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"No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body." --Margaret Sanger
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"In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she's a feminist or a masochist." --Gloria Steinem
Aug
22
Just Like Buying (sexually exploited) Milk and Eggs
Filed Under Europe, International, marketing, misogyny, objectification, patriarchy, sex work, sexism, sexual exploitation and harassment, violence against women and girls, women’s health, work | Posted by Cara |
A new British report examines male attitudes towards paying for sex, and the effect of their nonchalant views on women who are trafficked into the sex industry. Essentially, the treatment of women as commodities by men who pay for sex, as well as their willingness to “shop around” for the best deal, are contributing to the numbers of sex workers that have been trafficked from other countries. These workers, of course, are vulnerable to additional exploitation and are likely to not even be working as prostitutes of their own volition. That probably won’t come as a surprise to most of you. The interesting part comes next:
The report, It’s Just Like Going to the Supermarket; Men Buying Sex in East London, concludes that the mass of internet pornography, the sexualised images of women in lads’ mags such as Zoo and Nuts, and the proliferation of sex tourism and lap and pole dancing clubs, have made young men view sex as a commodity. More than 40% of the respondents were under the age of 29, suggesting that men are buying sex at a younger age than previously recorded. And the interviewees were unimpressed by threats of tougher sanctions. Just 2% said the threat of jail, naming and shaming or losing their car or driving licence would stop them buying sex. The main deterrents were fear of disease or concern that their partner might find out.
The report concludes: “For the growing category of men who view buying sex as a form of mainstream consumerism as leisure or entertainment, there is no shame, so attempting to generate it will have little if any impact.” Its call for schools to counter society’s “normalisation messages” of sex as commodity has been taken up by the Home Office. It has commissioned the Sex Education Forum to produce a schools’ factsheet on sexual exploitation to expose the realities of prostitution, and the Women’s Library is developing a resource pack for schools.
The researchers also believe that legislation banning sex ads in local papers “has the possibility to limit or possibly shrink local sex markets”. However, a spokeswoman for the Home Office insists the current law is sufficient and there are no plans to change it.
I definitely think that this study is getting more to the heart of issues surrounding prostitution than most current tactics, which simply aim to arrest women who are doing their best to put food on the table and embarrass male customers (though it seems to generally be only when they are soliciting other men, doesn’t it?). Educational programs are a necessary part of the solution, but I still think that the issue at hand is a hell of a lot more complex than this study suggests.
The simple fact is, we’re dealing with men who see women as a commodity to be bought and sold, and/or do not see sex workers as being “real” women. We’re dealing with men who think that it’s okay to pay to penetrate women they have never met, who think that the racism of looking specifically for a “Chinese Girl” or “Black Girl” (etc.) is acceptable, and who seem to have an incredibly strong prevalence of raping women, since prostitutes easily have the highest rate of sexual assault victims.
Simply, we’re hardly dealing with the most enlightened or humane demographic. What we are dealing with is a lot of extreme misogyny. If these men don’t take a moral issue with temporarily purchasing access to a woman’s body, why do we assume that they would care how these women ended up in that position in the first place? Is the fact that they’re trafficked really going to matter all that much? Hell, if men are out there looking for women of specific ethnicities to pay for sex, don’t they actually want this to continue?
I’m not pretending to have the answers, here. I personally support the decriminalization of prostitution, because I believe that it will protect many of the women involved against disease, rape and refused payment, and allow for greater education and information about pathways out of sex work. I have no delusions, though, that if prostitution were decriminalized and regulated, that underground prostitution would still evade the law, and the women who would be most exploited would continue be internationally trafficked women.
I suppose that the goal of such education is to influence future generations of potential Johns, men and boys who have not yet paid for sex, but who may consider doing it in the future. Maybe if we educate them about these issues early enough, they’ll never cross that line. Or maybe they’ll just continue to be influenced by older friends, brothers and fathers, anyway. Maybe telling men that they need to respect women in one area of life while society continues to devalue them in all others really won’t have much of an effect at all.
Thoughts?
