Should Prostitution be Legalized?

Should Prostitution be Legalized?

Introduction

Prostitution is among the oldest profession that has ever existed. It continues to bedevil the society despite efforts by most governments to try and eliminate it. The main reason is that some people do benefit from its illegal aspect, and they will continue promoting it as long as they know that they stand to gain. It must be eliminated because it is responsible for a lot of vices in the society. Although sex workers have been legalized to work in countries like Netherlands, Greece, and even the state like Nevada of USA, prostitution should not be legalized because of its illegal counterparts, it represents the darkest attitudes of capitalism, and it promotes a degrading attitude towards women.

Supporting Views

According to the Netherlands, it was legalizing prostitution intending to reduce the crimes that surround it when it is illegal. They believed that by legalizing it, it would make it easy to control or reduce any illegal activities that take place as a result of having prostitution being illegal (Slavkovic 382). Unfortunately, this has not been the case because there is still human trafficking, and there are still many unlawful brothels mushrooming everywhere. The prostitutes themselves continue to suffer at the hands of the pimps who control the trade to some extent. When Nevada is considered as a case, for example, it will be observed that the illegal enterprise is about four times much larger than the legal one appearing to beat the sense as to why it was legalized in the first place. It will beg the question as to whether legalizing prostitution does protect the prostitutes, or it is creating a way through which the government can generate revenue.

Prostitution is one of the ways through which the darkest attitudes of capitalism are depicted. This aspect of capitalism views people as commodities in the form of their time or their flesh. It is not so bad when one looks at it in the form of quantifying the time that one spends time with someone. Singh observes that since this can be equated to the time that one charge for a service that takes a given duration, for example, consultation services, it turns out to be bad when it is one’s body that is involved in all this. It will seem that one body has been divided into parts, and one is paying for saying each pound of it. The mere aspect of exchanging money for sexual interaction changes everything and makes it no longer to be a bond-solidifying act but rather a mere business transaction. While some of the buyers will be disillusioned, others will draw extreme satisfaction that they will resort to thinking about doing things that ordinary women would not put up with (Blithe and Wolfe 743). We are urged not to forget that prostitutes are also as real as our girlfriends and wives back at home and deserve to be treated as such. The most that sex-for-pay does is to remove the element of humanity in the participants as they think about getting to the extremes.

Prostitution promotes attitudes that are degrading in dealing with women and encourages violence against them. It is worth noting that a bigger majority of sex workers are women, and most are driven into the vice by economic hardships. Female prostitutes are more likely to be raped or killed than any other groupings in society and most of the prostitutes have stories of being attacked, shot at or beaten, and they do believe that the community is the one that made it easy for such acts to be perpetrated against them (Park 41). It is sad that society finds it easy to blame the women for what befalls them rather than try to find out what took place. It points out to the fact that the only way to opposing such attitudes is to ban prostitution entirely and increase legal measures against any people who are supporting the vice in any way.

There is nothing good that can be thought about prostitution other that the mistreatment of the women involved in it. It can be summed up as harassment, exploitation, and in some cases, the torture of the women who are involved in it (Raymond 1176). It all goes back to the reasons that they got themselves into the vice in the first place. The women should have been somewhere being taken care of by society, but due to the failures of the community, they find themselves using such means to fend for themselves. Hence they were viewed to be not only marginalized but also vulnerable under their gender, ethnicity, and their economic status (Brents 414). In addition, they are also viewed to be vulnerable because of having had a history of abuse and neglect from the rest of society. The women who are practicing prostitution have a higher chance of being raped on a weekly basis, which is nothing other than domestic violence being taken to a different level.

Most governments are complacent to prostitution as the law enforcement agents do not have specific instructions to deal with it. This means that when the sex trade expands courtesy of their inaction, then women will no longer compete with men for jobs in various other sectors. According to Jackson (425), if the governments go further and incorporate prostitution into the economies, it would imply that they have some relief over the need to find jobs for women. The worst thing with such an arrangement is that the state becomes the chief pimp having accepted blood taxes from prostitution. It will have given the other sectors of the economy like banks, airlines, hotels, and travel agencies, among others, a green light to make huge profits from prostitution, having solidified it into the economy.

