22/04/2026
Yes, absolutely
If the work is legal, consensual, and regulated, treating s*x work like any other job gives workers real protections: labor rights, healthcare access, the ability to report abuse without fear, and less stigma overall. In the Netherlands, legalization was meant to bring the industry into the open and that only works if s*x workers are recognized as workers, not as exceptions.
That doesn’t mean pretending the job is easy or risk-free. Plenty of jobs aren’t. It means acknowledging autonomy, improving safety through regulation, and listening to s*x workers themselves, many of whom explicitly ask to be treated as professionals rather than moral edge cases.
The alternative (“it’s different”) often ends up justifying restrictions on the workers, not on exploitation and those restrictions tend to push people back into unsafe conditions.
Hot take: the more we treat it like “something else,” the more power we give to pimps, abusers, and stigma—none of which protect workers.
Curious how you’re leaning on this, or if you’re framing it for a debate/poll context.
