Slavery and the 'World's Oldest Profession'
Prostitution is a topic that many people have trouble discussing in a calm or informed manner, but no matter where you personally think you stand on the issue, chances are good that you base your opinions on something I like to call The Myth of the Volunteer Whore.
The Myth of the Volunteer Whore is the widespread social belief that prostitution is a career choice made freely by adult women who either love sex or money or both, or who have limited skills in other areas and so choose the sex industry so they can properly support themselves.
Even people who know that underage prostitution and human trafficking are real and prevalent social problems still tend to buy into The Myth of the Volunteer Whore when discussing the topic.
Often they will start their discussions with a disclaimer like:
"Of course I'm not talking about sexual abuse or underage prostitution, but..."
And then they go on to make points that depend entirely on the notion that prostitution is a choice freely made that involves an exchange of money between consenting adults.
What I want to point out here, is that while we can certainly define the terms so that a discussion of prostitution is more palatable and more tailored to how we think the world should be, choosing to do that badly perverts our conclusions. If you start with fantasy you end up with fantasy.
That is why such discussions often become little more than mental and verbal masturbation exercises. We never get at the real heart of the matter, but we all feel better and can go about our normal business feeling like we've thought it all through.
The problem is that, while some forms of prostitution do appear to be freely chosen and straightforward (especially in places where prostitution is legal and regulated by the state), most prostitution is slavery and abuse, pure and simple.
It's tempting to create two categories of prostitution for the sake of steering clear of painful and horrifying realities:
- the 'good' kind of prostitution (that is, the voluntary and consensual kind) and
- the 'bad' kind of prostitution (the kind that involves pimps, or underage girls or boys, or human trafficking).
In reality those two categories are artificial and imaginary.It doesn't break down nearly that cleanly.
For example, even prostitution that appears consensual on the surface is often the end result of years of unmitigated sexual abuse and violence against the woman who 'chooses' the life. Such unrelenting violence creates a damaged adult who has been conditioned to believe her sexuality is her only valuable trait.
It's very difficult to look at the real stories of real adult prostitutes and not wonder what they might have become had they not spent their early years having sex with their step-fathers, living on the streets, scoring drugs, running with criminals, or being beaten up and degraded by male relatives.
What's more, even 'legitimate' brothels can and do become the workplace of illegal immigrants terrorized into paying off their passage to America with their bodies.
In the typical example, women in China, Mexico, Russia, or parts of Southeast Asia are offered legitimate jobs in the U.S. for fees that can run as high as $40,000 per person or more.
Once these girls arrive in the United States, they find that they are actually indentured to a brothel. If they do not work off the money they owe for their passage, their brokers then threaten to report them and have them arrested and deported. Or, something even worse happens.
According to the Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation produced by the University of Rhode Island, as many as 5,000 Chinese immigrant women are being prostituted in this way in Los Angeles alone.
How do you know if you are dealing with a volunteer prostitute or someone who is being terrorized into the life or who has been abused and degraded into it? Most of the time you don't know. You can't know. If you ask her directly, you most likely will not get the truth. If you check around too much on her behalf, you could find yourself beaten up or worse, or you could cause some harm to come to her.
It's easy to get into prostitution and hard to get out.
But most people wouldn't know that. And most people don't want to know that.
Women who have been prostituted themselves are understandably reluctant to discuss that part of their lives publically. Women who are very public about how great the life is are usually spokespersons for the sex industry. In other words, they are doing a commercial.
Do you believe everything you hear in commercials?
So which is really 'the world's oldest profession'?
Prostitution?
Or slavery?
But At Least It Doesn't Happen Here
Actually it does.
Because it is getting harder and harder to import underage sex workers illegally, the average age at which prostitutes in the United States first begin working has declined over the past ten years from 16 to 14. Here are some quick facts about prostitution as it is actually practiced in the United States today:
- More than 90% of prostitutes suffered sexual abuse as a child (often incest).
- Approximately 75% of prostitutes have been violently raped in situations outside of their workplace.
- The average length of time that a prostitute in America spends prostituting is 4 years.
- 2/3 of prostitutes begin working when they are 16 years old or younger.
- 1.2 million children in the U.S. are involved in child prostitution.
- At least 300,000 male prostitutes under the age of 16 exist in the U.S.
Still think prostitution is mostly a consensual act involving two adults and an exchange of money? Really?
Think about all the prostitutes you know. What, you don't know any prostitutes? Oh, you know one, from that one time you and your buddies got really hammered and ... she said she absolutely was in it because she loved it? She wouldn't lie about that, would she?
Or, if that doesn't convince you, consider this:
Imagine that prostitution (a perfectly acceptable job choice for a young woman) has been legalized, mainstreamed, and is now taught at public high schools as a valued skill. On career day, the local madam comes down and gives a little talk about benefit packages, pay grades, and opportunities for advancement. Students compete for a spot in the brothel after graduation but only a lucky few are selected. Imagine the proud parents of the successful candidates! You'd want that for your own daughter wouldn't you?
No?
Maybe The Myth of the Volunteer Whore serves a larger social purpose. Maybe it is a category into which we can throw damaged people, much like a trash bin, and then pick them up and use them for whatever we like without guilt or shame.
They volunteered, right?
By unanimous vote, that's our story as a society and we're sticking to it. Works out better for everyone that way. It's our safety valve. It keeps our tragedies under wraps and gives our dysfunctional men something to do besides molest youngsters.
Or maybe I'm just being a big killjoy.
Either way, I'm throwing it out there for your consideration.
In the end, you'll think what you want anyway.
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