Just a view I see lacking and underrepresented in tech spaces
But if there are other things you’re referring to with that governor then definitely mention those, separately
Something very much up for debate amongst leading scholars. I - personally - think buying sex is bad, and degrading to both parties.
Who are those "leading scholars" and what gives them authority to be the judge what consenting adults do with their body for a living or for entertainment?
It comes down to consensus in practice.
I'm not saying I have the right answer to all of this either, I'm just pointing out that your "morally neutral" stance isn't as neutral as you'd like to think.
Only in mental gymnastics. Staying out of other people's private lives is not a question of my own morality but also the law in most western democracies. I am free to do whatever I want as long as my freedom doesn't negatively affect anyone else. If you're not affected by what I'm doing in private, why are you trying to involve yourself in it and act as a judge?
You're allowed to do that, and we're allowed to point out that this doesn't work in practice and that the failure in practice is itself why we're not surprised or even upset about the hypocrisy.
Telling people to respect the privacy you're awarded by law is nto telling them what to do.
The laws themselves were written to tell people what to do. That's why they come with actual punishments if you break them, not merely arguements like on the internet. And some of those laws do actually ban various acts associated with prostitution, though the stated reasons for such laws are also often out of sync with the consequences given what is easiest to prosecute.
Can you name a specific religion? I can't think of any, but maybe that's because I misunderstand the religions.
People can be weirdly selective about such things, which is why I've not seen any suggestion by current christians that sacrificing a bird and dipping another bird in it's blood and then then shaking the blood soaked bird on the patient is a valid cure for leprosy. (Chapter 14:1-7)
Just realised that the text in Leveticus if taken literally says women are not allowed to have straight sex, only gay sex:
"""You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination""" - Leviticus 18:22
That said, translations are more of an art than a science, that's why there are so many of them.
It might instead be interpreted as a statement against being bisexual like me, where either gay or straight is fine but doing both is what the writer (from the Watsonian perspective, god) doesn't like.
It's transactional and commercial, someone is using money to get access to another's body, at least as exploitative as work generally is. It's something that wouldn't happen without the money, hence it obviously exerts some power in the relation.
People never have sex, hook up or send nude pics of themselves without exchanging money?
You should spend some time with sex workers. Pretty much the first lesson in this line of work is that you act well and submit to the whims and wishes of your clients, and the second lesson is to put some hard limits on what you'll do or you'll be abused.
It's generally an act, one person faking attraction or friendship or whatever and another person paying for it. Sometimes sex workers get to know clients personally, but outside porn where the 'client', i.e. the producer or whoever is paying, isn't the one you're fucking I've never heard about a sex worker initiating a non-paying relationship with a client.
To answer your actual question, no, this is not a common type of behaviour.
Unemployment is low in the developed west, there are tens of thousands of other legal careers you can choose if you want to support yourself.
There's no manufactured imbalance of power here since nobody's forcing you into sex work. You choosing to strip to gooners online for money is your voluntary choice as an adult so take responsibility for it and don't outsource it by blaming those paying for your life choices.
And you should really, really spend some time with some sex workers and listen to them instead of some grifter dipshit that calls himself a fan of Mises or whatever.
Its mostly an information asymmetry if they choose to sell their labor that way and dont want to, or do want to and believe it is the most lucrative choice for them
part of the whole sex worker activist movement is the observation that other kinds of workers dont have to be representatives of their entire occupation based on their mood that day
There are obviously people who are exploited. So those instances should be treated with the full severity of the law.
However there are genuinely others who enjoy the work and find it more empowering than degrading. So it’s not just an industry full of stereotypical sleaze bags exploiting vulnerable women.
I’m not making an argument for nor against sex work here by the way. Just saying that you cannot treat this kind of topic with Boolean arguments like you have done. It’s a hell of a lot more complex than that.
In my opinion what we really should be doing is spending more time making this industry safer for those that choose it, rather than pretending it can be eradicated and thus pushing it into dark corners where vulnerable individuals cannot be kept safe.
Some have truly horrific stories, like being gang-raped at age 12, and forced into a lifetime of prostitution.
Others, actually chose the work, and did well.
Then, there’s trafficking, which is often a nightmare situation.
Not all the victims (or volunteers) are women, either.
I think that the fact the profession is often illegal, makes things considerably worse, all around. It pretty much guarantees that bad guys/gals will be running things, and there will be no oversight.
All of them also acknowledged it is a dangerous trade with plenty of horror stories.