I recently read a post on Fetlife about why paying a professional domme does not devalue the experience. The author makes several points that are worth repeating:

1. Payment Reflects Value, not Motivation: if you love your job, you should still get paid for it. If a dominatrix (or other sex worker) has fun, that doesn’t mean she (or he) shouldn’t get paid.
2. The Myth of “Intrinsic Motivation Only”: you can want to do BDSM sessions (or engage with sex workers) as a job; you don’t have to just do it for its own sake.
3. Labor is Labor, Even When it Looks Like Play: if you’ve ever done a BDSM scene, you know there’s work involved — knowledge, experience, and exertion. Same goes for sex. Should professional athletes not want to get paid just because they have fun playing the game?
4. Payment Creates a Container for Trust: there’s no ambiguity when payment is involved. It is a transaction that mutually benefits both parties.
5. Pleasure and Professionalism are not Mutually Exclusive: see point 2.
6. Boundaries in Lifestyle Spaces: there are certain spaces where paid sex work (BDSM or otherwise) is not acceptable, and those should be respected.
7. Other Forms of Value Exchange: plenty of forms of value exchange are part of our culture as a whole; what’s wrong with this one?

Of course she is much more eloquent than I am in this brief summary, but the point I want to make is: there’s nothing wrong with engaging in paid sex work or paid BDSM activity, and in some ways it can actually be beneficial for both parties. So if you want to pay to play, pay to play. And if you don’t, don’t judge other people who do.