Part of the Christian Kyriarchy Project
Christian whoreantagonism
various | anti-porn attitudes and activism
Last updated 9/1/2024
You can check my site glossary in case any terms are unfamiliar.
You'll see the word ”decriminalized” come up a lot. This is because many activists have argued removing restrictions on sex work will do more to help workers than ”legalizing” such labor will. This also addresses forms of sex work that are technically legal but are often subject to onerous rules that make things more difficult and unsafe for the workers.
1. Many Christians tend to see full service sex work as inherently exploitative and conflate it with human trafficking. These sort of Christians reject concept of sex work as a job that can be exploitative but isn't always so and can be made less so.
Notice how sex workers in some of these articles are referred to with condescending pity.
Uncritical examples
Nuns reach out to sex workers in fight against prostitution in the Philippines by N.J. Viehland | Global Sisters Report (July 2014, mentions child sexual abuse)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Sisters Rescuing Women from Sex Trades by Elizabeth Scalia | The Anchoress (August 2014)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
To Fight Sex Trafficking, Fight the Ideology That Creates It, Expert Says By Napp Nazworth | Christian Post (February 2013)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Iº international Meeting of Pastoral Care for the Liberation of Women of the Street | La Santa Sede (June 2005, describes sex workers as "dead psychologically and spiritually")
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
How You Can Help | Hookers For Jesus
Archived on Wayback Machine
Fighting the War on Pornography: Q&A with Dawn E. Hawkins by Sean Salai | America Magazine (July 2015)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Fighting sex trafficking with Jesus: How the religious right's "healing" hurts by Melissa Gira Grant | Salon (April 2014)
From Somaly Mam to ”Eden”: How Sex Trafficking Sensationalism Hurts Sex Workers by Mike Ludwig | Truthout (July 2014)
I Am A Human Trafficking Survivor & Here's What I Want To Ask Christian Activists | The Official Blog of Benjamin L. Corey (July 2015)
Feminists and religious conservatives in strange alliance over transactional sex by Fionola Meredith | The Irish Times (December 2013)
Let us prey: How Christian anti-trafficking orgs exploit sex workers and victims by Erin Louis | OnlySky (August 2022)
2. Many Christians, even progressive ones, have a blanket ”porn is inherently harmful” policy.
See this document for more.
Additional commentary on whoreantagonism in Christian spaces
Are You There, God? Sex Workers Struggle To Find Acceptance in Religion. Religious Leaders Can Change That by Mx. Fettie Peaches | Cashmere Magazine (September 2023, includes discussion of whoreantagonism among both Christians and Muslims)
How the Government and the Christian Lobby Quash Real Research on Sex Workers by Juniper Fitzgerald | PS Mag (May 2017)
Popular Claims vs. Evidence-Based Conclusions in Human Trafficking by Ronald Weitzer (April 2013)
You are nothing without your pimp Jesus Christ by Erin Louis | OnlySky (February 2022)
Preserved on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Evangelicalism: Where Aaron Long Learned to Destroy His Temptations by Captain Cassidy | Roll To Disbelieve (March 2021, discusses a mass shooting motivated by racialized misogyny and dangerous notions of sexual purity)
Further information
'I never want to be rescued again' by Melissa Ditmore | New Internationalist (September 2007, discusses sexual violence and other attacks on sex workers)
Frequently Told Lies | The Honest Courtesan
Anti-trafficking campaigns, sex workers and the roots of damage by Carol Leigh | Open Democracy (March 2015)
Cyntoia Brown and the Commodification of the Good Victim by Laura LeMoon | Tits And Sass (November 2017)
The False Promise of ”End Demand” Laws by Sebastian Kohn | Open Society Foundations (June 2017)
I Did Not Consent To Being Tokenized by Lady Emmy | Tits And Sass (September 2014)
”You Won't Believe What Happened”: The Wild, Disturbing Saga of Robert Kraft's Visit to a Strip Mall Sex Spa by May Jeong | Vanity Fair (October 2019)
We Deserve Better: Reflections On The War On Backpage by Cyd Nova | Tits And Sass (October 2016)
Criminalisation of clients: reproducing vulnerabilities for violence and poor health among street-based sex workers in Canada—a qualitative study | BMJ Open (appears to have been published in 2013)
October 22nd And After: The Movement Against Police Violence And Black Sex Workers by Cherno Biko | Tits And Sass (October 2015)
Sex Trafficking: A Media Guide by Tara Burns | Tits and Sass (March 2016)
Online Platforms and Sex Worker Discrimination | Hacking//Hustling
Sex Workers Don't Deserve to be Raped by Jillian Keenan | The Daily Beast (September 2014)
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