Should prostitution be legal? | The Tylt

Attitudes around sex work are changing. Maybe it's time the laws reflect what society thinks. 

Here are perspectives on why sex work should be legal.

Critics argue that legalizing sex work opens the doors for trafficking. In fact, they argue calling it "sex work" covers up the exploitative nature of prostitution.

I cringe when I hear the words “sex work.” Selling my body wasn’t a livelihood. There was no resemblance to ordinary employment in the ritual degradation of strangers’ using my body to satiate their urges. I was doubly exploited — by those who pimped me and those who bought me.
I know there are some advocates who argue that women in prostitution sell sex as consenting adults. But those who do are a relatively privileged minority — primarily white, middle-class, Western women in escort agencies — not remotely representative of the global majority. Their right to sell doesn’t trump my right and others’ not to be sold in a trade that preys on women already marginalized by class and race.

Here are perspectives on why sex work should continue to be illegal.