Sex Workers ?

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-29697037

Is it just me that finds the term Sex Worker for a prostitute, rather in the line of "Newspeak", invented by George Orwell for 1984 ? To me, sex workers are the NHS Staff that work in VD clinics, or perhaps the volunteers that give out free condoms in our streets in order to try to combat VD and AIDS.

I don't have a problem with people that sell sex for a living, albeit that most of them do so to feed drug habits, but what is wrong with the good, old fashioned word "Prostitute" ? Do these people, mostly women, think that by using another word instead of the dictionary definition of their trade, people will think their activities sound more respectable.

[snags]

''To me, sex workers are the NHS Staff that work in VD clinics''

Really? What planet are you on?

[woofgang]

If you go to a GUM clinic and call the staff sex workers you will get short shrift. What is wrong with the word prostitute is that it has pejorative overtones like moron, spastic and cripple. If you aren't a sex worker yourself and don't employ them, what's it to you what they call themselves?

[Sqad]

Good post mickey

\\\\To me, sex workers are the NHS Staff that work in VD clinics, or perhaps the volunteers that give out free condoms in our streets in order to try to combat VD and AIDS. \\\

I agree 100% mickey but in this day of PCness we don't call them VD Clinics we call them G.U Clinics..........same thing.

people who sell sex are either prostitutes or hookers......an undervalued part of society.

[agchristie]

Prostitute, good term?

Might have to weigh up the pros and cons.

[chelle7272]

the term sex workers does not just apply to prostitutes, it encompasses the whole industry, porn stars, phone sex line workers etc.

And I don't think the term sex worker is a synonym invented by prostitutes themselves to sound m,ore respectable!

I find the term correct.
NHS staff would be a sexual health workers.

[Slapshot]

Okay ... who's bringing the popcorn.... this could be interesting... ;0)

[grasscarp]

I read Caroline's story. She is potentially earning up to 900 pounds a day! and this is untaxed income!

[mikey4444]

Woofy...so a woman that walks the streets and sell sex for a living but calls herself a "sex worker" feels better than her friend, who does the same thing for a living but calls herself a prostitute, feels better ? The same occupation but a different name ? How does that work then ?

So how does she feels less demeaned because she uses this new term ? Surely its the profession that has "demeaning overtones" not the name ?

"A rose by any other name still has thorns "

[EcclesCake]

Sex worker is a term to cover a wide range of services.

The NHS has Sexual Health teams.....health being the key word there.

You are making, yet again, some judgemental and sweeping generalisations.

[mikey4444]

Never heard of the term GUM Clinic before Sqad......but there again, I have never had any reason to know what it means !

I know what the ENT Dept. of my hospital is for though...at least if it still means Ear, Nose and Throat these days !

So the consensus of opinion so far this afternoon seems to be

...Prostitute bad, "Sex Worker" good !

[Sqad]

Eccles

\\You are making, yet again, some judgemental and sweeping generalisations.\\

I think that you are being unreasonably hard on mikey.....if you were staying at a hotel and wanted some "female company with extras", one must be b.loody certain that you phoned for a "hooker" and not a "sex worker" otherwise you might be saddled with an overweight nurse with a baggy bra and cotton knickers.

[mushroom25]

isn't GUM a Russian department store?

[mikey4444]

Eccles...I am not making an generalisations at all. "Sex Worker" has been used instead of Prostitute for ages now, even by the BBC. I am just remarking on the words ability to be misleading, like most PC speak of course. Its this assumption that if we change a phrase or a word to a new non-specific, neutral term, it somehow makes the activity less onerous.

[EcclesCake]

sex worker is a broad term for this who work in the sex industry.

[mikey4444]

Sqad...if you ever disappeared we would all miss you terribly ! LOL !

Actually if your ordered a Prostitute from the Night Porter, one might very well turn up as a Nurse, or perhaps a French Maid. I wonder how many adverts published in "The Lady" for Maids get the totally wrong kind of response ?

[Sqad]

mikey....LOL.......don't leave it to chance......see the photographs, statistics, age and cup size, before hand and tee it up.

[andy-hughes]

chelle7272 - "the term sex workers does not just apply to prostitutes, it encompasses the whole industry, porn stars, phone sex line workers etc.

And I don't think the term sex worker is a synonym invented by prostitutes themselves to sound m,ore respectable!

I find the term correct.
NHS staff would be a sexual health workers."

I'd go along with that.

[BlackadderV]

You are right Mushroom. GUM, or its cyrillic equivalents, were the initial letters of the Russian for State Universal Store.

[EcclesCake]

And now cliches......great :-(

[mikey4444]

Eccles...I shall continue to use the term Prostitute, on the extremely rare occasions that I might find the need to use the term in the future, just in case there might be any confusion. Or do some people still use the word "brass" ?

Actually I quite like the term Working Girl, as I think it is unlikely to be confused with the girls that work in a local Factory.