Coronavirus

Desperate times for sex workers in Brazil as Covid-19 paralyzes business

Social isolation has made it exceedingly difficult for sex workers around Brazil to earn a living, with those working on the street facing extreme poverty

Desperate times for sex workers in Brazil as Covid-19 paralyzes business
Photo: Léo Pinheiro/FP

Prostitution as a profession has been legal in Brazil since 2012, but it continues to be severely demonized and sex workers are regularly victims of prejudice, abuse, and violence. Moreover, despite being a recognized profession, sex work is not regulated; there are no rules on hours, vacations, career progression, retirement, or anything of the sort. What there is, at the very least, is a limbo in which thousands or perhaps millions of women find themselves, as a means to support themselves and their families.

However, with the Covid-19 pandemic, the lives of countless sex workers have become even more difficult. Even high-end escorts — known in Brazil as “luxury prostitutes” — face difficulties, as social distancing rules imposed by state governments make it difficult for professionals and clients to circulate who, moreover, would be at risk if they were infected.

“Though prostitution in Brazil in an independent and isolated manner is legal, the whole environment is criminalized, which puts the people who exercise it at constant risk of illegality,” says writer, activist and sex worker Monique Prada. “Legally, I can sell sexual services, but only in complete isolation, without the support of colleagues, without working in brothels. It always seems to me that the objective of the laws on sex work in Brazil is to socially isolate the women who do it, pushing them to clandestinity.” 

For those who work on the streets — who are generally the most vulnerable sex workers and those who often survive on...

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