“I’m encouraged that a group of women’s rights advocates, anti-traffickers, and former prostitutes gathered in New York to not only combat the city’s sex trade business, but to rally against the euphemisms, ‘sex work’ and ‘sex worker’,” said Ruth Institute President Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. “Even otherwise conservative media outlets, such as The New York Post, have fallen into the unconscious habit of using this terminology.”
Morse noted that the Sexual Revolution employs euphemisms to confer legitimacy. “For instance, homosexual becomes ‘gay,’ pornography is transformed into the more neutral ‘adult entertainment,’ and prostitution morphs into ‘sex work’.”
“Sex work and sex worker are meant to normalize activities which should be deplored and combated by any decent society. They imply that prostitution is voluntary, as if a woman or child decides to become a ‘sex worker’ as a career choice, when we know that many are trafficked. Some are kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery, others are lured into it and then held against their will.”
“The popularity of the summer’s surprise blockbuster, The Sound of Freedom, which has earned $177 million to date, shows the growing public awareness of the horrors of child sex trafficking, a $150 billion global criminal enterprise.”
“Besides fighting the crime itself, we must oppose anything which confers legitimacy on this evil,” Morse urged.
“Words express ideas, which in turn shape actions. Let’s stop using euphemisms to distort the evil of prostitution.”