Support Sex Worker Rights or Abolish Sex Work?
How Should Feminists & Leftists Look at Sex Work?
By Steve Leigh
Book Review:
Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Worker Rights, Molly Smith and Juno Mac, Verso 2020
This is a very well written defense of sex workers as workers. It covers a whole series of controversies that have come up among Feminists and Leftists. It makes excellent theoretical points and backs them up with individual personal examples. The authors are Feminists and anti-capitalists but are not afraid to disagree with other Feminists and Leftists. The authors are from Britain but discuss the issue internationally. It is well worth reading to get a good grasp on these issues. It is written by sex workers, which adds an intimate knowledge to the argument.
The authors stress that they are coming at this issue from a workers’ viewpoint. They are not saying that sex work is “good” work, or that it is empowering and liberatory as some do. In fact, they note that “the sex industry is both sexist and misogynist”(4). They reject the “happy hooker” myth. “We are not here to prioritize discussions on whether the sex industry or even sex itself is good or bad.” (3–4) “Rather than focusing on the “work” of sex work, both , both pro-sex feminists and anti-prostitution feminists concerned themselves with sex as symbol”. Instead they say that while there is sex work, workers should have rights. Their contention is that sex work cannot be eliminated by legal repression as much as carceral Feminists and conservatives would like that outcome.
In this discussion they counter the myth that activity is only really work if it is fulfilling work. “ They ( anti-prostitution activists SL), too, think that the question of whether sex work is work should primarily be fought on the terrain of whether sex work is good work… They therefore position work in general as something that the worker should find fulfilling, non-exploitive and enjoyable….Awfulness and work are positioned as antithetical: if prostitution is awful, it cannot be work.” (42) This attitude would of course exclude almost all wage labor under capitalism. Exploitation , alienation and oppression of workers is fundamental to the “free market” system. The idealized view of work comes from a professional/middle class viewpoint.
The authors further critique an attitude of anti-capitalists who oppose the decriminalized sex work because it would still be controlled by the private market :
“ What the Left actually favours is labour rights , to redress the power between employers and workers. In a capitalist society, when you criminalize something, capitalism still happens in that market.. .. we are not offered the option for the “free market” to not govern the proceedings.”(51)
They oppose the condescending attitude of liberal and carceral Feminists that sex workers should be convinced or forced to leave the trade. Instead, if ending the trade is the goal, social supports need to be given. If women can make more in sex work than in other trades, they will continue in sex work. Provide other well-paying options. Provide housing and medical care. End immigration restrictions etc. These will make life better for sex workers and allow them to leave the trade if they so choose. This approach grounds the authors’ view that the interests of sex workers are bound up with any number of other issues that benefit workers as a whole . It is a multi-issue situation.
The book contains an extended analysis of trafficking. Some Feminists and others see all prostitution as trafficking. The authors reject this. They see the attack on trafficking as a way to end sex work generally. They do however note that the line between voluntary sex work and trafficking is not always clear. A person can emigrate for sex work voluntarily but have their passport withheld by an employer putting them in a coercive situation. Genuine trafficking takes place but it is not as widespread as those who campaign against it allege. The authors make a very strong case for pro-immigrant policies. “borders make people vulnerable”(64)
The authors do not ground their defense of sex worker rights on the needs of clients. ( note here that the overwhelming majority of workers are women and clients are men — -but this is not universal. There are a variety of combinations.)
In examining the issue, the authors make a great case for decriminalization as opposed to legalization, complete suppression or the “Nordic Model” which only criminalizes customers. Obviously suppression is horrific for sex workers. Besides jail and destruction of future employment opportunities it can lead to more marginal and thus dangerous situations from customers. Legal suppression is carried out in a racist manner.:
“ In the 1970s ..Black women were seven times more likely to be arrested for prostitution related offences than white women.” In the U.S.(120)
Those who favor legal suppression are often not first of all interested in the needs of sex workers. “Carceral feminism prioritizes punishing wrongdoers above all else, even protecting victims”.( 134)
Legalization sounds good but it always involves heavy regulation which excludes and thus illegalizes some prostitutes etc. This is especially true of immigrants who may lack the legal right to work in any industry.
Many Feminists and others like the Nordic Model which only criminalizes customers. They feel that it leaves the workers free of prosecution. The authors outline many problems with this model. Only the most persistent customers will seek paid sex. They will often be more dangerous to the workers. Because it reduces demand, it gives the customers a power advantage over the workers. The workers are less able to negotiate terms for their service. They become more desperate to accept any customer. It also drives them into dangerous places to hide from police. Finally it is more likely to make workers rely on “managers” ( pimps)
“When people are pushed into prostitution by poverty, the response of the Nordic model is not to alleviate poverty, but to try to take away their survival strategies”(154)
Another problem with both legalization and the Nordic Model is that workers can still be arrested for associated violations even if the act of selling sex is legal. In many countries, brothels are illegal and often widely defined. Even workers sharing an apartment can be labeled as running a brothel. Selling sex in the wrong location can still be illegal. Selling sex as an immigrant can cause deportation. Police still follow the sex workers to find the customers which puts further pressure on sex work.
These considerations lead the authors to favor decriminalization. The only country mentioned that does this is New Zealand. In decriminalization, sex work is legal with no restrictions of place etc. However, labor rights are still enforceable to protect employees. Some argue that sexual enforcement and rape by customers cannot be stopped because of the nature of the work. The authors reject this, saying that what is consented sexual contact in one circumstance can be harassment or rape in another. They analogize the actress who’s work requires sex scenes, but who can still charge Harvey Weinstein etc. with rape or harassment when it is not directly part of her job.
Decriminalization also needs to include the decriminalization of communication by sex workers to get customers. The authors go into detail on the problems of legally shutting down websites and other avenues of advertising. The authors favor decriminalization but note that it does not create utopia. New Zealand still punishes drug possession and has immigration restrictions.
“ Decriminalization cannot wash away class conflict between the interests of management and employees ; instead it aims to mitigate the intense workplace exploitation that is propped up and fueled by criminalization.”(195)
In line with this, the authors note that “ There is no labour law in a criminalized workplace”(202)
The authors end with inspiring examples of sex worker organizing and a call for solidarity:
“ As former sex worker Janet Mock writes “ We will not be free until the most marginalized, most policed, most ridiculed , pushed out and judged are centered. There are no throwaway people.”(213)
