Of Call Girls And Rent Boys: A (Kinda Long) Rant
At the risk of my mother never being able to make eye contact again, I will admit that I am thoroughly a third-wave feminist: I am pro-sex and pro-porn. In short, I believe that consenting adults over the age of 18 have the right to do whatever they want behind a locked bedroom door. Even if that includes exchanging money for (I’m going to say it again) consensual sex acts.
The following rant has been inspired not just by the New York Times’ upcoming article on “Keeping Up With Being Kept” (about “sugar daddies” and “sugar babies;” the article is not yet online), but also by the news that Nevada has declined to up the tax on prostitution.
While this post started as actual support of the whole “sugar baby/daddy” dynamic (so long as it’s consensual), it quickly morphed into a rant on the state of prostitution in the US. (While I’ve edited all support for kept souls out of this post, I stand by my support of them and may post more on the subject in the future.) The following is a bit of a free flowing thought train, so please skip if you’re faint of heart, easily bored by the subject or just don’t care.
I want to say that I’m pro-strictly regulated prostitution, as well, but that is less for feminism’s sake (the high priced, sexed up “Confessions Of A Call Girl” stories aside, I recognize the mental, emotional and pride-related sacrafices the vast majority of working girls/guys face everyday) and more for realism. Let’s face it, “the oldest profession” will continue to thrive even in the toughest climate.
Hell, even the venerable Economist speculates that tough times equal more sex workers:
The most interesting part is that the market is counter cyclical. In bad times more (and more attractive) women enter the market, but they have a higher reservation wage, so they charge more. Less attractive and even cheaper prostitutes may still be available, but for a variety of very good reasons, the customer will not desire the cheapest option, suggesting prostitution services can be classified as a Giffen good.
Believe it or not, my main argument for believing in legalized prostitution is a quality of life issue. If you want a high brow exploration of the argument, please see Susanne Dodillet’s thought-provoking comparison of German and Swedish prostitution laws (in a nutshell: Germany has passed laws allowing brothels and granting sex workers the same benefits other workers enjoy, while Sweden passed a very un-Swedish law deeming sex workers “an unacceptable expression of society’s genderised power structures.” Guess who has the better quality of life? Yep, you got it.).
It’s a fascinating conversation, but sadly one that has very little to do with prostitution in the U.S. This country managed to birth its own sexual revolution and feminist movement, but still clings to its Puritanical past in warped, almost sick ways. Rather than acknowledging that prostituion is, in fact, “the oldest profession” and will be present in any society so long as humans have sex drives, our politicians, talking heads and – yes – even many feminists would rather stick their heads in the sand and pretend that because they don’t choose to see it, it doesn’t exist.
(This is the point where I’m tempted to spout off on the uncomprehensible juxtaposition of our culture’s continued sexualization of girlhood and the simultaneous obsession with “purity.” But I’ll refrain and stay on topic.)
The reality of prostitution in the US is this:
- According to a 2001 University of Pennsylvania study, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 adolescents are sexually exploited annually in the U.S. (according to GEMS).
- The age girls most frequently enter prostitution is between 12 and 14 years old, according to a University of Pennsylvania study, which also estimated there could be several hundred thousand youth being paid for sex across the country.
- Pimps and human traffickers rule the streets, and the prostitutes have very little say: according to the anti-trafficking Polaris Project, pimps crush runaway girls with a mix of violence and affection, degradation and gifts, and then require absolute obedience to a rigid code: the girl cannot look the pimp in the eye, call him by his name, or keep any cash.
- According to the New York Times, young girls involved in prostitution are considered victims only if no money is actually exchanged. But if the man pays for the sex, even if he pays a third party (read: pimp), the child is considered a prostitute and is subject in many venues to arrest and incarceration.
- Of the 100,000 prostitution-related arrests each year, very, very few are pimps or johns. The vast majority are female, and many of them not old enough to qualify as “women.”
- The most heartbreaking part? Statistics show that as many as 90% of prostituted youth have been sexually or physically abused and many have run away from home to escape such abuse only to encounter far worse on the streets (also from GEMS).
Prostitution here in the U.S. isn’t the glamorous world of Spitzer and high end call girls. Rather, the vast majority of it is rife with violence, exploitation and victims who are barely old enough to have gotten their periods.
