ABSTRACT
This chapter provides detailed analysis of two public events that purported to include sex workers as equal partners in dialogue yet instead marginalised sex worker voices. It analyses the case studies that are exemplary of the ways in which sex worker advocates are shut down by audiences who present themselves as concerned allies. In response to ideas that normalise and legitimise sex work as a way to make a living, some audiences – including those that could be thought of as allies – invoke the disposition of morality policing and demonstrate a desire to prove themselves as more knowledgeable than sex worker advocates. This phenomenon has implications for the decriminalisation of sex work and creates challenges for sex workers and allies. Lily Nutchada and Jules Kim advocate for decriminalisation. Their advocacy is a product of detailed sex worker movement discussion and is based on thousands and thousands of sex workers’ experiences.
