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There are two main "career paths" here:
Imo, the former is perfectly fine (because everyone involved is consenting). The latter is problematic and the actual problem we need to solve.
So many people conflate the two and assume that all sex work is exploitation. All mixed in with the implicit sexism that says women shouldn't have any autonomy over their own body and sexuality.
It's a pretty high percentage.
But it's a pretty high percentage for similar reasons to illegal pot sales funding terrorists or gangs/cartels. The legal status puts it way more in the purview of organized crime.
I mean, is it a high percentage? Feels like the kind of thing that you could fudge figures either way.
And yeah, we need to empower sex workers and give them legal and health support.
In the context of women being literal sex slaves, even 5 or 10% would constitute a high percentage that gave regular purchasers a reasonably high chance of encountering one. (I wasn't intending to play that semantics game, but it's worth noting regardless.)
I think it's pretty high. There are legal places that have some safeguards in place, but in most of the world there's just nowhere for a woman to say "I'd like to try sex work" and get an opportunity to do so. It's inherently the people on the fringes of society, the runaways with nowhere to go who end up reliant on a predator, the people addicted to drugs that have no way to get their next fix, the people trafficked. Even the "high class" stuff, because there isn't any legitimate entry point, is relying on tactics like calling it a modeling gig and then propositioning the models, and there's an inherent element of coercion* to that as well.
*Coercion isn't the perfect word choice but I'm blanking on a better one. Even if the intent isn't explicitly to manipulate the women, the result is a lot of wild emotional swings, then a pitch when you're still under their influence. And we've seen examples of people taken overseas and having their passports taken away, even by an NFL team. It definitely happens at a far more frequent level than we should be comfortable with.
I also know that male prostitution is a thing, and "women" isn't comprehensive. But it's mostly women.
I agree with pretty much everything you've said. I've just seen "it's a high percentage" to be a dogwhistle for "all sex work is inherently exploitation so we should ban it.", so apologies for assuming.
5-10% is far too high, yes. I don't know if I'd agree with that figure (it really depends on what you consider sex work, tbh), but exploitation is a serious problem that needs fixing.