Teen Vogue Touts Prostitution as ‘Real Work’

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Teen Vogue has added prostitution to its growing list of dumb and dangerous activities to promote among its young female readership, arguing this week that “sex work is real work!”

Sex work is “misunderstood,” argues Tlaleng Mofokeng, MD, the founder of the South African abortion rights advocacy group Nalane for Reproductive Justice in her Teen Vogue article linked by the tweet.

“I am a doctor, an expert in sexual health, but when you think about it, aren’t I a sex worker? And in some ways, aren’t we all?” Dr. Mofokeng asks provocatively (and nonsensically).

One cannot help but wondering whether telling 13-year-old girls that everyone is really a sex worker and so prostitution should be legalized is the sort of material that will prepare them for a productive, fulfilling adult life.

The author invites young readers to broaden their understanding of sex work beyond stereotypical street prostitution.

“Not all sex workers engage in penetrative sex, though, undeniably, that is a big part of sex work,” she concedes. “Sex-worker services between consenting adults may include companionship, intimacy, nonsexual role playing, dancing, escorting, and stripping.”

“I do not believe it is right or just that people who exchange sexual services for money are criminalized,” she asserts, while underscoring her expertise as a medical doctor.

Continued criminalization of sex work “is a form of violence by governments and contributes to the high level of stigma and discrimination,” she laments.

Curiously, Dr. Mofokeng never addresses the issue of the tens of thousands of women who are forced into prostitution against their will and function as sex slaves, paying a large portion of the money they earn to their pimps. Currently in Italy, for instance, a full half of the prostitutes are Nigerian and many of these are brought into the country under false pretenses only to find they are required to sell themselves on the streets to pay off their “debts.”

Teen Vogue’s promotion of prostitution is the latest in its serial ideological advocacy. In April, the magazine contradicted basic biology for the sake of gender theory, instructing its readers that “the idea that the body is male or female is totally wrong.”

“Saying that a person with XY chromosomes is only male is a narrow way to look at the diverse range of chromosome differences that we can have as a person,” the magazine informs its readers before launching the idea that human sexual identity is a subjective construct.

“In fact, who you are is who you say you are,” it declares.

In 2017, Teen Vogue offered a helpful “tutorial” for young girls on how to have anal sex.

The magazine featured an article by “sex educator” Gigi Engle titled “Anal Sex: What You Need to Know,” which enthusiastically hyped the benefits of anal sex while neglecting to mention the serious dangers and risks associated with the activity.

“This is anal 101, for teens, beginners, and all inquisitive folk,” Engle wrote, defending anal sex as “a perfectly natural way to engage in sexual activity.”

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