One other thing: hourly wages in sex work are significantly higher than in unskilled workforces in Canada. The mother of one of my nieces was a sex-trade worker on and off for at least 20 years, and I remember when she got a job at a MacDonald's restaurant around 1995 and I was so happy for her to finally get a regular job; she worked there for only a few weeks because she said, "I quit - it was exhausting - FOUR HOURS! - and I can make in 20 minutes on the street what took me FOUR HOURS to make in that shitty restaurant for losers." She added that it was more humiliating to work at MacDonald's with all the "losers" than be working the streets on her own. She also mentioned that she typically was better treated by her "johns" than by her co-workers, customers and bosses at MacDonald's. I'll never forget it.
She gave me a whole different perspective on why she, as a high school drop-out with no interest in ever going back to school, would always return to hooking. I don't know if she ever suffered violence, but she did tell me about others who did, though she suggested they sometimes "had it coming" because they were trying to rip people off in the form of promising to get drugs that they didn't actually have, or taking money upfront for sex/drugs and then just disappearing out the back door.
If working conditions, and basic living standards, were better, and guaranteed, and more meaningful, I'm guessing that she would not have kept returning to prostitution.
Every argument about the unproductive nature of sex work could apply to other forms of entertainment or personal services. A personal trainer, a nail artist, a hair cutter, a stand up comic or a live musician all have similar issues. Also, sex work can scale - a person who performs in porn, or exchanges dirty text messages with clients, or runs an OnlyFans account - they are also doing sex work and their earning potential isn't limited by the hours in their day. Those forms of sex work are subject to the same analysis and relationship with work as someone who performs in non-pornographic films, or works as a counselor or concierge, or runs a Patreon.
One other thing: hourly wages in sex work are significantly higher than in unskilled workforces in Canada. The mother of one of my nieces was a sex-trade worker on and off for at least 20 years, and I remember when she got a job at a MacDonald's restaurant around 1995 and I was so happy for her to finally get a regular job; she worked there for only a few weeks because she said, "I quit - it was exhausting - FOUR HOURS! - and I can make in 20 minutes on the street what took me FOUR HOURS to make in that shitty restaurant for losers." She added that it was more humiliating to work at MacDonald's with all the "losers" than be working the streets on her own. She also mentioned that she typically was better treated by her "johns" than by her co-workers, customers and bosses at MacDonald's. I'll never forget it.
She gave me a whole different perspective on why she, as a high school drop-out with no interest in ever going back to school, would always return to hooking. I don't know if she ever suffered violence, but she did tell me about others who did, though she suggested they sometimes "had it coming" because they were trying to rip people off in the form of promising to get drugs that they didn't actually have, or taking money upfront for sex/drugs and then just disappearing out the back door.
If working conditions, and basic living standards, were better, and guaranteed, and more meaningful, I'm guessing that she would not have kept returning to prostitution.
Every argument about the unproductive nature of sex work could apply to other forms of entertainment or personal services. A personal trainer, a nail artist, a hair cutter, a stand up comic or a live musician all have similar issues. Also, sex work can scale - a person who performs in porn, or exchanges dirty text messages with clients, or runs an OnlyFans account - they are also doing sex work and their earning potential isn't limited by the hours in their day. Those forms of sex work are subject to the same analysis and relationship with work as someone who performs in non-pornographic films, or works as a counselor or concierge, or runs a Patreon.