orgs oppose criminalisation is it becomes harder to identify who really is a victim and who really does need help if you call every sex worker a victim and put them all in just one category..

just as in a country where it is not criminalised all prostitutes are seen as the happy hooker kind and trafficked women and girls are never identified as victims because 'sex work is work'.

Add in the fact that men see prostitutes as easy because 'sex work is work' and all they are doing is buying labour, the demand outstrips supply (because women still don't see sex work as their kind of work) and to get more supply, women and girls are trafficked into the country and forced. But who knows that, because 'sex work is work', amiright?

As I read somewhere else today - the mantra is never “housework is work” is it….just coincidentally it always happens to coincide with something that men benefit from….

There are so many layers of problems to unpick with the "sex work is work" mantra.

Firstly, what exactly is defined as sex work?
Seeing as it can range from web camming in your own bedroom, doing nothing more than stripping, or using a vibe for ££ on OnlyFans, to being gang banged and forcibly penetrated in all orifices for less £ than a McDonald's, and having your passport confiscated so you can't go home, and having your likelihood of being murdered increase by 1000%...
Even being a pimp falls under "sex work'.

Then to say, "it is work"... Sure, it's hard, money exchanges hands, it's certainly exploitation.

You may as well say "sweat shop work is work" or "slavery is work". It's just completely thoughtless.
It's basically brain dead to repeat "sex work is work" in the same way it's brain dead to repeat "twaw".

Both mantras benefit people with a penis, and are vehemently anti-women so it's not surprising they go hand in hand.

I really hope you are male Marg

I do see where you are coming from OP, and agree it is concerning at best, very sinister at worst.

The more and more I read and hear about trans ideology/gender identity theory and queer theory the more I see they overlap and the more I see a sinister side behind them all.

Yes I think I heard somewhere that Brazil was a particularly dangerous place for transwomen, but it's not something I've read much into.

MargaritaPie I would have thought you would be familiar with the much quoted TW murder statistics from Brazil which applies almost entirely to those in the prostitution industry.

"Surely this means they are excluding sex workers from the service? If women are simply ‘working’ then why would anything they experience as sex workers be classed as sexual violence"

I'd like to reassure you it doesn't. Countries which acknowledge sex work as work make a clear distinction between consenting adults and between eg trafficked victims or victims of rape. Sex workers can be raped just like anyone else and it is a very harmful attitude to claim they can't be "because they are sex workers". Rape, sexual assault, trafficking etc against anyone are all crimes in Britain.

In countries with criminalisation(or partial criminalisation) there is no distinction made and all sex workers are classed as victims. One of the reasons why some people and orgs oppose criminalisation is it becomes harder to identify who really is a victim and who really does need help if you call every sex worker a victim and put them all in just one category.

I never understood the " sex work is work" thing as it seems to go ha d in hand wotg the happy hooker myth. If someone's chosen to work as a prostitute then they are doing them a favour giving them work.

Even if it were true ( which it isn't) bow would the men buying sex even know if they were having sex with someone forced into the work by addiction/abuse. Or one that's seemingly happy to do it. They'd be no way of telling.

And yes the last thing a prostitute needs is a service that's also used by males and who believes that sex work is a legit choice.

As usual the very women who need the space are the ones excluded

I see exactly what you are saying OP. It’s work hazard and I don’t think they get hazard pay. Reading a menu of what’s on offer from a German bordell and it’s absolutely grim.

It benefits men for women to look as selling sex just like any other profession. Add in the slow erosion of boundaries then they will have a captured population of very weak boundaried women eager to validate them all the time and ripe for abuse.

I’m pretty sure that’s what this is about. They (tra) are just the other side of the men’s right activist coin.

Just from lurking and reading your previous thread I would assume that the services you worked with aren't particularly women friendly nor helpful to victims of abuse in any shape or form, whatever their circumstances.
The gaslighting going on overtly is a massive red flag- if that's what they're willing to admit to what do they hide.

That is a concerning thought.