Should feminists support the decriminalization of sex work?

[Adelaide]

This is an infographic and I am not a huge fan of the format, but essentially:

- FOSTA makes sex work less safe (for example, lack of access to websites that provide guidance or counseling on safe practices)
- It is about allowing people the freedom of having control over their own bodies
- It is also about allowing people the freedom to decide who they have sex with, why they have sex with that person, and when sex happens
- Decriminalization would allow for more access to health care and other services
- Sex work can/could lead to economic stability and the ability to care for dependents
- Studies from Amsterdam demonstrated that sexual assaults decreased by 30-40% once "zones" for prostitution and sex work were established
- Many major human rights associations/organizations argue that decriminalization will lead to a decrease in sex trafficking

"Feminism is about choice, freedom and bodily autonomy - and so is sex work."

Feminists Should Support Decriminalizing Sex Work: Here's Why

I don't necessarily agree with many of these paraphrased statements, but it is interesting to me how feminists split on the issue of whether to support or oppose decriminalization. I found the Amsterdam studies to be interesting and plan to do more research.

@IMPress Polly - your opinion would be interesting since I know you oppose legalization, although I am unsure where you're at on decriminalization.

[MisterVeritis]

This is an infographic and I am not a huge fan of the format, but essentially:

- FOSTA makes sex work less safe (for example, lack of access to websites that provide guidance or counseling on safe practices)
- It is about allowing people the freedom of having control over their own bodies
- It is also about allowing people the freedom to decide who they have sex with, why they have sex with that person, and when sex happens
- Decriminalization would allow for more access to health care and other services
- Sex work can/could lead to economic stability and the ability to care for dependents
- Studies from Amsterdam demonstrated that sexual assaults decreased by 30-40% once "zones" for prostitution and sex work were established
- Many major human rights associations/organizations argue that decriminalization will lead to a decrease in sex trafficking

"Feminism is about choice, freedom and bodily autonomy - and so is sex work."

Feminists Should Support Decriminalizing Sex Work: Here's Why

I don't necessarily agree with many of these paraphrased statements, but it is interesting to me how feminists split on the issue of whether to support or oppose decriminalization. I found the Amsterdam studies to be interesting and plan to do more research.

@IMPress Polly - your opinion would be interesting since I know you oppose legalization, although I am unsure where you're at on decriminalization.

I think we should recognize sex as one more money making talent. I support complete legalization. The most physically talented will become very rich. It may give new meaning to "take a knee".

[The Xl]

Everyone should. Just makes it safer for sex workers, who are going to exist no matter what legislation there is.

[Peter1469]

I think it would be safer for everyone around.

[Mini Me]

I need a sex worker. My freak flag don't fly no more!

[Lummy]

Should feminists support $#@!s? Well, I don't support $#@!s, and I don't know why I should appreciate feminists supporting $#@!s.

On an abstract philosophical level, I guess I'd have to say I really, really don't care. More importantly, I find the question very annoying.

[Dr. Who]

This is an infographic and I am not a huge fan of the format, but essentially:

- FOSTA makes sex work less safe (for example, lack of access to websites that provide guidance or counseling on safe practices)
- It is about allowing people the freedom of having control over their own bodies
- It is also about allowing people the freedom to decide who they have sex with, why they have sex with that person, and when sex happens
- Decriminalization would allow for more access to health care and other services
- Sex work can/could lead to economic stability and the ability to care for dependents
- Studies from Amsterdam demonstrated that sexual assaults decreased by 30-40% once "zones" for prostitution and sex work were established
- Many major human rights associations/organizations argue that decriminalization will lead to a decrease in sex trafficking

"Feminism is about choice, freedom and bodily autonomy - and so is sex work."

Feminists Should Support Decriminalizing Sex Work: Here's Why

I don't necessarily agree with many of these paraphrased statements, but it is interesting to me how feminists split on the issue of whether to support or oppose decriminalization. I found the Amsterdam studies to be interesting and plan to do more research.

@IMPress Polly - your opinion would be interesting since I know you oppose legalization, although I am unsure where you're at on decriminalization.

It should not be a criminal act. There is something rather hypocritical about a society that makes it a crime for a person to name their price for sex but doesn't see anything wrong with the concept of "sugar daddies" and the like.

[Ethereal]

All consensual acts between adults should be decriminalized at the very least. No victim, no crime.

