Tag sex work | VenusPlusX

Ethical Prostitution

19th Century German Sex Worker, Anna Dorthea Hansen
Flickr/creative commons

As a follow up to yesterday’s discussion of the decriminalization of sex work, take a look at this video of a sex worker ally drilling down to the issues. While perhaps relying too much on sensational memes based on unreliable data that says most sex workers are sex-trafficked children, she makes a durable case for the complete decriminalization and legalization of sex work.

Social acceptance and legalization of sex work is the key to ending sex-trafficking, not its cause. Sex-traffickers are involved in organized crime and should be pursued and punished vigorously; if they disappear so will their victims. But unless society can recognize a separate and growing sex work industry based on voluntary participation, we will not be able isolate and end the scourge of international sex-trafficking.

The first encounter society has with a voluntary sex worker need not be the result of police and the court system, nor their only portal to adequate support, healthcare, and other medical social services (more here) .

Sexual healing from an out-of-the-closet industry is not a bad thing, and will go a long way to ending sexual oppression.

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Reminder: Win one of VenusPlusX’s prized t-shirts for making a video, writing a poem, or creating a work of art as part of our Sexual Freedom Project, on this subject or any other related to sexual freedom, contact: columbia@venusplusx.org. (More videos, here.)

The Sexual Freedom Project: ‘Escorting’ v. ‘Prostitution’

We’re talking another look at this Sexual Freedom Project video in light of our recent post, “Voluntary sex work is destined to evolve into a legitimate Sexual Healing Industry.” Regardless of what money exchanges whose hands, sex work is a legitimate part of our culture in that it is, with the exception of forced prostitution, an expression of comfort and love however foreign that idea may sound to some people.

What do you think?

Is there a difference between between what “escorts” are paid to do, and what “prostitutes” are paid to do?

Is sex work labeled differently depending upon the socioeconomic status of the person performing it? Or the status of the person paying the sex worker?

Why do legal authorities round up prostitutes who work on the streets, while looking the other way when it comes to escorts who find their clients online and in other invisible ways? Is this a legitimate distinction or just another form of discrimination based on wealth and status?

Again, let us know what you think. Make a video, write a poem, song, or an essay — or even create an original work of art — and express your thoughts on this and other topics that people like you have recorded for the Sexual Freedom Project. If we feature your contribution on the site, we will send you a free VenusPlusX t-shirt to thank you.

Click here for more videos.

in The Sexual Freedom Project / Videos by Alison Gardner 17 Jun 2014 0 comments

Voluntary sex work is destined to evolve into a legitimate Sexual Healing Industry

Jamie Raskin, law professor and Maryland State Senator, is trying in vain to explain to the luddites in Congress why free speech shouldn’t cover things like bribery to politicians, recently okayed by the US Supreme Court in several rulings. He wisely invokes prostitution to get their attention, to show the context of free speech, but it’s just used as a expositional device.

But let’s take his point in another direction. The legalization or decriminalization of prostitution is a campaign VenusPlusX and other civil rights organizations have long-championed because it is a necessary and often vital part of life and there are many reasons why it hasn’t gone away on its own, it will not go away, and it’s ready for real reform so that it constitutionality can be protected as vigorously as any other human right.

The desire for love, for touch, for compassion, and for companionship and the improvement of physical health doesn’t have and shouldn’t have any boundaries or interference by governments or religions because our erotic senses are foundational to our connection with others and the cosmic technology around us.

Crime, sex trafficking, and financial exploitation accompany sex work only because it has always been criminalized.

If money paid to a sex worker (or a casual dinner and a movie with a new boyfriend) leads to sexual activity, why should this warrant any interference at all. The dinners, movies, jewelry, etc., accepted by girlfriends and wives is the very same thing as the commercial transaction made by a sex worker.

So, let’s consider a new model: A Sexual Healing Industry.

Note that this industry and network of professionals already exists. Highly skilled masseurs have become well known by word of mouth, as empaths who can safely shepherd you towards greater understanding of yourself and your body. They see you in well suited surroundings although right now they don’t explicitly advertise themselves as sexual healers. Why shouldn’t every sex worker who is involved in commercializing their skill on a voluntary basis be able to put out a shingle in a safe environment?

“Oh, by the way, I am going out to my yoga class and I have an appointment with my sexual healer after that so I’ll see you for dinner around 6.” Why not? This is the future, get ready for it.

Let us know what you think by commenting here or contact us at columbia@venusplusx.org.

in Campaigns / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Sex Education / Transhuman Erotic Freedom by Alison Gardner 04 Jun 2014 0 comments