Among Swedish feminists and the left, sex work is completely unacceptable and prostitution is pretty much equated with rape. Is this not true for other countries?
In the far left in the States it's considered work, and something that should be well regulated and safe.
The center left/centrist (Democrats) position is more split. Some folks think it's a bodily autonomy issue and others think it's degrading.
Feminist opinion is likewise split. But most feminists I know tend to fall in the, "if it's consensual, it should be protected and regulated work. You shouldn't fear going to jail because you had sex."
Where "it's just work" often breaks down is when you get to the question "if someone can take a sex work job but chooses not do, can they get unemployment".
There's a much more important case: when a boss asks his assistent to bring coffee or run some private errands for him, she can just say no, but if a boss asks his assistent to perform sex work for him, it's considered harassment and the boss can be considered a criminal depending the circumstances.
I believe this is a good thing, but prostitution is clearly not ,,just work'' just because it's trendy to call it sex work.
Swedish feminists make different arguments, based on the inevitably gendered nature of the work and the asymmetry of sex discrimination. They make feminist arguments.
The US does not, because they wouldn't work. The average angry political American thinks that bigotry against men is at least as prevalent as bigotry against women, and thinks that institutions have conspired with each other to advance women ahead of men.
Even American feminists think that there's no element of a woman's condition in the world that can't be equally applied to anyone who identifies as a woman. Very American, if the conditions of women are a state of mind that can be corrected or experienced based on how you identify, it's basically a "law of attraction." Women can think themselves out of (or into, if they have penises) the female condition. I'm pretty sure Kanye said something about the reason for slavery being that black people identified as slaves. It's that same sort of inversion of control and blaming the victim.
Radical feminists have a more coherent perspective. It's not one that I can agree with in many aspects, but it's one that's always worth discussing.
> Even American feminists think that there's no element of a woman's condition in the world that can't be equally applied to anyone who identifies as a woman. Very American, if the conditions of women are a state of mind that can be corrected or experienced based on how you identify, it's basically a "law of attraction." Women can think themselves out of (or into, if they have penises) the female condition. I'm pretty sure Kanye said something about the reason for slavery being that black people identified as slaves. It's that same sort of inversion of control and blaming the victim.
Wait, what? I follow that 'average angry political American' is all about 'equal means equal' regardless of gender, but the next statements aren't clear: the endorsement of trans sexual identity in American feminism is, in principle, related to Kanye's statement that black people identified as slaves because both cases are basically "mind over matter" takes? Am I understanding that correctly? And these are both forms of victim blaming?
Swedish feminists probably have as wide a range of opinions on any given topic as any other kind of feminist. Also: "the left," a fraught and increasingly fluid concept.
The narrative is extremely one-sided in Sweden and there's no debate. Celebrities get unanimously cancelled for getting caught buying sex.
Here are some quotes (Google Translated) from the biggest feminist organisation (Feministiskt Initiativ):
"Prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes is a form of violence and a violation of human rights."
"Sexualization and objectification work against the principle of the human being as an independent subject and can limit women's ability to protect their bodily integrity."
"Equality cannot be achieved as long as it is possible to buy other people's bodies through prostitution, strip or sex clubs."
"Working against pornography and objectifying representations is thus an important part of violence prevention work."
This is the "Nordic model", and it doesn't seem to produce significantly different or better outcomes; sex work remains underground because it's still criminalized, just on the buyer side of the transaction.