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Comments
19 Comments so far
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." —Margaret Mead
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"Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less." -- Susan B. Anthony
Articles like this make me feel so hopeless. Misogyny is such a systemic problem, and while, in some areas the situation seems to be improving, in others it is becoming more extreme, more pronounced, and more dangerous. Beyond doing what we can to affect the men in our lives, I don’ know what to do. I feel the tide of real change approaching, but it will take more than the next generation, and it will likely get worse before it gets better.
Education to “influence future generations of potential Johns?”
Are you insane?
Who do you expect to run this educational campaign? The school system? The government? The church? You?
Since when is anyone qualified to dictate the morality of what other people do privately?
This article is nothing but an exercise in misantry and small minded judgement.
Did you mean misandry? Looks like someone needs an exercise in spelling.
I think that I’ve made it pretty clear here that I don’t give a shit what consenting adults do with their own genitals. What I care about is the exploitation of women and a system that perpetuates the idea that women’s only value is sexual, and that value should be marketed, bought and sold.
I’m guessing that you, “Me,” fall into the same category as the men that participated in this study.
The best you have? A typo and some half-assed accusation? I disagree with you, therefore de-facto I _must_ pay for sex? Thanks for proving my point by demonstrating how petty you are.
If you don’t care what consenting people do in private then why the crusade against prostitution? Because a minority segment of the prostitution industry is done through intimidation and abuse doesn’t mean that all prostitution is, by association, just as reprehensible. By that same reasoning, all manufacturing plants in the world are irresponsible ’cause a few in China made some bad toys.
Cara, I didn’t see where you condemned prostitution. I saw you condemn racism and the culture and concept of women as property to be bought and sold just like…milk and eggs. But hey, I’m not a troll.
Yeah, it’s funny how I actually voiced my support for the decriminalization of prostitution in this same post.
I also refuse to take anyone seriously who believes that only a minority of the prostitution industry is abusive. (If you read the actual article, you’d find out that 84% of the advertized brothels called randomly in this study used trafficked women) For the record though, Me, I wasn’t accusing you of paying for sex, though I don’t feel that it’s unlikely. (If there’s nothing wrong with paying for sex in your view, why the defensiveness?) I was accusing you of sharing he mindset that women’s bodies are a commodity with a particular monetary value, and exist to service and pleasure men. If you didn’t feel that way, you would feel just as appalled as I.
In any case, if you keep commenting here with inflammatory and baseless remarks, I will not shy away from the delete button.
Not even a gender issue. The human body IS something that can be baught and sold. Of course it is primarily a market in which a woman sells her body, but both men and women do volunteer their bodies for money. Whether or not you believe that is wrong or right is your decision. If you believe it’s wrong to sell your body, you are free enough to not do it. Nobody is doubting that sexual slavery and human trafficking is evil, but you’re laying to blame on the fact that men are prepared to pay for sex.
To assume selling sex is an immoral activity is to speculate that all sex is immoral. Why would a preceeding or succeeding monetary transaction be the factor that turns something good to something bad?
Your statistic about prostitution assumes that the illegal brothel industry is representative of the sex industry as a whole. The vast majority of prostitutes are women who work from their home and serve a small base of repeat customers. Your statistic was assembled by a person with an agenda. The 84% statistic is basically saying “we saught out the lowest common denominator of an industry, and guess what, WE FOUND BAD STUFF!”
>>”I wasn’t accusing you of paying for sex, though I don’t feel that it’s unlikely. (If there’s nothing wrong with paying for sex in your view, why the defensiveness?)”
I am likely to be a user of prostitutes simply because I have an opinion on freedom and social justice. Good job being open minded.
If anyone else has the desire to jump in, please feel free to do so. I’m personally at the point of seeing nothing to do but laugh at the ignorance and poor reasoning skills.
You’re not going to me me something to which I can respond? Shame.
Fine. Here’s my take on the matter.
There is nothing wrong with prostitution if done consensually and respectfully. If a person wishes to pay for sex, and they do so respecting the service provider, they have done nothing wrong. If someone wishes to sell use of their body, their body is theirs to sell, and by doing so the question of morality is theirs to consider.
