Feminist Perspective of the Sex Industry

In answer to the question of whether prostitution is just another line of work, the most comprehensive and simplest answer is to say, no, it is not. The reason for this is that there are too many complexities associated with prostitution -- not just ethical and moral issues -- but also social, legal, economic, political, safety, and theoretical issues that color the sex industry. True, one could argue that any field of labor or industry could be discussed using the same terms, but the issue with prostitution is that it is a term that can be used without being properly defined. As Hallie Rose Liberto points out, when feminists discuss prostitution, they are discussing much more than the sex trade: they are discussing women's rights, women's alienation, women's health, and women's equality.[footnoteRef:1] Because the issue is those so charged with underlying meanings, at this point in time, it would be incorrect to hold that prostitution is just another line of work. This paper will show why the legalistic interpretations of prostitution only mask over the actual nature of the trade. Prostitution may be viewed positively by some women and some feminists, who prefer to think of it as just another line of work -- but the grim reality of the trade is that even with regulation it remains taboo. [1: 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.]

To suppose that prostitution is just another line of work is to compare the sex industry to any other type of labor. While no labor industry is really free of exploitation (and certainly not the sex industry) or free of danger (all work has its risks), prostitution is a type of work that carries with it both attendant taboos (illicit sex, immorality) which remain a part of many cultures both East and West. Even feminists disagree about how prostitution should be viewed -- with some arguing that it injures women and others focusing more on the moral aspect of the work and rejecting the taboos that are commonly associated with it, arguing that prostitutes should be treated as any other type of laborer. Indeed, in countries like Germany, prostitution is legal and sex workers are tested by the state just as any other industry is monitored for safety sake. Recently, a member of Germany's Green Party even asserted that the state should pay for sex for individuals who feel they are not getting enough or are deprived, since sex is a natural act and one that is healthy for people. Clearly, prostitution comes with many risks, and not every woman who engages in prostitution is there of her own volition. Even if one dismisses the moral questions regarding prostitution, prostitution cannot be considered as just another line of work simply because of the controversies that surround it.

To say that prostitution is just another line of work would be like saying gun running is just another line of work: there are oftentimes severely injured parties involved in the trade that go unseen and unnoticed. Normalizing prostitution, as Scott Anderson describes, would require a change in the current cultures of many Western states, Eastern and Middle Eastern states.[footnoteRef:2] Germany is one of the few countries in the West (the others are the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Hungary and Latvia) to embrace the idea of normalization of prostitution by not just decriminalizing but by legalizing and it and regulating it. Decriminalization is the concept of lessening the punitive responses to an offense (marijuana usage, for instance, is currently being decriminalized in some states in the U.S.), while legalization means that the offense is no longer to be considered as such and persons may engage in it lawfully. For a culture to embrace legalization is one step towards normalization -- however, in many nations throughout the world, there exist competing cultures. Even in the West, it is clear that a traditional culture represented by conservative values and morals (based on religious foundations) exists alongside a modern culture represented by liberal values and new moral codes (based on modern philosophical foundations, such as ideas concerning the self and the will to power). 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 acting in a way that was contrary to the values, mores and traditions propagated during patriarchal eras wherein women were expected to adopt a more submissive role.[footnoteRef:7] Steinhem, Fridan and their feminist followers presented the sexual liberation side of the issue. [4: Joshua Mostow, Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003), 198] [5: Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen, vol. 16., no. 3 (1975), 6.] [6: Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (NY: Norton, 2001), 59.] [7: Gloria Steinhem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (NY: Henry Holt, 1984), 16.]

The other side -- the sexual exploitation side -- has been explored most fully by biographers of women in the sex industry as well as by activists who advocate women's health and women's issues by drawing attention to the unfair and dangerous conditions found for women who work in prostitution. Often in cases of prostitution or in the wider arena of the sex industry, women are not free to come and go as they might prefer: something is held over their heads -- either they are deprived economically or socially (or even politically in some parts of the world) -- or they feel constrained to continue to work in the industry for some other reason (abuse, drug addiction, no recourse to help, no contacts outside the industry, etc.).[footnoteRef:8] This is the sexual exploitation side. [8: D. Hume, N. Sidun, "Human trafficking of women and girls: Characteristics, commonalities, and complexities. Women and Therapy, vol. 40, no. 1-2 (2017), 7.]

