While the term “sex work” is often used as a synonym for “prostitution” other kinds of commercial sexual activity also fall under this umbrella. Erotic massage, fetish modeling, pornographic performance, phone sex, webcam work, and other commercial sexual exchanges may all be considered sex work.

Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance is concerned about consensual sex work because it represents the intersection of two fundamental human rights concerns: the right to earn an income, and the right to personal autonomy, the control of one’s body.

While many organizations conflate human trafficking with sex work, Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance is careful to conceptually separate the two and advocates for decriminalization of consensual sex work. We staunchly oppose coercion and exploitation in labor and migration but find that current draconian efforts to stigmatize and prosecute sex workers put them in harm’s way with unintended negative consequences. We fully support the right of individuals to earn an income and to define the kinds of sexual expression in which they would like to engage. We believe in more effective solutions to problems associated with sex work, solutions that affirm human dignity and freedom.

“Sex workers’ human rights have been violated in a variety of ways including violence but also by making sex workers invisible and not recognizing their input into issues that affect them, leading to situations in which sex workers’ concerns are sacrificed for propriety. Rights-based programming counters the two great pitfalls of programming with sex workers: not admitting that sex workers’ have agency and denying sex workers of their agency.”

-Melissa Ditmore, Ph.D., “The State of Sexual Freedom: Prostitution,” State of Sexual Freedom in the United States, 2010 Report. Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance.

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