Prostitution: a thorny issue for feminists. (Reflections).

When I first began to collect material on the problem of prostitution, I found this comment from the 1970s written by a woman named C. M. Laughlin: "The attitude of a society toward prostitution is a barometer which measures the level to which women have been reduced: in other words, their objectification." I was struck by this affirmation because it enabled me to make the connection between prostitution and the inferior status of women. The fact that women have been considered property of men in patriarchal societies for thousands of years legitimizes the many expressions of sexual exploitation, including prostitution. The inferior status of women within a society which defines them solely in terms of their reproductive function and their ability to satisfy men is the point of departure for our analysis of prostitution, an area that El Pozo has been strengthening parallel with our process of developing as feminists.

I recently recalled Laughlin's assertion when thinking about the new reality of prostitution: its expansion into one of the most lucrative businesses of our time. "The attitude of a society towards prostitution--that is, the incorporation of prostitution into the world market, reveals the degree to which women have been reduced to objects." Prostitution has spread to all continents and is now a vast network that commercializes the bodies of women, girls and boys in a multi-billion-dollar industry. Among its many manifestations are sex tourism, prostitution for military bases, trafficking of women, pornography, Internet sex-pages and mail-order brides. The growth of prostitution and trafficking in women and minors demonstrates the degree to which economic globalization has taken advantage of patriarchal ideology, which awards men the right to acquire the bodies of women. Economic globalization has turned prostitution into a mega-industry worth 17 billion dollars a year.

In Asia, prostitution and trafficking in women has grown so much and generated so many millions of dollars that the International Labour Organization (ILO) has proposed considering it a "commercial sector" within national economies. The statistics are dizzying. In Thailand, it is estimated that more than a million women, girls and boys are involved in prostitution, that is, nearly 2% of the country's entire population. In the Philippines, half a million women work in prostitution. These figures do not include the tens of thousands of Thai and Philippine women working in bordellos outside their own countries. The ILO study, "The Sex Sector," affirms that the total number of women involved in prostitution is between 0.25% and 1.50% of the entire female population of the four countries studied.

Even more astounding are the figures for child and adolescent prostitution. Four hundred thousand girls and adolescents are prostituted in India, and 200,000 minors from Bangladesh work in the bordellos of Pakistan. In Thailand, 4.3 million tourists, mostly men, have visited the country in recent years exclusively in search of sexual gratification, utilizing women and especially minors, both girls and boys. Many of these tourists are pedophiles seeking to engage in activities in the Third World that they would be prohibited in Japan, Europe, the U.S. and Australia.

Although the statistics available on prostitution and women in Latin America are deficient, an estimated 150,000 Latin American and Caribbean women are involved in prostitution in Europe. Recently, Latin American women are being discovered in new sex networks in Asia. Fifty thousand women from the Dominican Republic alone are engaged in the sex industries of Germany, the Netherlands and other European countries. Many women and young girls are recruited through traffickers or travel agencies, under the guise of "dancers" or "artists." We know now that many of these women know what they are getting into, but they are unaware of the conditions they will face: retention of their travel documents, debt slavery, sexual violence, long hours of work, confinement, client minimums, forced consumption of drugs and alcohol, language difficulties and the constant threat of being turned in to police, as they are usually illegally present in the host country. Their irregular situation makes these women and young girls very vulnerable, and their possibilities of changing this situation are limited. Many are victims of abuse, violence and violations of their basic human rights.

The great majority of Latin American women who work in foreign countries send money to their families. Given the enormous numbers of women in this system, the amounts of money involved are considerable for national economies. In the case of the Dominican Republic, it is estimated that the contribution of women who send money from overseas is equivalent to the entire national budget dedicated to goods and services. Obviously, countries do not want to lose this source of hard currency, and many families who receive the stipends prefer not to inquire too closely about the type of work in which their sisters or daughters are engaged.

A Paradigm of Women's Status

Prostitution is not a local phenomenon; neither is it a private, inoffensive amusement. Prostitution, together with trafficking of women, is now a socioeconomic institution, which is part and parcel of the social, economic, racial, ethnic and sexist exploitation operating in our neo-liberal and patriarchal societies.

Is it not paradoxical to witness the globalization of prostitution and trafficking of women, despite the many advances in human rights and our feminist struggles for women's rights?

How can we understand the persistence of these manifestations of exploitation and slavery in modern times?

