Why prostitution is not empowering women (how johns view a prostitute and the nature)

I came across this wonderful article today and wanted to share it with you all. I also wanted to add something that was excluded from this article. In many countries in where prostitution was legal, it was reported that the cases of sex trafficking increased. For example, Germany legalized prostitution. After this occurred sex trafficking cases increased by 70%. Now how is this possible. Quite simple. This all goes back to the issue of supply and demand. Knowing that there is less risk in soliciting a “prostitute”, the Johns will definitely be more apt to go to areas where their actions are not illegal. With the demand of sex being higher and not that many willing participants in the area, the pimps will have to resort to anything they can to meet the demand. This is when the iconic victim is lured into the sex industry. Legalizing prostitution does not end sex trafficking. This will only fuel this practice.

In the United States, prostitution is legal in Las Vegas. If people only know how many sex trafficking cases have been discovered in this area, they would be outraged and shocked. The saddest part about the victims that are found in Las Vegas is that the majority of them are minors.  So the next time someone says that prostitution should be legalized, you can advise them how it should not and why.

Why prostitution is not empowering women (how johns view a prostitute and the nature)
September 15th, 2010 12:03 pm ET.Not long ago, The Economist opened a forum discussing whether prostitution should be legalized in the United States. With overwhelming majority votes, The forum concluded that the prostitution should be legalized. The proponent of legalization argued that criminalization of prostitution in the United States fosters police brutality against prostitutes. She argued that the British model to allow prostitutes to report police brutality and sex crimes committed by johns against them improve human rights of prostituted women and sex trafficking victims to improve their human rights. The opponent, among many other things, began her argument by tackling underlying assumption behind legalization of prostitution– that no legislation can completely abolish prostitution in any society. Legalization of prostitution should be proceeded only if prostitution is fundamentally empowering women. Therefore, one must ask whether prostitution, by nature, is fundamentally empowering the women who are prostituted or elevate, not diminishing, women’s rights in the society.

John’s rule say otherwise ( sex between two consenting people is not really consenting)

An organization called Voices for Justice informs a person of John’s rule to help his or her understanding of prostitution. The excerpt of an article by Joseph Parker, a clinical director at Lola Green Baldwin Foundation, reveals the truth of johns’ view on a prostituted woman. Further, even in the absence of police brutality and pimp’s control in the context, the article shows that prostitution itself is dehumanizing women. According to the article, a john believes that he takes an ownership over a prostituted woman upon his purchase for sex with her. Therefore, in his mind, his ownership gives him the right to do whatever he wants to do with her regardless of the agreement or limitation that were spoken between the two people. It also gives him the freedom from the responsibilities for the consequences of his behavior. The article also says that a john want to believe that a prostituted woman is enjoying the sex with him and never wants her to show any sign of disgust for john. What’s more, prostituted woman, in john’s mind, is a prop to fulfill his sexual fantasies, regardless it may mean breaking her teeth or bruising her.

A woman’s right to sell her body

Some people argue that a prostituted woman has the right to sell her body in anyway she can. Also, she can exercise her own discretion to pick and choose what johns she can have sex with or not. Perhaps, this is why legalization of prostitution sounds empowering to them. legalization, in their minds, may protect them from police and johns’ brutality against them. However, if prostitution is so empowering and beneficial to a woman, ( including financial reason) that a woman should choose to do it, then why are there so many prostituted women who smoke, drink, and abuse drugs as coping mechanisms even if they work so little? Further, if it is such a good profession, then why do many women stop selling their bodies in their 30s and look for another opportunity? If it is because of the harmful side effect fundamentally attached to prostitution, then the rest of women in the society at least should be informed of what prostitution really is, rather than being told a story like “Pretty Woman.”

What is the solution?

Community should be vigilant to assist and rehabilitate prostituted women. Criminalization of prostitution has only led the prostituted women to isolating themselves from the society. As much as police brutality against these women must be taken seriously, arrests should be followed by the rehabilitation of these women to integrate themselves into the society as a whole person. That prostitution has always existed in history not because it should be recognized as a legitimate profession but because people in the past, just as now, never even bothered to consider the needs of these women, which pushed them to sell their bodies to the lustful johns whose mindset In the past, have only affirmed and cherished by the patriarch society. Therefore, the change should be taken place not in a way that the society looks at the prostitution itself as a legitimate work but the way that the society start paying more attention to the needs of these women as members of itself.