Legalization, from Anderson's point of view, would help to move a country's culture more towards acceptance of prostitution and normalization of the line of work so that the associated taboo was no longer an issue. [2: Scott A. Anderson, "Prostitution and Sexual Autonomy: Making Sense of the Prohibition of Prostitution." Ethics, vol. 112, no. 4 (July, 2002), 749.]
This conception of prostitution, however, is somewhat simplistic. To believe that the taboo is the only negative variable attendant with prostitution is to miss an entire range of issues that attend the industry and can potentially harm women in more ways than that of social stigmatization. Hallie Rose Liberto argues that Anderson's sense of prostitution is incomplete and that there are actually two types of prostitution: "sexual-rights-alienating prostitution and sexual-rights-preserving prostitution."[footnoteRef:3] [3: Hallie Rose Liberto, "Normalizing Prostitution versus Normalizing the Alienability of Sexual Rights: A Response to Scott A. Anderson." Ethics, vol. 120, no. 1 (October, 2009), 139.]
From a feminist perspective, a woman taking ownership of her body and using her sexuality for financial or personal gain aligns with feminist thought. Yet, while sex work is legal in parts of the world (even in some counties in the U.S.), the taboo of "being a prostitute" still exists -- but this could be because the rest of society does not identify with feminist thought and thus views sex work from a moralist perspective that is more fundamentally rooted in the theological/philosophical worldviews of the past (Christian, Muslim, Confucian, etc.). In other words, prostitution could be seen as just another line of work by feminists who promote the idea of taking ownership of one's sexuality -- but at the same time it could be viewed as degrading to women for various reasons that will be explored in the following pages. Indeed, the feminist perspective does not offer a clear answer as to how prostitution should be viewed, as prostitution itself is a complicated issue with some women taking to it out of a sense of empowerment and others rather finding themselves subjected to it out of necessity or even slavery.
The issue regarding prostitution that must be considered is the matter of sexual liberation versus sexual exploitation.[footnoteRef:4] Is the woman in that role because she chooses to be there and is benefiting from it? Or is the woman in that role because she is the object of the "male gaze" and thus reduced to a level of subservience to the male desire for sexual pleasure? As Laura Mulvey points out, it is really a question of will and control -- which is essentially what serves as the center of feminist perspective.[footnoteRef:5] Feminism is about the empowerment of women. It grew out of the work of Betty Friedan in the 1960s: she rejected the modern conception of woman as a Mary Tyler More type of "housewife" -- a playful, dutiful, prim and proper doll keeping the house clean while waiting for the man to come home from work and then tending to his needs with dinner and possibly sex.[footnoteRef:6] Her view of woman in this sense was that of a woman in a harem -- a slave girl. Feminism rose in opposition to such a conception of woman. The founder of Ms. Magazine Gloria Steinhem promoted the idea that women should take ownership of their own bodies, that they should celebrate their sexuality and acknowledge its power, influence and effects. Steinhem rejoiced in the idea of women being able to talk openly about such controversial matters as having abortions because doing so showed that they were in control of their own bodies and that they should not feel any shame in taking ownership -- or in…
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