Work Talk

Came across this in one of the million books on sex-workers I am trying to digest. Seemed too powerful to be not included in my blog ....

One of the justifications for the abolitionist perspective and the inevitable framing of prostitutes as victims and slaves, is the belief that no one could really choose to participate in such as activity. Abolitionists insist that " No one wants to rent out her vagina as a garbage can for hordes of anonymous men's ejaculation." (Hoigard and Finstad, 1992)

Sex worker carol Queen defies such an attitude and calls this the "politics of ick":
"The assumption is that because I find something icky no one else could ever consent to doing it. The question I always ask is whether “oh ick” is really the basis for a politics. For a lot of years, heterosexual people said “oh, I could never have sex with people of the same sex, so therefore it must be sick, it must be immoral, it must be criminalized”. Well some of us really can do this. "


I've always struggled with this sticky area: "Can prostitution ever be choice?" and depending on how argumentative and moralistic I felt, I would debate on either side of the divide. This quote is the least contrived and most convincing claim from the other side.