When is a woman’s job relevant to a rape allegation? When she’s a sex worker.
If she was a hairdresser, an accountant or a cleaner, her job would not make the headlines.
Emphasising her job like this is implicit victim blaming. As Sally Tonkin, then CEO of Gatehouse, said many years ago, sex work is not dangerous because of the people who do that work. It is not dangerous because they’re working with toxic chemicals, heavy machinery or wild animals. Sex work is dangerous because of predatory men. It is dangerous because predatory men buy into and take advantage of attitudes to women that demean and dehumanise women who do sex work. Perpetuating this myth is dangerous to all women but most especially to the women who do sex work.
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