I was just thinking about this. I think that what is going on psycholoically in the sex worker = victim thing (I hate the term "sex worker," but never mind that) is that the SW is violating society's norms, engaging in behavior that society, or the dominant subset thereof, deems immoral (you know, that concept Carrol pretends to be above, even though he uses it all the time, to my great amusement).
A cause for this immoral behavior must be identified. It can either be rooted in the person herself or in something outside. If the former, that means the person herself is immoral and thus not worthy of sympathy. Since somebody with a "liberal" worldview is not going to want to believe this, that means that the cause of the behavior must be outside the person, who is basically good, but corrupted or forced. Therefore, she must be a victim of some outside power, such as male lust.
Really the same thought process goes on with respect to all people who engage in behaviors considered taboo.
--- On Wed, 3/11/09, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
>
> Aside from which, I'm not so sure it's "bad
> theory" -- if theory is what is to describe it. At any
> rate, I don't think that the latter can be it alone.
> There was a dispute like this online, between me and another
> woman who tended to use psychological analyses *alone*. She
> chalked up the behavior to assholery and often dragged out
> psychologizing concepts to explain that it was just that
> some women were fucked up in the head.
>