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The Sex Industry |
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| The
Question Will society be better off, over the long term, if prostitution is decriminalized or legalized?
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| Introduction
The
exploitive nature of the sex industry attacks many vulnerable
populations. I recognize that this industry is now and will be in
the future one of physical, emotional, and spiritual degredation.
Prostitution, or other sex work, is not a job that I would recommend for
anyone. If
prostitution was decriminalized fewer women would be jailed. Without
the distorting aspect of opposing what is illegal, helping people get out
of prostitution or reducing the harm to people who choose to remain in
that work might be easier.
If
it's legal it's easier to define, measure, observe, and respond to
problems related to it.
The
primary concern of my research and this discussion is the effect upon
adult women in the sex industry. I oppose prostitution by children
and minors of any sex.
One
area that popular media doesn't address are the causes of male involvement
in the sex industry, whether males are business people,
exploiters/abusers, prostitutes, or customers.
I
separate this discussion from anonymous sex, or sex which doesn't directly
involve money.
Public
Courtesy, Disguises, and Hypocrisy
People
who wish to be considered normal clothe themselves in public.
Depending upon the public situation people wear different types of
clothing and amounts of clothing. Some people go to nude
beaches. No one goes nude to a church funeral.
The
sex industry generally covers itself to appear in public. It wants
to appear normal. What's normal changes.
Modeling,
acting, dancing are legitimate and honored forms of work. A circus
is an honorable place of work. Still, each of these areas has an
uncomfortable aspect, wherein, the physical body of the performer is
inseparable from their art and the body is gendered and sexual.
Sometimes these places of work and vocations are covers or veneers for the
sex industry. I think anyone with any sense differentiates between love, sex and slavery. People who wind up in the sex industry very often were sexually abused as children. If economic desperation caused everyone to turn to selling sex there would be far more prostitution, nude dancing and pornography than there currently is. Even the majority of sexually abused people don't turn toward prostitution.
In the most affluent countries
in the world, where there is government support to keep people from
starving on the street, there
are still native born and raised prostitutes.
Prostitution
doesn't develop as many skills or relationships which lead to higher
paying jobs, pensions or benefits.
Mental
and physical diseases pursue all humans. People who go into the sex
industry probably have pre-existing mental or emotional problems.
But constant involvement in the sex industry probably exacerbates and
creates more health problems. I suspect that people in the sex
industry have a higher rate of physical disease, mental disorder and a
higher rate of being victims of murder as a result of being in the sex
industry.
While
taxi dancing appears to have died out long ago in the US it has made
resurgence among recent immigrants in the Hispanic community. Taxi
dancers, dime-a-dance girls
are frequently led into prostitution. An expose on taxi dance clubs
in the Houston Press in 1999 described clubs as vigorously checking id's
to make sure no under age males were drinking in their
establishment. Whereas females were allowed in free without any
reviews of identification. Many of the young women had no income or
parental support beyond taxi dancing. For young girls, becoming
desensitized to being paid for sexual contact with males and having no
skills, the pull towards prostitution can be powerful.
Prostitution
is different from the pornography industry. But the pornography
business still involves a degree of exploitation of the workers that I
find horrifying. Below is a link to a Frontline story on the
pornography business that aired on PBS here in Houston in February, 2002. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/porn/
A
woman who was an advocate for the legalization of prostitution commented
that if a person has sex with any number of people in any number of ways,
in front of a camera, and gets paid that combination is legal. If
someone has simple sex with one other person, in private, that combination
is usually illegal.
