For those interested in a decent documentary about sex work, I saw one called “Scarlet Road” last year which I thought was rather good.
It amazes me how weird people get about sex. I think of “romance” as basically meaning that, despite sex being supposedly an important facet of people’s lives, that they are only supposed to happen upon it by accident. Imagine if people were like this about food! You can’t ask people to share it with you, or pay for it, and people will think you’re weird if you grow and eat it yourself. But if you and “special someone” just happen to come together and chance and feed each other, it’s all cool.
As an autistic child and teen, I was interested in sex work. Mostly as a way to provide something which people feel is needed. But rather than something secret, separate, and hidden away, I think that sex and sexuality is not only personal but also cultural. It is vital, and providing life experience not unlike how other arts do, and so is something to be celebrated. Well, my family were hugely unsupportive of this outlook, yet without any clear rebuttals of it, and have always provided lots of obstacles. But I remain generally supportive of sex work, and sex positive culture.
One in-between area I think could help is local traditions of occasional ritual sex activity, just to get people together and dissipate tensions and anxieties. Like an annual town orgy, for instance, where people can hook up without any strings attached. There is a long tradition of such events, and they seem quite effective at building community and getting people less hung-up.
