Why are we forcing women to stay in sex work?

[SummerFeverVenice]

Primary school teacher was struck off for moonlighting as a sex worker. It all started with an anonymous letter outing her on the website she used to advertise. Selling sex in England and Wales is perfectly legal. This isn’t like she was selling class A drugs.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/primary-school-teacher-struck-off-after-anonymous-letter-exposed-her-as-1-600-a/

This has upset me as she should not have been struck off for something that is technically a legal side hustle. It is putting a scarlet letter on her and causing her to now be forced to do sex work under severe economic duress. She’s lost her entire career.

As a feminist, we should be encouraging women not to do or continue to do sex work if they have a better option to earn money, like teaching in a primary school. We shouldn’t be excluding sex workers from these jobs.

In my opinion, she should have been given a warning to cease and desist sex work or be moved into an admin position. It seems to me that her being struck off was punishing her for being a “whore” by dooming her to have no other option to survive than more sex work. It feels all very Victorian fallen womanish to me. The admin position is more a reluctant concession on my part towards prudish parents who get up in arms at the thought of their child being taught their ABCs by a sex worker because they think immorality is contagious.

Which is strange because we all know that the upper class fathers were having sex with their children’s governesses and nannies and these children all turned out to be pillars of the community, some even went on to be ordained archbishops.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow obviously someone who knew her was looking for it. I bet it was one of her pupil's fathers. Men are such creeps - wanting no strings sex, but condemning the women who offer it.

Why assume this? I worked as a teacher for 25 years. A colleague could have dobbed her in.

It’s in the public domain and easily acccesible. A students sibling or ex student could have found it. Either way, she chose to put it up there.

It’s immaterial who found it. She was wrong putting it there as someone in charge of children. Anyone in my school would have been fired straightaway. One of the biggest things in teaching is safeguarding. And yet she chose to put everything on SM.

This isn’t a feminist issue, this is an stupidity issue.

Whoever found it was obviously looking for paid sexual services. Videos of local teachers having or advertising sex don't just pop up unbidden!

I wouldn't want a prostitute teaching my children.

It seems to me that you have no understanding of how tightly regulated teachers are in relation to things like this.

As teachers are in prolonged contact with children there are many safeguarding issues. This just about breaks them all. The safeguarding is there for a reason.

The teacher was stupid and irresponsible. This isn’t a feminist issue. If she wants to do sex work good luck to her. But it’s not a job a teacher can do in the UK. They are in effect public servants so have to comply with expected standards. Whether they’ve signed a contract or not. It will be somewhere in the staff handbook, and in the previously mentioned regulations.

She chose to broke them, so lost her job.

A teacher teaching little kids and then selling blow jobs online is repugnant.

My trainee does dog sitting as a side hustle.

My heart bleeds for this teacher having no other legitimate option to earn money before or after her strike off.

I think active sex workers yes. There is apparently a surprisingly high number of me advertising on adult work etc. These men aren't usually working as prostitutes though. The idea of it is a fetish for them but (since most are advertising for female clients) they aren't actually getting any work. I wouldn't want a man like that working as a teacher to be honest.

It is unfair that female sex workers have their faces etc linked to what they do. Whereas the John's have far more anonymity. E.g I doubt many men would be happy if we introduced a law saying they had to publicly show their photos and I'd every time theyused pprn hub / only fans etc. That's part of the reason that "sex work is work" is a lie. Organisations have a right to put limits on what moonlighting work employees can do. But if they had sacked her for any other kind of moonlighting she wouldn't have suffered the same noteriety/problems finding new work. That's not the fault of the school for sacking her though. It's the way sex work is viewed in these "liberal progressive" times. There will always be a stigma because no matter what men will say, they don't actually respect the women working in porn or the sex industry. And the (male) clients get to stay anonymous because that's how it works

I don't think women with a history of sex work deserve to have it blighting their careers and future. Eg it's shameful that there are women with criminal records for prostitution and related offences in their past (often connected to DV) that are then hanging over their heads. I would support women in those cases having the right to have those criminal records not publicly available or disclosable to employers.

I wouldn't want a teacher who was actively and currently working as a prostitute and advertising online teaching my child though. If it was in her past and she had moved on then good for her, none of my business I shouldn't even know about it. But someone working at the same time is different.

It's clear that you @ArseInTheCoOpWindow find the teacher herself repugnant for selling sex. You seem determined to be prudishly judgemental rather than engaging with the issue the OP raised. Of course it's not acceptable for children to be exposed to images of their teachers having sex but sex in and of itself is not repugnant nor is someone who sells it per se (misogynists will always find women repugnant and to blame of course). Do you also find the men who seek out sexual services repugnant? Is it ok for male teachers to access prostitutes in your book?

Can you explain why? Do you think that means she is going to be giving blowjobs to children?
What about teachers who are promiscuous and into things like swinging and dogging, but who aren't prostitutes? Should they also be fired? How does a person's sexual behaviour in their personal life make children unsafe? It certainly does if they are pedophiles, but why prostitutes? That's quite a leap.

Interesting debate.

It does raise the question about what other work the woman will get in the locality and how she frames her CV in terms of leaving reasons. The pictures can't be removed so the question is why should a woman's life be destroyed for making an error of judgment and one which was legal.

Although the school was in its rights to sack the teacher we have to question disrepute as the people snowbound be perusing such websites for sex for sale surely must be suffer the same reputations damage as the woman involved and indeed are we considered about the disrepute amongst a cohort of presumably men who actively research sex sites?

