It’ll take more than a sparkly dress to green the sex industry.Photo: Lou BuenoA longer version of this article was originally published in Green Futures.
Can the sex industry ever be sustainable? Some find the very question outrageous. Prostitution and pornography have too much to answer for. There’s the global spread of HIV, the trafficking of women and children, instances of rape apparently inspired by violent porn, and unhealthy obsessions with body image provoked by sexualized clichés of beauty.
But whether we like it or not, one thing is certain: The industry is here to stay. However hard we might try to regulate or moralize it out of existence — and everyone from governments to religious campaigners to feminist activists has had a go — the demand remains overwhelming.
And so the question of whether it could become an acceptable — even, dare I say it, exemplary — industry is far from an idle one. Of course, there’s nothing exemplary about abuse or exploitation of any sort. But before we assume the sex industry is all a sad tangle of pimps and victims, it’s worth listening to sex workers themselves.... Read more
