Juniper Fitzgerald/ Why We Need To Stop Stigmatizing Mothers Who Do Sex Work/ 2019
Why we need to stop stigmatizing mothers who do sex work is a ted talk presented by former sex worker and author Juniper Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald begins her talk by discussing that she used to be a “good” feminist and rallied against the sex industry because of the idea that sex workers had lost their dignity and it was the site of male oppression. However, Fitzgerald begins to think about the idea of dignity and its connection to good and bad womanhood. It struck Fitzgerald that a woman could be perceived as a bad woman and conjointly a bad mother because she participates in bad labor. There are a lot of negative connotations surrounding sex work especially sex working mothers. Sex working mothers are often depicted as neglectful and deserving of violence. Mothers who work in the sex labor industry are at risk of losing their child just because of where they work. Once society begins to undo the division of femininity we can stop placing women in two categories of good or bad. This includes better representations of sex working mothers. In dismantling the illusion that a women’s labor is indicative of her Parenting we can keep more families together.
Women love their babies despite their profession. However, a women’s profession is a deciding factor in the courtroom when determining to split up a family. One sex worker by the name of Jasmine lost custody of her children just because of where she worked. Because Jasmine was a stripper, full custody was awarded to her ex-husband, a man with a long track record of domestic violence. The court system granted full custody to a violent man opposed to a sex worker due to the stigma surrounding that line of work. If as a society we break the stigma surrounding sex workers and paint them as loving mothers rather than neglectful ones we can keep more families together. Just by simply discontinuing to use the word whore we can create a more positive representation around sex workers. Sex workers are not neglectful mothers they are women doing what they can to provide for their child. Instead of picturing sex working women as a pair of hot legs picture them as women deserving of good. Where you work should not define you or your ability to have a child.
-AH
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