Porn

[Aractus]

Aractus, do you think the reason sex workers have a higher dependency rate is because of cultural perceptions toward sex workers or is there something about being a sex worker itself that is harmful? If society viewed sex work as just another job do you think the workers would still have the same issues?

Well look at it this way. The single most stressful event - officially - is the death of a spouse. And divorce is not far behind it, but even more importantly is the fact that it causes very great stress in children. Doesn't matter if the parents are civil and loving towards their children, it still causes them unavoidable terrible stress. Studies have proven this. And yes you can reduce it by behaving like civilised adults, but you can't prevent it.

I would believe sex work is similar. That yes, some people (women included) do actually enjoy the work and don't get stressed and churned up by it. But at the same time those are the more intelligent women that don't work for producers like Max Hardcore and Rob Black. They mighty work for Vivid or another company that a. uses condoms as required by the law, and b. doesn't exploit their employees. But with that said, it probably doesn't apply to everyone, I would believe that even those who work for great producers many of them would still be unavoidably stressed from the work.

As for public perception - I don't think it makes a lot of difference. Some of them love media attention such as "Kacey" in the first video, and she seems to get a lot of nice comments on youtube and probably on facebook/twitter etc. from her fans/admirers, etc. I think the negative treatment in society is equalled out by the positive as it is. For porn actors anyway, probably not for prostitutes though. Prostitutes - as I said before the main reasons a woman gets into prostitution is because a. they're a drug addict or b. they're trafficked or in some way coerced into it. The main reasons that women get into porn however are, 1. coercion and 2. they come from broken families - or very poor families. And that's why it's a little different to prostitution in that many do abuse drugs, but many are not drug users either, many are in fact introduced to drugs by the industry.

I guess what I am curious to know is if sex work by itself is harmful or is it harmful because of how society views sex work? Also, do prostitutes do drugs because of their jobs or do more people on drugs tend to become sex workers? My friend, for example, was addicted to drugs before she became a prostitute

Prostitutes, generally, are drug users before they start sex work. And those that aren't are usually people who have been trafficked or coerced into prostitution. But the fact is that some women are not and do choose to do prostitution - well 90% of your customers treat you like the disposable whore, that in some way at least, you are. So those who are not needing the money for a substance abuse problem are very unlikely to want to continue doing sex work once they try it!