Prostitution

Feminists' Views on Prostitution

Since most prostitutes are women, prostitution is a highly controversial issue in feminist thought and activism. Generally speaking, there are five camps of feminists who express their strong views on prostitution.

The first camp is anti-sex feminists such as Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon. Proponents of this view claim that the very meaning of sex is male domination and that the nature of prostitution involves male power and female subjugation. According to Dworkin and MacKinnon, the act of sex, created by and for male supremacy, turns women into no more than objects.

The second camp, made up of pro-sex feminists, is anti-prostitution, arguing that prostitution robs women of control in sex acts and the ability to experience sexual intimacy outside of work. Selling sex acts and illusions of sexual desires leads to an impoverished sexual and emotional life that deprives women of the ability to experience sex in a non-instrumental way.

The third camp is romanticist feminists who argue that prostitution corrupts and undermines positive sex based on love. Prostitution, to them, is the antithesis of positive sex because sex should only be associated with love, intimacy, and affection. Feminists such as Kathleen Barry argue that positive sex can only emerge with trust and sharing rather than with cash and contracts. Prostitution encourages violence against women, thereby jeopardizing positive sexual experiences and contaminating the society like a virus. They thus advocate cleansing the society through abolishing prostitution.

The fourth camp is libertarian feminists who argue that it is women who have complete control in prostitution. The fact that men have to buy women's attention with money is a confession of men's weakness rather than a sign of their power. In other words, men feel powerless facing women's sexual power. To them, prostitution is the source of women's power rather than the root of oppression.

Feminists in the fifth camp represent a variation on the libertarian view. They argue that prostitutes threaten patriarchal control over women's sexuality [Page 727]and invoke sexual subversion through prostitution. They contend that the state regulates and punishes women's bodies by criminalizing non-procreative sex and restricting access to birth control and abortion. Prostitution is a terrain of struggle where women, far from being passive sexual objects, exhibit sexual agency and challenge the existing sexual order.

State Policies

Generally speaking, four types of official policies toward prostitution currently exist.

The United States, with the exception of the state of Nevada, represents the prohibitionist policy, making the buying and selling of sexual services illegal. Some feminists argue that in this system, law enforcement targets prostitutes rather than those who profit from their income and morally condemns women who choose prostitution. According to these feminists, illegality drives prostitutes underground and makes prostitutes totally reliant upon pimps and police officers.

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