They often say it’s the oldest business in the world. Which might not be relevant to how we should treat it as a society today, but what seems obvious to me is that when you de-facto criminalize and discourage something the working conditions are going to suffer.

There probably isn’t a place in the world where it isn’t practiced yet we love to pretend like we’re somehow past that. Not sure how much of that is based in religion and how much is just us being in denial of our own biology-based desires in a secular modern society. Either way it is hurting people who are just as entitled to making a living as anybody else.

Always a great question to ask software nerds. Great thread idea dude!

Sex work is work. Therefore, yes, I support it.

It have side effect on the people who do it: yes, I give a flying fuck about it: no

Yes, as long as everyone involved is consenting. It needs to be destigmatized especially in healthcare settings.

Sex isn’t special in the sense of being on a pedestal. Sure, it can be magical in that two people in love come closer together, but that is also true of many intimate experiences. The physical act should not be restricted from being performed, shared, or even monetized because of the sense of morality of others.

Sex workers are working. They may get someone off via their actions, but they’re providing a service, same as someone who fixes your broken phone, provides medical care, or unclogs your toilet. It’s a form of labor.

My life doesn’t include a special realm or being beyond that of people to provide incentives or guidance on how to live. That’s entirely decided by people and their own sense of decency. Treat others well, as you’d wish to be treated, and try not to live in a way that negatively affects others. That’s the whole of morality to me. I think this will lead to a good life. In no way would paying for or receiving money for sexual acts be affected by it.

Hell, give me enough money and I’ll perform whatever sex acts you want.

Work is work.

Is sex work selling your body? Is doing masonry carpentry or road fixing work anything less than that?

Is sex work ethical? Is working for a weapon manufacture ethical?

I think the point on sex work is a different one: exploitation. That is wrong and should not be allowed or tolerated. But is it avoidable?

The focus should not be on the sex workers tough, but on the clients. The sex workers will always be there as long as there is demand for them.

So, yes, give sex workers the opportunity to work in a safe and not abused environment, so that it can be a choice like any other work. Which means, legalize, regulate, and so on.

If you believe that laws forbidding gambling, sale of liquor, sale of contraceptives, requiring definite closing hours, enforcing the Sabbath, or any such, are necessary to the welfare of your community, that is your right and I do not ask you to surrender your beliefs or give up your efforts to put over such laws. But remember that such laws are, at most, a preliminary step in doing away with the evils they indict. Moral evils can never be solved by anything as easy as passing laws alone. If you aid in passing such laws without bothering to follow through by digging in to the involved questions of sociology, economics, and psychology which underlie the causes of the evils you are gunning for, you will not only fail to correct the evils you sought to prohibit but will create a dozen new evils as well.

—Robert A. Heinlein, Take Back Your Government

Its been said in this thread better than I can - but I wish the people who argue sex work is immoral because you’re “selling your body” would apply that same logic to labor.

For most of us, our body is the only capital we have and were taught to devalue that capital into oblivion so those who deplete that capital the most make the smallest possible piece of the pie.

I believe a victimless crime shouldn’t be, and that unless a very strong case is made otherwise for a specific person, people can decide what they want for themselves.

Of course people being forced into sex work is bad, but then so is people being forced into working kitchens or call centers. If they decide on it voluntarily that’s all good and well.

Also, since I can’t resist:

approve of sex work

Yes, it’s my job to personally rubber stamp every truck stop girl. /s

power imbalances are born from necessity, i disagree that sex work is empowering for anyone partied to it, but i also dislike any work that places another beneath another creating class division. so while i see sex work as bad, i see sex work creating division it is something to be accepted with in our current society and if a sex worker says they feel empowered by their work then so be it.

See, I wasn’t really sure, but I think this thread has helped convince me that it’s probably okay. I was for sex work before, but then I had heard that countries with more lax sex work laws had more human trafficking. But that might just be a result of work in our moder capitalist hellscape. Part of me thinks sex work should be illegal until capitalist is abolished, but part of that is probably just some ingrained puritan attitudes of sex and personal philosophy about its intimacy. It doesn’t mean the state should ban people from selling it and it doesn’t mean I have to partake if it’s legal.

I’ll probably keep reading this thread to evolve my attitudes on the subject more, but thanks everyone for the interesting comments on a subject I don’t think about much (sex work… Sex itself I think about all the time lol).

Nope. I believe people should carry more dignity than that.

There are other ways in which we sell our bodies in exchange for resources. A lot of people point to soldiers, but for those of us in knowledge work, we sell our brains in exchange for stress and depression if things aren’t in balance. Think about construction workers who break their wrists drilling down floorboards, or caregivers that expose their immune systems to a high quantity of kids who are likely to spread any bugs they pick up because they don’t know better.

Sex work just involves people selling entertainment or enjoyment in a more intimate setting. The fact that it is intimate doesn’t change that it’s work, and that resources can be exchanged for service.

I think this all comes down to stereotypes specific to a certain culture. Hoping I see my culture in America make it more legal so we don’t have some of the issues that come from this market not being legal

I think it should be legal, with extra protections for the workers to protect them from exploitation and abuse. Unfortunately though, our entire economic system is exploitative, so I’m not sure if it would ever entirely be by choice that somebody turned to prostitution, though labor itself is never entirely by choice. I only work at my job because I have to, not because I really want to. A worker selling their body to perform legal labor for money is on par with a person selling their body for another’s sexual gratification. Making it illegal just makes it worse for the workers, since they’re obviously going to do it anyways and won’t get any protections from the law.

Sex doesn’t always have to be for love, equating it with love is something religious people have forced on the world to get over their own religion-induced guilt over the whole thing. Bonobos have a crazy amount of sex and use it for all sorts of social interactions, it’s something animals do to feel good and relieve stress. There’s instances of other primates even engaging in prostitution as well, where they trade sex for food, and prostitution is one of, if not the oldest job among humans.