The amount of women condoning prostitution

I'm always baffled by how many people seem to know one sex worker or former sex worker, always happy.

I know LOADS of sex workers and former sex workers and the only one I know who was happy and has remained happy about it throughout is a dominatrix who doesn't actually have sex with clients. Just beats them and locks them in dungeons. ALL of the other sex workers I have known and know struggle. At least one is dead of an overdose. I still see her sister sometimes. I was talking to her before she went out one night, she was in floods of tears, wanting not to work but having to. Some sorry excuses for 'men' used her that night, tear-stained face and all.

If you think that's consent I feel very sorry for you.

If someone can't keep the lights on or needs a fix or doesn't have their passport, it's not consent. And if you don't KNOW it's still not consent.

I wouldn't want my children to be toilet cleaners either, but I accept that there are people who have decided to do that as a profession.

In regards to the particular allegation, I'm not sure why we're making the assumption that the person was vulnerable and had to sell pictures to fund their drug addiction. Perhaps the person decided to set up an OnlyFans, make a lot of money from it and then decided to spend it on drugs that they then got addicted to?

We don't say that drug addicted rock stars were vulnerable people that had to make music to fund their drug addiction. Perhaps the drug addiction came after the fame and money?

There are often brothel raids (it's illegal for sexworkers to work together) but all that tends to do it give sexworkers(prostitutes) criminal records and other harm/inconvenience.

A few here are asking "how to stop sexwork" the answer to that is you can't. What you can do however is make it safer and stop criminalising women for working together.

For example, last year Belgium became the first European country to decriminalise sexwork:

https://brusselstimes.com/211351/historic-reform-belgium-first-in-europe-to-officially-decriminalise-sex-work

@LonginesPrime "Of course, but why would they choose to end something that exists for their benefit and causes them zero detriment?"

Indeed. I just hate to see yet another thing being women's fault and up to women to sort out!

Of course, but why would they choose to end something that exists for their benefit and causes them zero detriment?

I'm not in the north west so I don't know their priorities. I can only speak for the force I worked for and the officers I worked with.

I don't know how you stop it, you can do certain things like crackdowns on street prostitution but it takes a massive amount of police time and where I worked that just meant the women moved areas. Where you have women with limited opportunities, little money and children to feed/house etc it will always happen.

Personally I would put the resources into dealing with the traffickers and pimps first but who knows what would work.

If men chose to, they could end prostitution tomorrow.

The issue really is not necessarily women condoning prostitution, it's that men continue to use prostituted women. Men need to step up in so many ways. We won't make progress until men change their behaviour.

I’m talking about how prostitution is now accepted as ‘normal’ by the police in the north west of the Uk and it’s not prosecuted

Prostitution is not illegal in the Great Britain (the law is different in NI), so they would have difficulty prosecutig it (it's the CPS that prosecute anyway, and it's still not illegal). Certain activities associated with it such as "soliciting in a public place", "controlling a prostitute for gain", or "keeping a brothel". In terms of soliciting, the offence noramall carries fine, which, if they had the money to pay the fines, they probably wouldn't be soliciting, so they go back to soliciting to pay the fines - or, as often happens, they wrack up enough fines to get jailed for non-payment of fines.

Legislating to ban sex work or pornography will work as well as all other such bans - it's done so well with drugs, hasn't it? And prohibition was a huge success in the USA? In dry areas of India, secret bars do a roaring trade.... All illegality does is drive these trades even more into the hands of criminals and traffickers. It will not work. Which is why we need to have an intelligent conversation in this country which is not driven by the moral standards of those who would never enter or use such trades, but by the reality of the social circumstances of those who are driven to such measures. You will never eliminate the trade, but you can minimise the harm it does, and work to ensure that nobody is forced into it by circumstances or other people.

It's not really clear how moral standards would help. We all have moral standards. They're mainly different.

If you want to get rid of porn (I certainly do not btw) then you need to legislate against it, not use intrusions into privacy (which are themselves unlawful) to punish people who do not agree with your moral code.

