No sooner than I argue that decriminalization of prostitution creates a safer environment for sex workers does this story come out: a new book argues that many women in legal brothels are treated like sex slaves.
[A] new book – Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections – makes interesting reading. During a two-year investigation, the author, Melissa Farley, visited eight legal brothels in Nevada, interviewing 45 women and a number of brothel owners. Far from enjoying better conditions than those who work illegally, the prostitutes she spoke to are often subject to slave-like conditions.
Described as “pussy penitentiaries” by one interviewee, the brothels tend to be in the middle of nowhere, out of sight of ordinary Nevadans. (Brothels are officially allowed only in counties with populations of fewer than 400,000, so prostitution remains an illegal – though vast – trade in conurbations such as Las Vegas.) The brothel prostitutes often live in prison-like conditions, locked in or forbidden to leave.
. . . The women are expected to live in the brothels and to work 12- to 14-hour shifts. Mary, a prostitute in a legal brothel for three years, outlines the restrictions. “You are not allowed to have your own car,” she notes. “It’s like [the pimp's] own little police state.” When a customer arrives, a bell rings, and the women immediately have to present themselves in a line-up, so he can choose who to buy.
Sheriffs in some counties of Nevada also enforce practices that are illegal. In one city, for example, prostitutes are not allowed to leave the brothel after 5pm, are not permitted in bars, and, if entering a restaurant, must use a back door and be accompanied by a man.
It gets worse and I highly recommend reading the whole thing. You need to read it in order to understand what’s happening to these women. They tell incredibly compelling stories. So the obvious question is, how does this change my views on legalized prostitution?
It doesn’t. And I’ll tell you why: with any legalization of prostitution has to come strong regulation. The problem in Nevada, as I see it, is that prostitution is sanctioned, but the sex workers are not looked after and those abusing the workers are not penalized. In order to properly protect sex workers, legislators have to be willing to deal with the ugly details of prostitution in order to make sure that the women involved are as safe as possible.
A few of the regulations that I think should be required: a specialized minimum wage. Routine and random inspections of brothels by state authorities for safety and cleanliness. The guarantee that prostitutes have all the same rights as any other citizen, and cannot be discriminated against on the basis of their work. Unregulated brothels actually shut down, prosecuting the owners instead of the workers, while maintaining the legality of private prostitution. The guarantee that sex workers have the right to live off of the premises of the brothel and move freely when not working. An easy an effective way for women to anonymously report abuse, and a program that supports women looking to get out of the sex industry.
The women described in this book seem to have none of these things.
Farley disagrees with me. She thinks that prostitution should be illegal, and that legalized prostitution cannot possibly be made safe.
Personally, I also do not think that you can ever have the guarantee of safe brothels. But I also think that re-criminalizing prostitution will not only fail to make things better for these women, it quite possibly has the ability to make things worse. Farley’s stance is perhaps understandable, considering what she has seen through her research. But I do not think that the knowledge that sex work is exploitative and unhealthy necessarily leads to the conclusion that the only option is to ban it. Farley’s hard stance actually makes me wonder about her views going into the project. I certainly don’t doubt the accounts of the women she interviewed, but I do wonder if there was a bias in her analysis of what she found.
That being said, her book sounds like a worthwhile and interesting read. What are your thoughts?
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I’m glad you brought this article up. I read it a couple of days ago and was going to comment with a link to it on your last post about sex work, since it certainly made me stop & think about my own pro-legalization views, but I somehow forgot to. Ultimately, though, I agree with you: the stories in the article were heartbreaking but I don’t see how illegalization could possibly help as much as serious regulation could. (The thing that worries me about that, though, is that we live in such a misogynist society and I doubt we could really see that kind of regulation happening any time soon.)
I also was curious about the broader conclusions drawn in the article, such as the statement that more women experience violence and abuse in places with legalized prostitution. That sounds like a pretty huge claim to me, one where it would be tough to prove a causal relationship, so I’d like to know more about how that conclusion was reached.
I, too, had a feeling that the author might’ve gone in a little biased but am still thinking the book will be worth a read when it comes out.
Yeah, I definitely had to think about this one for a few days before I could come to a strong conclusion, which is partially why it took me so long to get to it.
I do think, though, that more discussion on this issue is needed, and so is more awarness-raising. I think that anything that heightens the awareness of working conditions for sex workers is a good thing, though I do worry that some might be all too eager to say “well, legalization doesn’t work, nothing we can do, too bad.” But from what I’ve seen so far, Farley definietely does humanize the women, which is something that we see WAY too rarely whenever a discussion about sex work pops up.
I think one of the key issues for me is even the difference in the words “legalization” and “decriminalization” – both are needed, along with the stronger regulations mentioned. One of the biggest problems I see in this article is that prostitution as a trade (the exchange of something) is legalized. However, the women themselves are still being treated like criminals. It makes me think of a prison work program, where inmates are allowed to work, but handed over to a foreman-like person, as property. Its like saying “OK pimps, here are some criminally deviant women, its legal for you to make money off them, but keep them on a tight leash…”.
The attitudes need to change and then larger structures and models of decriminalization need to be put into place in order to make anything safer and fair and even then, there will always have problems. But it will be easier to identify and work with those problems. Right now there are too many to even begin to remedy them with it being illegal. I’m not really sure how the author could have come to the conclusion that doing nothing in that direction is better, when it appears to me that the problem clearly is, as you said, not enough regulation.
