A couple of months ago I posted about job centers in the UK listing jobs for phone sex operators and all the furor it caused in the news. Lawmakers have finally caught up with the media and are going to be banning adult jobs from being advertised in public job centers. I say the media, because they’re the ones causing the hue and cry, not the public.
The adult industry won the right to post jobs in job centers 7 years ago when a challenge was made and won by Ann Summers, an adult chain store. The point being that these are legal, legitimate jobs that generate tax and should be allowed to be discreetly posted.
I’m not sure how lawmakers are legally going to be able to ban these listings. The listings are for strippers, phone sex and cam operators, lap dancers and other “adult entertainers”. The fear is that these jobs will lead women into prostitution. A variety of things lead women into prostitution, seeing an ad at a job center for a legal job isn’t one of them.
One of the lawmakers is quoted as stating “To seek to encourage unemployed people into activities which border on the edge of illegality beggars belief.”
Ummm, nope. The jobs are perfectly legal, no edge of illegality. If you feel the jobs are illegal, ban the work not the advertisement for workers. Don’t hypocritically stretch out your hand for the taxes the adult entertainment business generates (which is why the work is not illegal, couldn’t collect taxes on it if it were!) and then deny workers access to jobs with the other.
Nobody is forcing women into these jobs. They aren’t being denied their benefits if they don’t take them. BUT, turn down a “legitimate” job in an arms factory because killing people is against your belief then you may well be losing your benefit.
Give women the benefit of some brains big brother. Knowing a job exists doesn’t taint our lily white souls, we might even be interested in learning more about it or applying!
