21 Oct The online campaign to replace ‘prostitute’ with ‘sex worker’
To those outside the sex work community, the distinction between the two terms might seem negligible at best. But to many sex workers and their allies, the AP Stylebook referring to sex workers as “prostitutes” is symbolic of how mainstream society shames and stigmatizes those in the sex industry.
“Words have power. Many people who sell sexual services find the term ‘prostitute’ demeaning and stigmatizing, including the sex worker-led groups that Open Society supports,” Sebastian Krueger, communications officer for human rights organization Open Society Foundations, tells the Daily Dot.
“As a result, the term ‘prostitute’ can contribute to sex workers’ exclusion from health, legal, and social services. The words that the Associated Press chooses to use have wide reach and set a standard that people across the world look to.”
Mike Stabile, a Bay Area-based filmmaker and sexual health activist, says the shift from “prostitute” to “sex worker” will force the mainstream media to acknowledge sex work as a form of labor like any other.
Unlike the term “prostitute,” which can be used as both a verb and a noun (it’s common for anti-trafficking activists, for instance, to refer to women selling sex in the passive voice, as women “being prostituted”), “sex worker” gives women in the sex industry more agency.
He likens the difference between the terms to the difference between “homosexual” and “gay”:
“[Prostitute] is antiquated and more useful for law enforcement and moral crusaders than the actual people it purports to be describe,” says Stabile.
It’s not just that the term “prostitute” is archaic and offensive: In many cases, the term is not even accurate. While “sex worker” can be used to describe women who engage in forms of legal sexual labor, from cam performers to nude models to professional dommes to exotic dancers, “prostitute” refers specifically to the illegal act of exchanging money for sex.
If you would like to propose a revision for the next edition of the AP Stylebook, you can visit their 2015 AP Stylebook Suggestions page here. The deadline for submissions is October 31.
Soruce: Daily Dot