(Another aside: NY Gov. Spitzer’s replacement, Gov. Paterson, signed The Safe Harbor Act for Exploited Children into law. This landmark legislation provides sexually exploited children under the age of 16 with the services instead of incarceration, and officially recognizes children under the age of 18 in the commercial sex industry as actual victims of sexual exploitation. While I’m certainly not pointing fingers or making accusations, the sheer coincidence of Spitzer’s affinity for purchasing sexual favors from younger women, combined with the reality of prostitution, makes one wonder whether he knowingly or unknowingly ever purchased the attentions of a girl under the age of consent.)
New York is on the right track, but (like the rest of the US) it has a long way to go – of the 300,000 children and adolescents prostituted every year in the United States, more than 2,200 of them are in New York City.
I have to say that I have truly hoped that Nevada, which has already decriminalized prostitution, would set a national standard. But it appears that state authorities have dropped the ball on stopping (or even putting a major dent in) human trafficking. The laws in that state could easily have been enforced, and I’m so incredibly sad and let down with the reality of the situation.
My (admittedly, armchair) solution is simple – legalize it, regulate it (I’m talking hard core health regulation, similar to how California regulates porn performers), and tax the ever loving hell out of it.
(What, you thought I was a bleeding heart liberal without a capitalist bone in her body? Even in a good economy, states need all the revenue they can get.)
Still not convinced? Look at the sheer bottom line. After all, it costs $2,000 per case to arrest, prosecute and incarcerate a prostitute. Cities spend, on average, between $1 million and $23 millon dollars (the average is $7.5 million) enforcing anti-prostitution laws. Laws that, according to statistics, mostly target underage girls and coerced women, rather than the pimps and johns who keep this cycle of desperation going.
Common sense says that we should focus those resources not on arresting victims, but on helping said victims while prosecuting those who perpetuate a cycle of abuse. In short: leave the consensual (which is rare) alone. Take our currently misspent resources, and reapply them to interrupt the cycle of degradation.
Which leaves me with one question: WHY THE HELL DID NEVADA REFUSE TO ENFORCE A TAX ON PROSTITUTION?!
For anyone seeking more information on the human reality of underage prostitution, I highly recommend the documentary Very Young Girls. I also encourage everyone to read the Wolrd Charter for Prostitute’s Rights.
well done. I was a little hesitant to read this due to my line of work and the knowledge and experience I have with very young people (girls and boys) who end up prostituting themselves for a variety of reasons – none of them have anything to do with an active choice to willingly chose a career in the sex trades. The black market for underage sex workers would continue even with legalization (because let’s face it, if we legalize and tax it, we’re not going to let 11 year olds trade sex for money) but at least the notion and idea that these kids need help would be more prominent than it seems to be now.
The sad truth is that as long as there’s a market for it (and there unfortunately always will be), underage prostitution will always exist. There have even been times when it’s been popular to be seen in Even Oscar Wilde, the man that famously defended adult homosexuality by defining “the love dares not speak its name” while on trial, was known to have been seen in clubs of his era featuring very young children performing sex acts.
It’s a scary, disturbing, horrid part of human nature, and we need to do what we can to protect/rescue those who are sexually exploited.
While I understand there are differences between the German and Swedish approach, I would think that some of the Swedish ideas would appeal to you, specifically the decriminalization of prostitutes. As far as I know, in Sweden it is illegal to pay for sex, but it is not illegal to sell sex. The idea is that the pimps and johns should be punished, but not the prostitutes (male or female) who many consider to be the victims. This legal approach has had widespread support in Sweden, however there are unintended consequences for the remaining prostitutes in a now more dangerous profession where all of their customers are breaking the law, even if the prostitutes themselves are not. Perhaps a combination of German and Swedish laws would be the best approach? What do you think?
John, I totally get where you’re coming from, and IMO (again, this all armchair conjecture) Sweden’s laws would be a next step for the US. Not a great one, but a step up from where we are nonetheless.
Do I think Germany has a better system for prostitutes? At the end of the day, yes. But both Sweden and Germany are light years ahead of the States in this area, which was what I alluded to (albeit, very vaguely) with my comment that Dodillet’s paper is intriguing, but has little to do with the reality of prostitution in the US.
I just hope that (maybe within my lifetime) American politicians, talking heads and feminists pull their heads out of the sand and start legislating based on the reality of the country’s sex workers: most likely underage and coerced.