Moreover, the criminalization of such acts often makes the situation much worse for everyone involved. Simply put, criminalizing sex work does nothing to improve the situation for sex workers or for society generally.

As for what feminists should believe specifically, I don't see how any genuine feminist could be opposed to decriminalizing sex work. The basic premise of feminism is basically "my body, my choice," so why wouldn't that apply to sex work as well?

[donttread]

This is an infographic and I am not a huge fan of the format, but essentially:

- FOSTA makes sex work less safe (for example, lack of access to websites that provide guidance or counseling on safe practices)
- It is about allowing people the freedom of having control over their own bodies
- It is also about allowing people the freedom to decide who they have sex with, why they have sex with that person, and when sex happens
- Decriminalization would allow for more access to health care and other services
- Sex work can/could lead to economic stability and the ability to care for dependents
- Studies from Amsterdam demonstrated that sexual assaults decreased by 30-40% once "zones" for prostitution and sex work were established
- Many major human rights associations/organizations argue that decriminalization will lead to a decrease in sex trafficking

"Feminism is about choice, freedom and bodily autonomy - and so is sex work."

Feminists Should Support Decriminalizing Sex Work: Here's Why

I don't necessarily agree with many of these paraphrased statements, but it is interesting to me how feminists split on the issue of whether to support or oppose decriminalization. I found the Amsterdam studies to be interesting and plan to do more research.

@IMPress Polly - your opinion would be interesting since I know you oppose legalization, although I am unsure where you're at on decriminalization.

Of course feminist and the rest of us should support that. Better for the hookers, John's and tax payers.

[IMPress Polly]

Adelaide wrote:
@IMPress Polly - your opinion would be interesting since I know you oppose legalization, although I am unsure where you're at on decriminalization.

Just remember that you directly requested my input by name.

The approach to prostitution that I favor is the approach crafted and endorsed by the Coalition Against Traffic in Women, which in recent years has become known as "the Nordic model" for its popular adoption across most of the world's most pro-feminist countries (Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden). This approach treats pimping, brother ownership, and the buying of sex as criminal acts (i.e. offenses that can land one in jail for years), not misdemeanors (i.e. something you might just get fined for if caught). Prostituted women, in this policy, are seen and approached as victims of an exploitative industry, to which end they are not penalized for selling sex. The essence of "the Nordic model" is the view that prostitution is a crime against women, not as instead simply an affront to family life like our more conservative laws in this country generally view and approach it as.

An infographic seems like an appropriate format by which to make an unserious argument about a serious issue.

Prostitution is not a job, it's a condition. The goodness of prostitution to girls and women is best concentrated in the average life expectancy of prostituted persons. There's a reason why you're paid as you are. It's basically rape. You consent only nominally and in theory. You have sex with all kinds of mostly pasty old jerks you don't want to and do whatever they want to put you through and nothing else. The percentage of prostituted women who genuinely enjoy their "profession" and are not instead trapped therein either physically, economically, or psychologically (e.g. by way of drug addiction, Stockholm Syndrome, etc.) is marginal, NOT the rule. Not even the women who work in the happy legal brothels in Nevada can evade this reality. Hence why Mr. Dennis Hof (now a candidate for public office) stands accused of sexual assault, for example. Prostitution is an enterprise that naturally supplies men with a certain mentality of entitlement concerning our bodies. Fully the majority of prostituted women experience actual rape in the course of their labors in said field and there's lots of evidence to suggest that the main effect of legalization is generally to corrupt the police and increase sex trafficking. By a lot. (e.g. Germany. Nevada. Etc.)

Prostitution doesn't just hurt women who actually suffer in the industry either. Wherever brothels and red light districts are established, rates of sexual harassment of women in general increase because the men tend to resultantly assume that any woman standing on the roadside by herself is a prostitute and wants to be propositioned.

The proponents of normalizing prostitution with flattering lingo are kidding only themselves. Neither one's pimp nor one's clients do not refer to you as a "sex worker". They call you a $#@!, a $#@!, a ****, and, most commonly, a $#@!. That is the actual mentality that prostitution helps legitimize. They don't respect you or think of you as a human being.

No, "the Nordic model" does not improve the conditions involved in prostitution. That's not it's goal. It's goal, which it tends to succeed at, is the minimization of prostitution. That is the only humane option here.