Pimp apologetics aren't welcome in GC but I'll engage for the sake of other readers.

As an industry, there is some terrible shit out there.

"some" - minimization. Actually, it is almost entirely terrible shit.

But, if the work can be done in a safe manner, then it should be viewed as just work. Putting an adult selling selfies on the same stage as trafficking and molestation is disingenuous.

You start with an if (if it can be done...) and then proceed as if the if is a fact (that it can be done).

What the actual facts on the ground demonstrate is that the field is full of exploitation, that not just a majority but an overwhelming majority (90+) of those who participate in it regret it, that even the big names speaking out for it (eg stoya) will admit to having been raped and abused in a porn context.

But here's the other if.

IF there's some small number of wealthy privileged women who enjoy selling their selfies for fun, the fact that this minority enjoys it does not make what they are doing (providing cover for widespread abuse, trafficking, and exploitation) OK. Of course pimps love Jenny with low self esteem who likes to make a quick buck off of a nude photo (although, should she ever regret that choice, she has no recourse), because Jenny is then the cover story for multiple women who claim to be doing this consensually (and by claim, I mean, that's what their pimps post on their behalf).

Every one of the handful of women so-called "consensually" engaged in sex work provides cover for the pimps who will claim that all of their abuse victims fall into the same category.

Its like how until recently there was a risky sex defense for men murdering their wives. Its cover. It is used as cover. And engaging in it is enabling that cover, and saying that because 10% of sex workers who are particularly privileged enjoy it, we throw the 90% who are exploited into the trash because, going back to my main point, heaven forbid we ever make a man's peepee unhappy, oh noes.

(and that's not even getting into the widespread degradation, violence, and misogyny of the content.)