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Overview
The discourse surrounding prostitution is increasingly one of sexual commerce, transaction and commercial exchange. The “sex economy” and the consumer demand for it is often discussed both as a legitimate economic business, in which women have control, and as employment comparable to other forms of low-paid work. So much so, that in some countries it is being seen as a service that should be regulated and given a labour-rights framework.
Drawing on extensive and detailed research, Monica O’Connor challenges the suggestion that the sale of women’s bodies as commodities can ever be acceptable, and that the male consumer has an acceptable right to buy sexual acts from another person. She disproves the claim that "sex work" is a lucrative occupation for impoverished women and girls that can be considered for regulation as part of the normal economy. She lays bare the harm that "normalising" the sex trade does on women’s lives, gender equality and on society as a whole, and exposes the realities that constrain and control women locked in prostitution, debunking the notions of choice and agency.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781788212076 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Agenda Publishing |
| Publication date: | 11/30/2018 |
| Series: | The Gendered Economy |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Monica O'Connor is Senior Researcher on the Sexual Exploitation Research Project in the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice at University College Dublin. She is also a Research Fellow at WiSE Centre for Economic Justice, Glasgow Caledonian University.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The valorization of individual choice and agency in women's entry into prostitution
The tension between the right to individual choice and agency and the structural and socio-economic forces which circumscribe and constrain a person's capacity to exercise those rights lies at the centre of the feminist debates on entry routes into prostitution. From the early 1980s, despite a broad consensus among feminists on the issues of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence, what emerges is "a major schism" in the women's movement over the "commercial representation and action of sex" (Alexander 1997: 81), a schism which continues to the present day. A "woman's right to choose" was a fundamental demand of the women's movement in relation to sexual freedom and reproductive control, but for radical feminists, extending this demand to the right to "choose" to sell one's own body for the sexual service of men is regarded as theoretically and ethically flawed. The right to abortion, reproductive rights, or the right to choose to love someone of the same sex were considered inappropriate comparisons to the right "to choose to be used as the raw material in a massive capitalist sex industry" (Jeffreys 1998: 1300). According to Kappeler (1990), conceptualizing individual freedom and choice as primary and incontestable, dislocates that freedom from sexual relations and sexual politics. She argues that the sexual liberal concept of choice is in fact the choice of those who are subjects, i.e. sexual consumers, who have the economic and social power to choose an object for their own sexual gratification. The choice afforded to buyers infers "the licence to regard the other as sexual object" and as simply "a vehicle for the individual's sexual pleasure" (178). Barry (1995) rejects personal choice politics as a function of the liberal ideology of modern capitalism which "emphasizes individualism to serve market competition and promote consumerism" (83). She warns that the "the hyper-individualism and elevation of personal choice as the only and therefore ultimate condition of freedom, if it prevails over the feminist movement, will be its final destruction" (179).
The sex of pornography and prostitution was regarded as the antithesis of mutuality and reciprocity of desire as within it "desire appears as lust for dominance and submission" (MacKinnon 1987: 149). The publication of Dworkin's Pornography in 1979 was highly significant in revealing and critiquing the content and meaning of the sex that pornographers promote. In a comprehensive review of pornographic material, print and film, Dworkin provides a graphic and explicit description of the brutality, penetration, humiliation, degradation and torture of women, revealing recurrent themes of women as prey, hunted, terrorized and raped which are presented as erotic fantasy and pleasure for men. She analyses the relentless message running parallel with the violence: that this is what women really want, what they are consenting to, what they find sexually satisfying and willing to perform; she asserts that what is intrinsic to pornography is that "the pleasure of the male requires the annihilation of women's sexual integrity" (47). Dworkin (1979) asks why capitalism is not viewed as "wicked or cruel when the commodity is the whore" and when "the alienated worker is a female piece of meat" (209). She rejects the liberal contention that this is an issue of individual freedom if that freedom is "the mass marketing of woman as whore" which is justified by the false claim that the woman in pornography and the prostitute are exercising their freedom and sexuality, "as his whore – and she likes it" (208). It demonstrated that there is nothing "radical avant-garde or revolutionary" about pornography or prostitution but rather that it is a reiteration of the sex of male supremacy which has always been forced on women; "being used as the instrument of someone else's sexual agency – the instrument of someone socially male" (Leidholdt 1990: 130). Violence, sexual assault and rape were found to be integral to "aggressive pornography" which relies upon "positive victim outcomes" where rape and other sexual assaults are depicted as pleasurable, sexually arousing and beneficial to the female victim" (Donnerstein & Linz 1997: 199). In patriarchal political systems, Barry (1979) contends women are identified primarily "as sexual beings who are responsible for the sexual services of men" and that prostitution forms the basis for "a gender-specific sexual slavery" (121).