There is a mistaken notion that prostitution is glamorous, as depicted in movies and novels. They try to make the general public view prostitution as a fairy tale and end up normalizing something that instead destroys lives (Huisman and Kleemans 225). The books and the movies do glamorize prostitution and make it appear like a desirable voluntary occupation. The films seem to suggest that prostitutes are people who are knowledgeable with many other options that they would have chosen from. The truth of the matter is that prostitution and human trafficking for sexual matters are harmful, pervasive, and illegal activities. It is also a violent industry that is controlled by pimps and traffickers, who are also involved in gangs, drugs, and street violence.

Some assert that decriminalizing it will make it can be both empowering and mitigating to all the harm that accompanies prostitution. But when the law comes up with a policy prescription on such a vice, then it will imply that it is similar to supporting violence against women (Immordino and Laws 211). Encompassing it in the laws will be identical to normalizing that purchasing of sex from women. If prostitution is legalized, then every young boy will grow up knowing that women and girls can be treated as commodities. It implies that they can be bought and sold at will as long as one has the money to afford the service.

The legalizing of prostitution will instead create other problems other than the intended empowering of the sex worker. There will be an increased demand for women and girls because there will be an unlimited market of consumers that will have been created by the arising demand (Bisschop, Kastoryano, and Klaauw 54). There are many women and young girls who will be driven into the vice. It does not make sense to when we appear to oppose the sex trafficking of children and women and yet support the legalizing of prostitution and buyers.

It is worth noting that prostitution is nothing admirable and is it is deplorable and does degrade and rob the participants off any hints of humanity. At the end of the participants feel hatred for themselves and regret ever getting themselves into such activities (Brents 408). A majority of these women are forced into the vice and coerced into the act by their abusers. Legalizing prostitution will not stop women from being pushed into the vice. It implies that once prostitution is legalized, there will be legalized locations that will be facilitated and controlled by the government itself.

Prostitution is a way of violating many aspects of women, mostly in relation to their physical and moral integrity. Weitzer (89) argues that it is a way of allowing torture, cruel, and inhuman activities against women through degrading treatment and or punishment as a result of acts that are attributed to their clients. It empowers the ones who participate in pornography work and sexual entertainment as acts of power and violence against the womenfolk. The women lose the right to liberty and security and surrender it to the ones in charge of their bodies. It is also a way of promoting forced labor, trafficking, and slavery in modern times. At the moment, there are millions of women and girls who are held captive against their will for the sexual gratification of the millions more male buyers, and they end up generating enormous profits for the ones who are controlling the trade (Weitzer 90). It is because they end up being exposed to violence, disease band unwanted pregnancies. They also are victims of unsafe abortions, AIDS exposure, and other grievance elements associated with the vice. They end up devaluing their bodies and feeling worthless for the mere fact of attributing a specific value to their bodies.

It is an era when the world is advocating for the reduction of AIDS infections, and it is not possible to be at the same time advocating for legalized prostitution. It remains to be one of the main ways through which AIDS is transmitted from one person to the other (Blithe and Wolfe 740). And this will remain to be the case whether it is legal or illegal as long as it is there within the society. Due to their various partners, prostitutes have a higher exposure to HIV. They are the people who are likely to spread the disease to many other people irrespective of the legal status of the vice. The use of the words ‘commercial sex work’ is just another way to attempt to look at it like any other profession and attempting to legitimize it. It is odd when some organizations are supporting the legalization of the vice, having rebranded it as commercial sex work. There is a multitude of stories indicating how women are bought and sold as property and the level of abuse that women suffer through prostitution. The incidence of drug abuse among women is high, which also explains why they became prostitutes in the first place. Since it is expensive to maintain drug addiction, they need to look for an ‘easier and faster’ way to earn money to sustain their habit.

The legalization of prostitution will create the same problems that were created by the legalization of marijuana. It is worth noting that whereas the prostitution is legal in countries that have encompassed it into their laws, forced prostitution is not. When prostitution is legitimate, it makes it harder and more challenging to track down human traffickers (Immordino and Laws 222). In the same respect, it also becomes equally challenging to combat under-aged prostitution. Legalization of prostitution is most likely to promote other criminal activities like human trafficking and petty criminals. This is not the kind of world that the proponents of the legalizing of prostitution had envisioned, but unfortunately, this is the result.

There are few activities that one can imagine which can be as brutal and damaging as prostitution to the women. There was a bigger percentage of them that are raped, and another much higher percentage is physically assaulted. Most of the current and former prostitutes are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (Slavkovic 377). These are symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by war veterans and victims of state-sponsored torture. There are also a myriad of diseases and associated with prostitution, including HIV/AIDS. When the state does attempt to legalize prostitution by coming up with medical check-ups or licenses will not be a solution to the core problem. Their recovery from these damaged takes years, and in most cases, it cannot be undone.

