There's a lot going on in the porn world, especially now that it's, er, democratized. Sex workers is very broad. Porn stars is a little fuzzy. Some porn stars are big names, and/or can actually act pretty well. Or excel at creating fantasies. A surprising number of cam girls just sit at their desk fully clothed, chin in hand, and the only action is their eyes darting around their monitor while bad background music gets mangled through their microphone.

"Sex workers" is synonymous with prostitution. Pornography is a form of art. "Sex artists" would make more sense. "Sex worker" sounds very pedestrian, we don't call actors or singers "theater workers". As for the girls just sitting in their desks that doesnt sound like sex-related work at all, they might as well be called cam-artists. This is a not a tiny niche anymore, there is space for more than one terms.

> "Sex workers" is synonymous with prostitution.

No, it's not, it's an umbrella term covering multiple kinds of sexually-explicit work people do, including prostitution, fetish modelling, camming, stripping, phone sex.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_work

> there is space for more than one terms.

That's right, there's more than one term. When you want to say something about porn actors, you can use that term. When you want to say something about sex workers, you can use that term. When you want to say something about artists, you can use that term. They are different but overlapping terms and which one you use depends on what you're saying.

Interesting, i ve heard it more used to refer to prostitution -- do ,e.g. strippers count as sex workers? Also, even that article is confusing, for example it says that sex work is prohibited in most of the world, but camming is legal almost everywhere.

Well, I think the intention behind it is that it's an umbrella term; I'm sure there's lots of gray area around the edges--I doubt anyone thinks there's a bright line where it's "sex work" on this side and "not sex work" on the other. Maybe that's part of the point, it's somewhat loose. But the intention is to include workers other than prostitutes.

> Pornography is a form of art.

Pornography is as much art as streaming video games or uploading card opening videos to YouTube are a form of art.

Pornography is entertainment, and not all entertainments are art. In spite of all the more or less recent porn videos labeled "Art Porn," which, in fact, rather depicts passionate sexual intercourse, pornography cannot reasonably be considered art in the traditional sense. Pornography does not elevate your spirit, it does not make you feel a broad range of emotions, and there is no real creativity, or it is utterly limited to a mediocre plot and a few different environments.

What definition of art do you have in mind that makes you think that pornography is art?

that's a very narrow definition that excludes a lot of mediocre works which are typically classified as art. I m not interested in that discussion as much in why porn and prostitution are lumped together.

> "Sex workers" is synonymous with prostitution.

Not generally; its typically used either more broadly (though not strictly more broadly, as nonconsensual acts wouldn't generally be included) than “prostitution”: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_work#Types

Or strictly more narrowly than prostitution, as in:

https://theconversation.com/who-are-we-talking-about-when-we...

Actor and singer seem just as pedestrian.

This is a term from their own advocacy, as an alternative to much more derogatory ones. It focuses on work issues: pay and safety. The OF issue is about pay.

"Artist" might imply dilettante. "Worker" captures that they are doing it in order to get paid.

"Porn artist" might be taken to mean the people who make pornographic drawings/animations. Actors aren't colloquially referred to as "artists" most of the time; they're called actors.

they are both. but the former is less controversial.