this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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Nobody grew up wanting to be a sewer worker but you aren't running around the internet saying they're lacking self respect
Are sewer workers USED (and often abused) by other people for their own pleasure when they do their work? Completely different scenario.
The only people who think sex work is fine are those who dont do it and havent talked in depth to someone who has. I spent five years on the street making friends with girls and boys who did it to survive. There is NOTHING good about it. NOTHING. Its degrading, its soul crushing. Its VERY often accompanied by physical or psychological abuse which is why sex workers kept 'bad date' lists to warn other workers of the really creepy guys. Its a horrible way to make money but they did it because they didnt have any other way to survive. Next time you have rose colored glasses on about sex work, give me a call and Ill put you in touch with a 12 yr old girl who was pimped out by her 16 yr old sister and you can have a long discussion about the joys of sex work. Or with a 16 yr old boy who ran away from home and ended up getting sodomized by a man in a park because he needed 40 bucks to get a meal. Its really glamorous stuff, everyone loves it.
Has it ever occured to you that those abuses happen because of people's attempts to delegitimize it? Despite attempts to make it illegal or to otherwise shame those who participate in it, it hasn't ceased to exist for as long as humanity has existed. Prohibition didn't make people stop drinking alcohol, it just created more crime and unsafe scenarios. Drug use being illegal doesn't stop overdose. The fentanyl crisis is a direct result of drugs only being available from non-legitimate sources. Onlyfans has created a very safe space for sex work. It's not perfect but it is leaps and bounds better than an alternative where it is illegal.
I believe your experience that everyone you met on the streets found it to be degrading. Have you ever thought that was because of the environment that you were in? Sex work performed by homeless people usually only exists because no legal alternative exists for their clients. Also it becomes a last resort for income for desperate people and as a result can put them in not safe scenarios.
As far as it being degrading, that's also attributed to the unsafe conditions that many women and men are forced to work under. It really isn't hard to find sex workers who are proud of their life style and live happy lives due to their success in the industry. Unfortunately they are in the minority because of all of my previous points listed. Most of the negatives that you talk about are a direct result of your and others shaming, not anything that is inherently wrong or immoral with sex work itself.
No, I dont believe that anyone is trying to DE-legitimize it, because its never been legitimate. Yes, prostitution has been around for a long time, but its never been an honorable way to make money, its always been looked down on because people know inherently that selling your body for money isn't good for anyone. Its soul crushing and degrading and no matter how many 'happy' OnlyFans out there, no one WANTS to continue doing it into their later adult years. There are lots of mental gymnastics people do to try and accept all the bad choices theyve made but that doesnt make them good choices, it just helps them survive.
Have you heard of a sweatshop?
And you think these issues are limited to sex work? You don't think office workers are used and abused by c-suite?
I have friends who do sex work, but you're free to lecture me all you like since you're the expert, allegedly.
Part of the massive issues in sex work is to do with poor rights and protections for sex workers, because it is stigmatised and not seen as real work. Obviously trafficking and child abuse are unacceptable but they are not inherent to the job, they are an issue in the same way child labour is in many other fields. There are simply more protections in place in other fields to prevent it from happening as much.
Ive never had my boss come into my office and ask me to get naked so he can sodomize me, no. Is that a common occurrence at most office jobs?
Talk to cops and lawmakers. They dont want sex work legitimized because its connected to a ton of other crime that is also not legitimate. You cant say this part is legal and ok without creeping into those other areas too. Its all a negative effect on society just like legalizing drugs has an overall negative effect. Just because its difficult to stamp it out doesnt mean we need to legitimize it.
Disengage.
While I think prostitution is probably unsafe, I also think of it as a perfectly legal and fine line of work. Its like welding but your welding visor might be acrylic which kills your eyeballs via UV, or actual UV and impact protection. You can make prostitution sex encounters safer. To make them absolutely safe the person wanting to have sex would need a test right before and would need to be there until the tests results came in negative. There after they could play as much as they wanted. So its a technology limitation. Brutality and other violence issues could be prevented in many ways. Definitely the atmosphere should be such that the worker is safe in all respects, and vice versa for the client.
I was originally thinking more in terms of the porn industry where all the actors do know each other and they should be allowed to say no to anything they don't want to do and yes to anything they want to do.
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