They seem like completely unrelated questions: ‘Is sex work real work?, and ‘Who will replace Yvette Cooper as chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee?’ Yet the two are deeply linked.
Sex work first. If you’re not familiar with the phrase ‘sex work is work’, get used to it, because you’re going to be hearing it a lot more in public debate in the next few years. The phrase has been around since at least the 1970s, but is now being used with growing frequency and energy by people on the self-appointed ‘progressive’ side of politics.
As a result, ‘sex work is work’ is looking like being a new dividing line for people who enjoy identity and culture politics. Not just on Twitter but increasingly in the real world, that mantra is becoming yet another purity test: if you don’t say those holy words, you’re guilty of demonising and stigmatising women (and others) who have sex in exchange for money.
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