As most of you have probably heard, in a fucking disgusting act of violence, a woman was set on fire last week outside her workplace.

She happened to work at a place called Babes and Beer, and there, she happened to be a stripper.

BTW, she’s also a mom, and apparently a student.

Newspapers and websites have, predictably, eaten this up because it gives them the opportunity to use the word “stripper” in a headline. Very creative, and very subtle marketing, guys. But what really pisses me off is that this kind of coverage is leading to the most useless, jerk-off line of questioning about sex work. No one’s asking “What can we do to make sex work safer?” which might actually lead to productive action, but “Is sex work inherently unsafe?”

And then: scratch ass, mouth off, do nothing, think about naked chicks, jerk off and go to bed.

So let’s delve into it. Sex work is actually not inherently unsafe. Sex work becomes unsafe when safety guidelines aren’t followed, aren’t in place, or can’t be enforced. And safety guidelines can’t be enforced when employees are repeatedly shamed, silenced or made to feel like they have no recourse.

This didn’t happen because she worked as a stripper. This happened because two sick fucks did something sick and fucked up - and misplacing the blame does exactly nothing to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.