I constantly ask myself these questions because, frankly, it is difficult to accept this reality. For many years I have tried to understand what lies behind prostitution and the commercialization of the bodies of women. What drives millions of women to put their bodies on the market? Why do so many men want to express their sexuality by means of the exploitation and domination of women and girls? And I always end up with the same conclusion: prostitution is a logical consequence of the patriarchal system.

El Pozo's long experience with women who work in prostitution on the streets of Lima has revealed the connection between prostitution and discrimination against women, their inferior status during centuries in our society. Learning about the lives of women involved in prostitution, we have seen how many of them accept the violence and the humiliation associated with prostitution as a continuation of the oppression, discrimination, mistreatment and sexual abuse that have always been part of their existence. Kate Millet's assertion that prostitution is a paradigm of women's status in society continues to be as true today as in 1979, when we adopted this statement as the title of our first publication on prostitution.

Prostitution is fundamentally the exercise of male power. It is a relationship characterized by domination and control by the person who pays (the client) over the body of another (the prostitute). Prostitution operates within a concept of sexuality which implies male gratification and female submission. Prostitution reinforces a macho model of sexuality in which sexual access to women is the prerogative of men, in which men have the right to satisfy their sexual needs and demands. Within this model of sexuality based on domination and submission, prostitution can be seen as much more than a relationship of power and control or an act of pleasure. Given the asymmetrical relations between client and prostitute and the power which money gives the client, prostitution promotes brutality and violence.

What happens when we look at prostitution from a gender perspective? A gender perspective illustrates the sexual roles of men and women which still persist in our modern societies. The social construction of masculinity and femininity deeply affects our socialization as men and women and our sexual behavior. Throughout history, sex has been considered men's right and privilege, while the lives of women are defined on the basis of their reproductive function and men's satisfaction.

Despite the many cultural changes that have occurred in the relations between men and women, sex roles retain a high degree of male domination. If we look at the process of socialization of men in a hyper-masculine culture such as ours, we see how the emphasis on domination, strength and competition as masculine attributes remains intact. For men, power means the capacity to dominate and control others and the world around them. This potential for domination of others forms an intrinsic part of the notion of masculinity and is the essence of their project of "being a man." This same socialization makes men need constantly to prove their superiority and virility. For this reason, their exercise of sexuality must occur as a conquest in which the man desires a woman who will never say NO and who will accept all their demands, while the man remains free of any personal responsibilities. Isn't this what motivates so many men to resort to prostitution, to cross oceans and entire continents just to have sex with women or minors who will never say NO to them, whom they can use to satisfy their insatiable fantasies, unlike their regular partners or spouses who make demands on them to act more responsibly?

If men's socialization leads them to conclude that the essence of their identity resides in their sexual prowess, the socialization of women has been oriented toward submission, passivity, dependence and the exchange of sex for emotional and economic security. Women's insecurity and fragility always has operated in favor of masculine sexual domination. The sexual abuse to which so many women are subjected sends them a double message: that they are vulnerable and that they are valued as sexual objects. Within the operative sexual roles in patriarchal societies, every woman has perceived that sex is profitable and that her body is a resource. It should not surprise us that women facing economic difficulties resort to prostitution as a means of survival. Prostitution pays very well: a woman's earnings in prostitution may surpass easily the wages available to most women in the labor market.

What Freedom to Choose?

A sharp debate has marked the discussion on prostitution in recent years: the division or differentiation between "forced" and "voluntary" prostitution. But what does the concept of voluntarily choosing a job or occupation mean when work options are so often determined by gender stereotypes and the demands of the marketplace?

What does the concept of "voluntary prostitution" mean for a young girl who migrates to Switzerland to work in the sex industry, given the economic realities of our countries where the possibility of work for thousands of women are almost nil? It is an undeniable fact that increasing numbers of women decide to recur to prostitution or to take jobs which lead to prostitution. But who can measure the degree of liberty with which each of them has made this decision? We know from our own experiences how motivations and decisions are influenced or determined by obligations and family needs. How much freedom does a young, single mother with three children in Peru have when she makes the tremendous decision to go to work in a bordello in the red-light district of the city or to leave her children and migrate to Germany to expose herself to the view of men in the sex shops? Would she accept work in prostitution if she had other possibilities? Although it is not always a pimp or a network of traffickers which obliges women to enter the world of prostitution, I cannot call these decisions "free," nor can I believe that what they do is really "voluntary." For millions of women choosing between hunger, abuse, isolation or prostitution is hardly a real choice.

