As a grad student in San Francisco I'd garnered many hours counciling with BAYSWAN (Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network).
High mortality rate among female sex workers comes from a cluster of structural risks, not a simple trait of one gender.
Client violence is a real factor but not “all men”.
Yes, some clients are violent, and because sex work often happens in private, isolated settings, that risk is higher. But the key issue isn’t “men as a whole”...it’s the set up itself.
Lack of screening ability.. pressure to accept risky clients, working alone without protection.
In many places, sex work is illegal or heavily stigmatized. That leads to: reluctance to call police when harmed being pushed into unsafe areas and less access to basic legal protection for god sake.
Toss in third-party exploitation...pimps, traffickers, or controlling partners can use violence to maintain control which forces riskier work conditions preventing workers from leaving dangerous situations.
Consider the isolation...
Unlike other jobs, there’s often no coworkers nearby, no security, no oversight.
Isolation dramatically increases vulnerability to harm.
Zero girl I worked with was the roll in the movie "Pretty Woman"
Most all of them were dealing with addiction, homelessness and extreme poverty.
These factors can force people into higher-risk situations or reduce their ability to assess danger.
And like what [@Megenta] had added, serial offenders targeting vulnerability.
Certain predators specifically target sex workers because they believe: they won’t be reported missing quickly police won’t prioritize the case.
That pattern has been seen in multiple serial murder cases.
Im not disputing your vibe here Foxy. There's certainly a double standard, a stigmatized lable and of all the murders of sex workers ever....safe to say 99.9% were committed by men....
The bigger picture however in my opinion, is that sex workers face high mortality because they are placed in vulnerable, unprotected conditions...not because men as a group are inherently violent.
Most men are not violent.
But a small percentage of violent individuals + a system that leaves sex workers exposed = disproportionately high risk.
@FoxyGoddess What you're missing here is that many, if not most, men don't use sex workers. Let's stick with "many", as to not provide any possible bias on my side.
Then that sets off the math here. If many men are not using sex workers, how could it be all men?
I do understand that if you're involved in sex work, there is going to be bias on your side to possible think all men use sex workers. I respect that, understand that, and have compassion about that. You may not be able to see any other possibilities and my point may be dismissed because of this.
However, if you can see through that.. yes, how can it be all men when not all men use sex workers?
There also were probably better scenarios you may have used to prove your bias (the word bias used here, factually - not in a derogatory manner).. but once you only focused on sex workers, you eliminated the presence of some men.
Also, another note:
Please understand I am in no way, shape, or form agreeing with the harm of any woman or women who are participating in sex work. It's wrong and should not be happening AT ALL.
@Magicianzini Thanks for this! For transparency, i was listening to a podcast episode about the Grocery Bag killer and, of course, like many before and after him, his target was primarily sex workers. And it got me to thinking why is it that sex workers have to deal with fear of death more than most other jobs?
So no, I didn't look too deep into it, but it did make me wonder why men feel more entitled and violent towards sex workers that they have no problem kiling and that this type of violence is purely done by men simply because they don't view women as people. Which is where I built my premise. Only men kill sex workers, but men also don't seem to be too concerned with stopping it because sex workers are throw away people in their eyes.
@FoxyGoddess Yes, though I could be wrong, but I think it's the type of man that uses sex workers that makes the difference here. Someone who uses sex workers tends to be of a reprobate mind, and people like that tend to do reprobate items which are sometimes, yes, even as bad as murder.
You're right about our collective view of sex workers. It's the truth. I don't think that's what the main cause of this is though but perhaps I'm wrong. Again, I think it's the type of person involved here. There is also though the possibility of the two issues working together. It could be this.. maybe you first have a reprobate man, then you have the "permission" to hurt her/them because of the collective view. It makes for a dangerous combination.
This said, would changing the collective view towards sex workers eliminate them being killed? No (because of again, the reprobate), but perhaps it could at least slightly decline the rate.
Either way, no woman should be harmed because she's a sex worker. "She" is usually facing a myriad of obstacles already and shouldn't have to worry about also losing her life.
But I can tell you that many of us, indeed view women as people. It does, however, get more twisted once those people are sex workers, unfortunately. I, personally, don't view sex workers as "throw away people". That would be ludicrous.
Do I want to stop sex workers from being hurt and killed? Hell yes, and without getting in too much detail here, do understand that I have actively worked towards doing so numerous times and for numerous years.
Just like women, we're not a collective. Some women do bad things. It doesn't make all women bad. The same is true in reverse.
@GoFish Exactly, so why are men killing the sex workers if they are getting ehat they want from them? Women aren't killing themselves.
I have answered all your questions. Why haven't you answered any of mine? Are we discussing this or are you just being disingenuous on your side because you have misogynistic ideologies? You were quick to claim the sex worker has an unrespectable job, but have not once criticized the fact that men use the services of sex workers. So where is your similar feelings of belittlement for the men who pay for the services? Why is it okay for them?
