Ok, imagine I lost my job. I file for unemployment. As a condition of receiving unemployment, I have to accept any reasonable job offers. Shortly after going on employment, a man approaches me, offers me money to “go on dates.” Says he’ll give me a salary and “make it all legal.”
If I say no, so I still get unemployment?
If prostitution is a perfectly fine occupation, why not?
Legal forms of sex work (stripping, etc) have a special legal status that allows people to receive unemployment benefits while rejecting those positions.
The logic behind this is “sex work is bad and dehumanizing.”
Buying and selling and using marijuana in Colorado is pretty safe these days.
Two decades you could've been arrested, in gang violence among different gangs selling drugs, etc... because of "black market"...
If someone is already a prostitute by choice and not trafficked/etc they have a higher than normal chance of being murdered by serial killers... I think one third of serial killers have targeted prostitutes.
It may be bad, dehumanizing but so is just throwing them to the serial killers...at least making it legal allows for some sun to shine on the industry and for related services/industries to spring up like protection services to keep track of where they are and if they don't check in send out someone to check, etc...
It also makes the trafficking and dirtier/seedier sides of things easier to police because those are the only things to police now, and if someone is hiding something then they're probably not legit/legal.
And no, the logic is not that it's bad and dehumanizing, the logic is that some people are truly opposed to doing it. Similarly, if I'm on unemployment, I do not have to, say, go drive a garbage truck just because I see someone hiring garbage truck drivers.
In many countries you do have to accept job offers that you don't like in order to receive benefits or healthcare. If sex work is work, I don't see a reason to make a difference.
So, how about coal mining, or working as a cop in a heavily crime-ridden city, or other jobs that one might reasonably consider unacceptably dangerous? Is there a special legal status for those? If so, you could put prostitution into that category for starters (at least until legalization makes it safer). (If not, then I would consider this unemployment policy rather invasive.)
How about working as a rabbi or a Mormon preacher? Or as someone who distributes leaflets for a Republican politician? There's probably a special status for those, too, right? "Against my fundamental beliefs". You could put it in that category too.
Acting would be another case. You have to wear costumes and perform the actions that a potentially creepy director wants you to! (And I've heard it's not that rare for this to actually be of the form "director wants an actress to wear a revealing costume and then makes sexual advances on her".)
> The logic behind this is “sex work is bad and dehumanizing.”
When sex, and the pursuit thereof, takes up more time in humans than any other known species (ref: Sex At Dawn) I think it would be more reasonable to claim that sex work is pretty much the most human profession a person can engage in.
Certainly, focusing on physical attributes and acts isn't everyone's preference, either for leisure or work - but claiming it is "bad and dehumanizing" is a stretch.
If I say no, so I still get unemployment?
If prostitution is a perfectly fine occupation, why not?
Legal forms of sex work (stripping, etc) have a special legal status that allows people to receive unemployment benefits while rejecting those positions.
The logic behind this is “sex work is bad and dehumanizing.”