Don’t believe that sex work is just like any other job
Prostitution is good work if you can get it.
At least, that’s if you believe this week’s media headlines for a national study on Canada’s sex workers. The study claims they are happy (70 per cent), feeling appropriately rewarded (82 per cent), have good job security (68 per cent) and are well paid (a median income of $39,500).
More than that, the survey says they are not victims, but well-educated adults using the sex trade as an opportunity. All this begs a question: If sex workers have such rewarding careers, what’s with all those news stories about prostitutes being beaten and killed, addicted to drugs or living on the streets and having nowhere to go?
The contradictions stem from a working paper released by the taxpayer-funded Canadian Institute for Health Research. It reflects the findings of five interconnected studies on the sex industry, but, unfortunately, it also sets out the information in a way that suggests sex work is just like any other job.
Prostitution is described as “personal care work,” or “labour that contributes to the well-being of other people.” It requires the “ability to interact and communicate effectively and be sensitive to non-verbal communication (and involves) manual labour and a high degree of emotional skill.”
But before we all send our daughters off to sign up at the nearest street corner, we need to understand that, like most things in life, the devil is in the details.
For example, media stories suggest that the study puts to rest the myth that the average age of entering the sex industry is between 14 and 16. According to this study, the number is 24 and the lead author, Cecilia Benoit, is quoted as saying that “70 per cent of people started after age 19.”
The point is used, of course, to insinuate that the federal government’s Bill 36 and its supporters are using outdated data when they quote the majority research and the accepted average age for entering prostitution as 14 to 16.
The details? The criteria for inclusion in this study is that a prostitute must be 19 years of age or older. That means there are a whole bunch of prostitutes younger than 19 who entered the biz when they were even younger, but who are not given any statisti- cal weight in this study.
This is OK. Researchers can create whatever criteria they want, and they do say in the study that they interviewed adult sex workers. The problem arises when it isn’t reported as such and then the statistics get misused, misrepresented and misunderstood.
A second criteria for inclusion is that the sex workers be legally able to work in Canada. That means all those who are in Canada via sex trafficking rings or other illegal means were not interviewed. Since that eliminates reports by illegals and children under 19, media headlines declaring workplace satisfaction are likely skewed as well.
The study claims that sex workers and others in the sex trade are “just like regular Canadians,” but the details advise us that prostitutes have significant physical and mental health issues, and “elevated risks of violence victimization and premature death.” In other words, they aren’t just like us.
Only half of them reported very good physical health, while just 38 per cent had very good mental health. Again, the details show that 19 per cent are moderate-severely depressed and there are extremely high rates of PTSD, childhood trauma and disadvantage.
A final issue is that only four per cent admitted to having a sexually-transmitted infection or HIV, even though they only use condoms 69 per cent of the time. So they are either very lucky, or they are outright liars. That’s the problem with self-reported statistics — you never know for sure.