@Iwasafool To be very clear, when I talk about the police turning a blind eye to prostitution, I’m talking about how prostitution is now accepted as ‘normal’ by the police in the north west of the Uk and it’s not prosecuted. You have houses which are run by a third party, and it’s quite open. It’s shocking to me that this isn’t prosecuted and the people publicly humiliated for exploiting vulnerable people.

As for social services, it’s very underfunded and it’s not the police’s job to remove children from a family.

All of this points to a massive breakdown in British society. Where did it go wrong and how do we correct the path?

It's all BS when you look into those stories as well. Well known celebs might make good money on OF (at considerable cost to their image) but anyone else has to do increasingly extreme and unpleasant things on there to make anything near a good income. Might be the odd student making extra spending money and people like Kerry Katona and Daniella Westbrook eking out an existence at the end of a damaging media career - but would any man or woman want their daughters ending up like that? I don't think so.

What I find strange is the fact that every paper and magazine you pick up has a story about someone who has made a fortune from Onlyfans and the like, presenting it as a success story, yet the same rags are vilifying the 'customers', who make it all possible. Its such a double standard. Fwiw i am absolutely against men buying consent in any make shape or form, and I know that the young person in this case was only 17 at the time, but I just think the hypocrisy is staggering.

Could you try that again? In English preferably, and with a cogent argument that isn't just a thinly veiled attempt to start yet another thread on the same issue that has been rehearsed to death already? You could try fact checking your allegations again as well, because, as has already been shown, the allegations made by the parent(s) / the Sun appear to be thin on verifiable facts.

Just because some people would like to base their opinions on facts, or on reasoned discussion rather than mob mentality does not naturally lead to support for prostitution, sex work or illegal conduct. Rants do not facts make.

And perhaps if we lived in a society where drug addictions, abuse and poverty did not drive people to make choices that they perhaps wouldn't wish to make, then we could have a more informed debate about the place that sex work may or may not have. If you are so against sex work, what are you personally doing to create that society? Or are your actions simply about judging others from your moral highground?

No the punters and buyers should be. As well as the platforms themselves if they are allowing underage people on there. Adultworks age verification is a joke. No punters, no market.

The men and the women* who are trying to justify OF doth protest too much, methinks

*NAMALT
** OF might look like a relatively carefree way of earning money off sleazy idiots initially but no one gets off scotfree in the long run.

@DisquietintheRanks " Do you think they should be prevented from doing this? Criminalised? Publicly shamed?"
They shouldn't be. But the people doing the buying should certainly be criminalised.

But women are a large segment of people producing images for online sale. Do you think they should be prevented from doing this? Criminalised? Publicly shamed?

I'm utterly against prostitution but it's called the worlds oldest profession for a reason. How exactly could it be stopped?

Fuck off.

I cared very much when my ex was spending money on this kind of shit.
And I highly doubt women are a large segment of people buying explicit images online.

This is a male behaviour, it's icky as fuck and lots of feminists care deeply about it because of the knock on harms to women and girls of a culture where sex is seen as a commodity that men can buy or take at will.

Maybe they don't. But a lot of people (women and men) in the wider sex industry do have choices and chose to do things like only fans, or phone sex, or strip because the money is good, or the hours suit them.
I might not admire their choice but I'm not sure how big a step society should take to dictate to people how they should live their lives - even to protect them from themselves.

Would you prefer it if the young person in this instance funded their habit (if this claim is true) by robbing people? Would they still be a victim then?

It does indeed. I've seen police officers working very hard to get help from social services to get these children removed. It does happen but it wasn't unusual to see the kids coming back at 16. It is amazing how kids will forgive.

I don't agree the police turn a blind eye, I worked with a dedicated team who were often at risk themselves. After one big undercover operation when we were waiting for a court date I had threats against my children and they had to have a police escort to and from school for a time. I wasn't even an officer.