#participating

Sometimes the easiest way to solve a problem is to stop participating in the problem.

You can really tell when someone hasn’t had contact with the average hand-to-mouth, gig-to-gig sex worker. “A sex worker’s client is half the fucking job” mhm and most sex workers do not like johns and wish they didn’t have to rely on them for money to live. Low contact, video only sex work is not the common denominator in this industry. A fraction of a percent of sex workers are wealthy enough to live well and not have to perform. And those tend to be the most popular ones who feed on and feed into sexual trends, which trickle down to effect struggling sex workers who have less agency. Because, again, 99% of sex workers aren’t Mia Khalifa and Belle Delphine. They are young, poor, and without any ability to dictate trends or their job outcome. Class consciousness means we must be conscious of how class stratification affects all forms of labor. The most visible, influential, and unaffected will continue to lead their respective industries until they are questioned. Despite this other side of this argument (from what I’ve seen) claiming communism there seems to be a strange Democracy of the Dollar undercurrent to this argument. That this arrangement and its machinations are just because there is a buyer continuing to supply demand, and if we criticize the “buyers” we are harming “suppliers”. In our current circumstances, sex work is stigmatized because it is seen as a criminal act that both the john and worker partake in. It is individualized as a social evil effecting only those who are involved. Pulling back the scope to show how this exchange is socially informed and how that can ultimately harm workers across multiple exchanges does not create the same stigma. It can, surprisingly, lead to beneficial changes for both parties. While I wish sex workers would not need to perform under coercion, I believe in harm reduction over prohibition and that doesn’t mean “no holds barred” on what can be considered ok and not. It means everyone has to change their mindset for the betterment of those who can’t choose, even if it means it’s a little harder for you to get your rocks off however and whenever you want.