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.

Change the word 'do' to the word 'choose' in the sentence, "What will she do". She's CHOOSING to do sex "work" nobody is forcing her. She obviously enjoys it as she's attending swingers event. Sometimes women make poor choices but actually through their own free will - everything is not the fault of "the men". Added to that this women willingly and knowingly chose to sell sex, she's not some poor, homeless, trafficked girl. I'm sure you will find most parents wouldn't want their dc being taught by a teacher who is openly shagging for cash on the side.

I agree with your argument in principle op but I think she was very foolish to have her photos and services easily searchable online and this foolishness and lack of judgement aren't compatible in my view with being a good teacher.

Exactly. If she was an ambulance driver she couldn’t have a legal glass of wine with her meal at lunchtime. If she was a police officer she couldn’t marry a criminal. If she was an accountant she couldn’t run up reams of unmanaged debt. None of those things are illegal in themselves but if you want to do those jobs you need to make certain decisions in order to maintain standards and public confidence. Sex work isn’t compatible with certain jobs and that is made clear to you when you start. If you don’t like it then choose a different career path at that point. Lying and hiding things just points to a lack of personal integrity and shows you’re unable to follow rules, both of which are pretty important in teaching.

I think this thread is a good example of how the internet can amplify the idiotic voices of the 0.000001%.

For the handwringers in here saying how unfair and sexist it is that a regulated professional has been sanctioned for bringing her profession into disrepute by openly promoting her services as a prostitute, I suggest you start a savings plan and pay in circa £250 a month for the next 15 years. Your kids are going to need it as adults to pay therapists to unpick the psychological consequences of your poor parenting, lack of judgment and inability to recognise basic safeguarding boundaries.

Pity the children!

Yeah it’s barking. And l got called a prude😂

Indeed. The examples could go on and on. I'm still chuckling though at the attempt to make this about feminism, as if a male teacher openly selling sexual services would be treated differently by the teaching regulator. Spoiler alert: he would not.

I think with this type of argument introducing male prostitutes may not be that helpful as in reality it is vastly more likely women will be engaged in selling sex.

I think even though the example might be clear cut there are some questions brought up.

Agree or disagree with prostitution (I find it cold and transactional myself) there may be cases where young women are engaging in this type of work to bolster a salary or help with student debts. This may be more common than you think.

In future there may be more cases like this where a young intelligent woman enters the workforce for a number of professions with perhaps a past Only fans secret.

Ty he question then is should that woman neverhave what we regard as a professional job as a result of last choices?

Sex work has always been around. The only difference now is that it's traceable online. I agree that people shouldn't be punished for their past but many professions have a code of conduct and want to protect their reputation.

I think you'd be surprised about male prostitution, they're mainly selling services to gay men but it's not uncommon.

This is exactly why we need to be making clear to young women the gravity of these decisions. Sex work is work ok. But this stuff has consequences for lots of careers. Not all by any means but if you’re young and intelligent and looking to pay off student debt then you have options so best to choose something else that’s not going to potentially blow (!) your future career prospects. In some industries even something like having an Only Fans account could result in a vetting failure.

Yes, women are more likely to sell sex than men. That's a different issue. The question of whether it's viable for an individual (regardless of sex) to sell sexual services openly while simultaneously pursuing a career in a regulated profession is open and shut. It's absurd to suggest that in the interests of feminism it should be permitted. They have to maintain public confidence in the profession and allowing teachers to turn tricks for the sleezier dads while teaching phonics to their kids hardly achieves that aim does it.

I've not read the article but come on OP. There's reasons why you have "professional" job titles. There's some things you just can't do. I have no issue per say with someone wanting to be a sex worked or similar but I think its ridiculous not to expect backlash from it knowing you work a professional role whoever you are.

@CheeryUser

You raise some good points but we have to recognise that Only fans is an $18 billion dollar company so on the one hand we are legitimising at soft core porn by having a large corporate platform while suggesting the product i.e. mainly young women face life long stigmatisation.

I think it may be worth having some campaign warning young women (possibly undergraduates) if the professional consequences of such activities as I can see it being really tempting to put a few pictures on the net to afford a little but if luxury during a period of life when your income is low.

