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I got into sex work because I was homeschooled in a borderline fundamentalist Christian cult my whole life and expected to become a housewife. My parents made too much money for me to qualify for aid for me to go to college, but refused to help me at all financially or cosign on any loans. So at 19 I went to work on a factory floor for 50-60hr weeks with no education and no prospects, and I would go multiple days in a row without seeing the sun.

So yeah, I worked hard and did what I could and I decided that I would prefer sex work over that life.

My posts may seem harsh because I am frustrated by peoples' lack of understanding that being able to work as a sex worker is a *privilege* (to borrow a woke term) that poor men simply do not have. A poor man in your position would have no choice but to keep working these low paying jobs. It is ironic to me that leftists who keep calling everyone privileged will willingly ignore this obvious fact because in their worldview men are privileged by default.

Why not? You could be the loverboytoy of older cougars, or be the fuckpiece for gay- or bisexually oriented man. If that's not your thing you still could join the military and be cannonfodder.

> "once a whore, always a whore"

> Basically, once a woman tries out whoring

> weird analogies claiming that whoring (renting out your body for money) is just like physical labor, which is fscking insane.

> How is being sexually penetrated by a stranger, ejaculated on, etc... anything like a man doing manual labor?

well we've found our misogynist

> Why is she even a single-mom in the first place?

right, because women have bodily autonomy and basic health care services available to them everywhere. yes i am talking about abortion

seriously, why the hell share this disgusting tirade?

edit: wow i see this isn't your only misogynistic comment

> At least a woman can take the easy way out and become a prostitute. A man has no such "luxury". Society does not pity weak men the way it pities weak women. [1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28928183

You might as well say the same thing about software developers. Instead of working honest jobs with their hands like most people, they just have to sit in a chair and be smart. Even if they get a real job, when the times get rough they will just go back to developing. Where is personal responsibility? Where is dignity? Making an effort to make an honest living?

No you may not. You are once again confusing people who rent out their time and those that rent out their bodies (prostitutes). You are really clutching at straws here trying to make prostitution morally equivalent to every other job in the market.

It is not me who is confused. In either case selling time IS selling limited power over yourself, the use of your capabilities. My employer pays me to think about their problems and solve them with my brain (and fingers). A client of a sex worker pays them to use other mental skills and body parts.

How is one different than the other? There are many jobs that you would consider "normal" that are far more dangerous (e.g. logging or deep sea fishing), or where you are treated with much less dignity either directly (customer support, etc.) or indirectly (a modern warehouse job where you are a glorified manipulator attachment); in almost any jobs, workers could be exploited, trafficked, etc.

What in particular (with some basis in physical reality) makes sex work special compared to all of those?

It is the sexual act itself that makes it special, which is why I'm against simply abstracting away all jobs to "using mental skills and body parts". A client of a hitman also pays them to use mental skills and body parts. How is being a hitman different than being a software engineer?

Sex is something women do not generally give out easily, especially to men they are interested in dating for the long term. Sex is also an intimate act that strengthens the bond between a couple. By selling sex, the woman devalues herself in the eyes of men. Why do women make guys wait for the Nth date before they have sex with them, if not for the sole purpose to make the guy think that the woman is of high value? You know, that she doesn't just sleep with anyone just like that.

Ask yourself this:

1. Would you marry or date a woman who does sex work?

2. Would you be OK with your daughter/sister doing sex work?

Then ask yourself the same questions after s/sex work/software engineering/g and tell me if you get the same answer.

Being a hitman is more likely to have actual moral consequences affecting other people, although e.g. a hitman killing a warlord might be more moral than a software developer working on Great Firewall.

All of the rest comes down to baseless mental hangups, although e.g. withholding random sex has basis in safety considerations. There's also reputational damage, but that cannot be used to to justify reputational damage, that would be circular. It sadly has to be managed, though, so even those without mental hangups and safety concerns might withhold sex.

The answers are "yes, probably" and "yes, if that's the best option in terms of income and safety". To the extent that it gives me pause, I can recognize those are just bugs in my thinking. It's often helpful to analyze your reactions and conclude they are broken, not trust your gut with no justification, e.g. instinctively get angry when someone cuts you off in traffic, or in this case are instinctively disgusted by sex work.

You don't think that construction workers, farm workers, or even athletes aren't renting out their bodies?

There is clearly a difference. You can pretty much tenuously claim that every type of job affects your body/health in some way, but there is a difference between doing manual labor to being literally f*cked in the ass. (Had to use the bad language to get the point across)

> Instead of working honest jobs with their hands like most people, they just have to sit in a chair and be smart

if you want an even more bulletproof argument you could add that most tech workers are overpaid because they are benefitting from the rents/royalties extracted from intellectual property by the propertied class