TonioTimeDaily

"Prostitute, Sex Worker and Sex Professional American sex worker and activist Carol Leigh coined the term sex work in the 1970s. While before this the term working girls was popular amongst workers, creation of the term sex work was a deliberate attempt to unite sex workers of all genders and sectors of work, and to highlight the work, or labour, that sex workers are doing. The term sex work is liberation from the deep-rooted negative and legalistic term prostitute. Some of us call ourselves prostitutes, but recognize its negative connotations when outsiders use it. People use the word prostitute in different contexts: to refer to legislation where word prostitute is written into law; to refer to sex work that involves intercourse with clients; to refer to street prostitution; to refer to debasing oneself, not necessarily in a sexual context; and to refer to history when the word prostitute was used with pride. How and when we use these terms will differ depending on our audience. Sex workers’ rejection of the term is often based in how the public perceives prostitutes and prostitution rather than an inherent shame in the word itself. Some sex workers also embrace the term sex professional. Like sex work, this term highlights and legitimizes the labour context of sex work. Other sex workers find this term alienating because the term professional can imply a level of accreditation that is not afforded to criminalized work. It can also insert a classist element to the work — some workers are seen as professional while others are not. Not all sex workers have access to the mechanisms that professionalize their work, and many work under precarious conditions. .............................................................. .............................................................. Prostituted women The gendered term prostituted women is sometimes used to refer to sex workers. This terms denies the agency of sex workers by suggesting that prostitution is something done to us. Many sex workers consider this framing and language around prostitution or sex work as disrespectful, alienating and invisibilizing of our realities. .............................................................. .............................................................. Survival Sex Work/Sex Workers Some communities use survival sex work to refer to sex workers who – due to numerous systemic factors or personal circumstances of poverty, homelessness, drug use and mental health – have extremely restricted options and as a result work in dangerous circumstances. The term survival sex work has become analogous to street work and “difficult circumstances.” However, some high earning sex workers on the street and those working indoors also consider themselves survival sex workers. While it is true that people do all kinds of work to survive, they are doing it to survive within the context of systemic constraints that exist on a continuum of power and privilege. Systemic issues, such as poverty and homelessness, should be contested – not sex work itself. While it’s important to recognize and honour all sex workers, dividing sex workers into categories legitimizes the decisions of some sex workers and not others. Some sex workers who are labeled as survival sex workers feel the way the term is currently used makes it seem like they are not strong or not capable of making the best decisions for themselves. .........."

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