I’m so sorry to hear this happened to you. Trafficking victims should never be in a situation where they have to self-incriminate to be able to press charges against a pimp or other shitty person who abused them. It’s also a nasty catch 22- if you admit to having been forced to do sexual acts, you are seen as untrustworthy, which makes it harder to convict the pimp. But if you don’t admit it, you have no grounds to prosecute him on. Women deserve better, everyone deserves better.

If I had my way the sex work revolution would happen today, but if it’s going to happen in stages, the laws surrounding people who were trafficked need to change first. Trafficking survivors need better protection- no one should come forward, face the possibility of their pimp walking free, and be subject to legal trouble on top of that for coming forward about their mistreatment.

Hahaha I like this response. They’ve probably stuck around since Peech’s post on Maya Angelou, since that got so much outside attention, or they’re a radfem who hate-reads this place. And yet somehow they’ve held onto the idea that they’re a VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS, having no personal experience or stake and probably never having even met a sex worker, they just know so much. Blecchhhh.

You seem lost.

As someone who was actually sexually trafficked, I side with Lady Emmy here. My experience of sex trafficking doesn’t mean we should treat sex workers with difference experiences as if they were trafficked just because I was. I would in fact say enforcing that narrative is one of the reasons I was unable to prosecute my pimp, because I performed illegal acts he forced me to do, if they find him not guilty I have already confessed to a bunch of crimes. I am opening myself up to liability even seeking help.

Thank you for the link, I’ll check it out!

Thank you! I’m glad to hear from someone else who understands and cares.

‘Whitesky’- Are you / have you ever been a sex worker?

I’m not liberal nor upper class, though I suppose I’m flattered that my literacy made you think that. I’ll take that as a compliment.

I can’t tell you what ‘prominent’ feminists say, because those aren’t the feminists I have contact with. Those feminists don’t usually stoop to slum in my sort of circles. But the feminists, particularly SWERFs/radfems, who I do encounter are the ones I write about, because they are the ones who affect my life, my well being, and my career. I also have found that all anti sex work feminists tend to claim that sex work is by nature abusive and can not be a free choice- In fact, your mention about the ‘majority’ of sex workers being victims lends itself to exactly the belief you claim not to have.

There ARE a lot of trafficking victims, a lot of women with pimps or who were sold into slavery in various parts of the world. And they are important. But they do NOT compose all sex workers. And in the US/UK, where many feminist theorists reside, ‘victims’ are not the majority. If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say one of the highest-volume sex work areas in the US is phone sex work. There are also lots of strippers, etc. Women forced into prostitution are absolutely NOT the majority of US sex workers.

Frankly, your post reads like an upper class person speaking down to a person who is nowhere near their class level, and is doing the job that works best for themself.

For your point about assault, some fault is mine, I should have been more precise. Some sex workers go their entire careers without being coerced, assaulted, or violated, DURING their job. I have friends who’ve worked in sex work without ever being subject to these things, but many of them experienced them outside their jobs. A large percentage of women will be assaulted during their lifetime, but those assaults often happen outside of and without connection to their work.

And some sex workers, like myself, ARE mistreated in the course of work. I’m also confused as to why you want to silence workers speaking out about their coercion if you feel that ending that is a priority? A large part of why sex workers by choice, like myself, are vulnerable to assault, is because of the stigma and laws about sex work.

I’m lucky; my field has not been criminalized- so I could hypothetically go to the police if I so chose. However, the odds of a sex worker who is assaulted being able to successfully have her attacker jailed are close to nil. If you want sex workers by choice to be safe, you need to start fighting for our safety, instead of fighting to silence us. Your choice to continue to stigmatize us, and guilt trip anyone who takes up our cause, are part of why we’re in the position we’re in.

Right now the sex work industry is unsafe for many people, but we don’t shut down any career that isn’t safe, or shame the people who choose to work in it. That’s not a solution. It’s far wiser to put laws in place to protect workers. Factory work, for instance, was horrifically unsafe before OSHA laws. Outlawing sex work is like outlawing abortion. You won’t stop it from happening. You just stop it from happening safely.