Criminalizing Sex Work is Harmful

[Sweet Emily J 172062]

[B][U]Criminalizing Sex Work is Harmful[/U][/B]

[URL="https://twitter.com/celinebisette"]Celine Bisette[/URL] | May 13, 2014

[URL="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/op-ed/Criminalizing+work+harmful/9834353/story.html"]http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/op-ed/Criminalizing+work+harmful/9834353/story.html[/URL]

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Member of Parliament Joy Smith wants to criminalize the purchase of sex, an act that has never been illegal in Canada. She hopes to rid society of prostitution because she believes the exchange of sexual services for money is inherently harmful, even when the exchange occurs between consenting adults.

Smith also claims that people only engage in prostitution due to â??economic need.â? Her claim implies that selling sex is not a legitimate choice, but rather, an act of desperation.

As a sex worker myself, I take exception to this implication.

As far as I can tell, the overwhelming majority of people working in any field engage in labour because of â??economic need.â? Thatâ??s why people work, isnâ??t it: for money? Letâ??s not kid ourselves about why most people do their jobs. People work for money, not for fun. Some of us are lucky enough to wake up every day and feel thrilled about going to work, but most of us probably donâ??t.

Folks work in the fast food industry for money. They work in retail for money, and they collect garbage for money. Do any children dream of doing these jobs when they grow up? Probably not. Most of us dream about pursuing a glamorous profession like astronaut, lawyer, or actor. When we grow up and realize that not everyone can have one of these â??topâ? jobs, we generally suck it up and choose the least horrible job from among whatever options are available to us. The fact that someone dreams of becoming the next Bill Gates but instead winds up driving a bus does not invalidate his choice to do the work that he does.

Likewise, I am a sex worker. Did I dream of becoming a sex worker when I was a little girl? No. But I didnâ??t dream about working at McDonaldâ??s either, and yet that was my first job. Having a need to earn money â?? as we all do unless we are heirs to family fortunes â?? does not negate an individualâ??s decision to choose a particular form of labour. People need money to pay for housing, food, and clothing. Thatâ??s just life.

Some people choose to engage in physical labour, and they do jobs like construction, while others choose to perform creative labour, and they sell their writing or artwork. I choose to sell sexual labour, which means that I offer sexual services to those who pay me. As far as I am concerned, no labour is shameful. We all need to work, and we canâ??t all be the next Stephen Hawking or Madonna. Casting shame on sex workers for selling sexual labour is discrimination plain and simple.

Our work is considered distasteful, dirty, and wrong, and so some people want to get rid of prostitution altogether because itâ??s â??ickyâ? and makes them feel uncomfortable. They wonâ??t come out and say it like that, though. Prostitution abolitionists claim that they are concerned about the well-being of sex workers, and they maintain that they want to protect us from abuse and exploitation. If that were true, they would not support criminalizing the sex trade.

If Smith truly cared about sex workers, she would support an approach that keeps us as safe as possible. Scientific evidence shows that criminalizing the sex trade increases the risk of harm to sex workers. Not only is this approach morally suspect, but there is good reason to believe it is unconstitutional. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that people have the right to security of the person. Last December, the Supreme Court ruled that sex workers have the right to be safe at work and they have the right to take steps to protect themselves from harm. Criminalizing the purchase of sex interferes with sex workersâ?? ability to keep themselves safe, and is therefore a violation of our rights.

I donâ??t buy Smithâ??s argument. If she actually wants to help people in the sex trade, she will focus her efforts on two tasks: one, work to eradicate poverty so that no person is forced to sell sexual labour out of utter economic desperation, and two, work to ensure that rights and protections are given to those who do choose sex work from among the employment options that are available to them.

Itâ??s time to put the moralizing aside and start taking sex workersâ?? rights seriously. Sex workers are human beings and we deserve to be treated with dignity.

Celine Bisette is a Toronto-based escort and writer with nine years of experience working in the sex trade.
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