Prostitution and Pornography

Question 1

What are the four main reasons for involvement in prostitution?

Answer 1

economic necessity, lack of free will (human trafficking), being a victim of sexual abuse as a child, desperate to feed a drug habit

Question 2

What do those involved in prostitution usually have in common?

Answer 2

The large majority are largely vulnerable, mostly women and children

Question 3

What is the average age people enter prostitution? (New York based institute, 2011-12)

Answer 3

13.5

Question 4

What percentage of those involved in prostitution were sexually abused as children?

Answer 4

85%

Question 5

What percentage of prostitutes had a history of incest?

Answer 5

70%

Question 6

What percentage prostitutes said that porn was often used to illustrate client demands?

Answer 6

80%

Question 7

What percentage of prostitutes were victims of rape?

Answer 7

75%

Question 8

What percentage of prostituted women had pimps?

Answer 8

90%

Question 9

What percentage of prostituted women were raped by their pimps?

Answer 9

85%

Question 10

On average, how many times a year were prostitutes raped by their pimps?

Answer 10

16 times

Question 11

What percentage of prostitutes are currently or formally homeless?

Answer 11

72%

Question 12

What percentage of prostitutes wanted to escape prostitution immediately?

Answer 12

92%

Question 13

What percentage of women in prostitution have attempted suicide?

Answer 13

75%

Question 14

What percentage of all completed suicides are those of prostituted women?

Answer 14

15%

Question 15

What hazards does Roger Matthews identify as being present within prostitution?

Answer 15

Prostitutes attract men who are turned on by their vulnerability to abuse, they are less likely to practice safe sex, they are often unable to say no to dangerous activities, they often work to fund drug habits (boyfriends, pimps, their own)

Question 16

Is internet porn addictive?

Answer 16

Yes - often leads to search for more taboo topics

Question 17

What links are their between increase exposure to pornography and sexual pleasure?

Answer 17

Higher exposure to porn often leads to a loss of sexual pleasure

Question 18

What feminist issues arise when attempting to critique pornography/prostitution?

Answer 18

• condemnation risks stigmatising women, exposes them to police repression, blames victims for their own vulnerability
• drives a class wedge between poor sex workers and relatively well off feminist activist
• leaves feminists in dubious political company (with right-wing anti-sex campaigners and religious fundamentalists)
• banning prostitution/porn often drives it underground which makes the problem worse

Question 19

What does evidence suggest a blanket ban on prostitution/pornography will do?

Answer 19

Drive it underground - thus making it more dangerous for those being exploited

Question 20

What are arguments FOR the prohibition of prostitution?

Answer 20

• participating in prostitution is not a “real choice” for those involved, there is always some form of coercion
• not a job/career choice, but a form of slavery/exploitation
• prohibition sends out a message that society refuses to allow women to be exploited in this way
• prostitution represents degradation of women’s bodies under capitalism
• racism is inherent - often disproportionately involves women/children from ethnic/racial minorities
• is an unacceptable face of patriarchy

Question 21

What are the arguments AGAINST the prohibition of prostitution?

Answer 21

• may leave the women involved bearing the brunt of state repression, instead of those buying sex
• can leave prostitutes without any legal protection from violence
• can leave prostitutes without access to health care
• increases stigma
• makes it difficult for those trapped in prostitution to leave

Question 22

What are the arguments FOR the legalisation of prostitution?

Answer 22

• creates “safe” spaces for working prostitutes in state-run brothels/tolerance zones

Question 23

What are the arguments AGAINST the legalisation of prostitution?

Answer 23

• may increase the power of patriarchal state agencies
• those working in state-run brothels may lose the right to refuse certain clients
• morally and politically, does this make the patriarchal state a corporate pimp?

Question 24

What are the arguments FOR the decriminalisation of prostitution?

Answer 24

• de-stigmatises prostitutes, stigmatises clients and encourages women to leave prostitution (Matthews)
• places the legal onus on those buying sex, protecting prostitutes from the brunt of state repression

Question 25

What are the arguments AGAINST the decriminalisation of prostitution?

Answer 25

By making it legal to sell sex, but illegal to buy sex, decriminalisation may force prostitution underground, thus making it more dangerous for the women involved.

It may also harm those in prostitution for financial reasons by making it harder for clients to purchase their services without getting into legal trouble

Question 26

What three factors pushed prostitution into the social and political agenda in the 1980s?

Answer 26

• the spread of HIV/AIDS
• the proliferation of human trafficking
• the war on drugs
  (Matthews, 2008)

Question 27

How is prostitution often described?

Answer 27

the “oldest profession”

Shuster, 1992