Sex Work is Not “Work”

On May 7 the Union Leader published a Reuters article on their back page with the catchy title “Streetwalkers to Sweet Talkers” outlining the dilemma Chile’s prostitutes face under Covid-19 now that they cannot engage in the “intimate” aspect of their trade.

As a survivor of the sexual and physical trauma of prostitution, it makes me angry to see the Union Leader share such a misleading piece of reporting with their readers. By portraying prostitutes as liberated and independent business owners whose only worry is how to connect with clients, it ignores the ugly reality of their lives. Even talking about the “very intimacy” of trading sex for money glamorizes an act that by its nature exploits and dehumanizes women.

If you had asked me as an eighteen-year-old if I saw prostitution as a career choice, I would have laughed. I had dreams of being a writer and was attending community college. All that changed with someone who could see I was vulnerable and patiently cultivated me to “work” for him by selling myself to strangers. He painted the life of a prostitute as a glamorous one filled with luxury goods and more money than I could make anywhere else. And the money was good, giving me a false sense of empowerment and security although it was never “mine” for long. I wanted to leave the life right away but was caught in a spiral of trauma, self-loathing, and self-medicating to numb myself to what was happening to me, all under the thumb (and the fist) of my pimp. It took me eight years to find the strength and support to break free. In all my time of offering my body to strangers, I never met that idealized version of a liberated self-employed sex entrepreneur. We all wanted out.

By making prostitution sound like just another form of self-employment, this piece tries to make us feel that by legitimizing it, we’re supporting these hardworking women. And, in the U.S., there’s a big push nationwide to legalize or decriminalize “sex work” including here in New Hampshire. The pimps have even hired a lobbying firm to represent their interests. (If you think it was the “empowered” prostitutes, all I can say is “Follow the money.”)

The fact is prostitution can never be a viable business for the woman whose body is the commodity being bought and sold. The pimps and traffickers who sell those bodies and the buyers who use them would like nothing better than for you to see the practice as perfectly ok and a way for women to support their families. They don’t want you to look at what’s happened in countries or states that have legalized or decriminalized prostitution. They don’t want you to see how it increases sex trafficking and leads to even more activity in the illegal market. They don’t want you to know how the industry meets high demand by luring vulnerable women (and children) like me or taking them outright. Don’t just take my word for it. Look at what happened in Rhode Island when they decriminalized “indoor” prostitution for nearly thirty years. Pimps, traffickers, and sex buyers made it a “sex buyer’s paradise” where traffickers and organized crime operated freely and without fear under the protection of the state.

It’s about demand and supply. Decriminalizing or legalizing prostitution only increases demand and brings new buyers in. The more their demand, the greater the push for more bodies and the bigger the risk for vulnerable and young women to be trapped and enslaved. I know. I was one. But they would prefer you not know the truth of stories like mine.

The edited Reuters article the Union Leader chose to publish doesn’t tell us the whole story about these prostitutes. Although it featured direct interviews with prostitutes, there is probably much more to their story than self-employment. Camila lives in a high rise apartment but typically only makes $715 a month. Even with Chile’s lower cost of living, the math doesn’t add up. We are only seeing part of the story, and I know the rest is not pretty.

The Manchester Union Leader should know better. This wasn’t just another Covid-19 piece on business impact but part of something even bigger and uglier. These women do need help, but it’s not to find a way to stay, it’s to get the help they need to leave.

BY Jasmine Marino