Saoirse :: Unrepentant Whore

Decriminalization = Sex work is work. Full labor rights, no criminal penalties, no police harassment, just like every other job. Legalization = “You can only work if the government allows it, registers you, and tracks your every move. Otherwise, you’re still a criminal.”

Women who leave sex work and then turn around to shame those still in it while framing themselves as “saved” will never not irritate me. You don’t become morally superior just because you exited the industry. And pretending everyone who stays needs rescuing is both inaccurate and harmful. Let’s be clear: people who are coerced, trafficked, or forced into sex work are victims. Full stop. That is not sex work, that’s exploitation. Conflating the two erases actual trafficking victims and muddies the conversation in ways that help no one. But choosing sex work because you needed money, had bills to pay, or decided it was the best option available to you at the time is still a choice. Maybe not an ideal one. Maybe not one made in a vacuum. But it is fundamentally different from being forced. Plenty of people choose sex work over minimum-wage labor that still wouldn’t cover rent, childcare, or basic survival and that doesn’t make them helpless or delusional. You don’t get to rewrite your own story into a moral rescue narrative just because it’s more palatable to outsiders. And you don’t get to throw the rest of us under the bus to make your exit look nobler. Empathy shouldn’t come with selective amnesia.