But I have another problem with this differentiation between "forced" and "voluntary" prostitution. This distinction supposes that when prostitution is "voluntary," the woman maintains rights over her body, given that she has opted freely to exercise this work. On the other hand, when the prostitution is "forced," it is because the woman is induced into prostitution through coercion, fraud or violence. Thus, these women cannot exercise their rights over their bodies, and only this form of prostitution should be prohibited or punished.

I find this perspective extremely shortsighted because it sees prostitution only in terms of the woman's motives. But what are the motives of the client who utilizes the woman's body? Is he making a distinction between forced and voluntary prostitution when he contracts the services of a young girl? Is he interested in the motivations that led the woman to enter prostitution? Does he believe that a prostitute has rights over her body? Does this difference between voluntary and forced prostitution affect his treatment of her or his demands? I believe that the differentiation between forced and voluntary does not change the meaning of prostitution for the client nor his exercise of power through money. Neither do I believe that it affects his underlying scorn for all women.

What about the movement to legalize prostitution and facilitate the formation of working associations and unions by women who work in prostitution?

In El Pozo, we consider valid the organization of women in defense of their human rights and to resist violence. The organization of women in associations or unions is an attempt to respond to the conditions of exploitation and repression on the part of police. In addition, the organization of women involved in prostitution has been important in the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

However, we believe that the organization or unionization of prostitutes is a short-term measure which does not modify the relations of domination and subordination between the client and the person prostituted. These organizations tend to ignore the abuse and exploitation of clients and pimps. They do not question the interests and profits of the owners, pimps or bordello administrators. The movement in favor of the rights of women who engage in prostitution does not change the fact that men are buying women's bodies.

Prostitution is a very thorny issue for feminists, and it has not been a priority in our feminist agenda. I believe that we have preferred not to take a position in the discussion on prostitution because of the moralistic tone with which the subject has been addressed by conservative and religious sectors. To question or condemn prostitution seems to associate us with those groups which condemn sex, sexual pleasure or "loose" women. But it is very important to clarify why we say NO to prostitution: to question the continued existence of prostitution and the uncontrolled growth of the sex industry and trafficking in women is to oppose the concept of sexuality based on the submission of women and the utilization of their bodies. Our opposition to prostitution is not against sex but against sexism.

If we are faithful to our long struggles in favor of women's liberation, we must take a position against one of the strongest bastions of patriarchy: male domination of women's sexuality through prostitution. To be consistent with the important advances made in the Cairo and Beijing conferences on our human and sexual rights, we cannot accept the existence of this multi-million-dollar industry based on the commercialization of our sexuality. When I read the articles referring to our sexual rights in the Platform of Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, I am deeply convinced that prostitution is totally incompatible with the exercise of these rights:

   Art. 96. The human rights of women
   include their right to have control
   over and decide freely and responsibly
   on matters related to their sexuality,
   including their sexual and reproductive
   health, free of coercion,
   discrimination and violence. Equal
   relationships between women and
   men in matters of sexual relations
   and reproduction, including full respect
   for the integrity of the person,
   require mutual respect, consent and
   shared responsibility for sexual behavior
   and its consequences.

Sexual rights are intimately linked to human rights. The right to experience our sexuality without violence, without coercion, without discrimination, with full respect for the physical integrity of the body, is an inalienable right which cannot be handed over to another nor snatched away. We demand these rights for all women, without any exceptions. If we believe that every woman is the owner of her own body and has the right to experience her sexuality within relations that are mutual, respectful and fair, then prostitution cannot be a valid occupation. If we believe that sexual rights are a fundamental element of human rights, then prostitution must be uprooted.

Much progress has been made in this long march towards the liberation of women and men and the transformation of the structures of domination and oppression. The vision of a humanized world is very present in our dreams and in our proposals. The last bastions of the patriarchy have been denounced and threatened. We have to deepen our efforts to demystify and dismantle the concepts of superiority based on sex, race, class and economic conditions that are still deeply rooted in our consciences. Prostitution, sexual slavery, wars and militarism come from antiquated structures of power which should not be tolerated in our new millennium. I dream of a not-too-distant day in which prostitution is obsolete.

The author is a member of the Peruvian organization Creatividad y Cambio (Creativity and Change) and the Movimiento El Pozo, which has worked for 20 years on the issue of prostitution by undertaking research, collecting documentation and providing counseling and support services for women who work in the sex trade.