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Effect of prostitution on society
Effect of prostitution on society
Effect of prostitution on society
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With only the purchase of sex being illegal, johns can be rightfully punished by the law and the sex industry wouldn’t go underground. While people think that sex workers, because they create the opportunity, should be punished, it is often the men who initiate sex with prostitutes. It is the johns who pay sex workers to “to submit to his sexual demands as a condition of 'employment'" (Jeffreys 260). Yet despite this, most police officers focus the attention on prostitutes, rather than the johns and as a result of that, citizens mimic the attitudes of the law enforcers. An unfair balance is created between the number of sex workers arrested versus the number of johns who are arrested. While one could say that both are deserving of the punishment, the johns aren’t the ones trying to do a job, but the sex workers are. In a sting operation in Midtown, Atlanta caused the arrest of 61 prostitutes but only 8 johns (Wenk). With such an uneven divid of sex workers arrested but so little johns, exemplifies the overall tone of how prostitution is handled. Sex workers should not be arrested in any greater numbers than johns because it takes two to tango, and the johns are just as much at fault. However, johns seek out sex workers for sex because it is in the job description, and the women who go with them so they can be paid. Because johns deliberately go to sex workers, they are the ones who need to be punished, not the other way around. According to Sheila Jeffreys, a feminist activist, "Little literature exists on the motivations of johns compared with that on prostituted women, because the men's motivation is considered to be self-evident; only the women are seen as acting unnaturally." (215). Even scholarly writers refuse to see johns a...
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Patty Kelly’s article, “Enough already, it’s time we decriminalize prostitution”, takes the reader into a fascinating behind the scene look into one of Mexico’s legalized brothels. Although it is apparent that her research and investigation into this social experiment are well defined, it is too narrow a focus to gather all the required information to support her argument. Kelly begins with a half hazard analysis of Elliot Spitzer infidelity, then continues down the path that is far too laser like to see the overall effect on these women; failing to see these prostitutes as real people with hearts and souls. Instead, she produces an impression that the prostitutes are just commodity, bought and sold on the open market, lacking feeling for their plight. In Kelly’s investigation, she neglects to create an entire picture of what decriminalizing prostitution will cost humanity due to the fact that her investigation ignores society’s accepted understanding of what problems are produced by, or result from prostitution. There was absolutely no research cited that relating to sexual addiction, the effects on the prostitutes’ emotional and physical wellbeing, or even the acknowledgment of the organized criminal element behind prostitution.
The two main views of the sex industry which are expressed in “Buying Sex” are that decriminalizing prostitution will make it better and safer for prostitutes (the abolitionist). There is also the other group who thinks that decriminalizing prostitution will make it worse for the women and some men involved in prostitution. “Buying Sex” featured a lawyer with two former prostitutes and a current prostitute who worked with them to try and get Canada to abolish its laws against prostitution. It also featured another group of women who were there advocating for all those who have been abused in the sex industry. They were former sex workers, and there was a young women whose mother was a prostitute that was murdered. They were very much involved
The value of a woman as a mother, wife, sister, daughter or aunt has been replaced for sexual please. Greed and perversion disguised as men chose to debase America’s women and children for their own selfish gain. Child sexual exploitation is the most hidden form of child abuse in the U.S. and North America today. It is the nation’s least recognized epidemic. The overwhelming majority of children forced to sell their bodies on the street are girls. Young boys face hardship and abuse as well, but they often fend for themselves to survive. The girls, on the other hand, inevitably fall victim to pimps and organized trafficking networks. (Sher, pg. V)
Allison Jennings (Deputy DA) stated that prostitutes are considered criminals and an abused victim that is in an industry that relies solely on exploiting those vulnerabilities. These very reasons add to the lack of prosecution as well as the johns who keep
Dunn, Jennifer L. "Chapter 30" Everyone Knows Who the Sluts Are:How Young Women Get Around the Stigma. 207-10. Print.
The publisher, The Economist, implies that keeping prostitution illegal is merely a hindrance to business, and that corralling it into licensed brothels or entirely outlawing it does nothing for the “workers”. Despite the fact that the paper does acknowledge that some prostitutes are victims, they feel as though it overall is a voluntary action, simply because they can be found walking the streets alone. “That fiction” of forced labor, they claim, is being uprooted by media in recent years. In Source F, Newsweek writer Leah Goodman points out the omission of the other paper’s information on why women or men choose prostitution in the first place-- if it’s even a choice for them to begin with. The paper also discusses that it would limit brothels and pimping, “making it easier for third parties”. There were no statistics provided to support this claim. Goodman also ensures that she challenges The Economist’s claims, asking who truly would benefit from this sort of legalization. The answer? The 87 percent male readers of The Economist, of course, with an average household net worth of 1.688 million, and an average age of 47. While those statistics on the readers don’t specifically translate to anything more than that they would be capable of affording this type of “luxury item”
Frances, S. (2012). Sex work and the law: A critical analysis of four policy approaches to adult prostitution . Thinking about justice: a book of readings (pp. 190-220). Halifax, N.S.: Fernwood Pub..
