drop the feminist f-bomb

As someone who was forced into sex work because of extreme economic circumstance (aka poverty), I would probably be considered one of those who “wanted out”

But using me as a statistic to silence sex workers who love their jobs and continue working by choice DID NOT HELP ME

Four years ago, I begged my day-job boss to give me more hours.  BEGGED.   Said if something didn’t change soon I would have to become a sex worker in order to feed my family.  Nobody helped me.  I didn’t qualify for any government assistance programs.  Minimum wage was $8/hr at the time, and it was not even close to being enough to survive.  I had no other options.  Sex work was my ultimate last resort.

Because of websites like Backpage, I didn’t have to work on the street, where conditions are a thousand times more dangerous.  Redbook allowed me to screen clients by looking at their review history.  But in the back of my mind there was always an incredible amount of fear. Fear of law enforcement trumped my fear of bad clients. An arrest would have destroyed my entire family. Because I was terrified of the police, I took many clients that I should not have, and in doing so subjected myself to abuse in several cases.

The notion that sex workers should just “get another job” because of tightened prostitution laws is unfair and unrealistic. Many of those you claim to support because they “want out” are already doing sex work as a last resort.  There is no other job. This is it.  Taking away the few safety precautions they have is pulling the rug out from under them and making their job that much more dangerous.  Again, for many of us, sex work was our only option.

You will never eradicate the sex industry, and these moral crusades to “end demand” do nothing but harm those you claim to care about.