Prostitution: Is It Empowerment or Exploitation

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Violation of women’s rights in prostitution
Degrading human dignity
Physical and psychological abuse
Forced sex and coercion
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Prostitution is commonly referred to as one of the oldest careers in the world and it is mentioned even in the Holy Scriptures. Every country in the world today is faced with the challenge of dealing with the sex trade while in some the trade has been legalized (UNICEF). Great debates surround the notion that prostitution is a means of empowerment rather than a violation of women’s rights (Wilkinson 36). Many people doubt the general assumption that women involved in promiscuous activities are indeed under gender duress. Prostitution has spread worldwide and with the development in technology, the business is growing bigger every day.

For the trade to thrive, there has to be a reasonable balance between the forces of a market, which are demand, and supply. Males create the demand while women are there to supply (Wilkinson 47). Many women who practice prostitution look at it as a form of employment, some even forced into it by their families. This essay seeks to argue that prostitution is the greatest form of female exploitation as opposed to empowerment. Men who pay for sexual services are not interested in the welfare of their service providers rather their sole intentions are to use them for their satisfaction.

Violation of women’s rights in prostitution

Human rights can be infringed in many ways but depriving a woman of the right over her own body is quite demeaning. Prostitution is a practice where such deprivations are a norm and women can be used as sexual tools to satisfy males’ sexual needs. Some women in the sex industry argue that prostitution allows them to enjoy their rights over their bodies. However, taking an ardent observation into the real situation, indeed it is clear that through prostitution the male gender shows their ability to control women’s sexuality (Day par. 6). Prostitution is abhorrently a violation of human rights in totality since it is impossible to have sexual consent between two adults especially when it is based on financial gain (Day par. 5). Women in prostitution report incidences whereby they have been subjected to violent ordeals leaving them with emotional scars.

Some of these violent actions include physical and psychological assaults, sexual abuse, robbery as well as kidnapping in some isolated cases (Hvistendahl par. 7). Daily, an average prostitute is raped, verbally abused, battered, or even tortured (Hvistendahl par. 9). According to the prostitutes, these are the challenges associated with their kind of profession. They argue that every job has its challenges and they take it as a challenge they have to overcome. However, rape and sexual harassment are unjustifiable under any possible circumstances since they are harming the women. People are harmed when they are made worse off than before the exploitation started. That explains why the majority of women who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are mostly women who engage in the sex trade. Women are tricked into making pornographic materials without their consent while being sexually harassed to perform and make pornographic videos.

Degrading human dignity

Prostitution is an indecent behavior that depicts a form of socialized male violence against women (Hvistendahl par. 7). Women who practice prostitution are sexually involved with men whom they do not know hence feign enjoyment (Wilkinson 55). Sex in exchange for money degrades self-worth hence demeaning human dignity. The civil libertarian argument about prostitution is that prostitution is simply a way for women to support themselves financially. They argue that it is a matter of choice where consenting men and women engage in sexual relations. Nonetheless, civil libertarians forget the inequalities in the ‘world’s oldest profession’ (Wilkinson 56). The sex transactions between men and women involved in prostitution are explicitly discriminative of women. Prostitution is not a transaction where two parties exchange sexual services voluntarily to each other for enjoyment.

According to Wilkinson’s concepts of objectification and commodification, prostitution has turned the human body into a commodity and has commercialized human social practices. Supporters of the commercial sex campaign argue that the trade is not in itself harmful but the circumstances involved (Wilkinson 57). Wilkinson argues that commodification of the body includes aspects such as, exploitation, objectification, harm, coercion, and consent, which are the main characteristics of any, sex trade (Wilkinson 57). He argues that regulating the trade, as a business entity is the most effective approach to dealing with the moral concern in this case. The practice is bent on one partner enjoying while the other gains financial benefits of providing the commodified sexual services. In this case, a woman is simply a commodity and can be used as the client or consumer pleases. Exploitation is unjust because the exploited person suffers harm. Goals in these scenarios can be releasing sexual frustration, feeling “power” over someone else, or enhancing one’s ego.

Women in prostitution trade their self-worth and human dignity in pursuit of financial gains. Most times, women who engage in prostitution are in a vulnerable state of mind.

A person is vulnerable when she/he perceives that there is no other course of action than the one proposed, even with the knowledge that this choice might bring harm. The wealthy men take advantage of the “desperate” state they are in and exploit them to satisfy their own needs. Therefore, prostitution cannot be viewed as a way of empowering women but as an act, that destroys their consciousness to decency and moral values. In prostitution, women experience the greatest level of social and sexual insubordination (Wilkinson 57).

Physical and psychological abuse

Physical and psychological abuse is a far-reaching implication of prostitution and the effects of this are detrimental to the future of both young men and women. Sadly, the sex trade has increased the level of human trafficking involving underage teenagers (UNICEF). The video, ‘Not My Life’ uploaded by UNICEF USA shows the extent of human trafficking on a global scene. In some poor countries, children are forced into the practice by their poor parents who seek to raise money by selling their daughters to men seeking sexual services although in some cases young men are also victims of the forced sex trade. This is tantamount to the slave trade although the ramifications are even worse. Clients normally abuse young girls physically by beating them up and forcing them into sexual intercourse in very inhumane ways.

Kids, both boys, and girls are victims of coercion while engaging in sexual activities without their consent. This leads to physical and psychological harm that can have long-term implications in the future. Prostitutes or sex workers, as they are commonly referred to, are the greatest victims of rape (MacKinnon 78). More often than not, sex workers are forced to have sex with men whom they do not even know or love. This amounts to rape which results in other psychological and psychological effects. The physical and psychological abuse notwithstanding, the women are expected to act and pretend to be enjoying the sexual intercourse. These are the adversities that women in the prostitution industry have to put up within the course of their profession.

Forced sex and coercion

Women in prostitution have no rights over their bodies as discussed earlier in this essay. Most of the clients force them into engaging in inhumane practices such as sexual intercourse with animals (MacKinnon 78). Some are even forced to have their sexual services recorded for resale on the black market in exchange for money (Wilkinson 33). Pornographic materials have increased all over the world due to the increase in the number of women engaging in the sex trade, which has also seen the increase in the prevalence of abuse of children especially young teenage girls. In third-world countries, young children are forced into the sex trade as a way of raising money to support their poor families (UNICEF). At their tender age, they have to cope with the rude clients who force and coerce them for their sexual pleasure.

Conclusion

This essay has shed some light on the sex trade/prostitution to show how women are currently being lured into the practice in the guise of empowerment. The paper also discusses Wilson’s concepts of objectification and commodification to show the rationale used in approaching this trade. The essay displays prostitution as a form of exploitation as opposed to a means of empowerment. The paper shows some of the physical and psychological pain that the victims undergo because of prostitution arguing that some of the culprits are forced into it by poverty. Prostitution is under all circumstances a way through which men exploit vulnerable women for their sexual satisfaction in exchange for money. However, research has shown that in the long run, the emotional pain caused to the women surpasses the financial gains therein.

Works Cited

Day, Shelagh. Prostitution: Violating the Human Rights of Poor Women. 2008. Web.

Henderson, Sarah, and Alana Jeeydel. Women and Politics in a Global World, New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 2010. Print.

Hvistendahl, Mara. Where Have All the Girls Gone? 2011. Web.

MacKinnon, Catherine. Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2006. Print.

UNICEF. Video- Not my Life. 2012. Web.

Wilkinson, Stephen. Bodies for Sale: Ethics and Exploitation in the Human Body Trade. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor and Francis, Inc. 2003. Print.

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