Why is the BBC Promoting Sex Work?

[WootMoggie]

I know the BBC tries oh-so-hard to be "progressive" but this is really taking the piss:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5e7dad06-c48d-4509-b3e4-6a7a2783ce30

The BBC state at the top of the article that selling explicit content online can be a lucrative business, and the opening quote of the article is "My biggest fear is going back into an office and being normal again"

Other choice quotes include "I like the freedom it gives me and the celebration of the female form" and also '"I used to make £20,000 a year, and now I make a lot more than that every single month" Lauren says coyly'

"Lauren says coyly"?? WTAF?

I see no problem in writing articles about this subject, but the tone and position of this article is dubious in the extreme IMO.

Sex work "as a free choice..." - highly disputable.
"sex work" is a contradiction in terms, or should be.

I wonder if @ Wimmin was being goady by repeating these rad fem tropes or wanted a serious debate.

Of course prostitution can be a choice-it may be a choice between not very appealing alternatives but it can be a choice nonetheless. I know there is a school of radical feminist philosophising that holds that no one could possibly choose prostitution and those that say they do are suffering from “false consciousness” but in the real world of data that is untrue. here , here here ,here , here

Although I don’t like the term “sex work” as it is not sufficiently precise there is no doubt that prostitutes consider their work a job. They provide a service and they get paid (like a hairdresser or a plumber). So in what sense is it not work?

And don’t give that garbage that if it was work it would be advertised in job centres.

I normally lurk on here, but @Butters0123 your belief that prostitution does not have any serious detriment in society is just that, a belief: every bit as I’ll-founded and illogical as you have accused others of being. Evidence that it does has been presented: you simply choose to dismiss it. Mention has been made of the detriment in terms of trafficking and slavery of women, and the link to poverty: you minimise it. Mention is made of the issues in Germany: you say that is irrelevant. Mention has been made of the issues affecting all women in Holbeck, Leeds: you pretend it doesn’t exist. The link to pornography and the detriment to women from that has been mentioned, and it is well known how women are suffering as more extreme acts from porn become mainstream: you ignore that.

It’s typical denial and minimizing that violence against women always gets. Nothing more. You are doing yourself no favours by continuing that trend here.

And to answer you exponential, sex is intimacy. That is why it is very very different from cutting one’s hair. In addition in a patriarchy it is very closely bound up with power and status.

Quite apart from all the other valid points already made about societal harm etc, if prostitution is legitimate work then we have an even bigger issue with the shortage of PPE equipment than we already thought. Because no H&S risk assessment is going to let those exchanges of body fluids happen without some serious layers of protective equipment.

OnlyLang Indeed. The main reason people want decriminalisation rather than legalisation is because if it is legalised regulation will mean that there are limits to what men can ask women to do. As the whole industry is founded on men getting women to do things which they wouldn't do if not given money, it means most of the industry would remain illegal.

Onlylang Because no H&S risk assessment is going to let those exchanges of body fluids happen without some serious layers of protective equipment now this is an argument I have often seen on Mumsnet threads-and is really silly.

A risk assessment is precisely that-prostitutes are careful with their health often being checked regularly for STDs. The risk of them getting anything or passing on anything is probably less that involved in a one night stand with someone of unknown disease status.

Interestingly studies of SDs in prostitutes show that the best way of protected their health is via decriminalisation here & here

PaleBlueMoonlight The main reason people want decriminalisation rather than legalisation is because if it is legalised regulation will mean that there are limits to what men can ask women to do Don’t know where you got this idea from.

Prostitutes even in the semi-legal situation in the UK set their own boundaries of what they will and will not do for their fee. Payment does not entitle the client to do what he likes.

The problem with legalsation etc is that it create a two level system –so for instance requiring prostitutes to register-many won’t do this as they fear that the registration body will not be secure-that information may be passed on to others etc. and affect subsequent employment prospects. So it immediately creates an “outlaw sector”

It is much cleaner to decriminalise as is done in NSW Australia or in New Zealand.