It's hard to put a figure or percentage on the number of current and recent young adult performers who've said in interviews (many with AVN) that they'd wanted to have sex in front of the camera for years before they were legally able to do so. Those women were apparently raised without the religion-instilled paranoia that seems to be second-nature in so many highly religious families—or managed to throw off that conditioning before making their own way in the world. But the point is, those gals, even as teens, recognized that they could make money having sex and didn't see any good reason why they shouldn't.
That viewpoint was clearly shared by Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng (whose name we can't help but transliterate to "Mo' Fucking"), who wrote an op-ed for the popular magazine Teen Vogue titled "Why Sex Work Is Real Work."
"This situation in Amsterdam [where the city is banning tours of its Red Light District], and the continued criminalization of sex workers around the world, is yet another example of how we disregard the needs and opinions of the people most impacted by policies," Dr. Mofokeng—a woman—wrote. "But even more so, it’s another example of how we misunderstand what sex work actually is. I am a doctor, an expert in sexual health, but when you think about it, aren't I a sex worker? And in some ways, aren't we all?
"[C]ontinued criminalization of sex work and sex workers is a form of violence by governments and contributes to the high level of stigma and discrimination. A systematic review and meta-analysis led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), for instance, has found that sex workers who have experienced 'repressive policing' (including arrest, extortion and violence from police) are three times more likely to experience sexual or physical violence.
"But governments often fail to accept the evidence for the economic and social bases for sex work; the ILO [International Labor Organization] estimates that 'sex workers support between five and eight other people with their earnings. Sex workers also contribute to the economy.'"
As pretty much any sex worker (including many politically aware porn stars) can tell you, just about every law that's been passed over the past few years that's supposed to make sex work safer for its practitioners and help get rid of sex-trafficked women has had the exact opposite effect: It's forced sex workers from their brothels and working apartments onto the street, prevented them from advertising their services on the internet, and made it much more difficult for them to screen clients. (Thanks, FOSTA/SESTA!)
"Sex workers must be affirmed through upholding and the protection of their human rights to autonomy, dignity, fair labor practices, access to evidence-based care. It is for this and many other reasons that I believe sex work and sex worker rights are women’s rights, health rights, labor rights, and the litmus test for intersectional feminism," Dr. Mofokeng declares. "If you support women’s rights, I urge you to support the global demand for sex work decriminalization, and fund evidence and rights-based intersectional programs aimed at sex workers and their clients."
First of all, one really needs to give Teen Vogue props for tackling a topic that likely the vast percentage of its readers have at least heard about and likely discussed among themselves—and of course, virtually no other media outlet or sex ed interest group will talk to them about it because ... they're teens, and of course, no one under 18 should even consider having sex for money when they're old enough to do so legally!
It should be pointed out that Teen Vogue is in no way suggesting that teens take up sex work at any point, but let's face it: Plenty of them will, and in making the decision whether, as legal adults, to fuck for cash, they shouldn't be saddled by outmoded Victorian era sex/body-shaming memes surrounding what has rightly been recognized as the world's oldest profession.
Guess who doesn't agree with that?
Well, there's Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D., writing for that bastion of liberalism(!) Breitbart News, who immediately assumed that any positive views of sex work are just setting teens up for being trafficked.
"Curiously, Dr. Mofokeng never addresses the issue of the tens of thousands of women who are forced into prostitution against their will and function as sex slaves, paying a large portion of the money they earn to their pimps," he preaches, ignoring the tens of thousands who affirmatively choose to make their living through sex work—which, incidentally, Dr. Mofokeng notes, besides actual fucking, "may include companionship, intimacy, nonsexual role playing, dancing, escorting, and stripping."
Williams also takes Teen Vogue to task for an earlier article supporting the idea that a person's gender identity may be much more than whether they have XX or XY chromosomes. He also doesn't like the fact that the magazine "featured an article by 'sex educator' [sic for the quotes] Gigi Engle titled 'Anal Sex: What You Need to Know,' which enthusiastically hyped the benefits of anal sex while neglecting to mention the serious dangers and risks associated with the activity."
Also bent out of shape by the Teen Vogue article was The [very right-wing] Federalist staff writer Chrissy Clark, who was moved to a trip down memory lane, recalling that when she was younger, the biggest scandal Teen Vogue covered was "the Selena Gomez-Justin Bieber break up."
"Why would a topic of such moral ambiguity be promoted by a magazine for teenagers?" she asks. "Promoting unlimited, legal prostitution is not freeing and not something that we should be promoting to young women, especially during a time when women are doing exceptionally well in America and the doors are opening for women in all job fields. ... Why should we open up avenues for women to fall into the dangerous clutches of sex work—or worse, sex trafficking—when the working woman’s opinion is of such value?"
Yeah; "such value"—except if she wants to go into sex work as a profession!
Even President Fuckface Von Clownstick's son got into the action, tweeting, "This is how deranged the left is. Imagine trying to normalize this to a teen and even preteen audience!?!" Trump Jr. wrote. "Maybe start with STEM before jumping to prostitution as a career choice for our young women. ... Nothing is sacred to these sickos and they're influencing our youth."
Maybe just enough influence that they'll vote your dad and his reactionary buddies out of office!
Obviously we have no idea how many teens will grow up to become sex workers based in part on having read this article—but it's way past time that they read a rational discussion of the subject in a magazine they like and (one assumes) respect.
Pictured: Two American sailors taking a photo with Neapolitan prostitutes, Naples, Italy, 1945/Wikimedia Commons
