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Ronald Weitzer - The Conversation - December 11, 2013
Dianne Post
and Steven Wagner
are activists opposed to sex work, not social scientists, so it is not
surprising that they recapitulate a host of common myths about prostitution. I
and other social scientists have thoroughly demolished these fictions in our
writings, but I can only tackle some of them here.[1]
The central problem is that both Post and Wagner make metaphysical
claims about what prostitution “is”—essentialist notions that are based not on
empirical evidence but instead on each writer’s personal value judgments.
According to them, prostitution “is” oppression, violence, male domination,
exploitation, et cetera. The main reason they are so adamant about this is that
they are alarmed that some readers might consider prostitution to be work, that
it might be normalized like other economic transactions, that it might be
regulated by the state like other enterprises, and that willing buyers and
sellers might feel freer to engage in this kind of activity if it could be
destigmatized. They are dismissive of individuals who actually engage in sex
work, dismissing their views and experiences and treating them rather paternalistically—superimposing
on them what they think sex work is really about.
Post does cite
some “studies” to support a few of her claims, but almost all of these are
writings by other anti-prostitution activists (Melissa Farley, Janice Raymond,
Mary Sullivan). There is no way we can rely on the claims made by these
writers, as their main goal is to abolish sex work—thus compromising their
ability to do objective empirical research. When Post cites numbers, therefore,
we must dismiss them because they are based on fatally flawed sources. Notions
that the vast majority of sex workers were abused as children, began working as
adolescents, that most of them have pimps, that they want to leave this
work—all are myths when generalized to most or all prostitutes. The majority of
research on prostitution centers on the street sector
(and small, unrepresentative samples within the street sector), not on indoor
venues and certainly not on upscale providers. The research we do have on
middle- and upper-tier prostitution offers a strikingly different picture than
what we find on the streets.[2]
A glaring bias: Post and Wagner refer exclusively to
women, ignoring male and transgender sex workers, who comprise a sizeable
segment of the trade. Their opinions about “prostitution” thus neglect a major
sector of this world. These writers might also be surprised to learn that some
female and male sex workers sell services to women! Is that about “inequality”
as well, as Post claims is intrinsic to prostitution?
Post draws
parallels between prostitution and other social problems, like domestic
violence and marital rape. This is a false analogy. Violence occurs both in
prostitution and in the family, but no one is advocating abolishing families
because some of them experience violence. Violence occurs in
prostitution, but this does not mean that prostitution is,
in itself, a violent institution any more than domestic violence
renders families inherently violent.
Apparently Post
did not read my essay, where I provide some details on legal,
government-regulated prostitution.[3]
She rehearses a set of fallacies about a few of these legal systems. The city
council in
Despite the way
the Swedish system has been packaged, as a “success,” the evidence does not
support this, as McNeill and I indicated in our essays. One must be careful to
disentangle what advocates and the Swedish government say
about the Swedish system, which criminalizes clients but not providers, and the
empirical reality on the ground—which has been well documented.[4]
Just because the French legislature is on the verge of replicating the Swedish
approach—something that has generated a firestorm of opposition in France, by
the way—does not validate this policy, as it will only force sex workers
further underground and increase the potential for risks—as it has in Sweden.
Wagner’s essay deserves much less attention because he
provides no sources for his claims. It is simply an opinion piece, lacking in
evidence from research studies. Like Post, he embraces a package of myths. For
example, even though he acknowledges that “there are no reliable figures” regarding
age of entry, he nevertheless insists that “many if not most began as
children.” In other words, let’s draw conclusions despite the lack of
evidence! He insists, again without evidence, that most prostitutes
experience “pathologies,” and when he hears from someone who hasn’t (McNeill,
he thinks), he uses the common trick of calling them “atypical.” How does he
know what is typical in this sphere? His only evidence is three anecdotal
stories about individuals who were victimized and then formed rescue
organizations—hardly a representative sample.