Sexual liberals on the other hand, accused radical feminists of upholding a hegemonic discourse of sexual repression "ignoring women's sexual agency and choice" (Vance 1984: 7). The need for feminists to continue to "speak to sexuality as a site of oppression" (ibid.: 22) is recognized, but the proponents of sexual liberalism afford primacy to women's right to sexual choice, including the right to engage in pornography and commercial sexual transactions, insisting that women must be regarded as "sexual subjects, sexual actors and sexual agents" (24). According to Rubin (1984) a truly democratic code of morality should make judgement on sexual behaviour "by the way partners treat one another, the level of mutual consideration, the presence or absence of coercion, and the quantity and quality of the pleasures they provide" including in commercial sexual arrangements (283). By locating prostitution within a conceptual framework of sexual violence, radical feminists are regarded as failing to distinguish between coerced, forced sex and the consensual sex that adult women choose to engage in and economically benefit from, in the commercial sex market. The emphasis placed by radical feminists on the harm and the act of victimization which they viewed as intrinsic to pornography and prostitution, is criticized as framing women's identity as "victim" and denying women's capacity to exercise human agency "inherently incapable of consent" to commercial sex (Alexander 1997: 83). Within this discourse sex work is conceptualized as a sexual choice which challenges "traditional normative sexuality" (Queen 1997: 134– 5). It is acknowledged that this framing of sex work as reflecting a radical sexual choice may only pertain to a minority of women in a particular context which does not reflect the sexual exploitation and violence experienced by women on a global scale (Nagle 1997). Nevertheless, what emerges is an ideological position that promotes the right of women to be sex workers as opposed to the right to be free from the inherently violating and sexually exploitative institution of prostitution; a position which dominates current debates.
DIVISIVE DEBATES
The liberal emphasis on respecting women's right to choose to enter prostitution continues to be challenged as denying the personal, cultural and socio-economic circumstances in which human choices are made. Miriam (2005) asserts that the liberal focus on choice relies on "an unsituated freedom and autonomy" disconnected from the historical and social conditions in which individuals exist (2). Furthermore, she argues the "contractual liberal model of agency" serves to conceal "the power relations within which women are prostituted" (13). This "decontextualized individualism" (Jeffreys 2012: 69) within neoliberal sex work discourse focuses on the individual woman's choice and agency, disregarding the structures of power, domination and subordination on which the institution of prostitution rests. Furthermore, Jeffries argues, it "invisibilises the material forces of male domination and neoliberal economics that underpin the expansion of the global sex industry and create the gendered practices of prostitution" (83). Understanding the structural forces which surround individual choice and agency is not to suggest that they do not exist; even within the most coercive circumstances women strategize and seek to optimize their capacity to control their environment. But it is within "layers of disadvantage" created by socio-economic deprivation, discrimination and gendered injustices that "so called free choices" are made (Coy 2016: 7). As Raymond (2013) says, "a strategy for survival" is not the same as a choice and claiming that women can make "meaningful choices" is deeply problematic once they are situated within "a system of prostitution which represses women's freedom" (19); "in trumpeting the agency of women in prostitution the victim deniers reinforce the idea that women choose their own oppression" (ibid.: 35). The valorization of choice and agency serves to obfuscate the reality for millions of women that entry into the commercial sex trade is about lack of choice in relation to sustainable living. Interviews with trafficked women reveal that "the presence or absence of direct violence or coercion" is not a sufficient indicator of freedom to choose and that "there may be little need for brute tactics when desperation and hope collide" (O'Connor 2017: 11). A woman's choice to enter prostitution is suggested by Kelly et al. (2008) to be best situated on a continuum between freedom and force, where she exercises a "constrained choice" within the circumscribed circumstances of her socio-economic and historical context (43). As Sen (2008) argues, it is critical to be more discerning in how individual choice and agency are promoted, suggesting the concept of "informed critical agency" where a person has the means and the capacity to consider a range of choices, with full consideration of all the possibilities, opportunities, limitations, and the potential negative outcomes of that choice (477).
Sex work advocates continue to claim that those who view prostitution as inherently harmful are denying women sexual expression, limiting individual choice and agency, and failing to reflect the diverse experiences within the present-day commercial sex trade. Bernstein (2007) contests the view that being involved in commercial sex work "always and inevitably constitutes a further injury to those concerned", and that current discourse should reflect the "diverse experiential realities" the "diversification of sexual labour" and the very different subjective experiences within "contemporary patterns of sexual commerce" (3). Whilst it is accepted that economic need is the main reason women enter prostitution there is an emphasis on the "independent rational choices" and "cost benefit choices" women are making in choosing sex work as a more financially beneficial occupation than other forms of low paid work (Sanders et al. 2009: 39). In relation to migrant women, Agustin (2007) argues that the majority are exercising agency and resourcefulness in choosing sex work as a better economic option in destination countries than other low paid occupations such as domestic labour.
