Moralism warps intelligent endeavour. This is true whether we’re dealing with teenage pregnancies, HIV prevention or human trafficking. Much otherwise good work is stymied and made controversial because there is a hidden agenda beneath it, usually driven by unspoken moralistic aims.
In combatting teenage pregnancies, they would insist we speak only of abstinence and never mention contraception. Why? Because the unspoken agenda is not teenage pregnancies, but the eradication of sex outside marriage. DittoDitto when some people argue that in combatting HIV, we shouldn’t speak non-judgementally about homosex, we shouldn’t remove the stigma or laws against homosexuality (an essential step for public health officials to successfully engage the gay community) because their agenda is not HIV prevention but a campaign against non-heterosexual orientation.
"Rhee says too often, people assume sex work cannot be the result of a conscious decision. She is very sympathetic to the plight of trafficked individuals - particularly underage youth - and advocates intervention for them. But the purpose of #NotYourRescueProject was to make a distinction between who needs intervention and who doesn't. "Every time someone talks about human trafficking, many conflate human trafficking with sex work…When you say sex work is all violence against women or is all sex trafficking, it really ignores agency for women who chose sex work," Rhee says. "I didn't fall into sex work. It was something that I chose out of my own volition." Desi, who works as an escort, is highly critical of anti-trafficking NGOs. "I believe it is very important for sex worker voices from the emerging world to be heard unmoderated by any special interest," Desi says. "I believe enabling sex workers with rights and especially the right to organize their own resistance is what is most needed.""