TED演讲:一位性工作者的诉求(1)

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I'm not like most of the people you'll have heard speaking about prostitution before. 我不像很多之前各位听到过的以卖淫为主题的演讲者。

I'm not a police officer or a social worker.  我不是警察，也不是社会工作者，

I'm not an academic, a journalist or a politician.  我不是学者，不是记者，也不从政。

And as you'll probably have picked up from Maryam's blurb¹, I'm not a nun², either. 相信大家已经听了玛丽亚姆的演讲，我也不是修女。

Most of those people would tell you that selling sex is degrading; that no one would ever choose to do it; 大部分人也许会说，卖淫是可耻的，没有人会选择去做。

that it's dangerous; women get abused and killed.  同时卖淫也是危险的，女人受虐甚至被杀害。

In fact, most of those people would say, "There should be a law against it!" 事实上很多人呼吁，“应该有法律来制裁卖淫！”

Maybe that sounds reasonable to you.  也许这听起来更合理。

It sounded reasonable to me until the closing months of 2009,  对于我来说合理的是，当2009年的最后几个月，

when I was working two dead-end, minimum-wage jobs.  当我同时做着两份没有出路只拿最低工资的工作，

Every month my wages would just replenish³ my overdraft⁴.  每个月的工资仅仅弥补了透支时，

I was exhausted⁵ and my life was going nowhere.  当我筋疲力尽不知道路在何方时。

Like many others before me, I decided⁶ sex for money was a better option. 像很多前人一样，我决定从事性工作。

Now don't get me wrong -- I would have loved to have won the lottery⁷ instead. 不要误会，我当然也想通过赢一次乐透来赚钱，

But it wasn't going to happen anytime soon, and my rent needed paying. 但是那只是可遇不可求的事，我的房租等着我去付。

So I signed up for my first shift in a brothel.  所以我同妓院签下了我的第一份合同。

In the years that have passed, I've had a lot of time to think. 过去的这些年，我想了很多。

I've reconsidered the ideas I once had about prostitution.  我重新思考了我对卖淫曾经的看法。

I've given a lot of thought to consent and the nature of work under capitalism⁸. 我对于合约和资本主义下的工作本质进行了长时间的思考。

I've thought about gender⁹ inequality and the sexual and reproductive labor¹⁰ of women. 我也思考了性别歧视，女性的性劳动和生殖劳动。

I've experienced exploitation and violence at work.  工作中我经历过剥削和暴力。

I've thought about what's needed to protect other sex workers from these things. 我也想过我们需要什么来保护其他性工作者，远离剥削和暴力。

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