The Labor of Sex Workers, and the Dues They’re Owed

It is society’s duty to provide for them, as it should to all of its citizens.

Courtesy of Flickr by xvire1969.

To be a sex worker, especially in America, is to sustain constant animosity from every corner of society while inhabiting its margins. The discourse surrounding sex work is supercharged with emotion — it makes sense since it fulfills such a primal need for human beings — but seemingly out of disinterest or lack of trying, passionate posturing always triumphed over tact and measuredness. A vulnerable cohort languishes ever-hopeless in dire straits as the debate on how to rescue them continues to rage fierce, a stern reminder of just how much we’re woefully ill-equipped to handle the situation with the urgency it so desperately requires.

Much hubbub was made in 2018 about the need to restrict sex work platforms out of the fear that they’re imperiling America’s most-potent political pawn — those being children — and close to three years after the signing of FOSTA-SESTA into law, state surveillance has been further bolstered under the pretense of maintaining decency, even as Section 230 continues to take the brunt of it. The fallout from that law proving catastrophic, sex workers are yearning for a re-match, looking preferably for their social standing to undergo serious reevaluation, especially as sex…