“There is no difference in work in which a women sells her hands, such as a typist, and a work in which a women sells her vagina, as in sex work.” Claims author Lacy Sloan. In today’s society, many people believe that prostitution is an immoral act. It is the world’s oldest profession and because it has been long condemned, sex workers are stigmatized from mainstream society (ProQuest Staff). However, the act of purchasing sex between consenting adults should not be prohibited by the government, but regulated for society's overall best interests. Prostitution is illegal and as a consequence prostitutes are often victims of violence and sexual assault; therefore, prostitution should be legalized and regulated to ensure the safety of sex workers.
Sterk enters the field with the objective of studying and attempting to understand the lives of prostitutes on the streets of Atlanta and New York City. She tries to investigate the reasons why these women are in the profession, their interactions with their ‘pimps’ and customers, their attitudes towards safe sex in light of the AIDS endemic, and above all, prostitution’s link to drug use. Her basic thesis revolves around these women’s thoughts and feelings regarding prostitution and the effect it has on their lives. Through her research, Sterk uncovers a demographic that ranges...
Elizabeth Anderson makes a claim that “The attempt to sell gift value on the market makes a mockery of those values.”(Anderson 188) Anderson uses this claim to object commoditized sex (prostitution). There are two premises that Anderson uses to support her claim. The first premise being the gift value of sex cannot be realized in commercial terms and the second premise being that the gift value of sex is more significant that the use value of sex itself.
According to the Sex Workers Project, “Sex work is a term used to refer to all aspects of the lawful and unlawful sex industry” (Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center, 2005). This includes the lived experiences of anyone engaging in sexual transactions. However, before engaging in discussion about this topic, it is important to understand the very distinct differences between sex work and human trafficking within the context of sex industry. This industry is extremely diverse and might include porn actors, street sex workers, dancers, escorts, indoor sex workers, or people who have been trafficked or enslaved. Human trafficking refers to anyone who is being traded, sold, coerced, or forced to engage in sex for money, drugs, or something else. Usually, the victim is not being compensated, but someone else is benefiting from these transactions. Conversely, sex workers are people who are choosing to engage in the sex industry for various reasons. Some of these might include economics, addiction, or even personal empowerment. For the purposes of our discussion, we will mainly be discussing street and indoor sex work.
When women’s desires are less worthy of concern or not worthy of concern at all, it becomes evident that the hookup culture promotes women being used as a tool or a means to an end for male satisfaction. According to the Kantian moral theory, the culture is immoral because the woman is no longer being respected. The ambiguity of the hookup culture couple with societal effects of inegalitarian porn, according to Eaton’s “A Sensible Anti-Porn Feminist” and power imbalances in the sexes creates a culture that fosters rape. Women are placed in predicaments where they have to give in to pushy, coercive behavior by men who want to go further than the women intends to. Even if a woman feels liberated by participating in the hookup culture, that doesn’t mean she wants to go all the way, with every partner, every time. The objectification of women and rape are two serious and harmful effects of the hookup culture.
Men and women are often times tricked into servitude by “johns” a term used by traffickers and pimps. The “Johns” use fraud, deception, coercion, and threats to the victim and or loved ones of the victim, to transport, harbor and or obtain people for sexual exploitation, or labor and slavery (Human Trafficking). The most common and most profitable form of trafficking is sexual trafficking (Human Trafficking in Illinois). Sex Trafficking can range from prostitution, stripping, sex slavery, and pornography.... ...
Since prostitution has been around there have been labels and stigmas behind the workers, their morals and the job itself. Leaving these men and women to be rejected rights, health care, insurance, etc. Weitzer observes, “[i]nstead of viewing themselves as ‘prostituted,’ they may embrace more neutral work identities, such as ‘working women’ or ‘sex workers’ […] These workers are invisible in the discourse of the anti-prostitution crusade precisely because their accounts clash with abolitionist goals.” Weitzer is hinting at the fact that these women and men see themselves as workers too, deserving of workers rights and protection, just as you and I would expect. But they are declined help and benefits because of the stigma following their line of work, based on societal values.
The exploitation of prostitution is considered to be one of a serious global issue in most of the countries around the world. Also, the number of prostitution is increasing tremendously each year and seems to be more serious than the past centuries. However, yet very few to none of the countries have completely solved this problem. Saudi Arabia and Netherlands are two examples of the countries that prostitution is still considered to be a problem that the government of both countries cannot ignore. There are different solutions that Saudi Arabia and Netherlands have come up with to solve the problem.