Hello,

I am a sex worker. Let me tell my story and share what I have heard and seen from others in the industry.

I’m a completely ordinary woman, born and raised in the countryside. No major traumas during childhood. No substance addictions.

When I was 20, I had moved to Stockholm and was looking for a job, but I didn’t feel like doing just anything for very little money. I didn’t want to feel anxiety before every workday (I had already tried that for a few months and it was miserable).

For some reason, I had a very neutral attitude toward sex work. I honestly don’t know why. Maybe I was just blessed with a relatively open mind? I had also realized that I was quite good at sex and that having sex with many people didn’t bother me either. So I talked to my ex about the idea that I might become a sex worker, but I didn’t know how it worked. He guided me to a website online (unclear whether it was Rosa or some other site back in the day).

That’s how I ended up starting to sell sexual services: I simply needed an income and had no moral problems with selling sexual services.

Selling sexual services is not morally wrong by default. Every society chooses how it views that issue. Right now, Sweden is trying to push the idea that it is morally wrong and that you must feel bad about selling sex. One of many problems with that is that you make people feel bad simply by telling them that they SHOULD feel bad. It’s classic psychology. If all you hear is “this is wrong, you feel bad, you are being raped,” then eventually you will start believing it and adjust your feelings accordingly. To avoid that, society needs to maintain a neutral stance. Stigma kills.

That’s why we need to decriminalize sex work. That’s how you can ensure that as few people as possible get harmed (people get harmed in many industries, by the way — it’s not something that only happens in the sex industry). Making customers illegal, but not sellers, does not help the sellers.

Here are some examples of what the situation looks like for sex workers today under the sex purchase law:

• Sex workers risk losing their housing (if they don’t own it), because landlords can be considered pimps under the law.
• Sex workers risk losing their children.
• Sex workers’ partners, family, and friends risk being charged as pimps.
• Sex workers risk losing their “regular” jobs.
• Sex workers risk having their bank accounts closed.
• If the sex worker is not Swedish, they risk deportation.
• Sex workers cannot work together with another sex worker from the same location (which would be good from a safety perspective), because it counts as running a brothel and is illegal.
• Sex workers have to put the customer’s safety before their own.
• Sex workers do not want the police to know they are sex workers, because they risk losing their customers, i.e., their income. Therefore, sex workers often avoid reporting clients who have committed real crimes against them (actual rape, theft, assault, etc.).

All of this means that sex workers constantly have to lie about their lives. They cannot ask others for help to keep themselves safe. Now consider a sex worker who is exactly the kind of person people assume they are: someone who feels terrible and is suffering but has to do it for the money. How are they helped by being treated this way by society?

I even have acquaintances in the industry who have been denied healthcare because they were sex workers. All because of the stigma created by the sex purchase law.

Note: Sex trafficking would not become legal just because sex work were legal (decriminalized). On the contrary, it would likely become easier to find and help those victims.

/Sarah

They claim to want to save and help sex workers – but the Swedish sex purchase law does the opposite. The law creates stigma that only makes our lives harder. For those who have worked or are working in sex work, it often becomes nearly impossible to get other jobs, which in turn traps many in the profession.

👉 Read the Swedish article for more insight:

https://www.ottar.se/amanda-fick-sparken-efter-mejl-till-arbetsgivaren-om-onlyfans-konto/