"Sex worker" tag giving wrong impression: US

by P. Parameswaran Sat Dec 16, 3:50 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Prostitutes are usually termed sex workers by governments and social welfare groups to avoid demeaning them but the United States feels the switch unwittingly dignifies syndicates involved in the flesh trade.

The State Department's office combating human trafficking issued a directive Friday to US agencies urging them to avoid using terms "sex worker" or "child sex worker" and even advised governments not to use them.

"Of course, one can rationalize words such as 'sex worker' and "child sex worker" in an effort to avoid a demeaning label such as 'prostitute," said John Miller, the office's director.

"However, there are other substitutes such as 'women used in prostitution' or 'sexually exploited children' that are neither pejorative nor pretend that violence to women and children is 'work,'" said Miller, who retired Friday after campaigning extensively across the globe to stem the human trafficking problem.

During his four years on the job, the lanky former congressman has visited more than 50 countries and met more than 1,000 survivors of what he called "modern-day slavery."

Some 800,000 women, children and men are trafficked across national boundaries each year, most of whom are enslaved in the sex industry, the State Department says.

Human trafficking -- which refers to the transportation of persons for sexual exploitation, forced labour or other illicit activities -- threatens to stifle the livelihood of many Asian workers, the department warns.

Miller, who will take up a job as professor at the George Washington University, said language was an important tool in fighting human trafficking.

"In earlier centuries to avoid facing up to the suffering of slaves, words such as 'houseboy,' 'field hand,' and 'servant' were used.

"Today, words such as 'forced laborer,' 'sex worker,' 'child soldier,' and 'child sex worker' are comonly used," he said.

These words, he said, required scrutiny.

Laborers compelled to work on a plantation or in a factory may be "forced laborers" but they are also victims of slavery, he said.

Similarly, children kidnapped and forced to be killing machines can be termed "child soldiers" but are also casualties of slavery.

However, Miller said the most egregious use of language is "sex worker."

Many governments, non-governmental groups and even UN agencies term prostitutes as sex workers.

"People called 'sex workers' did not choose prostitution the way most of us choose work occupations," Miller said.

Clinical research, he said, showed that vast majorities of people in prostitution are subject to trauma, violence and rape, and 89 percent wanted to escape.

"These 89 percent are victims of slavery," he said.

As for children involved in the flesh trade, he said they could not be called "child sex workers" because they were not old enough to consent to or choose prostitition.

Children, many not even teenagers by some estimates, make up almost 50 percent of those in prostitution in the world, Miller said.

"What is occurring is the use of the language to justify modern-day slavery, to dignify the perpetrators and the industries who enslave," he said.

"Governments, non-governmental organizations and citizens who care about fighting human trafficking and want to break the cycle of stigmatization and victimization should not use words such as "sex worker" or "child sex worker.

"To abolish modern-day slavery we must not be afraid to call slavery by its real, despicable name," he said.

***

What do you think of this article? Is "prostitute" too demeaning, and does "sex worker" justify slavery?

However, I also get the impression that he is equating all sex work with slavery.

If so, the term "worker" should be replace with "wage slave", and I'll be satisfied.

"Sex work", is a suitable term for what the people I see do, and they seem to love their work (which is more than I can say at the end of a typical day.)

While I'm sure there is some truth to this article, the ladies I've met here in the USA do not fit that mold.  Maybe I've unknowingly been seeing the other 11%?

You'd love your work too if you could sling cock for money have multiple orgasms and get paid.

The escorts reviewed on TER are among the most highly paid professionals in the world.  Women typically earn per hour of escorting, the same as they would in a week at their previous or "other" job.

Most people who work regular jobs are often nothing more than "slaves to the cost of living", doing things they don't want to do for 40-100 hours/week because they can't find alternatives.

-- Modified on 12/21/2006 4:57:16 AM

to denounce human trafficking, sexual slavery and the exploitation of children.

It is defined as a "(transitive and intransitive verb) to make something obscure or unclear, especially by making it unnecessarily complicated."

 While our magnificent public school system is turning out functional illiterates by the boat load our attorneys, political leaders and bureaucracies are carefully engineering law & doctrine so that only THEY understand, define and minister their legalese and PC vernacular to the dumb-down, propagandized masses.

 Twenty years ago Ronald Regan adamantly held that ‘asset forfeiture’ would ONLY be used in the case of going after the kingpins of the "Drug cartels" in the effort on the "War on Drugs"
Now “asset forfeiture” is being used to confiscate a citizen's automobile if they pick up a hooker on boulevards anywhere across our nation.

How many other words or phrases will need to be "obfuscated" before the vapid masses are held under omnipotent rule of a ruling class?

I Prefer the term "Sex Worker" and view it the as another label for me equal to "Adult Entertainer".

I have also belong to SWOP USA, and started the SWOP MI chapter. We use the term broadly.

http://www.swop-mi.org

At many recent conferences and seminars that I have attended, more Sex Positive people are using the term as a professional reference to any adult who actively works in the sex industry. Thus, everything from a "Phone Sex Operator" to a "Porn Star".

Although, as far as being demeaning, that is totally dependent on the context of any statement.

Kisses~
Crysta

eom

The phrase 'sex worker' involves several problems for TER providers.  It's too broad, encompassing everything from phone sex girls to exotic dancers to street walkers to TER-style excorts.  And it implies that sex is work.

Well, for providers it may be their profession, but it's also maybe almost as much for fun as for money - so 'worker' is a little misleading.  It's not like assembly line or office work.

The best word, in my opinion, is simply 'escort'.  This has quite pleasant connotations. An escort means someone who is accompanying or guiding someone else, who needs help.  The connotation of personal caring is very appropriate. Many escorts, should they choose to (and if they pay were better) would make very good nurses or social workers.

See this Wikipedia definition:

"Escort
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Escort may refer to:

A person who accompanies another person to a location or (usually formal) event such as a ball, cotillion or wedding to provide protection, support, or company

A person who accompanies another person or group of persons in order to guide them or guard them, such as a medical escort or a military escort

A type of ship or airplane used to protect other ships or airplanes, especially in convoys

A sex worker engaged in acts of prostitution. See call girl or male prostitute

Other uses
The Ford Escort (European), a motor vehicle
The Ford Escort (North American), a motor vehicle
Escort (electronics), a manufacturer of radar detectors
Escort (cigarette), a popular brand of cigarettes manufactured by Imperial Tobacco Australia Ltd.
Escort, a tractor manufacturer in Delhi, India
"Escort", a Brooklyn-based dance music band
"Escort", a song by The Sea and Cake from their 1995 album The Biz "

I always liked the cut-and-dryness of sex work as a phrase, since there are no bones about what it entails. Escort has a too slick sound.

It is work as anything eventually becomes when you do it day-in and day-out. It's a vocation that is called the world's oldest profession and is still struggling to be accepted and have an acceptable name. Pitiful. What repressed creatures we are, eh what?