Sex work is work
Today is International Sex Workers’ Rights Day
Sex work is work, and sex workers deserve respect, equality, and the same rights and protections as all workers.
On 3 March 2001, over 25,000 sex workers in India gathered for the Kolkata Sex Worker Freedom Festival to advocate for sex worker rights, including safety at work. Prohibitionist groups tried to prevent the festival from taking place by pressuring the government to revoke the group’s permit, but were unsuccessful.
Since then, 3 March has become an important date to promote sex worker rights, highlighting the need for sex work to be recognised as legitimate work and for sex workers to be protected under the law. Recognising sex work as work is a vital step towards fighting for decriminalisation, anti-discrimination protections and labour rights.
Did you know that in some parts of unceded Australia, sex work and sex workers are still criminalised?
The fight for sex work to be recognised as real work in Australia is far from over. Until all sex workers are free from discrimination, stigma and criminalisation, none of us are truly free.
But I thought sex work was “legal” in Australia?
Decriminalisation removes laws and penalties criminalising all aspects of sex work between consenting adults. Sex work is then covered under existing health and safety laws.
Legalisation involves laws and regulations permitting sex work under certain conditions, while all other sex work remains criminalised. Under legalisation, governments impose special regulations just for the sex industry.
Sex work is partially criminalised in WA
Full criminalisation in SA
On International Sex Workers' Rights Day we reiterate the importance of decriminalisation of sex work. Sex work is work! And there is still much more to do before it is recognised as such in Australia.
Read our decriminalisation briefing paper scarletalliance.org.au/wp-content/u...
03.03.2026 01:48 —
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Ugh
03.03.2026 16:40 —
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Whenever we figure this all out you’ll be the first to know lol
03.03.2026 02:33 —
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Imagine if Elon had his $230b hoard in gold and jewels. That shit would’ve been redistributed yesterday, are you kidding me?
02.03.2026 20:46 —
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I have a theory that we’d be at the guillotine stage of the revolution already if everything was still done in cash.
There’s just something about holding your meager pay in your hands and then physically handing it to your landlord that hits very different from numbers changing on a screen.
02.03.2026 20:43 —
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I believe the argument is that it’s more accurate than opinion polling because it shows what people believe strongly enough to put money behind vs. what they simply hope happens. Whether that’s actually true seems highly dubious to me
02.03.2026 20:39 —
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And if you wanna know how it ended? You’ll have to apply to serve me on my website to find out 😉
02.03.2026 20:36 —
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Me, white woman with long, dark hair, standing in a red room. I’m wearing a black blouse tapped into a black leather mini skirt. The black tops stockings are out. In the background (though not overly obvious) is a red and gold cage, a vase filled with bamboo, canes, and a suspension bar with bondage cuffs. I look stern and commanding.
Same setting, but the blouse and skirt are gone, revealing a red silk slip and red garters. In the foreground are various BDSM implements in a big pile: chains, cuffs, a leash, a neon wand, rope, clothes pins, etc. I’m holding out the hem of my slip and smiling.
How it started vs How it’s going
02.03.2026 20:30 —
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Really interesting point
02.03.2026 20:21 —
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That sounds like a great argument for parenting your damn kids
02.03.2026 20:10 —
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That’s why it’s always so funny when guys are like “But who would hire you if you [got tattoos/ dyed your hair/ stopped shaving/ whatever other “alternative” styling choice they personally don’t fetishize]” As if that wouldn’t just become part of the appeal!
02.03.2026 19:30 —
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Real truth to this one. There’s something very appealing about our actual or perceived lifestyles as sex workers. It signals the kind of values congruence and authenticity that most people deny themselves when entering into corporate work and heteronormative home lives
02.03.2026 19:29 —
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Extremely cool
02.03.2026 17:32 —
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Sam Altman aka Paul Reiser circa 1986
Watching Aliens for the first time with @pockychinchilla.bsky.social and @basicchunnel.bsky.social damn, no one told me Sam Altman was the bad guy in this universe too
02.03.2026 03:31 —
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Horrifying doesn't even begin to cover it. This is, legally and practically, torture. They will deny HRT even to those who can no longer produce their own sex hormones, which can and will have dire medical consequences. They will drive people to suicide.
02.03.2026 01:44 —
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According to payment processors, purchasing fictional sexy art is grossly immoral.
Betting on school children getting blown up is fine though.
01.03.2026 19:01 —
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Inspirational tbh
01.03.2026 20:47 —
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I think we all needed this. Thank you for your posting service 🫡
01.03.2026 19:54 —
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I learned a new word today!
01.03.2026 17:56 —
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“You cannot take what you have not given, and you must give yourself. You cannot buy the Revolution. You cannot make the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
01.03.2026 04:58 —
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This sounds like I’m kidding, but I’m not. This is grief. Everyone needs some time be fully unhinged about it. It’s part of the process.
01.03.2026 05:35 —
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Staggered seven day-rotations where each of us gets to lie in bed and scream and scream and then gently pulls it all back together again and takes a nice hot shower and keeps going
01.03.2026 05:31 —
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I think I know where this is going, and it’s
I’m SO tired of trying to hold my mental health together, like I’ve been really white knuckling it for a full year now, and I think I— truly we, all of us, should finally get to have a little week-long mental breakdown. As a treat..
01.03.2026 05:30 —
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“direct your anger at trump not the democrats” buddy you are severely underestimating the amount of anger i have available to me
01.03.2026 02:36 —
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Unlike a dominatrix, a therapist will never tell you what to do. She’ll just ask, “And how does that align with your values?” Which, actually, is also a pretty good line to use as a dominatrix
01.03.2026 02:17 —
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New career goal: I wanna be an EAP therapist, so I can low-key encourage people to quit their jobs
01.03.2026 02:14 —
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New newspaper headline for your Intro to Causal Inference lecture just dropped
27.02.2026 12:57 —
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Always thought I’d go down in history arguing for SW rights, but if the IRS comes after me, I’ll stand ten toes down arguing in court this can’t be work because the state doesn’t grant me labor protections and they’ll never prove a quid pro quo like they can w drug dealing
28.02.2026 23:41 —
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