Prostitution

Prostitution is the sale of sexual services, such as oral sex or sexual intercourse, for money. A person selling sexual services is a prostitute, a type of sex worker. In a more general sense of the word, anyone selling their services for a cause thought to be unworthy can be described as prostituting themselves.

Politics

Legal issues

Roughly speaking, the possible attitudes are:

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• abolition: "prostitution should be made to disappear"
• "prostitution is immoral and prostitutes and their clients should be prosecuted": the prevailing attitude in much of the United States and Muslim countries;
• "prostitution is a sad reality of exploitation of the prostitutes, especially women, but prostitutes should not be criminalized", the current situation in Turkey.
• "the clients of prostitutes exploit the prostitutes": prostitutes are not prosecuted, but their clients are prosecuted, the current situation in Sweden.
• prostitution is legal, but discouraged, while pimping is prohibited, the current situation in the United Kingdom and France among others;
• regulation: prostitution may be considered a legitimate business, or at least an unavoidable evil; prostitution and the employment of prostitutes are legal, but regulated (with respect to health etc. concerns).
• legalization: "prostitution is a victimless crime, and should be made completely legal so that it is no longer an underground activity, allowing the normal checks and balances of society and existing laws to apply"
• decriminalization: "prostitution is inevitable, but exploitative; laws should target violent pimps and traffickers, not prostitutes." Proponents of this view often cite instances of government regulation under legalization that they consider intrusive, demeaning, or violent, but feel that criminalization adversely affects prostitutes.

In some countries, there is controversy regarding the laws applicable to prostitution. For instance, the legal stance of punishing pimping while keeping prostitution legal but "underground" and risky is often denounced as hypocritical; opponents suggest either going the full abolition route and criminalize clients or making prostitution a regulated business.

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Many countries have sex worker advocacy groups which lobby against criminalization and discrimination of prostitutes.

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These groups generally oppose Nevada-style regulation and oversight, stating that prostitution should be treated like other professions. In the United States of America, one such group is COYOTE (an abbreviation for "Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics") and another is North American Task Force on Prostitution. An international prostitute's rights organization is the International Committee for Prostitute's Rights.

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Other groups, often with religious backgrounds, focus on offering women a way out of the world of prostitution while not taking a position on the legal question.

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Feminism

On prostitution, many schools of thought are prevalent among feminists. Some, like Grisélidis Réal, theorize prostitution as an act of sexual self-determination, decry discrimination and demand destigmatization and decriminalization; women are supposed to be adults who can choose what they wish to do with their bodies. In that view, the moral prohibition of prostitution is just mere masked patriarchal moralism, with a traditional view of considering women to be incapable of making decisions for themselves. Others, exemplified by the American radical feminist and ex-prostitute Andrea Dworkin, consider it to be sexual abuse or even rape; the prostitutes are then victims, who must be protected from the abuse of the clients and pimps. The former group pushed a law reform in Germany, resulting in January 2002 in the recognition of prostitution as a regular profession, making it possible for prostitutes to join the social security and health care system and to form trade unions. The latter faction of feminists was able in Sweden in 1999 to implement the law outlawing the buying of sexual favors but not the selling.

Related Topics:
Feminists - Grisélidis Réal - Patriarchal - Andrea Dworkin - Rape - Germany - Social security - Trade unions - Sweden

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In the United States, the only political party that favors legalization of prostitution is the United States Libertarian Party. The USLP believes all consensual crimes (any act that is against the law where all parties involved voluntarily consent to engage in the activity) should be legalised.

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