Prostitution

Summative Project The big debate: Legalization of prostitution Noor Zaidi Introduction to anthropology, sociology and psychology HSP3MI Mr. Burgar Monday June 1st 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction PROTECTION AND CHOICE OF WOMEN EXPANSION OF SEX INDUSTRY INCREASE TRAFFICKING AND CHILD PROSTITUTION CONCLUSION WORK CITED INTRODUCTION: Prostitution, The use of sex in the exchange of money has been cited as the worlds oldest and the most controversial professions. Prostitution is believed to have been first developed in Mesopotamia. From there it slowly spread into surrounding cultures in Egypt, Greece and India, there were some counties that developed it independently (Ringdal, 7). Prostitution is a complex profession because it has to be learned, anthropologists believe that it is spread through cultural diffusion (Ringdal, 7). During Mesopotamia the idea of prostitution was for all women, this has changed little by little over time, by the time of Judah prostitution were widows, orphans, freed slaves, servant girls and disobedient runaway daughters (Ringdal, 19). Prostitution was and has always been a private matter. It isn’t talked about openly and took place away from the tribal areas. It was and has always been a symbol of sin in all cultures (Ringdal, 56). A woman, who once enters into the life of prostitution, can never again join the society, because without thinking of the causes and reasoning of her decisions the society would shun her, for she has committed a sin and is a disgrace. But as time has passed, people have become more aware of the workers reasoning and are now trying to help them. This is a sociological debate because when legal barrier disappear, it affects the social and ethical morals of societies. It effects the treatment of women as a whole and gives the message that prostitution is harmless. Most people believe that legalization of prostitution is the best way to make the life easier for the workers but that’s not the case. Many places where prostitution is legalized, have noted instead helping the women it has caused more problems from them. Legalizing prostitution would expand the industry instead of trying to minimize the effects and would increase human trafficking and child prostitution. Protection and Choice of Women: The main reason of legalizing prostitution is for the protection of women, because they should not be punished for being forced into this lifestyle but the results are opposite. Legalization reinforces the oppression of women since women would have to register and lose their anonymity, they would become more vulnerable to abuse from society (Raymond, 316). Women in the sex work indicate that the establishments that they work in did little to protect them, the only time they did protect the workers was to protect a customer. This shows that the protection of women in the sex trade from abuse is looked upon as not at all important. It would be almost impossible to enforce protection of there women because the abuse doesn’t just come from buyers but also from the bouncers, brothel owners and their friends (Raymond, 322). Legalization’s main purpose is the workers’ health. It would make it mandatory for health checks and certification but that’s only for women and that’s a problem since the buyers have no health examinations. Even if women are in good health, the male buyers often can and do transmit diseases to the women they purchase. The enforcement of using protection wouldn’t be effective, since the women in the work are poor and have no other way of making money, for their addictions or debts; they will not use protection for the sake of some extra money (Raymond, 319). The legalization of prostitution doesn’t enhance women’s choice. The women in this profession didn’t have a choice to become what they wanted and were left to rely on their survival instincts in order to live and be able to feed their kids (Raymond, 322). Prostitutes have no choice but to lie about their lives, bodies and responses. The sex workers don’t want prostitution to be recognized as a profession, as they believe it is a demeaning job for a woman and they would never want their children, family, or friends to earn money through this industry (Raymond, 324). Expansion of Sex Industry: Even though legalization of prostitution prevents the women from punished as criminals, the government is also legalizing the industry which is the true cause of the problem. The industry which includes pimps, buyers, procurer, brothels, and other establishments would benefit from legalizing. It would expand the industry instead of controlling it. “The sex industry now accounts for 5 % of the Netherlands economy (Daley, 2001: 4). Over the last decade, as pimping became legalized and then brothels decriminalized in the Netherlands in 2000, the sex industry expanded 25 percent (Daley, 2001: 4)” (Raymond, 318). Legalizing would make prostitution an option for the poor. Instead of taking out the illegal and criminal elements out of the sex work it would increase it. It would increase hidden, illegal and street prostitution, because the women don’t want to register or go through health checks. They also would rely on street prostitution because they don’t want to be controlled and exploited by the pimps. After legalization all of the business will have to obtain a license to operate but most would still keep with the illegal ways. In South Wales after legalization there was a massive increase in brothels, and this vast majority didn’t have a license to operate (Raymond, 320). This would make it hard for the government to try investigate and prosecute the illegal operators. The expansion of the sex industry would encourage men to buy women/childern for sex in a more permissible range of socially acceptable settings (Raymond, 322) Increase trafficking and child prostitution Legalization would also make business easy for pimps and traffickers. Instead of trying to decrease the amount of sex trafficking, it promotes it. One argument for legalizing prostitution is that legalization would help end the exploitation of desperate immigrant women trafficked for prostitution in countries like Germany, Netherlands, and Australia there has been previous problems with growing amounts of foreign women, who are trafficked there because of legalizing prostitution. These foreign women have no money and come from poor parts of the counties around the world. “In the country report on Australia, it was noted that in the State of Victoria which legalized prostitution in the 1980s, "Trafficking in East Asian women for the sex trade is a growing problem" in Australia…lax laws …make [anti-trafficking] enforcement difficult at the working level.”” (Raymond, 317). The traffickers would take advantage and bring these foreign women into the prostitution industry for their own benefit. Legalizing prostitution would not just bring these women but also childern into prostitution. This would increase child prostitution. Since legalization would put an end to the government targeting prostitutions. It would make it easier for the businesses to secretly offer child prostitution. Studies taken in Netherlands and Australia show the incease in child prostitution, it has gone from 4,000 in 1996 to 15,000 in 2001, because of legalization. The promoted sex trafficking of forigen women and childern would work hand in hand with the expansion of the industry, and it would be virtually be impossible to put a stop to. Conclusion: Legalization of prostitution shows no evidence that it would make things easier and better instead it makes it worst. Women would still be exploited, and now would be oppressed with the their identities being exposed to the societies. It would take away the ethical barriers, making it okay to traffic, buy and use these workers for your own means. It would expand this industry instead of end it and increase trafficking and child prostitution rates. Prostituition as a legal profession can hurt the women and children in the sex work more, then they already are. Prostitution will and always be a socially shunned job. Works Cited Gillie, Kara. "Sex work and the state." Interview with Emily Van der Meulen. Briarpatch March & April 2009: 26-32. Raymond, Janice G. "Ten reasons for not legalizing prostitution." Journal of trauma practice 2 (2003): 315-332. Ringdal, Nils Johan. A world history of prostitution. New York: Grove P, 2004.