"Prostitution reflects a tendency to view the female body as a commodity and should be strictly controlled and ultimately eradicated." Do you agree? Support your argument with appropriate legal authorities.

Pro: 2. Stigmatisation & Discrimination

The second argument is that female prostitution is being stigmatised in the patriarchal society. Such discrimination can come from either men or women. Whenever something tragic happened to the sex workers, i.e. murder, robbery, rape, etc., the public will think that they deserve it because they are “evils”. In many occasions, prostitutes are even targets of murders. For example, there have been more than nine sex workers murdered in Hong Kong in the year 2008-09. It is the law makes them the easy targets because they are forced to work by themselves and also the social discrimination against them. Very often, prostitutes are blamed for being the spoiler of the family and the spreader of venereal diseases. The moralist labeled them as “whore”, and the adjective meaning of “whore” is “unchaste”.  And “unchaste” is defined as:

“Indulging in unlawful or immoral sexual intercourse; lacking in purity, virginity, decency (of speech), restraint, and simplicity; defiled (i.e. polluted, corrupted).”

The gender inequality is clearly visible here. Sex workers are considered to be deviants of what the patriarchal society conceived as “good ladies”, but male sexuality has been treated as driven by an imperative. Men’s indentifies are formed by what they do in the world, not by functions attributed to their bodies. There is no evidence that men’s “sexual impulse” is biologically driven, but socially and politically cultivated. Even their sexual drives are “inborn”, there is no obligation for women to satisfy such aggressive sexual needs from men.

Contrarily, men who are charges of unchastity will not be called as “whores” but “amorous". The word ‘whore’ is specifically a female gender stigma. Given that ‘stigma’ is defined as

“a brand marked on a slave or criminal, a stain on one’s character, a mark of shame or discredit and/or a definite characteristic of some disease.” 

We can define the whore stigma as a mark of shame or disease on an unchaste female slave or criminal. In regards of the moralist’s view, the radical feminist will support the idea of eradicating prostitution, as such stigma dishonor the female chastity.

The classic example of the law stigmatising prostitutes is Smith v Hughes, where a prostitute was charged with “soliciting in a street for the purpose of prostitution”. It was held that the offence was committed even where the woman was not in a street but was soliciting from a balcony above the street. The provision was clearly interpreted neither literally nor strictly, suggesting that there is a tendency that the Court chose to follow the mischief rule because of social pressure, secular expectation or even personal preference of the judges. Similarly, in Behrendt v Burridge, the accused sat in a window wearing a mini skirt and was lit by a red light, at no time was she “seen or hear to wave, shout, rap on the window, signal, or indeed,… make any sign towards or actively to communicate from the window with any man or person in the street”. Following Smith v Hughes, she was convicted of soliciting in the street. The message behind these decisions seems to be that the law is designed to control female sexuality rather than protect women from manipulative men. Women who use their body to make a living in these cases were considered being treated less favourably in law and were condemned to be obscene.

The police in Hong Kong are condemned by sex workers concern groups for treating the prostitutes as second class citizens. Recently, in one of the meetings of the Subcommittee of Hong Kong Legislative Council on Police’s Handling of Sex Workers and Searches of Detainees, Cyd Ho Sau-lan pointed out that the police have abused their power towards the prostitutes. The prostitutes were criminally intimidated by the police to provide sexual service in order to prevent themselves from detained. One of them was strip searched and her underwear was removed but not returned. Under Article 28 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong residents are entitled to enjoy fundamental human rights. The law states that,

“…Arbitrary or unlawful search of the body of any resident or deprivation or restriction of the freedom of the person shall be prohibited. Torture of any resident or arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of the life of any resident shall be prohibited.”

Where the radical feminists regard prostitution as a kind of torture and deprivation of the life, it is possible for them to advocate prostitution shall be prohibited based on such provision.

Counter argument: (Liberalists)

However, the liberalists argue that if prostitution were accepted as normal work for women, prostitute would no longer be marginalised and victimised in the patriarchal society. In this sense, prostitution should not only be legalised, but also “normalised”. Cultural education should be done to “correct” such fundamental “social or moral standard”. Liberalists support women’s rights should predominate over concerns for the “social good”, or what perceived as the “moral standard”. Prostitutes should be free from oppressive gender roles and therefore should enjoy the freedom of choices to commodity their sexuality. Based on such idea, prostitution can be regarded as a career and the arguments of exploitation could be rebutted. They should also be entitled to enjoy equal rights, such as social welfare i.e. health care. Therefore, aiming to change the culture of the society would be a more feasible solution in the long term because it can ultimately solve the fundamental problem of such inhumanity act of the police force as well as victimisation of such minority group.

Functionists

        In addition of changing the culture of the society, the functionists also second the view of the liberalists that prostitution should be strictly controlled instead of eradicated from our society. Instead of denying their existence like China and Vietnam, countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland regulate prostitution. These countries follow the view of the functionists and formally recognise the value of prostitution and try to benefit from it. They have a positive social function, which is to provide a necessary and useful social service, such as moderating the rape rate. They also support the state to control and organise the brothels to remove the trade from the streets and relocate it within a more comfortable and manageable setting. Female prostitute may hence subvert the conventional representation of prostitution. ie. Rather chosen by the customers on the street, they should have the power to choose the client, the type of service and the working environment.

Legalisation would also save the prostitute the inconvenience and stigmatization of criminalization. While allowing intervention by social work and other welfare agencies, which could provide assistance for women who might want to leave the game, and offer the prospect of rehabilitation. In an economist point of view, the state could enjoy a triple economy by bringing prostitution into the regular, formal economy which provides the state to benefit through taxation from the profits of prostitutes, removing the costs of police and court’s time and also resolving unemployment. In this sense, regulating prostitutes may do more harm than good to the society, socially as well as economically. In regard of this, instead of eradicating prostitution, it should be strictly controlled.

Such argument is greatly criticised by the feminists, as they believe that prostitution could be completely voluntary. In any male dominant society, women, especially those who have poor social and financial status, can only take a passive role. Feminist scholar, Laurie Shrage wrote in her book, Should Feminist Oppose Prostitution?, suggested that prostitution and the act of degrading prostitutes is a tool to reinforce and support the patriarchal society. Women are warned away from the deviant of non-patriarchal-women subordinating-familial way of living,

“…rather than subvert patriarchal ideology, the prostitution actions and the industry as a whole serve to perpetuate this system of values”

Besides, once the women picked up the role of being a prostitute, they are particularly vulnerable to other sexual exploitations and will be less likely to “fight back” because they have already been “predisposed”. 

Conclusion

        It is possible for men who seek prostitution by means to quench their desire for sex; there is a tendency for them to treat prostitutes who do so as commodity. Sex workers are not only exploited by men but female also regard them as “dirty women”. Therefore, one may urge such demeaning occupation to be eradicated from our society.

However, I hold the same view as the functionist and the liberalist, because regulating prostitution may do more harm than good to the society. Firstly, we have to respect individual’s will of being prostitute. Also, we cannot ignore the fact that some people visit prostitutes for the feeling of being loved and cared and these people treat prostitutes as friends rather than sex objects. In that sense, prostitutes are not being demeaned but valued. Therefore, changing the mindset of the society seems a far more feasible and practical way in solving the problem fundamentally than eradicating the entire sex industry from our society.

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