Sex Work is Work

[snooper2]

really interesting conversation-

Published on Mar 11, 2014

This week on the VICE podcast Reihan Salam sits down with Melissa Gira c, an independent journalist who has been writing and reporting on the sex industry for the past ten years. Grant recently authored a book, Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work, in which she calls for an overhaul in the way we think about sex work. Today, she chats with us about the history, the myths, and the criticisms of the sex industry and shares her perspective on how sex work is primarily about economic activity. and those who perform sexual labor shouldn't be criminalized or treated any differently than any other laborers trying to survive in our treacherous economic system.

[SidDithers]

1. DU rec...

marking to watch later.

Sid

[Blue_Tires]

2. She spent 50 minutes talking just to say

"Let's adopt a Dutch-style system to the issue..."

I can only skim the vid now, but I didn't hear her say anything about the slavery/trafficking aspect, which is still very serious...

[snooper2]

4. slavery/trafficking is already illegal

Maybe if police would go after them and leave workers alone there would be progress on getting the assholes.

An analogy would be say we are talking about car body repair shops and somebody yells "but the chop shops!"

[cali]

10. in every country in which it's legal sex trafficking has become worse. every single one

[1000words]

3. Oh, boy ...

[PowerToThePeople]

5. Yea Capitalism!!!!

In a just economic system, people would not have to sell their bodies, morals, or whatnot to survive.

[snooper2]

6. She addresses that but you would know

If you actually watch the video-

(Note: people were paying for sexual services LONG before capitalism)

[PowerToThePeople]

7. I do not have 50 min for this at the moment

If people were not kept financially insecure to keep labor rates low, you would see a lot less people interested in the trade. Would it go away completely? No. But there would be a large drop.

[Zorra]

8. Prostitution would be waaaay down there on my list of career choices.

Right below subsistence hunting and gathering in the Everglades, and a few notches down from picking up returnable cans and bottles along interstate 5 between Eugene and Portland.

But way above marketing shit products for some sleazy corporation. If I sell my body and skills, I can at least really believe in the product I'm selling, and not deliberately rip anyone off, and maintain my integrity.

So to each their own, if we do no harm along the away.

[kentauros]

15. Well, how about performance artist, then?

Annie Sprinkle.org(asm) (NSFW)

Or Sex/Life Coach? Barbara Carrellas is a great writer on the subject, so I highly recommend her blog and her book "Ecstasy is Necessary: A Practical Guide to Sex, Relationships and Oh So Much." I have not read her two books on Tantra, but would suspect them to be of the same high quality as the one on ecstasy

[Zorra]

16. Honey, at my age, I believe most folks would prefer me to keep my clothes on

when performing publicly.

[kentauros]

17. Well, you never know.

At least what Annie Sprinkle does is considered art instead just a job

[geek tragedy]

9. if it's work, does that mean bosses can ask subordinates for sexual favors

at the workplace and give them promotions in return?

And, should people be kicked off unemployment assistance if they refuse offers to engage in legal prostitution?

It seems if we accept what they say, sexual harassment laws should be done away with. After all, all that really amounts to is an offer to modify the terms of an employment contract.

[cali]

11. I think she's full of shit.

[BainsBane]

12. I would like to see sex workers afforded the same protections

that other workers are, and their industries regulated to ensure they are actually consenting rather than enslaved, which is far too common in sex work. That regulation is true for porn in parts of the US, but not globally. Also, workplace safety regulations, like OSHA oversees, should apply to sex workers just as it does to coal miners and textile workers. In the case of porn, that means the workers' right to be safe from life threatening STDs trumps the producers desire to not have condoms used or the viewers desire to see porn without condoms.

The problem is with so much of this industry entirely unregulated, it is ripe with terrible human rights abuses globally and within the US. Women do have a right to choose that kind of work, as long as they actually do choose rather than being forced against their will, which does occur in not insignificant numbers.

As consumers of porn, people here could exercise the same sorts of discretion they do in the rest of their consumption. Why, for example, refuse to shop at Walmart yet pay not attention to whether the porn you consume is produced by regulated companies that pay workers a fair wage rather than produced under coercive conditions? Arguing that sex work is work is fine, but that means as consumers people should follow through by treating those industries as you do any other and care just as much about the labor rights of sex workers as those in other industries. When I've raised these concerns in the past, I've been met with derision about "banning porn." That is no more banning porn than shopping at Cosco over Walmart is banning consumption. People want to use the sex as work argument for justifying porn but then don't want to apply the same standards of workers rights and responsible consumption that is standard among liberals in dealing with other industries.

I apologize in advance for not having time right now to watch the entire video. It does look interesting.

[LadyHawkAZ]

13. New Zealand doing it right:

Sex worker gets $25,000 over harassment
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/9777879/Sex-worker-gets-25-000-over-harassment

A prostitute has won a landmark sexual harassment case against a Wellington brothel owner.

In what is understood to be a world first, the Human Rights Review Tribunal awarded the young woman $25,000 in damages for emotional harm as a result of sexual harassment.

...

The tribunal ruled it was unacceptable for an employer to use sexual language in a way that was offensive to the employee in any workplace.

"Context is everything. Even in a brothel, language with a sexual dimension can be used inappropriately in suggestive, oppressive, or abusive circumstances," the findings said.

Workplace protection only exists in a recognized workplace. In America, you can legally shoot them.

Melissa Gira Grant is awesome. Thanks for posting.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. yes it is and should be decriminalized. nt