this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
1048 points (97.4% liked)

Antiwork

8271 readers
1 users here now

  1. We're trying to improving working conditions and pay.

  2. We're trying to reduce the numbers of hours a person has to work.

  3. We talk about the end of paid work being mandatory for survival.

Partnerships:

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 136 points 1 year ago (41 children)

I ain’t gonna judge how one chooses to sell their body, time, safety, health, etc. But we do need to treat sex workers like other workers and ensure they have safe working conditions and the freedom to leave their employment at will. Heck while we’re at it we should extend it to agricultural labor too

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Farm workers in Ontario, Canada are not entitled to:

  • minimum wage
  • daily and weekly limits on hours of work
  • daily rest periods
  • time off between shifts
  • weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
  • eating periods
  • three-hour rule (if you show up for work and are sent home before you've been there for three hours, most jobs are required to pay you for three hours)
  • overtime pay
  • public holidays or public holiday pay
  • vacation with pay
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Are you suggesting we don't give it to sex workers because farmers don't have it or we give it to farmers too.

Technically I think most farmers are their own business so if they want to have holidays off they can. The alternative is state run farms which I support fully and completely.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Think they were referring to the last sentence from the comment they replied to:

Heck while we’re at it we should extend it to agricultural labor too

So most definitely just supporting agricultural workers rights.

Technically I think most farmers are their own business so if they want to have holidays off they can

Only 47% are self employed actually, and 30% are temporary foreign workers that can get screwed pretty bad

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Only 47% are self employed

Does this count family members?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm just saying what farm workers don't get. Farm workers and sex workers both deserve better than they get. This is specifically for people employed on farms and not for people who own farm businesses. Most of our food is grown by people making less than minimum wage. The people who own the farms aren't the ones doing most of the work.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

You're crazy! /s

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Especially agricultural work, as there is equally as much (sexual) exploitation happening!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I feel people who equalise sex work with other jobs downplay (immensely) the toll sex work has on the majority of sex workers.

It is really not comparable to construction work or any other job. Even in countries were sex work has long been legalised, there is no other job, by a long shot, which has so many people suffering from PTSD, drug and alcohol abuse.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be blunt, that's not at all relevant to the fact that they should have the same rights as everyone else if they do choose to do it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Are you aware of any sources specifically evaluating participation in sex work as a causal factor in mental and substance disorders (as opposed to sex work represented more prominently in populations already affected)?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, this study corrected for reports of CSA, lower income, etc. in people who are drug addicts. For those who are additionally sex workers they found:

increased rates of mental and physical health problems (eg, suicide attempts, anxiety, STDs, and bloodborne infections) and use of some health services (eg, emergency department visits for women and mental health services for men)

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/482625#SEC2

There aren't many studies done which correct for mental health issues before someone starts as a sex worker. Even less which achieve a long-term study over a cohort of sex workers where not ~80 % can't be found anymore for various reasons.

But there are a few on how to protect the ~~Johns~~ sex workers from STDs. I leave the interpretation of this inbalance in research to you. :-)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If two effects are correlated, then three possible causal relationships are possible.

A first effect may cause the second, or the second may cause the first, or a so-called third variable may cause both.

It is possible that an individual who has been afflicted by certain difficulties is more likely to participate in sex work.

It is also possible that individuals from certain populations are more likely to participate in sex work, and also, due to being associated with the population, are also more likely to be afflicted by certain difficulties.

Both possibilities must be considered as alternative to sex work causing such difficulties, to explain the correlation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I do know how correlation works. The study above shows that, when you correct for previous mental health issues, for lower socioeconomic status, low income, drug abuse, etc. sex work increases various mental and physical health risks and mortality.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Um, law enforcement comes to mind.

Not to say PTSD and unhealthy coping problems aren't a valod concern, but if we're going to try to reduce jobs based on how taxing they are on the human psyche, there are a number of fields that are respected that also qualify.

Off the top of my head, schoolteacher and service industry worker. Cooks amd wait staff.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, apparently not even war veterans have similar high rates of PTSD.

For sources you can look here, for example: https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-017-0491-y

Or here: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-459170/v1.pdf

When you consider that even in countries like Germany it's almost exclusively poor women from other countries, often single mothers and/or already with mental health issues, who do sex work, I think it's very naive to believe the job is the same like flipping burgers or construction work. Or that these issues only stem from stigma and working conditions.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

These jobs don't come close, though. They also don't attract primarily people who are already poor and mentally unwell to put them into a situation hard to leave that further increases their problems.

load more comments (37 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I believe that all work under capitalism is coercive and workers do not fully consent to wage labor. Sex work is work under capitalism, therefore many sex workers are not fully consenting during sex due to the coercive nature of capitalism. Sex without full consent of both participants is rape.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

workers do not fully consent to wage labor

This right here! Okay so to consent to something you need to be reasonably informed. There is no such thing as perfect knowledge so the standard is what a reasonable person (the legal definition, not the colloquial one). I'll bet you that very few people are actually reasonably informed when we take and work out jobs. How much value does your individual labour add to the economy? Not what you're paid, how much money does your work make total? Do any of us know, or even have an idea? We negotiate away our labour without knowing what that labour is actually worth. Worse than that, the person who does know will never tell you because they also pay you and it's not in their interests to tell you how much your worth.

Workers do not fully consent to wage labour because we literally can't. We're giving concent without being informed, any other aspect of civil society that would be a crime. For employment it's just the way it goes.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is one part of it. I also think it's important to think about how all labor under capitalism is coerced under the implicit threat of starvation and homelessness. Decisions made under duress cannot count as full consent.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If sex work is bad because a woman's sexuality should be saved for her husband,
And if the husband's role is to provide work in turn for his wife's sexual access,
And if being gay is bad,

What does it make you when you go work for another man?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

yeah I'll go ahead and integrate that into my belief system

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

working for other people is thus a sexual transaction, and therefore if you work for the same gender you are gay
I should clarify that I didn't make these rules, they did

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Meh. That's not inevitable. Some jobs are empowering, constructive and contributing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are those the jobs where you're the one running the business?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Can be. Easier when it isn't for some.

I'm off to work now to train psychotherapists

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

JC Denton stands against prostitution

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Apprenticeship are a thing, you know that right?

load more comments
view more: next ›