Trigger Warning

⚠WARNING⚠

The use of trigger warnings may trigger a traumatic response in those who have been traumatised by the over use of trigger warnings. In certain situations, this may cause victims of trigger warning trauma to inflict trauma on the user of said trigger warning.

A couple of weeks ago this article appeared in the Washington Post. It's about how the price of sex in Greece has fallen from ~€50 to ~€2. The presumption being that austerity fuelled poverty has pushed so many women into prostitution in the last few years; competition has become so fierce that many young women are now willing to sleep with someone for the price of a sandwich. I have no idea how accurate the article or the study it cites are. But that's not really what this post is about anyway …

Much to my surprise—in the time since it was published—I've heard people young, politically-engaged, left-leaning women talking about the positive aspects of this story. That it's empowering for women to be able to "own" their sexuality in this way; and that for so many of them to see sex work as a viable option shows how far western attitudes have progressed. Oh, and that basically anyone who speaks out against this must be an old-fashioned, closed-minded, conservative, slut-shaming arsehole who wants to control what women can and can't do with their bodies.

I guess this is kind of a continuation of the post I did about people who want to abolish segregated toilets and changing rooms. Am I really becoming an old-fashioned, closed-minded, conservative arsehole in my old age—or is this line of thinking as fucked in the head as I think it is?