I also think the decriminalization of the women would help to be able to put better boundaries in place for cracking down on sex trafficking. (i.e. the victims are not criminals here, the people who are kidnapped, trading, buying them are criminals… a distinction that law enforcement is having trouble properly making).
How on earth do you regulate prostitution? They tried in Amsterdam and Germany, and they are giving up and reversing their pro-prostitution laws.
You would need to have a cop sitting and watching every session of intercourse to make sure it was not abusive. What if the john slaps her? Is that a health code violation? What if he calls her a whore? Is that creating a hostile work environment? What if he wants her to talk baby talk and call him daddy, do we have automatic child abuse reporting paperwork to fill out?
How do you regulate the use of one person for another person’s sexual gratification? It’s not possible to create humane prostitution working conditions. Current society is not even willing to come close to what you would need to make sure that prostitutes could be safe. If we legalize prostitution we want it hidden far away and we basically deputize the brothel owners to keep everyone in line. Which in the end means that the brothel owner is a state sanctioned pimp. And unfortunately, with that power, comes abuse of the prostitute.
The government should not EVER declare that it is ok to buy women for sex. Never. Women are human beings with human rights. Those women who tell us they WANT to be bought and sold need help and options, not government approval.
Legalization has not worked, does not work, and will not work.
Thank you for this thoughtful discussion. I agree with much of what is posted here. There are a couple of points that I’d like to respond to.
The idea of decrim and/or legalization coupled with heavy regulation will only be helpful if the workers are brought to the table to establish what those regulations and policies would look like. Bonnie touches on that issue. We can’t simultaneously say that we want to protect the rights of all women, but discredit and ignore some women based on their sexual practices.
I disagree that Farley ‘humanizes’ the women that she interviews. She actually sorts through and seeks out the women whose stories fit her biased perceptions (why would it take 2 years to research a 165 page book if she didn’t have to dig deep to find the stories that suited the intended outcome of her research?) She actively works to silence women working in the industry and makes claims that any woman who chooses sex work is mentally or emotionally compromised and cannot be trusted to make decisions for herself. Sounds like the patriarchy to me.
Farley’s work and attitude toward women who do not subscribe to sex on the moral terms that she subscribes to directly undermine the efforts of sex workers to be taken seriously and have their voices heard on matters that affect them directly.
Thank you for thinking critically on these issues, please do be wary of false prophets such as Farley.
Unfortunately wrote:
“You would need to have a cop sitting and watching every session of intercourse to make sure it was not abusive. What if the john slaps her? Is that a health code violation? What if he calls her a whore? Is that creating a hostile work environment? What if he wants her to talk baby talk and call him daddy, do we have automatic child abuse reporting paperwork to fill out?”
I guess we need to make marriage and dating illegal, since we cant have a cop watching every encounter that any couple has. Woemn are more likely to be abused by a boyfriend, husband, lover or family member than any other person. Feminists have most effectively responded by helping women access resources such as housing, job training and education to get them out of these bad situation- not making it illegal for them to choose to engage in intimate relationships with men.
When sex workers do get into bad situations in the context of work, they need the exact same support in a non-judgmental, non-stereotyped environment- NOT JAIL!
The US prison-industry is the essence of the patriarchy. Women do not get treated fairly in this system, forcing them to interact with law enforcement officers makes women more susceptible to abuse.
We all want to end the violence against women that actually does exist, to do that we’ll have to stop demonizing women based on their sexual choices. When we classify women in this way, we’re playing right into the divide-and-conquer patterns that keep us from achieving liberation.
I’m actually quite between your two points of views, Unfortunately and Karly. Unfortunately, I have made it quite clear on this blog that I very strongly dislike the existence of the prostitution industry. But I also think that acting as though throwing people in jail is going to make it go away is both the height of naivety and irresponsibility. To answer the specifics of your questions, I have already stated that “safe” brothels cannot ever be guaranteed. But we have also been completely unable to guarantee safe working conditions for miners, and no one suggests arresting the guys that they manage to pull out of a collapse. It should be up to each sex worker to set up the rules for what she is and is not willing to perform. If the John oversteps the agreed upon bounds verbally, I would suggest throwing him out and blacklisting him. If he oversteps physically, it should be considered assault, in the same way that it would in ANY sexual encounter. Does that mean it will no longer happen? Of course not. We all know that sexual assault occurs all too frequently. But I do think that it’s possible to create clear rules. And I do not think that decriminalizing prostitution is the same as the government saying that buying and selling women is okay, in the same way that I don’t think drug decriminalization is the government saying that it’s okay to be a heroin addict.
Karly, I respect that you work to give sex workers a voice. And I agree 100% that sex workers should be involved in reform every single step of the way. I do disagree, though, that sex work is about choices. Do some women choose to go into the sex industry? Sure. But with the prostitution industry being what it currently is– illegal, and very, very dangerous– few women are making that “choice,” and most go into the industry because of few available options. Those who go into the sex industry of their own volition and of sound mind, quite frankly, tend to be middle class white women. And most sex workers are not middle class white women. But really, I do appreciate you weighing in on the matter and I hope that you’ll come back!
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