Article: "The Sex Industry doesn't empower women"

[blackcurrants]

Well, durr! was my response, but the article itself is good, and has some statistics that you might find interesting/useful in conversations with people who are convinced that all sex work is Belle de Jour stuff.

It's here at Liberal Conspiracy.

Thanks for this.

This paragraph sums it up for me;

"So when feminists campaign against the sex industry it is because they want to end the very real and horrific dangers that these women and men face every day ? violence, coercion, rape, trauma. It has nothing to do with nimby-ism or distaste. It has everything to do with ending the idea that it is ok to put someone?s safety, and mental and physical health at risk so that someone can pay to masturbate in or over her/him."

Thanks to feminists I now see prostitution as paying to masturbate in someone/rape someone/sexual abuse someone and NOT paying to have sex with someone. I think it is important to be precise in defining the concepts we are dealing with and lift some of the myths and euphemisms surrounding this subject. Just like the myth of the happy hooker needs to be countered by the FACTS about the rates of PTSD/history of sexual abuse/unwanted pregnancies/suicide rates/murder rates that are the reality of prostituted women's lives.

Thanks blackcurrants. Thats very interesting.

I mentioned on a thread about poledancing that I campaigned against the sex industry and got comments that basically said 'oh that explains what sort of person you are then' As if it were a bad thing.

So sad that so many people have bought in to the sex industry all wrapped up in a bow and sold to us as empowerment.

I think one of the problems facing the discussion of the sex industry is that we are still discussing it based on an outdated feminist view.

A view that says the sex industry is bad because everyone in it is exploited.

While it may be very uncomfortable to hear, it is undeniable that there are some sex workers who enter into prostitution, porn work, stripping work with full agency and no-coercion.

I am a feminist and in the last few months I've had my views radically challenged by wide reading and research on the sex industry.

The sex industry isn't inherently bad, sex as entertainment isn't inherently bad. Exploitation and coercion are bad and they are found in many industries.

I don't think there are any easy answers here, but at least for the legal enterprises we need to be able to discuss them without polarising the discussion to one side calling the other sex-negative prudes and then the other claiming that those in the industry don't know what they are talking about because they have been so brainwashed by the industry.

Neither position is particularly helpful or accurate.

The sex industry covers everything from Ann Summers to prostitution. Just saying the sex industry is bad is rather a broad statement.