GRSJ224/Prostitution and feminist agenda

Different Prostitution Models

Today there seem to be only a limited number of ways to understand prostitution, and upon these understandings, legislation is developed. All these models essentialize the experience of sex workers, understanding prostitution as a phenomenon and sex workers as a homogenous group. In reality, sex workers are a varied group and their experiences are unique and highly dependent on other variables, such as gender, sexuality, race, age, and social class. An aboriginal sex worker in the Downtown Eastside who identifies as LGBTQ will have a different experience and perspective than a high-paid escort, or a trans youth who has been trafficked. It is important therefore to understand how prostitution has been essentialized and start to look at it differently.

The Swedish Model (Decriminalization)

In the Swedish model, prostitution itself (selling sexual services) is not a criminal offence. However, purchasing sex is a criminal offence. So, the risk of going to prison or paying fines rests solely with the “Johns.” This is a rather paternalistic view saying that all sex workers need to be protected because they have no agency. If prostitution is seen as degrading (and dangerous) for all women in society then then radical feminists agree and support the criminalization of purchasing sexual services, but not the criminalization of selling sexual services (Ward & Wylie, 2017, p. 34). But if society considers both males and females as having control over their actions, then prostitution – both buying and selling – needs to be criminalized, as long as prostitution is seen as detrimental overall (Ward & Wylie, 2017, p. 34). - It is notable here that prostitution has been historically referred to and debated in exclusively heteronormative terms - For many of those promoting only one side of prostitution (the buying) criminalized – especially Radical feminists – this assumes an infantilizing and victimizing of women who might not want to be seen as victims

The Netherlands Model (Legalization)

Netherlands lifted the ban on brothels and pimping in 2000 – became a symbol of the “liberal” approach to sex work – the “model case” (Ward & Wylie, 2017, p. 46). The Netherlands have decided to legalize prostitution so nobody goes to jail. Prostitution is seen as sex between consenting adults, in which all parties involved have agency and can make their own choices. There is a residual concern over trafficking, and the connection between variables like sexual violence, sexual domination, and prostitution and decided that legalization was the best way to address violence and abuse (Ward & Wylie, 2017, p. 47).

The United States & Canada: Criminalization

Prostitution is seen as a crime; albeit a victimless crime. Sex workers and Johns all hurt society’s morals and rules of acceptable behavior. Prostitution under this paradigm has also been referred to as “white slavery” (Ward & Wylie, 2017, p. 69). This definition is very telling, because it reflects the intersectionalities of race and gender. Which women are affected and why does the world care? Are intersections of race and gender pushing the agenda? Would this be such an important issue if it was a non-white women’s issue? In countries where prostitution is still seen as a criminal offence, sex worker organizations have received support from feminists to fight for sex workers' rights and an anti-trafficking legislation which sees women as victims (Ward & Wylie, 2017, p. 69)

Prostitution on the Feminist Agenda

In the introduction to her book, “A Hustler’s Memoir,” Amber Dawn (a prostitute) thanks “queers and feminists, sex workers and radical culture makers, nonconformists and trailblazers, artists and healers, missing women and justice fighters.” Throughout her book, Dawn problematizes the ideas that sex work is a form of victimization, even though her writing reflects a lot of pain. Dawn calls herself a feminist, an activist, and someone who has pushed for decriminalization and legalization of sex work in Canada. Dawn also says she has discovered a form of “ghetto feminism” on street corners, at community meetings, and it is revealed throughout the book that she is a feminist. Much like other labels, “third-wave feminist” is not enough to define Dawn: she is also “queer, femme, homofelxible, PoMo sexual, lit nerd, [and] whore.” Dawn is all of these things and none of them exclusively defines her.

http://www.amberdawnwrites.com/

Considering Dawn’s (2013) very personal writing, the argument can be made that it’s important to outline prostitution as a feminist issue. At the same time, it is also important to problematize the binary assumption that sex workers must be only victims in the sex work, just like one should problematize other binaries, such as gender. One of the most important goals of new feminism (3rd wave) is to “overcome essentialism” (Brown, 1999). Then, it would follow that not “all” women experience the world in the same way, and prostitution is not just a women’s issue. The view that sex workers are only women or that they are powerless victims is a paternalistic, overwhelmingly heteronormative view, in which the state needs to act as guardian for the helpless victims. Under this paradigm, sex worker rights are not just human rights, but also don't include employment rights. Prostitution has been referred to as the oldest job in the world – then are prostitutes entrepreneurs? (Kissil & Davey, 2010, p. 6-7). Are they employees who provide a very important social service? Can they be seen as activists and feminists? Or should prostitution constitute a moral dilemma for feminists? Perhaps prostitution should be seen simply as a part of any state’s sex industry – including but not limited to “escorts, massage brothels, strip clubs, phone sex businesses, and Internet sex work” – in the Netherlands, sex work brings in 5% of the GDP (Farley, 2004, p. 1088-1089).

To complicate matters further, it is imperative to remember that "Prostitute" and "prostitution" are socially-constructed terms. They are about as "real" as "gender" or "male" and "female." They are concepts which societies have invented. "Prostitution" was only recently defined by WHO as a “transaction between a seller and buyer of a sexual service” (Kissil & Davey, 2010, p. 2). In reality, the term “prostitute” only involves one of the parties involved in the transaction: the sex worker. This is someone who has usually been charged, arrested, or convicted of prostitution, so the term leaves out the other party of the transaction, namely the customer or the "John" (Kissil & Davey, 2010, p. 2). Much like the name "John," the customer is often left unknown and only the sex worker becomes visible when it comes to punishing or controlling.

As long as sex workers as seen in a binary (mostly women) and either victims or empowered, it will be impossible to move away from what Shrage calls "ethnocentric ethics" (as cited in Satz, 1996). Prostitution is culturally defined and it assumes some “essentialist understandings of human sexuality” (Satz, 1996). Instead of looking at the issue through the essentialist view, feminism needs to focus on inclusivity. This means intersectional approaches which look at differing variable - including sexuality, race, class, gender, and age (Brown, 1999). Not all sex workers are white, so it is not "white slavery," but it can be often racialized and "cast in a xenophobic frame" (Brown, 1999). Not all sex workers are victims; neither are all willing participants or entrepreneurs. Sex work is not always heteronormative and it's often hard to define. What is certain is that prostitution, as a social construct, needs to remain on the feminist agenda, not as a dilemma but as a reality which needs a further, more segmented and less essentialized approach.

References

Brown, A. D. (1999). Beyond prostitution: Justice, feminism, and social change. Canadian Woman Studies, 19(1/2), 163.

Dawn, A. (2013). How poetry saved my life: A hustler’s memoir. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press.

Farley, M. (2004). “Bad for the body, bad for the heart”: Prostitution harms women even if legalized or decriminalized. Violence Against Women, 10(10), 1087.

Kissil, K., & Davey, M. (2010). The prostitution debate in feminism: Current trends, policy and clinical issues facing an invisible population. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 22(2), 1-21.

Satz, D. (1996). Moral dilemmas of feminism: Prostitution, adultery and abortion. Laurie Shrage. Ethics, 106(4), 864-866.

Ward, W., Wylie, G. & Taylor & Francis eBooks. (2017). Feminism, prostitution and the state: The politics of neo-abolitionism. London; New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.