Prostitution: legal, social, and economic perspectives

Prostitution

From the beginning of time man has searched for means of exploiting roughly all that he could find through more than one way. Since some people, didn't own much and thus they didn't have much to exploit, they turned to exploiting their own body, in the case of women. The matter is divisive, as most people tend to criticize the behavior because of its unorthodox aspect and because it is believed to be against the human nature. The action which describes two consenting adults who engage in sexual activities with one paying the other in exchange for the sex is called "prostitution." The word comes from the Latin word "prostituere" and it means to publicly expose and to offer oneself for sale. As it has been around for ages, the concept of prostitution has been controversial, with people either accepting or condemning it, depending on the region and the individuals.

To some it seems an unbearable life while to others it may seem to be a normal, low-skilled life. Women generally choose to prostitute because of being forced into it by their present poor situation. Most tend to enter the circle believing that it would make their lives better and that they would only practice the profession for a limited amount of time, in anticipation for something better. Although prostitution is allegedly not harmful to anyone, it does make victims by destroying the lives of the people committing it. Contrary to the common belief that prostitutes choose their own life and they are comfortable with living it, in most cases women are persuaded to prostitute by people who guarantee the act is not dangerous in any way. However, in most cases women are forced to live their lives against their will by pimps constantly keep them under terror in order to keep them loyal.

Prostitution started to be perceived by the general public as being immoral because of the kind of people it attracted and because it involved antisocial behavior like drinking alcohol and taking drugs. An example of the general public being hostile to prostitution and prostitutes is given by Robert E. Riegel as he presents the case of an 1836 prostitute killed by a young man that was later found not guilty on the charges. "This case not only involved the violence to which opponents of prostitution objected, but also expressed the tolerance with which the general public viewed a young man sowing his wild oats, and the lack of sympathy for a prostitute." (Riegel, 1968)

Presently, prostitution is fought world wide through various means and methods because it is perceived as ruining the lives of hundred of thousands. Prostitution is contested primarily for the reason that the majority of individuals who turn to selling their bodies do so against their own will and at someone else's pressure. The Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others has been established in 1949 as an early method of combating prostitution. The Convention hasn't been dealt with since and is now about to be replaced with a more efficient one as a result of several disagreements concerning the existence and effects of prostitution (Sheila Jeffreys, 1997).

In the recent years feminist groups have taken a step forward in fighting against prostitution by passing a resolution that adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, according to Sheila Jeffreys. (Jeffreys, 1997) Yet, Sheila states that the Declaration simply refers to fighting against those who practice women trafficking and forced prostitution. This, in fact, brings into attention the "Swedish model," as described by Mark Egerman: "This model recognizes prostitution as a form of trafficking in women, criminalizing those who traffic in sex workers, namely pimps and Johns, while decriminalizing sex worker, and providing significant resources to those sex workers in need." (Egerman, 2008).

According to Egerman, sex working is not similar to other types of working because of its implications. (Egerman,2008) Furthermore, he portrays the most advantaged of the sex workers, that works from their own will, as having had suffered traumas in their lives which made them turn to having sex for money instead of choosing other low skilled jobs where they could exercise their other attributes (Egerman, 2008). As a conclusion to his work, Egerman makes his stand on prostitution clear: "I do not see enough positive reasons to support sex work."(Egerman, 2008)

Feminists generally find prostitution corrupt because it implies a woman's humiliation as she subjects her body to a patron and through her act she assures the continuance of this particular method of earning money on a regular basis.

On the other side of the barricade, prostitution supporters claim that legal prostitution has no real victims as long as the two parties involved are both consenting to the act. Lars O. Ericsson is in favor of decriminalizing prostitution on accounts that is not harmful to the society in any way. Saying that people tend to unwisely compare commercial sexual relations to normal ones made out of love and compassion, Ericsson tries to prevent people from prejudging. According to him, another prejudice society is likely to have is that people who attend prostitutes are usually either mentally ill or disordered and turn to prostitution because they do not have an alternative. Actually, Ericsson states, most people that go to prostitutes are "married man, most of whom are "respectable" tax-paying citizens" (Ericsson, 1980).

Feminists deny prostitution as an actual profession, but in fact prostitution is a profession and it should be treated just as any other, by making it safer for the employee. Prostitution, as seen from the feminist point-of-view, is extremely cruel and morally wrong, as it is a representation of the male dominance over the female.

The public has to understand the concept of prostitution as it really is, instead of having prejudices about it. The general idea will leave prostitution as degrading no matter what the circumstances or if the prostitute enjoys having sex or does it for money. As prostitution cannot be fought simply before a thorough analysis of the situation, a difference has to be made at first by identifying the prostitutes that sell their bodies out of their own will from those who are forced to do so. Prostitution is responsible of human trafficking on a high level and it must be either stopped or steadily repressed.

