Thanks for sharing this, Mary. I thought it was very interesting and thought-provoking.
As a moderator, I was unsure whether to approve this post (and so the posting was delayed by a week or two). I was concerned about whether this is actually a post intended for the EA forum or if it’s a post that’s resubmitted here along with other forums for whatever purposes. I now believe that it is a legit post arguing for an interesting (though controversial) cause, so I apologize for the delay.
I’d be interested in two things:
Whether there are any studies exploring the mental health and wellbeing effect of sex work services, and what do they point to?
What policy recommendations do you have? Or more broadly, what are the potential high-impact interventions in this space?
Thank you very much for approving this post! I completely understand why it might seem concerning!
(1) There are surprisingly few studies in the current literature about the effects of sex work on customers (one of the rare exceptions: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1469540516648373). There are an immense amount of studies on how it affects sex workers, but conducting studies about customers is very complicated. There are some more obvious reasons for this, such as social stigma or the anonymity of customers, but I imagine there are several others. But even just the extent to which sexual dissatisfaction affects mental health is not that well researched. As for every field exploring its original state is essential for any meaningful and sustainable change.
(2) I believe that the first and one of the biggest obstacles is the lack of social acceptance. For example in Antwerp, after the local sex trade expanded due to increased immigration, the sex worker’s union was founded, which swiftly gained political power. After the Eastern block was opened, there was another steep increase in immigration rates, which further expanded the sex trade but also increased the prevalence of organized crime. The sex trade became linked with organized crime, which turned the public opinion against the red light district. This put pressure on the town council, which led to the introduction of harshly restrictive policies. I think the main point is that without carefully exploring the sociological, cultural, and psychological aspects of sex worker-customer and sex trade-community relationships, most new policies and regulations are likely to fail. An initiative bringing sex workers and mental health professionals together, exploring ways of cooperating while collecting and analyzing data to plan the next steps may be viable.
I agree that impartial investigation of the cause area is essential. My goal was to give my point of view—as a sex worker, which hopefully gives more information about how we see sex trade. Any changes in this trade would necessitate the involvement of highly trained experts, but it would happen to us. The way we react to any new regulation or policy determines if it is successful or not. This is how I see it, but what do you think what would be useful?
I downvoted the OP because it doesn’t seem to be suited to this forum. The author’s experiences are interesting, but I don’t think the post contains an attempt to explore the potential cause area impartially.
Hmm, so from my point of view this post is written with the intention to bring a class of interventions to the attention of people who care about mental health, which seems good to me.
I agree this post is not an impartial exploration, but I tentatively would like this forum to also be welcoming to new altruistically minded people who have a new idea about helping people, even ideas that are in their infancy in terms of the question whether it’s among the most effective ways to do good.
So instead of feedback that their initial thoughts don’t belong here, I’d prefer seeing feedback how they could find out how strong the case for their idea is, or interested people can share their thoughts about it themselves. E.g. point to studies of the mental health burden, maybe sketch how you might do a cost-benefit analysis of possible interventions.
Thanks for sharing this, Mary. I thought it was very interesting and thought-provoking.
As a moderator, I was unsure whether to approve this post (and so the posting was delayed by a week or two). I was concerned about whether this is actually a post intended for the EA forum or if it’s a post that’s resubmitted here along with other forums for whatever purposes. I now believe that it is a legit post arguing for an interesting (though controversial) cause, so I apologize for the delay.
I’d be interested in two things:
Whether there are any studies exploring the mental health and wellbeing effect of sex work services, and what do they point to?
What policy recommendations do you have? Or more broadly, what are the potential high-impact interventions in this space?
Thank you very much for approving this post! I completely understand why it might seem concerning!
(1) There are surprisingly few studies in the current literature about the effects of sex work on customers (one of the rare exceptions: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1469540516648373). There are an immense amount of studies on how it affects sex workers, but conducting studies about customers is very complicated. There are some more obvious reasons for this, such as social stigma or the anonymity of customers, but I imagine there are several others. But even just the extent to which sexual dissatisfaction affects mental health is not that well researched. As for every field exploring its original state is essential for any meaningful and sustainable change.
(2) I believe that the first and one of the biggest obstacles is the lack of social acceptance. For example in Antwerp, after the local sex trade expanded due to increased immigration, the sex worker’s union was founded, which swiftly gained political power. After the Eastern block was opened, there was another steep increase in immigration rates, which further expanded the sex trade but also increased the prevalence of organized crime. The sex trade became linked with organized crime, which turned the public opinion against the red light district. This put pressure on the town council, which led to the introduction of harshly restrictive policies. I think the main point is that without carefully exploring the sociological, cultural, and psychological aspects of sex worker-customer and sex trade-community relationships, most new policies and regulations are likely to fail. An initiative bringing sex workers and mental health professionals together, exploring ways of cooperating while collecting and analyzing data to plan the next steps may be viable.
I agree that impartial investigation of the cause area is essential. My goal was to give my point of view—as a sex worker, which hopefully gives more information about how we see sex trade. Any changes in this trade would necessitate the involvement of highly trained experts, but it would happen to us. The way we react to any new regulation or policy determines if it is successful or not. This is how I see it, but what do you think what would be useful?
I downvoted the OP because it doesn’t seem to be suited to this forum. The author’s experiences are interesting, but I don’t think the post contains an attempt to explore the potential cause area impartially.
Hmm, so from my point of view this post is written with the intention to bring a class of interventions to the attention of people who care about mental health, which seems good to me.
I agree this post is not an impartial exploration, but I tentatively would like this forum to also be welcoming to new altruistically minded people who have a new idea about helping people, even ideas that are in their infancy in terms of the question whether it’s among the most effective ways to do good.
So instead of feedback that their initial thoughts don’t belong here, I’d prefer seeing feedback how they could find out how strong the case for their idea is, or interested people can share their thoughts about it themselves. E.g. point to studies of the mental health burden, maybe sketch how you might do a cost-benefit analysis of possible interventions.