You may have heard selling sex referred to as the world’s oldest profession. People who claim to be allies to sex workers will sometimes use this phrase in a positive way, to lend sex workers legitimacy by referencing how long sex work has existed for. In reality, this phrase has a deeply racist origin and sex workers have no need to be legitimized through appeals to the age of the profession.
The idea that selling sex is the world’s oldest profession originates with Joseph Rudyard Kipling, who you might know from writing “The Jungle Book”. In his short story “On the City Wall” he argued that Lalun, an Indian sex worker, was a member of “the most ancient profession in the world”. He claimed this because he considered prostitution to be a hereditary sign of immorality in Asia tracing back through the generations, all the way to the demon Lilith. He talks about Lalun being a descendant of Lilith and suggests her sin of sex work originates with her as the first profession.
An excerpt from “On the City Wall” (January 1889):
“Lalun is a member of the most ancient profession in the world. Lilith was her very-great-grandmamma, and that was before the days of Eve as every one knows. In the West, people say rude things about Lalun’s profession, and write lectures about it, and distribute the lectures to young persons in order that Morality may be preserved. In the East where the profession is hereditary, descending from mother to daughter, nobody writes lectures or takes any notice; and that is a distinct proof of the inability of the East to manage its own affairs.”
Since Kipling’s use of this phrase, it has been quoted and mangled and used by many other people and publications to the point that most people do not know the racist origin.
Selling sex is not the world’s oldest profession. I’d wager the people who are saying it, devoid of context, likely know this. It is a form of labour that has, however, existed for a very long time. Depending where we draw the line between the kind of sex women have historically had to keep a partner who provided for them and the kind of sex people have for direct monetary payment, we may trace sex work more or less far back in time. Outside of being an interesting anthropological question, how long sex work has existed is irrelevant to sex workers now.
Sex workers deserve workers’ rights. We deserve them not because our work is long-lived and somehow vital to society, as Parent-Duchatelet would argue that we function as sewers for sexually transmitted diseases or as terminally online liberal feminists argue that we function as rape sponges for incels, but because we are people who are harmed by our lack of workers’ rights. We are being harmed in the here and now.
We are so hated that the claim that our work could be traced back to the beginning of human existence is viewed as evidence of humanity’s sinful nature. When Ronald Reagan said, “Someone once said that politics is the second-oldest profession. I’m beginning to think it bears resemblance to the first,” he wasn’t speaking positively about politicians. He knew that the public would understand his comments to be intentionally insulting. Turns out that racist and whorephobic pricks love to quote each other!
I am tired of hearing this racist phrase repeated by people who should know better. I expect it from Reagan – I should not have to hear it from the people who are supposed to be fighting for sex workers’ rights. I am sickened that the words of a deeply racist man, who sought to ridicule Asian sex workers with his biblical references that treated them as demonic, have embedded themselves into the minds of supposed sex worker allies.
In place of claiming that sex work is the oldest profession, talk about how many people are doing sex work today under poor working conditions and how we can improve them. Speak about how immigrants are still targeted in places where sex work is ‘legal’, either because of the venues they work in or because of terrible border policies around types of acceptable work. Remind people that the full decriminalization of sex work is the only way for sex workers to be able to access equal rights.
For every time an ally has claimed that selling sex is the world’s oldest profession, I want to see money in the pocket of an Asian sex worker. People can donate directly to the All-India Network of Sex Workers or Red Canary Song, as well as many other sex worker led groups across Asia. They can also give directly to sex workers in need, who have GoFundMe’s or are seeking financial support online.
Jack Talks About Sex Work 