A great deal of movies and articles has been made regarding the concept of prostitution. Mainly, the majority of them was aimed at making it easier for people to understand the dangers that prostitution involves, on one hand, or to present it as being beneficial for those who practice it and to show its advantages, on the other. The segment of movies that touch the subject are usually meant to leave the viewer with at least a hint concerning the issue.

Based on a cover story from the 2004 New York Times Magazine, written by Peter Landesman, the movie Trade tries to deal with human trafficking and how women are recruited and then compelled to prostitution. The movie takes the watcher on a trip into the life of a thirteen-year-old girl that is kidnapped on her birthday by Russian-mafia thugs involved in human trafficking.

South America is usually the gate-way towards the U.S. And the area is common knowledge for the large number of abductions that take place there every year. Kidnappers sometimes kidnap people for ransom, but most cases involve the kidnapping of children and women to later illegally take them across the border and further to either sell them or to force them into joining the prostitution world. The criminals haven't got scruples and they usually don't refrain from using any mean of forcing their victims to keep quiet.

Thirteen-year-old Adriana is played by Paulina Gaitan and is presented as she sneaks outside to ride the bike without her mother's approval. Abductors usually choose to go for victims that are unaccompanied and vulnerable, thus they take advantage of Adriana's adventure in the streets to seize her. This isn't the case of Veronica, played by Alicja Bachelda, a Polish girl that is lured into Mexico with the promise of a decent job in the U.S. only to get kidnapped by the same thugs. The two girls become friends as they share the same faith by being drugged, beaten and raped by their kidnapers. Realizing that they were going to be ruthlessly sold, the two attempt to escape and to alert the authorities, but they are recaptured by the villains. Veronica commits suicide as she finds out, after she phones home, that her son back in Poland has also been kidnapped by her abductors. Prostitutes that are forced into doing it, usually turn to ending their lives after learning that their pimps would blackmail them to be sure they will not run away. Women who have been kidnapped are usually sold to pimps or other kinds of criminals. Trade's action continues with the selling of Adriana and other victims on an internet auction to the highest bidders.

Fortunately, the story has a happy turning as we are presented in parallel with the actions of Adriana's brother who goes on a quest of saving his sister risking his own life. Adriana's brother, Jorge, played by Cesar Ramos, teams up with an American that is on the search of his own daughter, and they both attempt to rescue Adriana. The two manage to find out the internet site that Adriana is being auctioned to and they also manage to win the auction. Adriana is later saved as the police capture the criminals with the help of Jorge and his ally.

Trade presents the general picture of human trafficking, but at the same time it presents a story with a somewhat happy ending which usually does not exist in the cases of the other tens of thousands of women that are being kidnapped and then sold. The case of Adriana is not singular, and there are many other cases of kidnapped children around the globe that don't manage to escape the tragic destiny of becoming the typical street corner prostitutes.

The movie also points out that usually, women that choose to prostitute do so against their will and they undergo a series of incidents that compel them to turning to a life in misery. Psychologically speaking, life as a prostitute is very demanding for the women having to smile and to accept to satisfy all their clients without any feeling of love or sexual attraction involved.

As described by a seventeen-year-old Cambodian girl, rescued from a brothel, it all begins when the victims are sold to a whore -house. At first, they are not told about what services they have to perform as they meet the other victims, which are already prostituting. Dalyn, the abused girl, tells about the circumstances in which she was sold and presented with the "working area": "There were lots of other boys and girls at the brothel. I overheard two pimps bargaining and heard one of them say my price was $150 (£78)."(BBC, 2007).

The girl became nervous as she realized that she had to submit to her master's orders and she had been threatened of being killed if she didn't comply. Ultimately, after being threatened and starved, Dalyn knew that she had to accept living as a prostitute, since her only alternative was death. In her case things turned out right. She was saved by the police and the brothel owner arrested. A free woman, Dalyn is now ready to work for the support of prostitution victims. Her trauma is not repairable as the memories from the time she was forced into being a brothel prostitute will haunt her forever, but she was lucky enough to escape a terrible life of selling her body to anyone who could pay and help those who were not so lucky as she was, to break free. The number of teenagers being forced into having sex for money by their pimps is increasing and more and more lives are ruined every day.

The kind of prostitutes that choose to practice prostitution in the streets out of their own free will are among the most privileged of the circle, as they can do as they please, without having to take orders. But most of the people that turn to prostitution have a pecuniary reason. Whether they do it because they lack money, or they want to earn easy money, it cannot be said that there are many prostitutes that are proud of what they do. Drug addicts are more inclined to take the prostitution road, due to the fact that drugs are expensive and the addicts are usually needy.