Many female pornographic film stars in the 1970s explained their work in sex films using the justification above -- that a woman who takes ownership of her own sexuality and uses it to advance her own aims is a woman who is empowered.[footnoteRef:9] This reason was given along with the idea that sex films promote love between persons, as stated by Sylvia Kristel, star of the softcore European Emmanuelle series. Kristel's view was that "love making should be free from moral values and social restraints" -- a rationale that could be said to stem from the feminist notion of sex and sexuality rather than from traditional Western culture and values.[footnoteRef:10] E. Michael Jones cites the example of Linda Lovelace (star of Deep Throat), who found fortune and fame for a time through pornography. By the end of her life, however, her fortunes had turned sour and the argument made by Jones is that in her attempt to "own" her sexuality and use it to advance her own aims, she undermined her own social position and possibility for a stable lifestyle by foisting her life upon a career still very much regarded as taboo, low or immoral by much of the world.[footnoteRef:11] The psychological effect alone of this balancing act on Linda's part -- the attempt to gain fortune and yet be respectable by pursuing a path down which so many unfortunate and disrespected women traversed through the ages -- eventually brought her to ruin. The point that Jones makes is that "owning one's sexuality" from a feminist perspective is no guarantee that one's work or career in the sex industry will be beneficial to one's health or life in the long run.[footnoteRef:12] [9: E. Michael Jones, Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control (St. Augstine Press, 2000), 158.] [10: Joshua Mostow, Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003), 198.] [11: E. Michael Jones Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control (St. Augstine Press, 2000), 159.] [12: E. Michael Jones, Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control (St. Augstine Press, 2000), 160.]

Thus, prostitution is a difficult subject to stake a blanket claim on: some women may do it because they feel empowered, whereas other women may do it because they are enslaved -- the issue is a complicated one. The glamorous representation of "owning one's sexuality" that is popularly provided by pop stars around the globe -- from Beyonce and Madonna in the West to the many several K-Pop groups in the East -- gives a one-sided dimension of women using sexuality as a means of power: their music videos depict sexy, sensual women dominating men and controlling their own narrative. What these videos do not show is that not all women engaged in using their sexuality as a commodity do so out of a sense of empowerment. Many women in the sex industry are trafficked -- either against their will or because their living conditions are so impoverished that they have no choice but to submit to the will of their traffickers. Some of them are even trafficked from an early age (beginning in childhood) and grow up working in the sex industry for pimps or madams. Oftentimes, their career is intertwined with drug use, which keeps them from actually taking real ownership of their bodies and making their own decision as to whether or not they wish to continue working in the sex industry.

The sex industry itself, it could be argued, is a kind of gulag archipelago -- a slave labor camp of isolated islands where sex workers engage in their business behind closed doors, unknown to the rest of the world, the women often living in fear of being caught, prosecuted, beaten, or exposed to public censure. Can such a world truly ever be normalized? The glitz and glamour of owning one's sexuality as promoted by sexy, confident, star feminists and post-feminists may in fact give the wrong impression about the actual nature of sex work and the sex industry. The same allure that professional basketball players may have over young African-Americans living in urban squalor hoping their skills on the court will enable them to rise out of their environment may be found in the relationship between Hollywood starlets whose sex appeal serves as a model for young women who imagine that by mimicking their sexy role models on screen they can use sexuality to either gain equality or dominate their way to a position of control. Sex can be a double-edged sword that slices both ways: it can oppress those who wield and use it for a purpose other than its own natural function, just as much as it can be used to control those who seek its pleasures and are willing to submit to the woman offering its charms. The natural function of sex is procreation. When this function is withdrawn from the act, the act itself becomes exploitable for pleasure as well as for pain. When viewed in the context of procreation, sex takes on a finer, far more social aspect that raises questions of what it means to bring life into the world, what it means to engage in that act, what responsibilities should attend that act, and how society as a whole should view that act. It could be, from this perspective, that sex is more sacred that modern society cares to view it.

In conclusion, from one side of the feminist perspective, it could be argued that prostitution could be made safer by legalization. However, this would only be true in one sense: the fact of the matter is that prostitution is a type of work that allows individuals to exploit the goods (in this case, one's sexuality) for one's own benefit. Sex traffickers understand this and prey on women and children who are vulnerable. Legalizing prostitution would not end sex trafficking. The questions that should be asked instead are: Why have traditional societies placed a taboo on prostitution? How should a feminist approach the issue of prostitution? Even if it were legalized, would it still be good for women, or is there something within the selling of sex that undermines the personal and social fabric? These questions may not have any clearer answers, but at least they will facilitate a dialogue. It is only through discussing these issues that we can arrive at a better understanding both of them and of ourselves. Indeed, the feminist perspective may not have all the answers. It may turn out that other theoretical perspectives bring to the subject more insight and more sensitivity. The only way to find out is to discuss and explore.

Bibliography

Anderson, "Prostitution and Sexual Autonomy: Making Sense of the Prohibition of Prostitution." Ethics, vol. 112, no. 4 (July, 2002): 748-780.

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. NY: Norton, 2001.

Hume, D., Sidun, N. "Human trafficking of women and girls: Characteristics, commonalities, and complexities." Women and Therapy, vol. 40, no. 1-2 (2017): 7-11.

Jones, E. Michael. Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control. St.

Augstine Press, 2000.

Liberto, Hallie Rose. "Normalizing Prostitution versus Normalizing the Alienability of Sexual Rights: A Response to Scott A. Anderson." Ethics, vol. 120, no. 1 (October, 2009): 138-145.

Mostow, Joshua. Gender and Power in the Japanese Visual Field (Honolulu: University

of Hawaii Press, 2003.

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen, vol. 16., no. 3 (1975),

6-18.

Steinhem, Gloria. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. NY: Henry Holt, 1984.