The debate about decriminalising sex work has been one that had been increasingly prevalent in feminist circles recently, and is now finally starting to be discussed in mainstream political circles again. However, this is not a new discussion.

Sex work is arguably one of the oldest professions, with refences to it found in some of the earliest remaining literature. Yet the debate about it still rages strong and many see decriminalising it as far too lenient. Yet the only way to keep sex workers safe is to decriminalise their industry and allow them to have agency over their lives and incomes. 

The criminalisation of sex work has created a hierarchy where men, and particularly women, who make up the sex work industry have become second-class citizens. It is typically white women who have created this view, often from the middle and upper classes, who want to demonise the often black or east Asian women who work in this industry and will service their rich white husbands. As a result of this, sex workers have often been left out of the feminist and MeToo movements and their rights and needs have been ignored and stigmatised. However, feminism is only genuine if it acknowledges that sex work is work and that every adult has a right to do what they want with their own body. In a capitalist system where we all participate in transactional behaviour and also all have sex, it is a patriarchal idea to demonise women who choose to marry these two aspects of life together and participate in sex work, no matter what their reasoning for doing so is. Sex workers don’t need your pity and your saving grace, they need your genuine support.

While all these aspects of sex work are real and important, they are also accompanied by the fact that practically, criminalising sex work just doesn’t work. Sex work is an industry that has persisted, even in the face of extreme legal consequences and will continue to do so as long as it is criminalised; the criminalisation of sex work just makes it less safe. When sex workers are unable to access health care without stigma or in some countries due to a lack of health insurance from working in an informal sector, this makes their job significantly more dangerous. On top of this, the informal nature of their work means they don’t get the benefits of sick pay, a pension or any of the other safety barriers they would get if their work was decriminalised. They are also significantly more likely to be abused or ignored by police forces due to the hierarchy of respectability that has placed sex workers at the bottom and positioned them as ‘unrapeable’ because of their jobs, no matter the reason they chose to enter this industry. Additionally, the typical punishment for sex work is fines which just further goes to show how disingenuous concern for the literally ‘poor women’ who are forced into sex work is, despite this being the preferred narrative of many governments, rather than just accepting women should be allowed to choose who they can have sexual relations with and on what terms; these fines make the poverty cycle inescapable for those who chose to enter sex work to try and get enough money to get by.

So why is decriminalisation the answer, over other options such as legalisation or the Nordic Model? Decriminalisation is the preferred solution of most sex workers and after literally millennia of governments ignoring them and their wants, it’s about time we finally respect what they want. According to the Scarlett Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers Association, the reason the majority prefer decriminalisation over legalisation is threefold. They argue that legalisation ‘divides sex workers into illegal and legal ways of work’ with the ‘most marginalised sex workers still criminalised’ and that it creates bureaucracy which replicates ‘existing legislation & regulatory authorities’. Instead, they argue that sex work environments need ‘Safe sex equipment, industrial standards including minimum wage and management guidelines to prevent inappropriate fines, bonds, splits of or withholding of pay. Only decriminalisation can deliver this.’ There is no evidence that decriminalisation will lead to more people joining sex work but even if it did, why should that matter? We should all be able to choose what we want to do with our bodies, regardless of gender, job or socioeconomic status.

Your feminism isn’t real if it doesn’t include sex workers.

Sex work is work. 

Further reading

https://scarletalliance.org.au/issues/legalisation/

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights, 2018, Juno Mac and Molly Smith