Anahí Frank
University of Zurich
To earn money, many female sex workers cater to men’s fantasies. Satz and Shrage argue that in doing so, sex workers perpetuate sexist stereotypes, such as the belief that women are sexually passive and subservient to men. This raises the questions: If sex workers contribute to sexist stereotypes, are they to blame for it?
While some sex workers enter their profession under duress and accordingly cannot be blamed for it, others make the decision autonomously and can be held accountable for it. It is this latter group I focus on.
To answer the question whether to blame sex workers for their contribution to sexist stereotypes, I discuss two potential arguments that could excuse sex workers: In a first part, I consider whether sex workers could be excused since they are merely part of a collective harm and their individual decisions do not change the outcome. It is reasonable to assume that an individual sex worker cannot stop the reinforcement of stereotypes, since even if she were to quit, another sex worker would fill her spot. According to Johnson, individuals in this kind of tragedy of the commons situation cannot be blamed for contributing to collective harm. However, I agree with Lawson, that excusing individuals for being part of collective harm is too morally permissive.
Nonetheless, there is another possibility to argue that sex workers are blameless: In a second part of the paper, I discuss whether sex workers should be excused for being the victim of sexist beliefs and not its cause. As Smilansky points out, it would be wrong to blame the victim of a stereotype for merely conforming to it. This is applicable to sex work: When a person develops sexist believes after interacting with a sex worker, it is the person holding those beliefs who caused them and should be responsible for them – and not the sex worker. I therefore conclude that sex workers should not be blamed for contributing to sexist stereotypes.
Chair: Paulina Oppermann
Time: 05 September, 12:00 – 12:30
Location: SR 1.004
SOPhiA 2026 