It is interesting to note that in current sex work discourse there is generally an acknowledgment (to a greater or lesser degree) that some women enter as children and minors, that personal vulnerability and socio-economic factors including extreme poverty and drug addiction are major factors in terms of entry into prostitution and that many women and girls are coerced and trafficked into the commercial sex trade. However, although these factors are acknowledged the focus of theoretical discussion shifts towards individual women where none of these factors apparently apply. Bernstein (2010), for example, says she does not dispute the existence of "forced sexual labour of girls and women from developing nations and that 'desperation and poverty' render them amenable to easy victimisation" (3). She also says she is well aware that "violence, brutality and exploitation characterize many corners of the sex trade" and that structural violence including poverty, racism and gender inequalities create the context driving so many people into the sex trade (3). Yet she chooses not to focus on "victimized women and their exploitation by bad men" but rather on a relatively privileged group of people to frame her understanding of the modern sex trade, and to demonstrate that for many women it is a chosen profession. The difficulty is that in disregarding the reality of the overwhelming majority of people in the global sex trade, it is the experience of a tiny minority that is drawn upon to conceptualize sex work as a chosen profession. Whilst it is important to recognize the diverse experiences of women, failure to fully examine and integrate the globalized, structural and socio-economic factors which drive girls and women into the current commercial sex trade renders this framing of choice to enter sex work untenable.
GENDER, MIGRATION AND TRAFFICKING FOR SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
Women constitute nearly half of the estimated 258 million migrants in the world with migratory flows moving from poorer, less economically advanced regions and countries into richer, post-industrialized areas of the world (UN 2017). The so-called "push" or "expulsion" factors (Monzini 2005: 59) are primarily poverty, war, conflict and socio-economic policies that have increased gender inequality and lowered social protection for women (UNESCE 2004). As regions of the world in the global south and countries in transition in Europe, such as post-communist countries, face high levels of indebtedness and deepening economic crises, the pressure is increasing on women to migrate in order to survive and to sustain families and communities. It is generally acknowledged that migrant women will send at least half and often more of their earnings home resulting in "survival circuits being built on the backs of women" (Sassen 2003: 255); at least half of the $233 billion remittances sent home through official channels is estimated to be from migrant women (International Organisation for Migration 2005).
For millions of women the resources and possibility to legally migrate, and the opportunity to enter regulated employment in advanced economies, is minimal. In his critique of globalization Scholte (2005) observes, that whilst "the reigning policy discourse" of neoliberalism has demanded a less regulated market regarding the transnational movement of money, goods, services and capital, this has not been matched by a parallel demand for the deregulation of the movement of people across borders (39). Even though there is a demand for low-wage migrant workers in many sectors of the richer economies, there is a parallel tightening of border controls and highly selective immigration policies (Anderson & Rogaly 2005). These limited opportunities for legal migration mean people will voluntarily become indebted and take huge risks to complete their "migratory project" (Andrijasevic 2010: 19). Inevitably, this leads to a much more precarious migration route, "a clandestine migrant-mobility" (Kapur 2005: 28) where millions of female migrants "face hazards that testify to a lack of adequate opportunities to migrate safely and legally" (UNFPA 2006: 1). Women take risks, place themselves in debt, pay huge sums to intermediaries and smugglers for false papers and transport routes to escape situations of deprivation. The dissonance between the increasing demands for migratory movement and increasing tightening of borders is described by Shelley (2010) as "criminogenic" (37), and she argues, that unless there is a political will "to channel the illicit movement of people into a legitimate flow", trafficking will continue to grow (304). The restrictive asylum and immigration systems within western Europe has, according to Melrose (2010), had the unforeseen consequence of constructing the "mercenary territory" in which the exploitation of those seeking to migrate and the trafficking of people flourishes (65). It is within these "fertile fields of exploitation" that vulnerable girls and women are easily targeted by illegal operators, who rapidly identified the potential for huge profit in "facilitating" irregular migration, ensuring a supply of people to meet the demand for cheap, migrant labour (Kelly 2005a: 5). The current migration crisis created by war and conflict has exacerbated the risks for vulnerable people of being trafficked, with the displacement of large masses of people and the increasing number of people who are being forced and desperately seeking to migrate. Women and girls have been identified as highly at risk of sexual exploitation in these precarious situations (Akee et al. 2010). It is critical, as Kelly (2016) argues to understand these "interconnecting social, political and economic conditions within which exploitative operators profit from the misfortunes of others because this is the "conducive context" in which precarious migration and trafficking occurs (Kelly 2007, 2016; Turner 2013).
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Sex Economy"
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Copyright © 2019 Monica O'Connor.
Excerpted by permission of Agenda Publishing.
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Table of Contents
Foreword by Series EditorsIntroduction1. The valorization of individual choice and agency in women's entry into prostitution2. The commodification of the body: a disembodied "service"3. Consumer demand4. Regulating sex markets5. The moral limits of markets