Wednesday 4 February , by Johanna Brenner. The current debate about sex work among feminists generates more heat than light. Accusations of bad faith fly back and forth across the two sides, research findings are mobilized to undercut the other side even when the research itself is limited by its methods and scope, different sex worker voices are authorized by each side as either genuine or manipulated, depending on whose position those voices seem to support.
I appreciate that this moves prostitution from the lurid and sensationalized to the daily grind of everyday labor. And they ignore or reject the feminist argument that prostitution is an extreme expression of sexism. On the other hand, feminists who argue that selling sexual services is inherently harmful and should be eliminated downplay the resilience and survival skills of prostitutes who may not regard their jobs as uniquely difficult or dangerous or who take pride in their capacity to successfully negotiate these risks.
Over the past decade or so, the stakes in this debate have been substantially raised by efforts to legislate sex work in the name of feminist goals. On the other side are feminists who call for decriminalization and regulation of sex work and who believe that anti-sex trafficking laws are overly broad, penalizing rather than protecting women who migrate to do sex work.
Yet, I think it has not served feminism well that each side in this debate approaches a topic as multi-varied especially as a global phenomenon , complex, and difficult to research because of its clandestine nature as prostitution with such unjustified certainty. I find myself torn between very counter-posed descriptions of prostitution, all of which seem accurate.
There is a huge range within the work of selling sexual services and wide differences in the experience of sex workers depending on the locations, organizations, and conditions within which the work is done.
