I recently made a post about this topic but it caused a lot of controversy. I did not specify and used the broad term of sex work which probably made the interpretations so varied. For the purposes of this conversation, I want to focus on work that is consensual because obviously human trafficking or coercive sex is inherently wrong and exploitative. Some people even said that sex work is not valid labor which I personally found strange. I’m personally not a fanboy of the sex industry at all, but most people involved would say that the illegality of it exacerbates the bad situation that they find themselves in, and I cannot personally find a reason to be going against what the people involved are saying. And yeah it probably wouldn’t exist under socialism but at the same time, I think it is a huge mistake to go in with an iron fist and just say “I’m going to make everyone stop sex work right this instant because it’s not socialist” because this does not treat the underlying causes of it, which will only make it spring back up anyway.
And I’m not just expecting one type of answer but if I am making an error in applying dialectical materialism or Marxism-Leninism please let me know.
There’s no such thing as consentual work under capitalism, let alone consentual sex work. You can’t consent to something if it’s under duress, and capitalism comes with the inherent threat of starvation, homelessness, and all the hardships that come from not having the means to pay for food, housing, healthcare, etc.
This does not mean it shouldn’t be decriminalized (for the actual sex workers, pimps/pimping should obviously be illegal, and I think johns should probably see some penalties) since making it illegal to practice sex work just makes it all thw more dangerous for those who are forced to do such work.
In the future under socialism I don’t see it being nearly as widespread as it is now. I just have a hard time seeing many people making the decision to undertake such work if they aren’t under the stress of having to purchase food, make rent, pay for healthcare/schooling/childcare/etc