Daniella's Ramblings

I took a bit of a pasting on Twitter last night. It was an illuminating experience. I am no flame war virgin, I have experienced my fair share of online ire in the past, but this was the first time my female persona had been the subject of a flame war and the first time I had been taken to task on this sort of issue.I found the experience interesting.

It all began when someone re-tweeted a tweet that stated: ‘There is no rational reason sex work should be illegal’. I have always been of the view that sex work (prostitution if you prefer or whatever other contested name you wish to use) should be legal. After all, I am of the view that whatever two consenting adults do in private is no-one else’s, least of all the state’s, interest. However a few months ago I heard a radio interview that challenged my position. A former sex worker (she prefers the word prostitute) was championing the Scandinavian model, which criminalises the purchase of sex but protects the sale of sex: it is an attempt to remove the demand rather than the supply from the economy.

Her rationale was that all sex work is in fact a form of abuse at best and rape at worst because if it were entirely consensual then there would be no need for money to change hands. If the sex worker truly wanted to have sex with the client then she would do so for free. This is the nature of sexual attraction, desire and indeed love. She said that the use of money was a form of coercion in the same way that the use of physical force, threats of violence or drugs was coercive in the more traditional sense of rape. She also pointed out that whilst some sex workers may have some autonomy, many work in brothels or for pimps who force them to have sex with people they may not wish to have sex with, to perform acts they are entirely uncomfortable performing and to risk their health and well-being. She is of the opinion that the notion of a sex worker being able to refuse sex is more a myth than a reality.

I acknowledge that these are her views and that they may or may not reflect the lived experience of the majority of sex workers (I have no way of telling for sure). Her evidence may be anecdotal (or not, I have no way of telling) but nonetheless, her views and experiences are valid and real. Even if she is in a minority her opinions are worth considering.

Her point of view challenged my preconceived ideas and I found her argument with respect to money being coercive compelling. I have not definitively changed my mind on sex work but I am considering all points of view. Therefore, when I saw the tweet that said there was ‘no rational reason for sex work to be illegal’ I challenged it. Pointing out that there was perhaps a rational reason to at least challenge part of this proposition. I also pointed out that I was to an extent playing devil’s advocate, hoping that this could lead to a rational debate. Sadly Twitter only allows 140 characters and some of the nuance of my position may have been lost.

In any event I was flamed, subjected to ad hominem attacks and severely told off. People seized on the fact that I was married and questioned whether marriage was not also a form of rape. I happen to disagree with this. Regardless of what the law may say in any country, it is my view that consent is still required for sex whether married or not. I acknowledge that in a loving relationship one spouse may from time to time perform sex when ‘not in the mood’ but that does not per se imply a lack of consent. I also happen to think that if you habitually deny consent in a marriage then your marriage may have problems but that is another topic. Someone then pointed out that not everyone in capitalist countries is ‘MADLY IN LOVE’ with their jobs. I agreed and pointed out that capitalism is inherently exploitative and that the person had thus inadvertently supported my argument. This did not go down well to say the least.

For what it is worth I care about sex workers and sex work. Being trans* I am acutely aware that a number of trans* people end up in sex work for a number of reasons. Some have been discriminated against and that is the only employment they can find. Others need money for medical procedures and sex work seems to be the only means of raising the relatively large sums of money quickly and then once involved in sex work they find it very hard (impossible) to find other employment. It is at this point that sex work starts becoming very unpleasant and increasingly non-consensual.

I believe that all sex workers need protection and that they should not be the subject of abuse by law enforcement (as they too often are), but I question how best this is achieved. The risk is that by legalising sex work you may also inadvertently make associated practices more prevalent. Human trafficking may increase, brothels and pimps that promote unsafe and non-consensual practices may be harder to identify and police. This is not a given, but may be a possibility. I therefore wonder how best to provide this protection. I appreciate that many sex workers say that they enjoy their work but I wonder given the type of work, the conditions, the people involved and the inherently (often) asymmetrical power relationships (brothel owners have almost all the power, clients have the money that the worker often desperately needs etc) how far away even these happy sex workers are from being coerced into doing something they do not want to do. The fundamental questions that we as a society  we need to answer are:

Is it possible to empower sex workers?

Is the industry inherently coercive?

How do we protect sex workers?

I am truly fine with defending my position and do not mind the odd bit of ire directed at me. I am a big girl and frankly don’t really mind what strangers on the other side of the world think of me. It did however make me think. When I first became aware of social media I had high hopes that it could be an excellent forum for (and in addition to grumpy cat videos), debate and discussion. It could be a wonderful place for sharing ideas, challenging preconceptions and developing knowledge and understanding. Sadly human nature is such that rather than free, open and informed discussion, social media is characterised by entrenched ideas, dogmatic views and a pack or herd mentality that results in people following the crowd and attacking anyone who posits an alternative point of view.

I think that this is a very complex issue that needs debate and discussion. I am not sure that entrenching positions and closing down debate by attacking people is helpful. I wish social media was better used and opened up space for debate. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.