General Discussion Thread - Juche 113, Week 17
Welcome again to everybody! Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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Got in a discussion on Reddit about sex work and the whole white, male 'WOMEN SEXUAL LIBERATION REEEE' crowd came crawling out of their basements to downvote. To them, sex work is this perverse fantasy of a white woman being empowered instead of the reality in which 99% are human trafficking victims in horrible conditions.
Obligatory recommendation of "prostitution and ways of fighting it" by alexandea Kollontai
I'm "softer" (lol) on sexwork than most marxists are, and I think it tends to be unfairly demonized, often into SWERF territory.
Of course it's not that simple or black and white, and nobody should be pressured or coerced into sex work, and it is a genuine horrific travesty that many women find themselves in because they need to make end's meet, and this is especially true among women and afab of color.
I've spoken to women who are prostitutes and who are also marxists and are genuinely empowered by their work, and have their own thoughts and perspectives that deserve respect and consideration, though since I do live in the global north/collective west, I can't even imagine how bad things are for women who are forced into it, even after reading about, especially in the global south, and the global north too.
Not that it particularly matters, nor is there likely anyway of measuring the statistics, but I'd be woeful of saying that 99 percent of sexworkers are trafficking victims.
But I don't mean to completely disagree with you, and the percentage is definitely way more than most expect.
99% was a bit of an exeggaration but over here in Belgium it is estimated that around 85% of the people in prostitution are actually trafficked into it. And then there are some people who fall into a grey area of being semi forced into it and then we have a tiny minority who do it out of empowerment.
I used to work with human trafficking victims and almost everyone of them used to be a sex worker. There seems to be this liberal fantasy in which sex work is one of the highest tiers of womens liberation but the reality is just so far removed from that, that we need to abolish this system entirely.
That being said, I am not going against sex workers who do speak up for better conditions and rights, etc. I support the sex workers struggle against the system of course. I have nothing against a free sexual spirit, I am all for it. I just do hope we, as a society, manage to move past viewing sex as labour in order to keep existing.
All fair points.