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+--- Thread: The Independent article on sex workers (/showthread.php?tid=3074)
The Independent article on sex workers - Real Punter - 03-09-2015
Looks like a piece of positive reporting on sex workers from the independent:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-majority-of-sex-workers-enjoy-their-job--why-should-we-find-that-surprising-10083175.html
The majority of sex workers enjoy their job - why should we find that surprising? Selling sex is not inherently harmful or dangerous. Criminalising it would be.
Prevalent discourse would have you believe that sex workers are problems to deal with, or victims to ‘save’. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, when you ask sex workers about their job satisfaction and working conditions – as a study led by Leeds University just has – the majority of them are happy. When asked to describe their work, respondents typically selected positive or neutral words. 91 per cent of sex workers described their work as ‘flexible’, 66 per cent described it as ‘fun’ and over half find their job ‘rewarding’.
The headlines today have focused on the findings that the majority of the 240 sex workers who responded to the survey had worked in other jobs, particularly in social and healthcare professions, and were well-educated. But this came as no real surprise to other sex workers or experts in the field, who are well aware that the common view of sex workers is wrong.
But the findings of this study will no doubt prove to be unfathomable to the coalition of radical feminists and conservative Christians who have overlooked their deeply held differences to criminalise the purchase of sex in Northern Ireland, and who advocate for the introduction of similar laws for the rest of the UK. Their proposals are based on the so-called Swedish Model which criminalises the purchase of sex, based on a construction of sex work as gender-based violence against women.