For most, it is about survival sex, not pleasure or enjoyment. Many believe that sex workers choose this path as an expression of free choice, that belief is false. In Belize, most of the sex workers state that this profession was a last resort to support their families. These women do not choose to degrade themselves in such a demeaning manner. After all, this is probably the only profession in the world where one does not sell a talent or a product those women sell themselves.
Survival sex is about women s bodies being used and controlled for men s sexual pleasure.
Many consider sex workers to be vectors of this deadly infection rather than women at risk of becoming infected. For example, young women driven into prostitution by sex traffickers, are less able to protect themselves from this disease than other sex workers. The alarming reports of 1999 rank Belize as having the highest rate of infection per capita in Central America. The only sex workers interviewed, who knew she had HIV, reported to not using condoms. In Belize, when sexual exchange is explicit and recognized, condom use is high.