Sex: the next ethical industry?

[marmar]

from Grist Magazine:



Sex: the next ethical industry?
by Anna Simpson

8 Dec 2010 2:57 PM


A longer version of this article was originally published in Green Futures.


Can the sex industry ever be sustainable? Some find the very question outrageous. Prostitution and pornography have too much to answer for. There's the global spread of HIV, the trafficking of women and children, instances of rape apparently inspired by violent porn, and unhealthy obsessions with body image provoked by sexualized clichés of beauty.

But whether we like it or not, one thing is certain: The industry is here to stay. However hard we might try to regulate or moralize it out of existence -- and everyone from governments to religious campaigners to feminist activists has had a go -- the demand remains overwhelming.

And so the question of whether it could become an acceptable -- even, dare I say it, exemplary -- industry is far from an idle one. Of course, there's nothing exemplary about abuse or exploitation of any sort. But before we assume the sex industry is all a sad tangle of pimps and victims, it's worth listening to sex workers themselves. Syon Khan, an escort from Birmingham, told me, "I choose to be in the industry because I find it suits my personality type ... You have to be a people person."

The common assumption that sex work is inherently dangerous or degrading can, with bitter irony, actually make life harder for those involved. In November 2010, The Economist warned that laws designed to suppress human trafficking and sexual exploitation, leading to the closure of bars and brothels, have "helped the police to beat, rob, and rape sex workers ‘with impunity.'" Citing a report by Human Rights Watch, it asserted, "most migrant sex workers have left home for good reasons of their own -- among them a desire to work away from their families, and to earn more money." ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-12-08-sex-the-next-ethical-industry