Gratitude

If you compare sex workers and physicians, there's a lot of similarities. Both groups perform their jobs primarily to earn money. Physicians go through a very difficult, expensive, extended training, and most of them do it because they expect to make a lot of money. Sex workers are ostracized, but continue as sex workers mostly because they can make more money as sex workers than they can in other jobs.

Both sex workers and physicians can be carriers for disease, and individual sex workers and physicians sometimes are. But both groups are highly aware of disease and educated about it, and for the most part both take precautions to avoid getting diseases or spreading them to other people.

Both groups frequently do things for their clients that could be considered harmful. Prostitutes have sex with married people. Doctors over prescribe antibiotics, contributing to the development of drug-resistant diseases. Both groups are known to lie or hide the truth from their clients. Both groups have a reputation for drug abuse, in both cases because they work in environments where drugs are readily available. Both groups talk about their clients behind their backs in disrespectful ways.

In other words, physicians and sex workers are normal human beings.

In spite of physicians' failings, we're grateful for the service they provide. Physicians' clients are a mixed lot; their behavior is sometimes pretty awful. In spite of that, we don't blame them for their clients, or think they're stupid for putting up with bad behavior, or treat them with disrespect because anyone can buy their services. In fact, we praise them for making their services available to everyone, and providing the same level of care to everyone.

Sex workers are average people with normal failings. Their clients run the gamut from lowlife to nice guy. Necessity forces sex workers to provide the same quality of service to all their clients. Within limits, they provide services to anyone who can pay.

Physicians benefit society in obvious ways. The evidence supports the argument that sex work lowers violent sex crimes. When societies legalize pornography, there seems to be a drop in rapes. Similarly, a researcher compared a number of factors across several different countries, and concluded that there would be 25% less rape in the US if prostitution were legalized.

Like physicians, sex workers are imperfect human beings who sell a form of kindness in order to earn money. Like physicians, their services are available to anyone, including people they may not personally like. And like physicians, sex workers' kindness, however mercenary, makes the world a little better.

Shouldn't we be grateful for that?