Harris County Green Party Peace and Justice Work Group Sunday, August 25, 2002 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Attendees: Kerry Madole, Alfred Molison, Daniel Wells, David Bennett, Doug King, Anne Amis, Bernadine Williams, Scott Trimble, Kirston Otis At our marathon meeting two speakers discussed the international trafficking of women and children. Anne Amis, Supervisor of the Immigrant Legal Assistance Department of Associated Catholic Charities described the situation faced by undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America. In one particular case, within the past year, a large number of young women mostly from the Honduras were promised legitimate jobs in the US. After being smuggled into the country they were told they had a debt to work off and were forced to work as prostitutes. At least one large ring was broken up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.The INS contacted Catholic Charities about the possibility of housing the women while waiting for trial. They would testify against the people who enslaved them and in return they will be eligible to apply for the new "T" visa which is a visa now available for victims. This visa will give them legal status to be able to stay temporarily in the U.S. and the ability to receive benefits, such as food stamps and Medicaid. Until recently, those who cooperated with the government and stood as witnesses would be ineligible for housing subsidies, food stamps, and health care. During that waiting period they also wouldn't have the right to work legally. Finally, there would be no procedure for them to legally apply for residency or citizenship. Two, new immigration processes have been enacted. The T visa and the still evolving U visa, would allow people who agree to testify against sex traffickers, to stay in the country legally, work and receive public aid. The U visa might allow people to eventually apply for residency and citizenship. However, INS has not yet published the regulations on the U visa, so the application procedure is not yet known. Bernadine Williams, with the Amazon Xociety, was our second speaker. <http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/amazonsociety/> Bernadine had also been kind enough to invite Anne Amis to the committee. Prior to listening to a speech by Alice Leuchtag, Bernadine had favored legalization of prostitution. Now, Ms. Williams does not favor legalization. Alice Leuchtag's speech led to and added to Bernadine's following views, which she presented at our meeting. Central to her thinking is that prostitution is unhealthy and physically dangerous not only for the prostitutes but the buyers of prostitutes as well. Prostitution isn't a chosen profession; it's a last resort. It provides no long-term future as a skill or business in old age. In many countries it represents the social limitations women face in legitimate work and their denial to access to education. Amongst adults, what appears to be a free and conscious choice of being a sex worker hides a childhood of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of relatives and/or being forced into prostitution as a child. Ms. Williams leans toward decriminalization of prostitution with the intention of reducing or eliminating sexual exploitation of women and children. Decriminalization appears to mean one or a combination of two things: 1) Equalize the punishment and fines meted out to both those who buy prostitutes and the prostitutes themselves 2) Reduce or eliminate the fines and penalties against prostitutes and raise the fines, and penalties on buyers and pimps. In addition to decriminalization Ms. Williams endorsed programs similar to those created by SAGE based in San Francisco. http://www.sageprojectinc.org/html/about_services_fopp.htm First Offenders Prostitution Program (FOPP) The First Offenders Prostitution Program, where "Johns" learn first-hand the negative consequences of prostitution. Arrests of male customers ("Johns") and "John School," an educational program for first offenders that takes a real-world, confrontation-style look at the legal, health, and other risks and effects of prostitution. Administrative fees collected from the Johns fund the intervention services for women and girls. * Services to aid girls to permanently exit the criminal justice system and to rebuild their lives free of sexual exploitation, prostitution and abuse. * Early intervention for women by providing in-custody and out-of-custody assessments, referrals, peer support, rehabilitation, vocational training, and case management for women trying to exit prostitution. The return on investment for FOPP results from lowered recidivism, decreased costs from lowered use of the criminal justice system and health care, improved quality of life in the areas affected by prostitution, and the entry of former prostitutes into mainstream jobs and lifestyles. Since the establishment of FOPP and its dramatic success, 28 other jurisdictions in the United States, Canada, and Europe have replicated or are exploring replicating FOPP. The program has received widespread media coverage and the Innovations in Government Award. Created by SAGE, it has gained national recognition as an effective alternative to the prosecution of first-time prostitution-related offenses. Additional Notes From Bernadine Williams of the Amazon Xociety 1992. The SAGE Project, Inc was founded by Norma Hotaling, when she extended an experienced and compassionate hand to prostitutes who were on the streets or in jail. She connected with other survivors of sexual exploitation, and began building community alliances to foster her mission of raising awareness about and ending Commercial Sexual Exploitation of adults and children (CSE/CSEC). As is the case with all startup organizations, the challenges we faced were daunting. We saw first-hand how the traditional structure of law enforcement and city government contained inherent biases towards "criminalizing the victim" in cases of sexual exploitation. We saw that even within the community of advocates, there were varying and sometimes conflicting opinions of what constituted right action, with some groups minimizing or denying harm within all areas of the sex industries, including child sexual exploitation.
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