The article above does address some things that are real issues, but continues to lay the blame not on the inhumanity of those prepared to commit the crimes, but to the fact that _men_ (not people) are prepared to pay for sex. The author does repeatedly vilify and insult men who wish to use the services of a prostitute, and imply that they are racist for expressing a preference in the services for which they are paying.
I say to the author; “who are you to dictate that this is wrong?”
If both service provider and customer are both willing participants, is it not only they who should reconcile the morality of the activity?
If there are people who are victims of slavery and exploitation, these are slavery and exploitation issues, not prostitution issues.
And in response to your repeated accusations, I have not ever used the services of a prostitute. The closest I ever get to prostitution is when I give the nice old lady across the street a big hug in exchange for the bags of cookies she frequently gives. If you’re prepared to put cookies in me, you get all the hugs you could ever want. The source of my beliefs on this issue are from the basic rights of freedom we all should enjoy, in which we may do with our bodies whatever we wish.
I have to say that I disagree with you 100% on just about everything here.
But if you’re all about bodily autonomy, I certainly hope that you are equally passionate about pro-choice and anti-rape (particularly with prostitutes as victims) stances. I look forward to hearing your disgust over rape-apologists and anti-choice bigots who try to control women’s bodies. I blog on those issues extremely frequently, so I look forward to your vigorous defense of women’s rights.
Your best argument against me now is to speculate on what you think I might believe? Especilly since I’ve said indicates the contrary. If I take such a libertarian standpoint on sexual freedom, why would I then turn suit and be socially conservative on abortion? To set the record straight for you, I believe abortion should be legal and freely available.
But instead of moving the goalposts, why not tell me what you believe to be bad rationale in my arguments?
I speculated that you would agree with me, did I not? I’m glad that you think abortion should be free and legally available. Again, I look forward to the passion.
The poor rationale in your argument is the assumption that prostitution exists in a vacuum outside of the cultural oppression of women. Either that, or you don’t feel that a cultural oppression of women exists, which would be an even worse argument.
I’d say that the cultural oppression of women is a problem faced by the prostitution industry, not a cause/effect.
Seriously? I would say prostitution would fall under the category of effect. The cultural oppression of women is what allows these men to separate personhood from purchase. It’s not that men are willing to pay for sex. It’s that they don’t see a human being. And being able to do that in one area of a person’s life, makes it all that much easier to do it in all areas. If they don’t see a person when they pay for sex, it would be easy to separate the woman from her body when he sees one walking down the street, or getting his coffee at Starbucks, or even when he’s dating them. The objectification and subsequent commodification of women and their bodies is systemic. Like Cara said, prostitution doesn’t exist in a vacuum. And neither does anything else. Well, except dirt. Sometimes.
I read this article with interest. I am British, but I live in Thailand and prostitution is a daily reality for anyone living in a Thai city.
I think your omission of a comparison of female sex purchasers is revealing. Are you aware that every year millions of Asian (usually Japanese and Korean) women come to Bangkok to hire male sexual services?
Yes, of course they do. But male prostitution is a minority of all prostitution, and male prostitution with male customers makes up a majority of that market, too. So yes, it exists, but it’s not nearly as common. It’s also not what this study is about. And this is a feminist blog. So.
Okay, sorry, wait a minute– millions???
Thousands, I believe. Tens of thousands, sure. Hundreds of thousands . . . maybe. Millions? I’d like to see a citation, please.
I have nothing to add; just wanted to say that I think this is a great post. Thanks!
It was when I got to this:
“To assume selling sex is an immoral activity is to speculate that all sex is immoral” that I laughed out loud. Nutter.
I live in a country that has legal prostitution.
I supported the law reform, as I saw it helping sex workers.
That doesn’t mean I don’t despise people who pay for sex. I do.
But if legalising it makes it possible for prostitutes to report rape, insist on condom-use, report ill-treatment from pimps, and make use of government-sponsered health services, then I will always support legalisation.
It doesn’t mean I have to like prostitution.
And THAT certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t like sex.
Like I said, nutter.