Far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) promoted prostitution on Tuesday, declaring so-called “sex work” “work” — a common phrase used among advocates of “sex work.”
“Sex work is work,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter, retweeting a Rolling Stone magazine story that accused the New York Post of “shaming” a 23-year-old paramedic for turning to solicitation subscription website OnlyFans.
“The federal gov has done almost nothing to help people in months,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “We must pass stimulus checks, UI, small biz relief, hospital funding, etc.”
“Keep the focus of shame there,” AOC added, “not on marginalizing people surviving a pandemic without help.”
Ironically, the Democratic lawmaker is a proponent of strict lockdown measures, which have caused the destruction of countless small businesses and grown mega-corporations like Amazon.
It’s also unfortunately pushed too many women toward solicitation sites like OnlyFans.
Sex work is work.
The federal gov has done almost nothing to help people in months. We must pass stimulus checks, UI, small biz relief, hospital funding, etc.
Keep the focus of shame there, not on marginalizing people surviving a pandemic without help. https://t.co/eYib7310Rs
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 16, 2020
As noted by Fox News, AOC is not new to promoting and legitimizing prostitution: “Ocasio-Cortez has previously advocated for decriminalizing sex work. Last year she joined fellow progressives Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in backing the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act.”
Mainstreaming prostitution, or so-called “sex work,” has feminists split.
While AOC is a proponent, feminist Julie Bindel has argued that legalizing the solicitation of women’s bodies is — surprise — harmful to women.
“One of the most persuasive myths about prostitution is that it is ‘the oldest profession.’ Feminist abolitionists, who wish to see an end to the sex trade, call it ‘the oldest oppression’ and resist the notion that prostitution is merely ‘a job like any other,'” Bindel outlined at The Guardian in 2018.
“The practice of using human bodies as a marketplace has been normalised under the neoliberal economic system,” she said. “Supporting the notion that prostitution is ‘labour’ is not a progressive or female-friendly point of view.”
“Any government that allows the decriminalisation of pimping and sex-buying sends a message to its citizens that women are vessels for male sexual consumption,” Bindel said. “If prostitution is ‘work,’ will states create training programmes for girls to perform the ‘best o*** sex’ for sex buyers? … If prostitution is ‘sex work,’ then by its own logic, rape is merely theft. The inside of a woman’s body should never be viewed as a workplace.”
Sex trafficking survivor and advocate Eliza Bleu argued against the promotion of OnlyFans by actress Bella Thorne this summer. Thorne, 23, joined the site in August — and made millions — in an effort to “normalize” “sex work,” she said.
“As a survivor advocate for those effected by human trafficking,” wrote Bleu, “you (Thorne) single handily [sic] increased folks risk of being trafficked. Our most vulnerable have been at risk all year. This made it worse.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) admitted in December that she rejected a relief bill from Republicans during the pandemic because Donald Trump was president.
Pelosi said at the time that she’d now work with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a Republican, to pass a smaller coronavirus relief package “because we have a new president,” The Daily Wire reported.