My concern is a life long penalty for women in these circumstances for maybe a brief period of selling images etc. I do feel this is diproportionate

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/onlyfans-students-university-fees-a4543246.html

If the figures below are correct and there are a number of similar numbers of articles there seems to be a really prevalent use of these sites to support income (presumably from women).

Is there a kind of acceptibility creeping into student society that this income form is harm free? It seems a lot of undergraduates who presumably are aiming for professional jobs are willing to take the risk of a future employer finding out and it may indeed be a bit of a lottery to whether you are found out and what the ultimate sanction is?

I don't think mass demonisation of young women is the answer but maybe legislation against the existence of a company like Only Fans might help.

OF is pretty much a non starter if you want to have a serious professional career. As would have been modelling for Razzle before the internet. Who would hire you if they knew? Why would clients or counterparties take you seriously? And you'd likely be dismissed for failing to disclose it if found out later. It is surprising to me that these things need explaining.

I think it depends on where they are heading in life. My husband for example is self employed and having something like that in his history wouldn’t matter a jot. But I’ve got teenagers myself, one about to start uni and we have tried to emphasise the importance of not posting compromising photos, not getting into arguments online and shouting about political views etc on social media for everyone to see. We are living in an increasingly image conscious world and companies check on open source data like this. If they have the option of employing someone with a past which could come back to bite or someone without that kind of history, it’s a no brainer to play it safe with the latter.

Sadabouti

Maybe.....However are women willing to take the risk? How likely is it for an employer to find out?

I can see the appeal from a financial perpective. A phone, an app and a bedroom and your are set to earns hundreds which beats waitressing or whatever. You could also took yourself it's about female empowerment.

Maybe the young women don't realise the harm including professionally and it just becomes a uni thing much in the same way as taking weed.

How is it empowering?

Cheeruser

Isn't it working class girls who will be most vulnerable to the temptation of the cash especially if it means stating in uni with some kind life? Maybe middle class kids can rely on the bank of mum and dad but I bet there are some who really are on the bread line or at least tempted by some half decent clothes and meals.

I think it is the promise of really good money for little effort that is concerning. You also have the slide from Instagram little risque shots into full on nudity and it could be seen as a and I natural transition.

Cupskake

Sorry typo....meant to read cool yourself into believing its empowering. Possibly thinking you've got one over the man by getting hundreds of pounds by a couple of shots of your naked body in essence.

You just have to hope that those getting into uni in the hope of securing professional jobs understand what their future career paths entail and are switched on enough to know not to compromise themselves. That temptation of easy money has always been there though, in my day it was strip clubs and telephone chat lines etc. Obviously some won’t be able to resist it and it’s a shame for them but that’s not a reason to do away with professional standards which exist for a reason.

@mids2019 I'm struggling with the point you seem to be making. Some will do it and lose out. Some may get away with it. Others won't be so stupid to get involved at all. None of which is ever going to succeed as a reason to compromise professional standards, which are there to ensure professional standards to protect the public. Nor does it change the reality that employers will be reluctant to hire former sex workers and prostitutes in such roles. Parents, Colleges and Universities should be explaining this to students if it is a genuine issue that they are so naïve that they don't realise that videos of your fanny on the internet are potentially career limiting (I suspect that most young women instinctively realise this though).

The post I was responding to said that prostitutes teaching children was repugnant in general. It said nothing about photographs of the activity.

Yes, I know. The questions I have are about a post that said being a prostitute and a teacher is repugnant. If a teacher were to do this in private, with no pictures on the internet, how would it be any different from doing it for pleasure? That's what I'm getting at.

Great point. Yes, I know people working in education who say that teachers having extramarital liaisons (including with other teachers) is quite common. It's common in any workplace. In fact, most affairs start at work. Yet they don't get fired for it. In one story I heard, they were doing it in the utility closet at the school.

A few universities acknowledge that a significant minority of female students will make money this way and have produced toolkits and information to support these sex workers. I have a feeling it was Durham but I may be wrong. Hit the headlines a while ago.

As for this young woman, I found the mentioning of her boyfriend and relationship concerning. I wonder if there was some coercion.