I want to say something about that “90% of women want to exit the industry” statistic

memoirsofaworkingprostitute:

repotting:

memoirsofaworkingprostitute:

As someone who was forced into sex work because of extreme economic
circumstance (aka poverty), I would probably be considered one of those
who “wanted out”

But using me as a statistic to silence sex workers who love their jobs and continue working by choice DID NOT HELP ME

Four
years ago, I begged my day-job boss to give me more hours.  BEGGED.  
Said if something didn’t change soon I would have to become a sex worker
in order to feed my family.  Nobody helped me.  I didn’t qualify for
any government assistance programs.  Minimum wage was $8/hr at the time,
and it was not even close to being enough to survive.  I had no other
options.  Sex work was my ultimate last resort.

Because
of websites like Backpage, I didn’t have to work on the street, where
conditions are a thousand times more dangerous.  Redbook allowed me to
screen clients by looking at their review history.  But in the back of
my mind there was always an incredible amount of fear. Fear of law enforcement trumped my fear of bad clients. An arrest would have destroyed my entire family.
Because I was terrified of the police, I took many clients that I
should not have, and in doing so subjected myself to abuse in several
cases.

The notion that sex workers should just “get another job” because of tightened prostitution laws is unfair and unrealistic. Many of those you claim to support because they “want out” are already doing sex work as a last resort.  There is no other job. This is it.  Taking
away the few safety precautions they have is pulling the rug out from
under them and making their job that much more dangerous.  Again, for many of us, sex work was our only option.

You
will never eradicate the sex industry, and these moral crusades to “end
demand” do nothing but harm those you claim to care about.

If
you really want to help people exit the industry, advocate for a living
wage.  Advocate for better addiction services that help rather than
punish addicts.  Provide assistance to LGBT teens who were disowned from
their families and are now living on the streets.  Stop the
school-to-prison pipeline. The problem is a societal one that cannot be fixed with anti-prostitution laws.

also like… making sex work a crime, aka giving sex workers (and sex trafficking victims) a criminal record… is literally the opposite of helping ppl leave the industry bc guess what, other jobs can and do refuse to hire people with a record of being a swer!! you know what job is most attainable for an experienced sex worker with a criminal record? sex work.

Yep!!!

This includes survivors of trafficking, too!

“In the eyes of the law, I’m both a criminal and a victim – and the
impact of being arrested as a prostitute because I was trafficked left
deep emotional scars. But the consequences of my arrest goes beyond the
anxiety and hurt feelings: it impaired (and continues to impair) my
ability to find a job, to obtain housing and government benefits and,
really, to improve my life.”