Radical Feminist Harms on Sex Workers

Abstract

Much of the radical feminist literature treats sex work as a static object that can not only be generalized, but globalized, to fit into a one-size-fits-all normative framework. However, after spending nearly two years conducting ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa, I observed how sex work was constantly evolving; and that decriminalization is generally a preferable approach to sex work. Despite this, radical feminists argue that partial criminalization is appropriate to protect all sex workers globally.This Article challenges the radical feminist approach and argues that the harms from the criminalization of sex work far outweigh the structural harms of sex work itself. This Article demonstrates how the production of a criminal law order that criminalizes any aspect of sex work may increase violence against sex workers and further marginalize them. The framing of the harms of sex work in the radical feminist literature is itself a reproduction of patriarchy and white supremacy, by failing to account for the experiences of individuals’ intersectional identities and essentializing sex work; by elevating and strengthening the criminal law as a tool to address the so-called harms of sex work; and by silencing the voices of sex workers themselves.