Primary school teacher salaries are not the highest so if a woman has a wide business to fit y luxuries I think the is refundable as long as there is no compromise to the teaching. If the woman kept the sex work utterly at arms length and was good at her job in my mind, yes, the school have removed a teacher on purely moral grounds and not for safeguarding reasons. School parents may be homophobic for instance but they would never sack a gay teacher.

I have to admit I don't know what my reaction would be to having my children educated by a teacher where there were rumours of such side work. However I know of one primary school teacher who had a well known affair with a colleague with ramifications known to the community and obviously she is still in post. There are some of quite a conservative mentality who think a teacher who is mocked by pupils behind her back for infidelity is not a good role model for young children and should lose her jon, tricky.

@XChrome ,

‘What about teachers who are promiscuous and into things like swinging and dogging, but who aren't prostitutes? Should they also be fired? How does a person's sexual behaviour in their personal life make children unsafe? It certainly does if they are pedophiles, but why prostitutes? That's quite a leap.’

Teachers are required to set an example. Have a look at any teacher’s social media and, if they have it at all, it will be locked down and minimal. Many use pseudonyms.

Is this fair? Should teachers have such a high bar? Would you mind your children being taught by a man who spent his weekends dogging and posted videos of him doing it on open SM?

The reality is that teachers, both male and female, have been sacked for having ‘inappropriate’ social media far tamer than this teacher’s.

As already discussed on this thread a teacher has to maintain a code of conduct and not bring the profession into disrepute. Putting up videos of you having sex and selling sexual services, brings the profession into disrepute.

If a teacher was dogging and posting videos and pictures of themselves dogging, then they would probably get sacked as well.

@cupcaske123 ,

‘If a teacher was dogging and posting videos and pictures of themselves dogging, then they would probably get sacked as well.’

There is no probably about it!

Can you imagine going into a class once a pupil had discovered it and shared it (as they inevitably will)?

And the next parents’ evening as you discuss friendship groups and healthy boundaries….

You just can’t teach and have any even slightly dubious hobby or side hustle with any danger of it being discovered.

I think we have to un pick the dogging videos one. Ultimately the videos show that a teacher enjoys a particular sexual lifestyle and should we as a society be utterly judgmental about people's sexual preferences. If a teacher enjoyed dogging that is a sexual preference and we all have our private lives. The problem as I see it is the video evidence but is that worse then a pure rumour within the school?

you could argue that their was a parental safeguarding failure to allow children access to dogging websites in the first instance . It seems to me the reasons for dismissal are purely down to a moral judgment about sexual behaviour and in no way related to incompetence or danger to chikdren.

As said earlier we have a teacher who had a widely publicised affair with a colleague resulting in a pregnancy and a martial break up. The teacher teaches PHSE and is still a well respected teacher who is excellent at their job. Yes, there is a group of parents mainly women that they this woman is not a role model and in some sense there is a legitimizing of an infidelity the hurt people greatly. These women have made noises about her relationship brining the school into disrepute i.e. there is a scandal but quite rightly the head has flatly refused to hear such voices. With swinging and dogging ain't this just an extension of this and where do draw the line?

Teachers, like many other professionals, have to abide by certain standards of conduct. They can't bring the profession into disrepute and they act as role models to children.

I'm not sure what there is to unpick. I agree that your sexual preferences are private but if you're posting videos or pictures of yourself having sex, then that breaks your contract.

It doesn't mean that the teacher isn't competent but I wonder how they'd be able to continue if their pupils saw their videos.

I think the problem here is making your private life public.

These points have been made but are worth repeating:

1. She breached her contract and that is enough to lose a job. She had agreed not to bring the school into disrepute.
2. There are plenty of other jobs she can do which are not sex work! Retail, admin, hospitality, delivery work. Primary teachers are paid well enough to not have to do a side hustle.

The premise of this thread is utter bollocks. This lady was banned by a regulator from teaching for a fixed period because she brought her profession into disrepute. The outcome would have been the same had she been male. It's not a feminist issue. End of debate.

@SummerFeverVenice

Of someone posts a video online having sex and it is in a private group intense for a limited audience is it the fault of the teacher of it becomes public?

The affair is an example of private life becoming public and the teacher I only acknowledges the infidelity yet of course quite rightly there are no professional consequences. There's are those who do argue that this affair has brought the school into disrepute at least amongst a sub set of parents as they are vehemently against infidelity and believe the affair has received the standing of the teacher.

A lot of this seems to hang on what a school seems disrepute in a legal sense and isn't there ambiguity there? If course you can enjoy dogging and be open to the public that is your sexual 'thing' but as soon as it's recorded visually then a line has been crossed and you can be sacked.

You have the situation where you may very well be into orgies and that can be well known in the community but there is no professional misconduct until there is distributed visual evidence?

People who state their view and then say 'end of debate' - excuse me while I give your brand of crazy a very wide berth!

Being gay is not a choice. In this case, being a prostitute was absolutely a choice.

During training the consequences of not maintaining an appropriate online profile are explored explicitly. Schools remind you when you start with them.

Online content that includes your dogging photos or x rated content will always get you sacked. You could work in sex and if you arranged your business so you had a reasonable expectation of privacy then would be hard to dismiss even if someone outed you.

I worried that this woman was a victim in this somehow. Certainly unless she planned to leave her career she appears to have made choice that made this inevitable. I don’t think for a moment googling your teacher should potentially create links to porn or sex work. I don’t want to see the exploitation of women legitimised I do hope that this woman is ok and I do agree that this case does show the hypocrisy in not bringing g the school into disrepute but that in itself is ok. Our private and public faces can be very different.