For those who like to declare that "sex work" is empowering

Consent cannot be purchased

I lived in the Netherlands and saw with my own eyes ads in the job centre. Snopes and fellow apologists can do one.

Status: true.

Marg, you're talking such bollocks, it feels like you're trolling.

You can piss off with your bullshit and plucking soundbites out of thin air comments.

Rape is illegal

@MargaritaPie and yet it still happens regularly, often with no consequences for the offender.

Oh, and checked the conviction rate for rape recently? It's essentially legal.

Rape is illegal, so is pimping, so is assault.

What difference do you think this makes, in reality? None. None at all.

Have you ever even met someone who works in the sex industry?

Many sex workers are independent. They don't all have a pimp.

And you know this how? An awful lot more do.

Oh you're back marg - again I ask - do you think sex work is empowering?

"It was happening in Germany shortly after prostitution was legalised in 2002"

www.snopes.com/fact-check/hot-jobs/

Claim: Women in Germany face the loss of unemployment benefits if they decline to accept work in brothels.

Status: False.

Many sex workers are independent. They don't all have a pimp.

It’s the logical next step on from declaring that “sex work is work”, so I don’t know why you’d think it’s never happened and never will.

I feel sick just clicking on to this thread.

Along with NI, pension contributions, contract of employment etc…

Are proponents of SWIW advising putting ‘sex worker’ / sugar babe etc…on their CV?
I’m sure employers will be impressed with SW or whatever euphemism under term time / holiday job. Or plugging the CV gaps.

CV
Graduated 2:1 Eng Lit 2021
Employment history
July ‘21 ongoing: Sex Work (self employed)
Responsibilities:
Negotiating client deals
Customer services
Payroll

Fucking bollocks.
The day employers (legal, teaching, financial etc..) come out and publicly declare SWIW & that they’d actively recruit known xSWs, I’ll show my bare, fat arse.

MargaritaPie wrote - "You realise sex workers have the right to refuse service to clients with poor hygiene, and to call the police on anyone abusive to them?"

Which rights legislation is this based on?

Is it in a prostituted woman's "written contract of employment"?

You realise sex workers have the right to refuse service to clients with poor hygiene, and to call the police on anyone abusive to them?

Ahahahahahahaahahahaha

Sure they do PIE and they they go skipping off together down the yellow brick road, past the soda fountain and into bubblegum island where they get to play with the unicorns and mermaids. Oh such fun

Sex work is between consenting adults.

Define 'consenting' in this context please?

If a woman is giving a man a blow job for money because she is addicted to drugs, is that 'consenting?

Ah just saw a lot of what I’ve said has already been covered - took me so long to write the post as this topic makes me so mad!

As a woman and one who has worked closely with many sex workers, I find it so insulting being mansplained to on this particular issue. I don’t claim to know how every woman feels just because I am a woman, but being told by ‘enlightened, progressive male feminists’ (true story), that sex work is empowering for some women doesn’t sit well with me at all. This particular individual was from a group of males who (a couple of its members) had used sex workers in the past and I really believe it’s a way for them to absolve themselves of all guilt. Even if some women do feel empowered by selling sex (and I would seriously question how this came about - e.g. any past traumas etc), surely the damage done by the industry to women and girls on the whole is what we should be focusing on here? Just yesterday there was a documentary posted about the scale of sex trafficking between Romania and the UK, which girls as young as 10 are groomed into, often from their school gates. It makes me so mad that it’s become trendy to view sex work as somehow a subversive feminist act, when it literally exploits millions of women and girls across the globe.

If sex work was empowering or even remotely legitimate as a job, it would be:

1. Subject to all UK employment legislation, including health and safety law, sick leave, holiday pay etc, and all pimps would be deemed to be employers and be subject to the obligations of an employer towards its employees;

1. It would be a job advertised though the job centre and anyone of any age, class, sex, disability etc would be subject to applying for said job in exchange for jobseekers allowance;

1. Men would be required to do the job equally to females, regardless of the customer.

No doubt if any of the above actually applied, single sex spaces (i.e. brothels populated only by women) would suddenly be de rigeur again.

• @titchy, opinions vary but I understand many sex workers in Britain would like to see the introduction of decriminalisation which would legally permit them to work together to be even safer.*

You still haven't answered my question. I know opinions vary - what is YOUR opinion on whether sex work is empowering?

As an aside I don't see why someone who supports decriminalisation should also regard sex work as empowering. They're two separate issues.

But over to you, what do you think?