scottish feminists -

Bit of a read but it's worth understanding the consequences radical feminism has had on prostitutes globally.

FEMINISM, POWER, AND SEX WORK IN THE
CONTEXT OF HIV/AIDS: CONSEQUENCES
FOR WOMEN?S HEALTH

www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlg/vol341/225-258.pdf

Agree Xenia. And I do acknowledge not all feminists want prostitution criminalized.

Not even everyone in Scandinavia agrees with the "Swedish model" of only criminalizing clients. Oslo's social affairs chief and top politician recently suggested Norway rips up its law on prostitution (Norway has the same law as Sweden) because a new report shows violence against prostitutes has increased in the capital Oslo and the law has made it more difficult for prostitutes.

www.thelocal.no/page/view/rip-up-prostitution-law-says-top-oslo-politician

Many feminists are not against prostitution. IN a sense you control a woman's ability to do what she likes with her own body if you ban prostitution. It is anti feminist to ban it.

Now if we were banning women living off male earnings who are housewives (who clean a house and serve a man and give him sex in return for money) on the grounds that that sexist set up ensures women never seize any power you might get a bit more support for that.

www.feminisnt.com/img/bingo-large.jpg

This is how feminists argue against prostitution. They just pull something out of one of the boxes in the picture above.

Mrs AnnTeak -Funny that link suggesting a move away from the "oppression" paradigm is written by a man, who is almost certainly not a prostitute.

Also funny why there's so much time and effort being put into claiming that prostitution, oops, "sex work" is just another job. It stinks.

Zarra, not sure if you have seen this link but found it definitely gave food for thought

myweb.dal.ca/mgoodyea/Documents/Sex%20work%20-%20General/The%20mythology%20of%20prostitution%20-%20advocacy%20research%20and%20public%20policy%20Weitzer%202010%20Sex%20Res%20Soc%20Pol%207%2015-29.pdf

Those links look to be to newspapers, zaraa. Newspapers are actually different from peer-reviewed research, believe it or not.

A cursory glance at the last two also seems to suggest they have nothing to do with the previous discussion?

Well said.

Also, male escorts represent a minuscule percentage of prostitutes

A minuscle percentage really? I did a search on an escort directory website for male only escorts and then female only escorts and it appears just under 1/3 are male (although they generally do charge lower prices and have lower feedback).

I don't think things are as one sided as you like to think they are.

Don't believe everything you read in tabloids.

Prostitution IS a job. There are plenty who are in the job by choice making plenty of money (example many escorts). Being a stripper is also a job. Being a topless model is also a job. Just because you morally object to something doesn't make it any less a job.

btw how many sex workers do you know in real life?

Murder is a completely different topic since there is NEVER any consent in murder. The victim did not want to be killed that's why it's called murder.

You can't compare 2 adults having consenusual sex (and one of them receiving payment) with murder.

Well said.

Do you know what else humans have been doing for hundreds of years:

Committing murder.

Shall we make that legal too?

Bad enough to enter a feminist discussion and claim women should be happy being the sex class, worse still to use such bollocks arguments.

Also, male escorts represent a minuscule percentage of prostitutes, this is another straw argument from oppressors of women.

@MerlinScot, so if you think escorts are willing do you oppose the upcoming bill to criminalize prostitution outright? Escorts receive payment for time and companionship only so technically they aren't prostitutes but you know what will happen- the police will just treat them as if they were (and treat their customers as criminals) and make life hell for them.

And prostitutes/escorts do not deserve to be called nasty names at all. They are doing a job like anyone else. Some people fix computers for a living, some people drive a bus, some dance topless and some provide a sexual service. Prostitution is a job.

According to evidence submitted to the UK Government (Home Office, 2004), between 50-75% of women entered prostitution before they were 18, with 15 years being the average age of entry.

... an overwhelming majority of women in all forms of prostitution have been sexually abused as children (Silbert and Pines, 1982a; Nadon et al., 1998). Some estimates are as high as 90%. As one woman explained, ?Through childhood sexual abuse, many prostituted women have become conditioned into thinking that this is their choice? It normalises this kind of behaviour and causes many to enter into the trade? (Aumord, 2009).

Research has shown that there is a 75% rate of current or past homelessness among those prostituted in nine countries (Farley et al., 2003).

There is extensive literature documenting that prostitution causes profound emotional damage (Baldwin, 1992; Barry, 1995; Dworkin, 1997; Herman, 2003; Hoigard and Finstad, 1986; Farley et al., 2003; Raymond et al., 2002).

A majority of women who sell sex have pimps who may be called by other names, such as friend or husband. Nonetheless they function as pimps (McLeod, 1982; Farley, 2007).

From the Eaves study, Men Who Buy Sex - who they buy and what they know

The most frightening thing about this study is that the men actually know quite a lot, they just don't care.

I think you want to keep reading to your book.
If you read well what I wrote, high profile prostitution is one thing and prostitution (in streets or illegal bordels) is another. The women forced into illegal prostitution are paid peanuts because it's the ones who exploit them who make the big bucks.

Escorts choose to do that job. I think the debate was about forcing women into becoming prostitutes and I really doubt that any escort was ever forced into becoming one.
As regards people who don't accept prostitutes and call them nasty names, well... it seems you get that even if you're abused and raped, so that has something to do with ignorance and prejudice more than with prostitution itself.

I know not all sex workers are escorts- at the lower end of the scale there are streetwalkers. In my opinion I believe streetwalking is unsafe and is rightly illegal. At least with escorting (which I believe should remain legal) and online booking the worker has choice over which customers she wants to see and doesn't want to see. Feedback systems are used so if a customer is abusive or disrespectful the worker can say this in his feedback to warn other workers.

peanuts? Did I mention UK escorts generally earn between £100 and £200 an hour? (that's what they charge, and they get plenty of business)

And I think you're right about a lot of the industry being hidden. Mostly because of the negative stigma escorts and customers generally like to be discreet. Escorts typically travel to a customer's home/hotel room dressed casually like anyone else. If the customer wants the escort to wear a sexy costume or whatever the escort will take it with her in a bag and change into it when she arrives. You could pass escorts in the street who are on their way to a customer and you would never know.

You would have difficulty identifing customers as well. It's not just creepy looking old men with untidy beards and trechcoats who are customers. Stereotypes are just stereortypes- customers can be male, female, aged 18 or aged 80. It's not uncommon for a couple to visit a sex worker either.

It is understandable why a sex worker may want discretion, it doesn't mean she has been forced into it. Many people are not accepting of prostitution and would give prostitutes abuse and call them nasty names. The police may end up harrassing her and confiscating her money and condoms (it does happen even though prositution is legal here).

That's one theory, the other theory is these criminals just don't exist in the numbers you think they do.

That's what they say about the 97% of rapists who are not convicted, therefore they don't exist.

I think that there's a lot of hidden prostitution and usually that kind of prostitute is forced into it by someone or coerced into prostituting by some event. I never heard of anyone being paid peanuts and enjoying prostitution.

If you were referring to high profile prostitution, then I can believe all of your statements.

By funny I mean strange. Not haha funny.