I understand that some of the criticism comes from conservatives but the sentiment seems to extend far beyond thst. Of course, I understand it when it’s forced or when someone only does it to survive against their will. But if people genuinely want to do it, why do people hate on them?
I feel like I have to do my job to make ends meet - how is that different from sex work? Coercion is a different story
Fact is, we humans make quite surplus enough for everyone to make ends meet. Your job is a form of coercion, to make others money. That health care in the U.S. is tied to one’s job is evidence of that. That housing is dependent on mortgages being paid consistently or one risks homelessness is more evidence still. Taxes are coercion by governments to give credence to fiat currency, not because they need it to pay for goods and services… they could print money to pay for goods if that weren’t true. Point is jobs are coercion, and sex workers are under the same pressures I described above, enough that I doubt any sex worker is in it just for their love of the game.
And thus… Sex work is no different to the others
Then why so many sex workers die from drug overdose?
Why do so many people in other jobs die from a drug overdose? Because the world sucks
Sex workers face mortality rates from overdose that dwarf the general population. We’re talking about an external-cause mortality risk roughly 8-12 times higher for these marginalized groups. The direct link is undeniable: studies show a significant history of substance dependence (100% in one cohort) with opioids involved in ~90% of those fatal events. It’s crucial to note these are likely “conservative estimates” because many records don’t capture sex work status.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12405828/
The driving factor isn’t the work itself, but the trauma surrounding it. You see a high burden of PTSD, anxiety, and depression that predates or coincides with substance use. For many, the drug use, especially “polysubstance” mixing of opioids and benzos, is a form of self-medication to numb the violence and stigma
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acps.13559
The overdose is often a direct consequence of criminalization and policing. Research shows that when police target sex workers or create barriers to safe consumption sites, the odds of a fatal overdose more than double (AOR 2.15)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395922003668?fr=RR-2&ref=pdf_download&rr=9d06bca97a56066e
I agree with what you’ve said but I don’t consider these things as caused by the job, rather symptomatic of how the job is treated in society (and how poorly regulated human trafficking for sex work is)
Of course, but it is the reason why I would not want any woman to be a sex worker in the current capitalist bigoted society.
Time to abolish anesthesiologists /s
and that’s why sex workers made their unions too
I think they mean it’s their only option to make ends meet.