I understand that some of the criticism comes from conservatives but the sentiment seems to extend far beyond thst. Of course, I understand it when it’s forced or when someone only does it to survive against their will. But if people genuinely want to do it, why do people hate on them?
I feel like I have to do my job to make ends meet - how is that different from sex work? Coercion is a different story
Fact is, we humans make quite surplus enough for everyone to make ends meet. Your job is a form of coercion, to make others money. That health care in the U.S. is tied to one’s job is evidence of that. That housing is dependent on mortgages being paid consistently or one risks homelessness is more evidence still. Taxes are coercion by governments to give credence to fiat currency, not because they need it to pay for goods and services… they could print money to pay for goods if that weren’t true. Point is jobs are coercion, and sex workers are under the same pressures I described above, enough that I doubt any sex worker is in it just for their love of the game.
And thus… Sex work is no different to the others
Then why so many sex workers die from drug overdose?
Why do so many people in other jobs die from a drug overdose? Because the world sucks
Sex workers face mortality rates from overdose that dwarf the general population. We’re talking about an external-cause mortality risk roughly 8-12 times higher for these marginalized groups. The direct link is undeniable: studies show a significant history of substance dependence (100% in one cohort) with opioids involved in ~90% of those fatal events. It’s crucial to note these are likely “conservative estimates” because many records don’t capture sex work status.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12405828/
The driving factor isn’t the work itself, but the trauma surrounding it. You see a high burden of PTSD, anxiety, and depression that predates or coincides with substance use. For many, the drug use, especially “polysubstance” mixing of opioids and benzos, is a form of self-medication to numb the violence and stigma
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acps.13559
The overdose is often a direct consequence of criminalization and policing. Research shows that when police target sex workers or create barriers to safe consumption sites, the odds of a fatal overdose more than double (AOR 2.15)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395922003668?fr=RR-2&ref=pdf_download&rr=9d06bca97a56066e
I agree with what you’ve said but I don’t consider these things as caused by the job, rather symptomatic of how the job is treated in society (and how poorly regulated human trafficking for sex work is)
Of course, but it is the reason why I would not want any woman to be a sex worker in the current capitalist bigoted society.
Absolutely but its no reason to “have issues with OnlyFans Models and Porn Stars” yk? I’m fully with you on there being safety concerns
Time to abolish anesthesiologists
and that’s why sex workers made their unions too
We are not free. We are just able to choose from a limited selection of approved choices or face retribution, or maybe you can’t even get a choice and that is seen as a personal failing.
needing to perform sexuality in order to make ends meet is a form of coercion. Like if someone has to grant access to their body, under threat of starvation or homelessness or whatever, that’s coercion. I don’t know how many sex workers are out there with a couple jobs lined up an then say “nah i’d rather do sex work” but within the current framework of gig economies and legally grey/restricted labor I bet it’s not a significant amount.
But that’s employment in a nutshell, though. A welder rents out his body to a company to weld steel beams for 8 hours a day. An accountant rents out their body to sit behind a desk for 8 hours a day and crunch numbers. A salesperson rents out their body to cold-call for 8 hours a day.
No matter what, we’re coerced into giving or body to perform someone else’s labour. The fact that it doesn’t always involve nudity doesn’t change anything vis a vis your bodily autonomy.
None of them rent out intimate access to their bodies, it’s stupid to think that an account sitting behind the desk is just like a sex worker. Clearly one is in a more preferalble job. Clearly the welder has a better option to barter or organize for collective action, clearly those jobs would still exist in a society where destitute women didn’t whereas the porn industry as it currently is would die out
“Intimate” is a completely subjective term. Some people, like it or not, don’t consider nudity to be intimate and are therefore more than happy to use it to their advantage. Just because you wouldn’t, doesn’t make you the arbiter or what is or isn’t considered intimate.
So, as you say “Clearly being the more preferable job” is a meaningless statement. A vegan wouldn’t rent out their body to work in a slaughterhouse. A pacifist wouldn’t rent out their body to the military. Just because you wouldn’t rent out your body for people to enjoy on the internet doesn’t make it objectively worse than any other profession. It’s just your perspective.
I’m not saying that there aren’t issues in the porn industry. Of course there are, tonnes of them. But renting out your body to perform manual labour or renting out your body for people to look at on the internet are not as different as you think.
That rings true for every single job - I mean individual coercion
and yet some of those jobs would exist in a society without destitute women, whereas the porn industry as it currently is, wouldn’t.
I am personally friends with multiple women (and non women) who do sex work (some do porn) instead of other, more mundane jobs that they are fully qualified to do. There are issues with the industry for fucking SURE but lets not pretend that everybody in it is a hostage, as an excuse to belittle those who work in SW.
I think they mean it’s their only option to make ends meet.