Caleb Bond: Time to legalise sex work in South Australia

In SA, you’re allowed to be paid for sex but you can’t work in a brothel. Our laws are ludicrous, writes Caleb Bond. This is a matter of personal choice. And feminists should be on board.

• SA sex workers say laws can’t keep up with ‘internet-age brothels’
• Sex worker charges triple in one year
• Attorney-General to champion push to decriminalis sex work

People trade the use of their bodies for work all the time.

Manual labourers are ostensibly paid to do hard physical work which often causes all manner of bodily issues.

Yet we still deem it illegal for someone to work somewhere they use their body to make money from sex.

As someone who believes in the free market, and the opportunity for us all to make a buck if we work hard, it is hard to find a reason to oppose decriminalising sex work.

Who am I to say that it’s okay to use your body strenuously for one kind of work but then decide that your right to profit from your body ends at sex work? It’s fundamentally a question of free enterprise.

In South Australia you are allowed to be paid for sex. But you can’t work in or run a brothel. The work itself is not illegal, but the workplace is. And, as you can imagine, that can make things difficult.

Sex worker laws in SA are ludicrous, writes Caleb Bond.

People are now being caught for allegedly operating a brothel when they pay for a hotel room in which to entertain clients. It is clearly ludicrous.

The only reason we’ve maintained such archaic laws is moral hang-ups. No damage is done to either party when one person hands money to another for sex. The transaction is completely victimless – yet we still treat it as a crime.

I have the pleasure of knowing a few sex workers and – much to the surprise of some – they are wonderful people.

One of my dearest friends has worked in the industry for years. She is an extremely intelligent and engaging woman who enjoys her work.

Contrary to popular belief, sex workers are not weirdos or perverts or misfits. Of course, there will be people who are off the rails – but they can be found almost anywhere.

The sex workers I know are savvy businesswomen. They are well travelled because their work often takes them all over the country and overseas.

They have a better understanding of people than almost anyone because they see people from all walks of life in some of their most vulnerable and primal states.

They treat their clients with warmth and affection because they so often come not just for sex, but for attention that is otherwise missing from their lives.

They are fantastic, fun people who are often misunderstood by those who look down on them as though they were lesser.

Most of the moralistic opposition to sex workers seems to come from people with boring office jobs who spend their Friday nights bitching about how their job has destroyed their will to live.

Meanwhile, sex workers are doing something they enjoy and being paid well for it.

Unfortunately, sex workers are often let down by the very people who purport to stand up for their rights.

There’s a branch of feminism that seems to be completely opposed to sex in any form and they contend that all sex workers are victims. In most cases, the only thing they’re victims of is a lack of support from other people.

This is an argument about personal choice and freedom. Surely that is something feminism should be on board with – the idea that a woman can be a sex worker of her own free will?

The opponents assume the transactional nature of sex is damaging and these women need to be saved.

But they also assume all sex workers are being pimped out or trafficked for someone else’s profit.

There is no question that human trafficking and the like are issues in the sex industry.

They should be battled head on. But that battle will be made easier when sex work is decriminalised and we are able to regulate a legitimate industry.

At present, if a sex worker in SA complains to police that a client has threatened or harmed them, they also run the risk of being arrested. In NSW, where brothels are legal and regulated, they have that extra level of safety.

Decriminalise it and clean it up. Give people autonomy to choose.

We must stop demonising people who are only trying to earn a crust like the rest of us. Claiming a sex worker’s job should be illegal purely because you don’t like it is not a legitimate argument.

[e-mail]