In order to
generate support for his views, Wagner constructs an image of sex providers
that is designed for shock value: “The life of the prostituted person is an
unrelenting horror of serial rape, trauma, and violence.” This claim is
contradicted by a wealth of social science data on the experiences of
individuals who engage in sexual commerce. We know from this research that
there is a broad continuum of pathways into
prostitution, working conditions, relations with employers, experiences with
customers, and job satisfaction.[5]
On each of these dimensions, individuals’ experiences vary tremendously—from
very negative to very positive to everything in between (i.e., mixed
experiences). But it is understandable that Wagner, like Post, would accent
only the negative and try to universalize it—because their agenda is to
criminalize and ultimately abolish all forms of sexual commerce. This conflicts
with the position of the National Organization for Women, which passed a
resolution that “opposes continued prohibitive laws regarding prostitution,
believing them to be punitive” and “therefore favors removal of all laws
relating to the act of prostitution.”[6]
Notes
[1] Frances Shaver (2005) “Sex Work Research,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence,
20:296–319; Ine Vanwesenbeeck (2001) “Another Decade of Social Scientific Work
on Prostitution,” Annual
Review of Sex Research, 12:242–289; Christine Chin (2013) Cosmopolitan Sex
Workers, New York: Oxford University Press; Ko-Lin Chin and James
Finckenauer (2012) Selling
Sex Overseas, New York: NYU Press; Ronald Weitzer (2005) “Flawed
Theory and Method in Studies of Prostitution,” Violence Against Women,
11:934-949; Ronald Weitzer (2007) “Prostitution: Facts and Fictions,” Contexts,
6:28-33; Ronald Weitzer (2010) “The Mythology of Prostitution: Advocacy
Research and Public Policy,” Sexuality
Research and Social Policy, 7:15-29.
[2] See sources in Note 1 above, and the CNBC documentary, Dirty Money: The
Business of High-End Prostitution, which first aired on November
11, 2008.
[3] Ronald Weitzer (2012), Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit
Vice to Lawful Business,New York:New YorkUniversity Press.
[4] See Ann Jordan (2012) The Swedish Law to Criminalize
Clients: A Failed Experiment in Social Engineering, Center for
Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, American University, Washington, DC; Bob
Wallace (2010) The
Ban on Purchasing Sex in Sweden, Prostitution Licensing Authority;
Susanne Dodillet and Petra Ostergren (2011) The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed
Success and Documented Effects, The Hague; May-Len Skilbrei and
Charlotta Holmstrom (2013), Prostitution
in the Nordic Region, Burlington: Ashgate.
[5] See sources in Note 1.
[6] National Organization for Women (1973), Resolution Calling for the
Decriminalization of Prostitution, Resolution 141.
Lead Essay
Sex work is ubiquitous. Where a substantial demand
exists, some people will inevitably try to meet that demand for a price.
Retired call girl and madam Maggie McNeill reviews the various legal regimes
that have been set up to regulate and/or prohibit sex work. She concludes that
many approaches, particularly the most restrictive ones, increase the
likelihood of harm to all participants. They tend to infantalize women and
invest law enforcement with arbitrary and dangerous powers. She argues that the
best approach is a regime of simple legalization, without licensing or heavy
restrictions.
Response Essays
Prof. Ronald Weitzer argues that prostitution should be
treated as a legal commercial transaction. He finds that much of the
conventional wisdom on the sex trade is the result of generalizing from
experience under legal regimes where it is criminalized. He argues that in a
legally tolerant regime, many of the problems we observe today would vanish. He
argues for a set of “best practices” that would entail some government
regulation of sex work, including subjecting business owners to background
checks and licensing, zoning regulations, and restrictions on advertising.
These measures would make decriminalization politically palatable and protect
against a possible backlash. He also finds, contrary to McNeill’s claim, that
no country has fully deregulated sex work.
Dianne Post argues that prostitution is a form of
exploitation, and that the only proper response is to abolish it. Prostitution,
she argues, only exists because of material inequalities. Worse, it tends
strongly to produce further inequalities – material, social, and political in
nature. Prostitution traps women in economic dependency on men, and it
encourages men to view women merely as commodities. Following this strong normative
case against prostitution, Post looks at the empirical evidence, where she
concludes that experiments with legalization have all been failures. She
praises the “Nordic Model” approach to sex work, in which in which sex workers’
clients are prosecuted, rather than the women involved in prostitution.
Steven Wagner argues that the large majority of
prostitutes are not workers at all, because they are not acting voluntarily:
they are enslaved. The personal experiences of Ms. McNeill notwithstanding,
many others have suffered horribly in prostitution, and even left-leaning
governments like that of France under the socialists have justifiably outlawed
the sex trade. Wagner likewise prefers the Swedish approach, in which
prostitutes are not treated as criminals, but those who attempt to buy sex are.
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