Beautifully written letter!  Thank you.

Beautifully written and encouraging - Sex workers need support that often feminist groups are not always willing to give.  This is fantastic.

You do not speak for all feminists.

You mis-understand the concept of choice in a hyper-capitalist west where everything is a  legitimized commodity and womens bodies and lives are just part of that commercialisation

A mans sexual needs should not out-weigh a womans right to peace of mind, safety and equal life opportunities.

A society that promotes sex work as the best paid or presumed worthwhile work of a woman is misoginistic and your compliance is disturbing and dangerous.

sex workers should not be criminlized. the buyers should.

legitimizing a market in sex  will not liberate the increasing amount of women and girls sold into the slave trade (which includes young underage girls) from developing countries.

to keep women safe we need to look a the situation holistically and make serious attempts to create a world where womens bodies are not commodities. where women do not feel the only contribution made to socety is through sex. that there are better opportunities, resources and jobs for women. That women market their minds not their bodies.

When we say its okay for men to buy us. They will continue to believe they own us.

You are defeatists. You are selling your sisters out via lack of creative thinking. The possibilities of freedom are endless yet buy you buy into market demands and economics in the confused belief you are being liberal and fair. You leave the most vulnerable to suffer because a few people choose - the majority dont they end up prosituted; raped, murdered or both

i'm not an extremist.

i am an idealist.

i crave a world where all women are safe from all tyranny. -where it is safe to say no.

I'm sorry but I will not support this form of self-harm any more than I would support women to stay in a violent relationbship or to cut their self. Selling your body is probably one of the worst forms of self harm that does the most psychological damage. As a woman I object to my body being made into a commodity that can be bought or sold.

Yes some priveleged women may have a choice of whether to sell their body but choice or no choice what you are doing to your body is wrong. you are selling your mind, your body and your soul.  Legalisation also makes it easier for pimps and perverts to exploit women. Every year 2 million underage girls are trafficked into sex slavery and we need to be giving out the message that this is wrong.

I know feminists want to show solidarity with "sex workers". The best way you can do this is by being honest with them that what they are doing is self-harm and not making out that this is actually ok.   If a woman was going through domestic violence many women would also tell you they are happy, that she loves her situation, she would want you to support her to stay there but would you? Or would you tell her that what is happenning to her is wrong and that she is worth more. i'm sorrry but I think women are worth more than to be objects and commodities to be bought and sol. You only have to.

This article seems to argue FOR the abolition position, while at the same time, slagging abolitionists. It's understandable that women who are presently in prostitution will say, "this is my choice", and try to make it bearable. When people who are not in prostitution offer women in it, only what they ask for, they are abandoning women in prostitution. There is no reason we must settle for this state of affairs. We do not settle for slavery, or incest, or wife beating. Even though sometimes the women and girls victimized by men in this way sometimes say, "I chose it". We understand that they are making their circumstances bearable and we try to get them out anyway.

In arguing that "some women choose it" you say:

"Some women choose sex work because it is one of the sole employment opportunities available to them or one of the only work schedules that fits with their care provider responsibilities to children or other family members."

you know what? That still doesn't sound much like a choice to me. That sounds like economic coercion. What about if there were well-paying jobs, opportunities to get training and education, good accessible child and elder care? I know (because women have told me) that women would NOT consider prostitution. or pornography. or stripping.

Saying that is not being "anti sexworker". You don't have to look very hard to see many many women formerly involved in the sex industry fighting for their own freedom and the freedom of others.

There are not, unfortunately, many men who are fighting for our freedom. Which is why we favour laws that hold the men who buy women and children (as well as some men and transsexuals) responsible. Women do require much better treatment from cops. All women. But part of that is to go after the perpetrators of crimes against us, the men who rape, batter, buy and sell us.

Yes, the police do not respond adequately or with kindness to women in prostitution. Yes, the laws need reform. But decriminalizing the whole works leaves women open to further exploitation.

We can do much better. We don't have to settle for the false choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.

I'm Jill Brenneman.  I'm a former sex trafficking victim.   Literally I was a sex slave "paid submissive", although it wasn't me that got paid but the pimp.  For years men paid to inflict pain, humiliation, bondage, physical and sexual violence against me.  They got to do whatever they wanted to do if they price was right.  And they did.  And Bruce the pimp made a lot of money.  I made one escape attempt and it was a setup from the outset by Bruce the pimp to see if I would take the bait.  I took the bait, he and five other men gave me an evening lesson of the price to pay for attempting to get away.  Decades later I still bear the scars from that night.  I could go on this topic for a significant time but that isn't the point.

I was a prisoner in the open.  How many trips to the mall for clothes with the pimp did I get? Many.  How many times did I end up in the ER with an injury separated from the pimp but stuck to the embedded scripts that we roll played over and over.  The ER viewed me as just some strung out girl.  What about the police?  Before I was abducted by the pimp I was without a place to stay.  The police have no sympathy for the homeless.  They have less for prostitutes.  Police officers were often the most brutal clients.  They were never someone to consider as an ally.  Why?  Because of criminalization.

As a prostitute, I was a criminal.  Arrest was something to fear especially arrest and being bailed out by Bruce the pimp.  He nearly killed me for much lower infractions than what he would have done had I been arrested or worse tried to access help from a cop.

While I ended up in prostitution via economic necessity and literal abduction, the answers to helping trafficking victims does not come in criminalizing either the prostitute or the client.  Answers have to come with decriminalization and ending stigmatization of prostitution.  The idea that prostitution can be abolished is inconceivable.  How can it be abolished?  Who knew I was prostitute for Bruce?  Who cared?  Criminalization made escape impossible.  

What I experienced was different from consenting adult sex work.  We can't arrest consenting adults exchanging sex for money to try to find trafficking victims that we are also going to arrest and throw to a legal system that can't be trusted.  We need sex worker rights, we need harm reduction, we need 800 numbers where trafficking victims can call for help and know that they will not be arrested but instead assisted.  Answers have to be real world.  Ones that aren't glamorous like photo op mass arrests of consenting adults.  Answers come in creating avenues to keep people from becoming trafficking victims in the first place.  

Please, look beyond simplistic, sweeping answers, even if well intentioned, they usually do more harm than good.  The answers come in nuanced solutions that aren't glamorous, but ones that work.  

I never got any justice from my three years of torture.  Impossible with the current system. I would have ended up in jail just as quick as the pimp for seeking justice.  I have suffered for decades as a result.