If you pay any attention to sex workers’ rights advocacy, you’ll know that there are certain slogans which are used to draw attention to the movement and our demands. There are also phrases used by feminists in general who support sex workers, or more generic slogans also used to support us.
Here’s a short breakdown of some of the more popular ones.
“Sex work is work.”
“Sex work is work” is a singular slogan to get across the basic idea that prostitution and stripping and performing in porn are all real jobs and that as workers we deserve workers’ rights. It is not the end of sex workers’ activism or the sole thing you need to understand. It is also not a claim that sex work is free from exploitation, or that trafficking does not exist.
All jobs under capitalism involve a level of exploitation, some more than others, either through employers profiting from their workers by paying them less than the value of their work or through the simple fact that people are forced to work to be able to survive and afford basic necessities. Some jobs are more dangerous than others and this changes nothing about the fact that they are a form of compensated labour.
This slogan is a call for sex workers to be treated equally to other kinds of workers, by not being criminalized and having the right not to be discriminated against by employers. In a criminalized environment, sex workers do not have leverage to demand breaks or appropriate conditions and safe premises. These issues don’t suddenly go away because the service being provided is sex. We still have issues like the heating in the brothel being too cold, so we’re freezing while we work, or our managers insisting we do 12 hour shifts without a break.
“Blowjobs are real jobs and real jobs suck!”
This is a very pithy and jokey slogan, but has roughly the same meaning as “sex work is work”, with a heavier focus on the fact that sex workers are well aware that it (like most jobs) often sucks!
“No bad whores, just bad laws.”
Many versions of this slogan exist, but this is my personal favourite and I personally think it’s the clearest. Allies may avoid it, because they don’t want to say the word whore, but the shock of the slur and the specificity of it is part of the point.
Being a whore is not bad, no matter what the law says. There is nothing immoral or shameful about selling sex, despite the fact we are treated as deviants for it. The focus needs to remain on the criminalization of sex workers which does us harm.
Another version of this slogan is “no bad women, just bad laws”, but the downside to this phrasing is that it’s not at all obvious that it refers to sex worker. There are women who do bad things, and some of those bad things are criminalized – the fact that criminalization of behaviours that are harmful does not help is besides the point – and I think this phrasing only serves to confuse people or make them reject the premise. Also, whores and laws is a lot closer to a rhyme, is just sounds better!
“Rights, not rescue.”
This slogan is quite self-explanatory. We want rights, such as the right to use a bank account free from discrimination without it being shut because of our work, or workers’ rights, rather than to be “rescued”.
A call for rights does not have to be mutually exclusive to rescue, so why is it that this slogan rejects rescue narratives entirely? It’s because people who claim to desire to rescue sex workers do not really want to save us, but rather want to remove our autonomy to make us behave in ways they prefer. People who sell sex in poor circumstances, in which we are mistreated, are typically doing so because it is the best option we have. Removing us from that situation, though it protects us from one kind of harm, only returns us to the worse options we were trying to avoid.
Sex workers do not need to be rescued, we need to have our autonomy respected and to be empowered to make choices for ourselves. Those who exploit us should be prevented from doing so, and the issues which make us sell sex when we don’t want to should be removed, but someone swooping in and thinking they’ve saved us isn’t helpful. It’s paternalistic at best.
“Abolish poverty, not prostitution.”
While not all those who sell sex do so because of poverty, a lot of us do. It is a common refrain that when women are in poverty, what she needs is money and not “a dick in her mouth”, and this is used as an argument that paying for sex should be illegal… instead of recognising that sucking dick is precisely how that sex worker is earning money, which she would not be given by these men without providing a service. Yes, she deserves to have her basic needs met without having to work, and the solution to that is to end poverty rather than to force her to give up her income!
I have no love for clients, which is precisely why I’m not deluded into imagining they would be convinced to hand over money in return for nothing instead of paying for sex. If you convince them that paying for sex is wrong, they will spend their money on other things which bring them pleasure, rather than hand it over to vulnerable people who are selling sex or otherwise would have.
It’s also worth noting, despite seeing many people say the appropriate response to seeing someone selling sex is to give them money without expectations rather than to buy sex from them, SWERFs haven’t sent me a penny, but other sex workers have supported me financially in times of struggle and I’ve supported them back.
Putting an end to poverty means that people who sell sex because of financial troubles are able to stop.
“Decriminalize sex work.”
This is a call for sex work to be fully decriminalized, as opposed to legalized, meaning that all forms of sex work are treated the same as other forms of work without additional regulations which create a black market or cause sex workers to be arrested for running afoul of brothel-keeping laws because we work together in the same building.
There are, of course, other slogans which are applied to sex work to varying degrees of success.
“My body, my choice.” is a slogan people associate with abortion rights, but it is also applicable to all sorts of choices people make about sex and the effects of it. It applies to the choice to do sex work just the same as it applies to the choice to have an abortion, both of which are decisions that may be impacted by poverty or pressure from outside forces.
“[insert group here] rights are human rights!” Sex workers are treated as sub-human and stigmatized in such a way that it’s always worth repeating that we’re humans deserving of the same rights as everyone else.
“Consent is sexy.” This one is a little baffling to me, but I’ve seen a lot of liberal feminists say it while separating out trafficking victims and “consensual sex workers”. The purpose is to suggest that it’s attractive for a partner to be enthusiastic, as opposed to forcing someone, and it’s a little annoying in this context. My agreement isn’t sexy, I’m just having sex to pay my bills, and not being forced doesn’t mean I’m enjoying it sexually.
I’d like to see the overall conversation about sex work become more nuanced than these slogans, but in the meantime some of them are fairly effective and I love how they’re bringing certain ideas to mainstream discourse!
Jack Talks About Sex Work 