@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!).

@malice @Virusb23

Agree entirely

@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 ->

@malice @Virusb23 @Museek -> the "illegitimate" workforce of sex work in some form. (Indeed, some people would say that both men and women also would go so far as to even *marry* not just for love, but also for financial support nowadays due to cost of living being so high!)

If a person can talk themselves into consenting to marriage as a lifetime commitment, how many women are talking themselves into being "consenting adults" going into the sex work trade? I'd wager it's a non-zero number.

@AvaSpeaksUp @malice @Virusb23

Having worked with victims in the past, i can’t imagine amy healthy person wanting to go into that line of work but they must have their reasons..

I really hadn’t considered this, much. I don’t particularly like it but it fulfills a need in society.

@Museek @Virusb23 @malice @AvaSpeaksUp They don't seem to have this problem in Europe. Sex is normal. You can buy sex toys in the supermarket, and you can arrange a visit with a sex worker who is regulated by health authorities.

@AlphaCentauri @AvaSpeaksUp @malice @Virusb23 @Museek In 1996 I installed a 1.2 meter steerable satellite dish on my house in London, and began to watch TV channels from all over Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. I also found NFL feeds into Europe.
One thing that rapidly became apparent was that in most of Northern Europe, sex has been normalized. They get up, they go to work, they come home from work, they have sex...they see sex as normal, not a Dangerous Topic.