It's a very subjective thing, I think. If people genuinely want to do that, then nobody should be standing in their way. Let them have their options and let them do what they feel is right for them.
I remember watching a documentary about men and women who work in the porn industry, and also a one about elderly women who do it, and they're just signed to a kind of filmmaker studio who pays them to do custom videos for people online and such, and many of the people involved were saying they got a kick out of it, and good for them! The older women were saying it made them feel sexy and reminded them of when their husbands were still alive.
But it's scary to me that there are still many men and women pressured into that kind of life, feeling like they're not worth anything more or unable to pursue other things. I think that, for them, there should be help. They need all the help they can get. Porn isn't for everybody, and nobody should ever feel like they have to do it. It's like any career, really. If you're not interested, you shouldn't do it.
There isn't enough women who enjoy it to meet the demand of porn, much less the sex trade.
They are a minority. Rechecking my source, they're like only 10%.
The truth is, we are always going to be pressuring women from poor backgrounds or from more marginalized backgrounds (natives with 1/3 rate of rape, black women with less support systems) to fulfill the demand.
Legalizing it, encouraging it, only hides their suffering and misleads the consumers into thinking every woman in there chooses to be there and enjoys it. That is not the case. That will never be the case.
The 10% should not be speaking for the majority of marginalized women suffering.
I don't usually bring race into sexual abuse situations, but yes, the truth is that women who are in this 10% are middle class or rich. They are white.
This leaves out potential racism (more likely to have a good education), less chance of a drug addiction before going in (wealth), and the fact that women of color make up most of sex slavery.
There's a reason so many natives go missing around America and Canada. Black women too. They are at the highest risk. They lack social support systems, funding, etc. Their families are more likely to be suffering from domestic violence or drug abuse.
These girls never had a chance in the first place. The system has doomed them from the start, and this is why they turn to sex work. They may lie and say to their client they really love their job, but no, the most of these girls don't want to be in there.
There will never be help for them the longer we keep up the lie that most women in sex work enjoy it.
I'm not even going to get into the fact that so many develop drug addictions and are dependent on their pimp who is involved in the trade as well. No more sex work? No more drugs for you.
So no, I don't think we should even push it as a cool choice because the majority of them are (there is no other word to describe this but) not privileged like the 10%.
Sorry, but they can go get a job at retail. I'd rather 10% of women not live their dream jobs and settle for something meh (there is nothing stopping them from going out and having sex by the way) so 90% can stop being spoken over.
Until we solve this epidemic, there is no way to legalize sex work and make it healthy without a lot of women suffering. The demand is too high, the supply isn't.
Refer to my first source, they discuss how damaging this idea that sex work can be good sometimes is to the other women suffering.