@Virusb23 I get what you're saying, though I had to read it like 3 times 😂
My point is that we fetishize underage girls, explicitly and implicitly, and anything "close" to it is considered kinky by a hell of a lot of people. When we sexualize people who look underage, it stands to follow that a lot of people will feel like it's not so different to stake it a couple years younger. A *lot* of people don't consider 15-16 a "child".
@malice
Agree and its not just us and it leads to an enormous world-wide human trafficking problem. In Japan it is JK. In China they kidnap girls from Myanmar.. In Thailand and Laos they are transported to other wealthier Asian countries. In India, over 50% of trafficking victims are children. Latin America is one of the largest centers of exploitation. In the middle east, it is one of the fastest growing crimes.
It is a centuries-old, world-wide problem that must be stopped 😢
@Virusb23
@Museek @Virusb23 Yeah, agreed on all counts.
FYI I'm completely supportive of decriminalizing sex work, and dislike how trafficking is used as an excuse to write laws that punish consenting adults. That said, no one who is under age should be in sex work, and certainly no one who doesn't want to be (of any age!).
@Museek @Virusb23 @malice See? I have a different take on that. I feel like until we completely, 100% destroy misogyny & have complete financial and social equality to men? We will never really be able to say that sex work is 100% completely and fully 2 consenting adults as long as one of them is female.
For example, if as a woman I can only expect to make 74 cents on the dollar in the "legitimate" workforce as a man can make, there is always going to be a market force pushing me towards ->
@AvaSpeaksUp @Museek @Virusb23 Saying that adult women cannot consent to sex work is extremely infantilizing. I know a lot of people in the sex work industry who are totally normal, healthy people. I did a research paper on sex work in college, and was stunned to find exactly ZERO major studies in the US about sex work that didn't focus on drugs, abuse, underage prostitution, or trafficking. The information is literally just not out there. So of course everyone has a skewed view.
@malice
That actually wasn't me that was saying that. I am wondering about it. And I did work with dominatrix sex workers for my final thesis in college who were all in it consensually, but one in particular planted that seed of doubt about the economics of patriarchy in my head. She had a brilliant philosopher type of mind & not many to talk to about it. I've wondered about it ever since. She's a big part of why I think women only legalization would work better. I hope.
@Virusb23 @Museek @AvaSpeaksUp And to put it mildly, nobody ever asks well-adjusted sex workers for their opinions, because nobody wants to hear it. It's an inconvenient angle.
Also I favor decriminalization, not legalization. Legal brothel work like in Nevada is extremely restrictive and exploitative - they're not even allowed out of the building to go to the store during their week+ long stay in house, for fear that they might fall on a dick and get HIV on the way. Yes, really.