Those were some of my first thoughts, but isn't all that just misogynist logic? Making women into victims.
In the US military at least, male on female rape or sexually-oriented abuse is terrifyingly common.
At the same time, to achieve gender equality are we going to make the men more feminine or the women more masculine?
I think we need to interpret things carefully here: 'Gender equality' is about having your opportunities and social status unaffected by your gender; Not having to X to be treated with respect and equity, nor having to not-X to be treated with respect and equity, for all X that are currently associated with gender roles.
'making men more feminine' or 'making women more masculine' would be about removing choices, not preserving them. Rather, our definitions of 'feminine' and 'masculine' might need a good evisceration so that our perceptions aren't distorted by them. I'm personally inclined to define 'femininity' in terms of only the immediate and universal consequences of possessing that set of reproductive organs, and 'masculinity' in terms of only the immediate and universal consequences of possessing the other possible set of reproductive organs. (Unfortunately biology is not actually that simple as to offer two completely dichotomous possibilties. intersex, transgender, and transsexual individuals may present a huge obstacle to defining things so simply.)
I'm against sex work because I can't imagine someone willing to have sex with anyone.
That's like being against homosexuality "because all homosexuals are pedophiles".
Sex work (often with people you have no particular attraction to) != being willing to have sex with -anyone-
It's a business transaction -- you won't do business with just -anyone-, I hope, there has to be an implication of some level of trustworthiness.
There are sex workers who blog frankly about their experiences. Some common points I noticed:
* People are more human and relateable than you think
* Sex is actually not a big deal, and frequently hilarious. It's intimate, yes, but any meaning you attach to it beyond that is just meaning YOU attach to it, quite possibly to the detriment of your sanity and sexual health. Sex workers are largely over their hangups and psychological issues relating to sex, unlike virtually everyone else.
* The government makes it hard to do sex work in a sane way, due to heavy (60%+ in some cases!) taxation and regulation. Hard for the workers to find customers in a straightforward way, hard for the customers to find workers, and hard for the workers to hold customers to account.