• barsoap@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    13 hours ago

    but at least here in Germany prostitutes are only allowed to be self-employed to ensure they aren’t getting “pimped”

    Nope. The reason so many are self-employed is because the employment laws favour employees much more than usual. You can order a baker to knead bread at the penalty of firing, can’t order a sex worker to serve a client on penalty of firing.

    The laws about pimping – in particular, holding women in financial dependence – existed way before legalisation and didn’t actually change. It was always legal to offer things such as bodyguard services and also to exchange money for sex, contracts were non-enforcable and you couldn’t have dedicated business spaces for the trade. As such the workers themselves were already plenty used to being freelancers which is probably another reason why so many are self-employed: Cultural inertia.

    The change in Germany wasn’t much more about making it a regular trade, not decriminalising it because strictly speaking it has never been illegal.