<story><title>Why are sex workers forced to wear a financial scarlet letter?</title><url>https://thewalrus.ca/why-are-sex-workers-forced-to-wear-a-financial-scarlet-letter/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>_ktx2</author><text>The most troubling thing, that is somewhat observable in today&amp;#x27;s threads, is that ostracizing sex work is almost entirely normalized. People favor legal structures analogous to Don&amp;#x27;t Ask Don&amp;#x27;t Tell. This tees up a system of cascading effects:&lt;p&gt;- Sex workers must now navigate a very fluid monetary system. Sex workers must be paid in cash, Bitcoin, etc. Then they have to somehow represent this money to the federal government to pay their taxes.&lt;p&gt;- Everyone around sex workers are considered criminals. Unknowingly rent a property to a sex worker? You&amp;#x27;re a criminal. Date a sex worker? Suspected to be a criminal. Lend money to a sex worker? Criminal. Use sex work services? Definitely a criminal.&lt;p&gt;This system shoves sex workers into an intentional class system that prohibits them from owning property, prohibits their use of public services, prohibits their utilization of our monetary system. All of these things, when used, don&amp;#x27;t just benefit the sex workers - they benefit &lt;i&gt;you&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;One of the uncomfortable conversations that many people don&amp;#x27;t want to have is that sex work is heavily used by society and yet neglected constantly, thereby making it dangerous for both sex workers &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; the users, even making it &lt;i&gt;more dangerous&lt;/i&gt; at times.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>npteljes</author><text>&amp;gt;ostracizing sex work is almost entirely normalized&lt;p&gt;100%. One of the universal curses people throw at each other is implying that someone&amp;#x27;s mother is a prostitute, or that they are a product of extramarital sex, implying the promiscuity of the mother. This all is hand-in-hand with the implied comtempt towards women of course.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why are sex workers forced to wear a financial scarlet letter?</title><url>https://thewalrus.ca/why-are-sex-workers-forced-to-wear-a-financial-scarlet-letter/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>_ktx2</author><text>The most troubling thing, that is somewhat observable in today&amp;#x27;s threads, is that ostracizing sex work is almost entirely normalized. People favor legal structures analogous to Don&amp;#x27;t Ask Don&amp;#x27;t Tell. This tees up a system of cascading effects:&lt;p&gt;- Sex workers must now navigate a very fluid monetary system. Sex workers must be paid in cash, Bitcoin, etc. Then they have to somehow represent this money to the federal government to pay their taxes.&lt;p&gt;- Everyone around sex workers are considered criminals. Unknowingly rent a property to a sex worker? You&amp;#x27;re a criminal. Date a sex worker? Suspected to be a criminal. Lend money to a sex worker? Criminal. Use sex work services? Definitely a criminal.&lt;p&gt;This system shoves sex workers into an intentional class system that prohibits them from owning property, prohibits their use of public services, prohibits their utilization of our monetary system. All of these things, when used, don&amp;#x27;t just benefit the sex workers - they benefit &lt;i&gt;you&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;One of the uncomfortable conversations that many people don&amp;#x27;t want to have is that sex work is heavily used by society and yet neglected constantly, thereby making it dangerous for both sex workers &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; the users, even making it &lt;i&gt;more dangerous&lt;/i&gt; at times.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tablespoon</author><text>The OP appears to be mostly talking about porn, but your points seem to be mostly addressing prostitution.&lt;p&gt;Prostitution has long considered an disreputable and undesirable activity, and it along with other types of sex work are often tightly coupled with involuntary exploitation.  A lot of the stuff that you&amp;#x27;re criticizing derives from attempts to continue to legally discourage prostitution while preventing the legal system from further punishing women who are being exploited.</text></comment>