The 'contested narrative' of prostitution

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A recent thread illustrated very well that the reigning narratives on prostitution in WP discussions are either chauvinistic or feministic, and there is no common ground between those totally polarised positions. I am interested in contested narratives more as examples of power and power imbalances, from a structuralist perspective. This isn't everyone's cup of tea.

However, for any women who is really interested in these perspectives, and academic considerations of them, I am linking this thesis, done in Sweden, as a very thorough consideration of the issues. It is long and complex - unless you are interested in the theory of post-modernism itself, I would suggest you skip the first half. The second half is more relevant to the lives of women and the role of prostitution within the wider framework of the reigning political/narratives (also called "discourses") that create the contested narrative and the power relations that are reflected in the different ways contested topics are discussed and viewed, which we have seen recent examples of on WP. Neither an easy nor quick read, it's nevertheless a very comprehensive work with a thoroughness rarely seen:

http://dspace.mah.se/dspace/bitstream/h ... sAllowed=y ("The Multiplicities of Prostitution Experience") The link takes a minute or so to fully load.

The language itself is highly problematic and emotive. The use of the term “prostitute” is regarded as a denigrating word used for women who are forced into selling sex through poverty and exclusion, while the use of the term “sex worker” is seen as dignifying an activity which reflects and compounds women’s oppression. This article does not suggest that sex work is “a job like any other”—however, the term sex work will be used, first because it avoids the moral condemnation often attached to the word prostitute. Second, this term is used because women who directly sell sex on the streets, in flats or in brothels are only a subset of a much larger number of women who work in the sex industry.1 The modern sex industry is a multibillion dollar industry, which generates huge profits for both transnational corporations and criminal gangs. The sex industry is difficult to define because it encompasses a huge range of diverse activities
With the rise of capitalism that changed. Prostitution in the 19th century occurred on a much greater scale than in previous societies. It was fed by the massive social dislocation as people were driven from agriculture into the manufacturing system. The urbanisation, poverty and large scale migration which characterised 19th century capitalism produced conditions in which brothels sprang up around the globe. In his book London Labour and the London Poor, written in the 1850s, Henry Mayhew described how women in seasonal and insecure trades were frequently driven into prostitution at certain times of the year.Thus milliners, whose skills were only in demand during the London society “season”, became particularly associated with prostitution. Socialist anarchist Emma Goldman quoted a study called Prostitution in the Nineteenth Century to describe the conditions that fuelled the growth of prostitution:

Although prostitution has existed in all ages, it was left to the 19th century to develop it into a gigantic social institution. The development of industry with vast masses of people in the competitive market, the growth and congestion of large cities, the insecurity and uncertainty of employment, has given prostitution an impetus never dreamed of at any period in human history http://www.isj.org.uk/?id=618

Perversion for Profit: The Politics of Pornography and the Rise of the New Right (& sjw-left?)
While America is not alone in its ambivalence toward sex and its depictions, the preferences of the nation swing sharply between toleration and censure. This pattern has grown even more pronounced since the 1960s, with the emergence of the New Right and its attack on the "floodtide of filth" that was supposedly sweeping the nation. Antipornography campaigns became the New Right's political capital in the 1960s, laying the groundwork for the "family values" agenda that shifted the country to the right.

Perversion for Profit traces the anatomy of this trend and the crucial function of pornography in constructing the New Right agenda, which has emphasized social issues over racial and economic inequality. Conducting his own extensive research, Whitney Strub vividly recreates the debates over obscenity that consumed members of the ACLU in the 1950s and revisits the deployment of obscenity charges against purveyors of gay erotica during the cold war, revealing the differing standards applied to heterosexual and homosexual pornography. He follows the rise of the influential Citizens for Decent Literature during the 1960s and the pivotal events that followed: the sexual revolution, feminist activism, the rise of the gay rights movement, the "porno chic" moment of the early 1970s, and resurgent christian conservatism, which now shapes public policy far beyond the issue of sexual decency.
http://www.cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14886-3/

- - - and then we're still left with the elephant in the room that's marriage: a contract !

- - and then we're still left with the elephant in the room that's marriage: a contract !


I
for my part
will only fall in love
organically
if there's chemistry
and we see eye to eye
and we fall
together
in symetry

I'm puzzled by the tendency to assume that "prostitutes" are women. There are young children and also men working as prostitutes, all over the world. It isn't only a women's issue, but a human one.

This topic does generally degenerate quick.

I saw this particular article in the economist and had to chew over what they're saying about the effect of the internet on the practice:
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... hould-stop


There's a lot that really gets people fired up on this topic and just to list a few:

1) Most obvious - child trafficking. It's often linked to prostitution and sex tourism however there seem to be arguments that legalized prostitution tends to curb the prevalence of such activity.

2) The narrative of the woman in poverty who has to sell her body to make ends meet, has children to feed, getting pushed around by a punk calling himself a pimp, a guy goes out to have fun and she's stuck with the consequences. It happens, it would also be an entirely different world for 1099'd entertainers who can run background checks, have an entire support network related to prevention, and who can set particular guidelines contractually - such as if she used contraception correctly and the guy was a putz about things; she'd have the law on her side particularly if confidential video archives were kept like minutes. Additionally if a man or woman needed to file and go through extensive paper-work loops to obtain a licence for courtesan work it would close the gates on the majority of the abuse cases.

3) For as much as we live in a 'sexually-liberated' culture we still really like to use sex for controlling and shaping the behavior of the opposite gender - of which being able to buy that throws a monkey-wrench into that whole scheme.


As for the child-predation and child-trafficking that goes on right now, as far as I see it, it's not the illegality of prostitution that busts it up - it's the diligent efforts of federal law enforcement on the other side of it. This issue really is a lot like the war on drugs from the standpoint that we've censored a lot of it our of our culture, have people's careers devoted to cracking down on such things, and strangely as schedule one drugs - particularly hallucinogens - get more serious research we see increasing number of scientists saying that we have it all wrong. Facts and figures seem to work similarly with the issue of the sex industry. With the war on drugs however it's true, certain things like heroin, meth, etc.. probably will never have a place within legality just like child sex would never have a place within legality. Their placement on a continuum however seems perhaps like it's been knee-jerk and speculative and checks into how legalizing one actually diminishes the other have had for a long time little data because so many guessing games were played.


I guess all one can really do is look at the countries that have legalized these things and inspect the results. I'd say similarly though you can't have any of these things cartel-run. We just had Issue 3 for legalization of recreational marijuana under a monopoly and no one wanted that - whether they were for or against the legalization of recreational marijuana. I'm sure there are also ways that prostitution could be legalized that would absolutely muck it up and those would be similar situations where sole-proprietorship isn't allowed.

Thank you for linking the document. To say it isn't a quick or easy read is an understatement; I started reading it yesterday and had to walk away from the computer several times and come back to it; have finished part I, and had to look up Foucault as I'd never heard of him (and have a new book now to read).

Hopefully if the thread doesn't die an early death due to derailing, I'll be able to contribute something meaningful after finishing reading the thesis today.

I do agree that this topic is begging for a more nuanced discussion, though.