It is crucial to think about one’s body away from what the creators of pornography would like us to think. Their objective is for the ones who are watching the pornography works to feel some little thrill from the thought of something being stuck into a woman’s body. While it is good to think about the delicate parts when they are misused, and it is done over and over again, it definitely is not good (Singh). Prostitution is about these delicate tissues being misused over and over and over again, which will not be fun any longer. Even in the absence of the violence associated with it, prostitution remains to be an abuse to the woman’s body. Since it is the objective of everyone to be happy, then none will be willing to legalize something that will end up creating some unhappiness in others. At the end of it, prostitution does not leave the woman feeling whole, instead, she feels misused and taken advantage of.

Opposing Views

The ones arguing for its legalization are of the opinion that even if it is not legalized, it will happen anyway. They further go ahead to assert that the legalization of prostitution would serve as a way of stemming from the abuses that go with it (Park 32). If the same logic is used in slavery, which is still practiced in some areas, then it should be legalized so that underground slaves can be treated humanely. If one cannot argue for the legalization of slavery, then using the same logic, one should not advocate for the legalization of prostitution. The legalization of abortion has led to a radical increase in cases of abortion (Bisschop et al. 37). If it were to be legalized, then the women will be forced into commercial sex in greater numbers as compared to when it is illegal.

The ones advocating for the decriminalization of prostitution believe that the prostitutes will be better protected when that is the status. They note that it can be easy for them to call the police in the case of incidences of violence. In India, they went a step further to teach them how to identify counterfeit bills so that they do not fall victim to such in the course of their trade (Singh). Statistics have shown that sexually transmitted infections have reduced in areas where the vice has been decriminalized. Lastly, the sex workers have a sense of belonging once the trade is legalized, and they feel part of the society with a more significant sense of belonging and a feeling of responsibility towards one another.

Through legalization, the process that will come from taxing prostitution can contribute towards the welfare of the society. Most of the illegal trades like marijuana do wonders once they are legalized and can be used in for the economic and social rejuvenation of the regions in question. If prostitution is legalized, then it would bring in more revenue than that of marijuana, and the same can be utilized in child-care support for working parents (Jackson 428). The same funds can be used to supplement medical research in the curing of several diseases and also in drug rehabilitation programs. It is agreed upon is that the income from this tax can contribute immensely to the wellbeing of the society as it is perceived to be great due to the numbers involved.

It is argued that the legalization of prostitution would reflect the victimless nature that is not known to many as opposed to the dark side that is known. The internet is full of stories of prostitutes who draw satisfaction from the trade and a career in the same. They differentiate themselves from the ones who are coerced and bring in a different perspective of the treatment that they receive from their clients (Raymond 1182). Some boast of the great financial success that they draw from the trade and have feelings of empowerment based on this. They are of the opinion that society should avoid restricting businesses that do not harm the individual or society.

Conclusion

It is time for the society to attack this harmful sex by all means as it has been proven that whether legal or illegal pimps and traffickers will continue taking advantage of the vulnerable. The buyers would have a field day whenever the trade is legalized, as they would use the guides of the same laws to perpetrate their illegal activities. Quite a few former prostitutes have something useful to report about the trade, and if their opinion is to be taken into account, then they are mostly full of regrets. Hence we should not condone by legalizing a trade that would promote humiliation and dehumanizing towards the ones involved. Sex for money is not only illegal but also immoral, and the mere aspect of commodifying your body cheapens one and leaves one feeling humiliated since it is terrible. It is quite clear that legalizing it will make others think about joining it, and there would be an increased demand for sex workers that will need to be filled up by the other members of the society. Legalizing it will also be a way of telling people that it is okay. You can be part and parcel of it as there is nothing wrong with prostituting. We must think about the kind of society that we are leaving behind for future generations. Their actions will easily be guided by the decisions that we make today, and hence common sense and selflessness must prevail through saying no to such atrocities. The best way to avoid prostitution is by fighting any form of policy that attempts to legalize it.

Works Cited

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Slavkovic, Vukan. “Legal Regulation Of Prostitution”. Pravni Zapisi, vol 6, no. 2, 2015, pp. 375-393. Centre For Evaluation In Education And Science (CEON/CEES), doi:10.5937/pravzap0-8747.

Weitzer, R. Researching Prostitution and Sex Trafficking Comparatively. Sex Res Soc Policy 12, 81–91 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-014-0168-3