
Likeability & Objectification Conflict With
EMPOWERMENT & AGENCY
The term “sex work” was coined in the late 1970s to equate prostitution with other forms of employment. This may be true for some people who enter prostitution with full agency, but studies and survivor stories tell us, more often than not, most people who are in prostitution want to leave but lack the resources or service to get out.¹
While we don’t agree that prostitution is just a job like any other, we recognize that sometimes prostitution is the best option out of a long list of terrible choices and no one should be stigmatized for making that choice. Rather, we want to challenge the ideas that prostitution can be empowering, that it is inevitable, or that it doesn’t further objectify women and feminized individuals.²
Alisa Bernard, Thistle Farms Director of Public Policy & Advocacy
In Popular Media
Body positivity is important, but has it equated being positive about our bodies with being positive about the sex trade? The sex trade objectifies rather than empowers.
Mass media and entertainment continue to portray women and young girls as sexualized objects. A study examining the top 10 TV shows directed to white and Latina girls found that the female cast members were portrayed in a sexualized manner 75% of their screen time.³
Another study found that in 52% of magazine advertisements and 59% of music videos, women are portrayed as sexualized entities. ⁴
In Pornography
Pornography (digital exploitation) itself is a form of exploitation and while many in pornography are directly harmed by the images taken of them and the acts inflicted upon them, it also promotes the objectification and sexualization of women and girls by those who view it. ⁵ ⁶
Pornography doesn’t just harm the people exploited in it. Pornography is often acted out within prostitution transactions, where buyers demand the prostituted people they’ve purchased perform actions they’ve seen in pornography. Even sex buyers treatment and perception of prostituted people is indicative of how they’ve been conditioned to objectify them.
Listening To Survivors
Show a survivor you care
Leave a note of love and affirmation for a survivor. These messages will be shared with the residents and graduates of our residential program to encourage and uplift.
Speak your truth
Sharing and amplifying your story may be a powerful part of your healing journey.
Take the Pledge
Love is the most powerful force for change in the world. Pledge to end violence and exploitation through small and great acts of love.