So, let's talk about choicey-choice and empowerment sex work, since other people won't stop with that particular straw man.

I am by any measure an incredibly privileged white, well-educated, successful ex-sex worker & as such a poster child of choicey-choiceness.

To the point where angry mediafems are at pains to point out as often as they can that the "reality" of sex work is Definitely Not Brooke's.

And yet. What they always cut out is my "why". Because I was overseas migrant, paying £12k/yr fees, forbidden to work >15 hrs/wk.

I came in with funding out the backside - but what no one tells you is funding disappears between thesis submission & viva. So I whored.

There were not a lot of other options. I don't come from money, savings were eaten up in exchange rate changes, & I held out.

If there had been other options I'd've done them. If I could have sold eggs I'd've done that. Waitressing does not pay enough at 15hr/wk.

Workplaces can't hire you unless there is no qualified UK or EU applicant. In a crowded jobseeking environment? Good luck even waitressing.

Apart from a very specialised set of academic skills I was not yet qualified in, I did not have a lot that would have got me a job.

Goes without saying I hope (but maybe people don't know this? Media certainly don't) most overseas migrants can't access public funds.

By the way Theresa May wants migrant students not to work at all now, but anyway. I'm sure that'll have _no_ knock on effects whatsoever.

Anyway, point is, no work is independent of push factors (like needing to eat) or pull factors (like what you are able to do).

I may be very privileged, but people who don't understand that are both privileged and ignorant.

Instead of spending so much energy beating down uppity hoes like me, spend energy on affecting those push factors. Migration restrictions. Poverty.

(You can't do anything about the pull - for some, sex work will always be best choice. But for others, if they had good options, they'd take them.)

Sex workers are angry because many tell them to "just" do something else or go to jail. There is no "just". There's only "what now"?

Until you can answer "what now" then STFU about "choicey-choiceness". Until you pay my bills, how I get £££ is not your concern.

And if you care about welfare in the sex industry, then ASK SEX WORKERS how you can support them. Not put them out of work.

I support decrim, but if the majority of current sex workers woke up tomorrow & said that they supported something else?

Then I'd have to defer to their knowledge. Mine is 2nd-hand news now. Bindel and CCP and all the rest? 3rd hand... at best.

What they don't know about sex work would fill many books (hey, I've written 6). Current sex workers are writing more all the time.

Read widely. Question robustly. And when someone tells you they're speaking for the voiceless, don't forget to ask who they're talking over.

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