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?
Mary
Karma: 76
Sex work as part of mental health and wellbeing services
I am also happy to answer any questions both about the post or about my experience as a prostitute!
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.