Hey, yeah you make some good points. I am absolutely filled with guilt at the moment, you are right.
'The vast majority of escorts are gender studies graduates, who eventually figure out there is no job attached and need a way to pay the bills... not trafficking victims.'
I'm not sure that that is right though (the quote above), where have you got that information from? I am guessing it is a joke.
Also, someone who is trafficked does not make a choice to be trafficked. They are taken against their will. I know you did not say it is their choice to be trafficked, and yes you have a point about drug addicts choosing to take drugs. But lets say you pay for an escort who was trafficked, she does not want to have sex with you but does anyway as she fears being beaten by her pimp. She has given you consent but that consent has been FORCED. Rational or irrational she has sex with you out of fear. Whether that reality exists or not I do not know, but it may.
As with a porn performer, perhaps if they refuse to perform they will be beaten or abused....so they are FORCED to consent. It is consent but it is not REALLY. Their circumstances mean they feel like they have NO CHOICE.
This is the moral battle I am facing and I am sickened by myself.
Yes, perhaps my clothes were made by someone who was trafficked. I do not know. So it is irrational for me to not be sickened and worried deeply by that as well. Maybe my fish dinner last night was caught by a child trafficked in Asia...who knows. Just as when a john sees an escort he does not know if that escort was trafficked. By buying that Asian fish I am effectively ,THOUGH unknowingly, supporting trafficking, abuse and whatever else comes with it. By paying for a sex worker who was trafficked from Romania I am also supporting trafficking but UNKNOWINGLY. I guess it is accidental immorality or just ignorance. The john does not intend to support trafficking and he would say and KNOW that he does not......but he has.....just as he did when he bought that fish....
I think I feel so guilty about potentially using an escort or porn performer who was trafficked because rape comes into it. Does the fact that consent is not REALLY given and is FORCED, in some circumstances, mean that rape takes place? I have no logical reason to believe that I undoubtedly have used a sex worker who was trafficked or held against her will, but I may have and I will probably never know.
Rape is having sex with someone who has not given consent. I think it is foolish to believe that consent cannot be forced and to think that that form of consent (FORCED) is an acceptable form on consent. So, yes consent is given....so I get it...it is not 'rape'.... but at the same time...is having sex with someone who has been forced to give consent not also awful?
And if someone has been forced into prostitution due to a drug habit, yes it was there choice to use drugs, but was it their choice to get addicted? They are selling sex to feed their addiction. By using their 'service' you are taking advantage of someone in a vulnerable position; that is wrong. They may not WANT to have sex with you, but they will....because they need the money for their addiction. Yes they give you consent....but because they are forced to do so.
Look, these are just some thoughts I am having right now. I think it is important to discuss.