Abstract
The debate concerning prostitution is centered around two main views: the liberal view and the radical feminist view. The typical liberal view is associated with decriminalization and normalization of prostitution; radical feminism stands in favor of prohibition or abolition. Here, I argue that neither of the views is right. My argument does not depend on the plausible (or actual) side effects of prohibition, abolition, or normalization; rather, I am concerned with the ideals involved. I will concede to liberals their claim that prostitution is not harmful in itself. Yet, I will argue that prostitution cannot be thought of as “just another job”. Even if prostitution is not harmful in itself, it can do much harm. I will argue that a policy of vigilance is the most adequate one to adopt with regard of prostitution, given the risk of harm associated with prostitution. A policy of vigilance tries to discriminate between those who take a certain course of action willingly and those who do not. It puts no restraints on those who exercise their genuine will, but protects those who are openly or subtly coerced.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Not all liberal views are of this sort: see, e.g., de Marneffe (2010).
See, e.g., Martin Moen (2014: 80): “If my arguments in this paper are sound, we should be open to the possibility that prostitutes are harmed, not because prostitution is harmful, but because society at present seriously wrongs prostitutes”.
There are of course more nuanced views within the feminist camp. For instance, Yolanda Estes (2001) holds that prostitution is morally wrong because it objectifies both prostitute and client (the client uses the prostitute as a means, not an end; but the prostitute also uses the client as a means). She is also reluctant to endorse prohibition or abolition. In Estes (2008), however, she argues that prostitution is harmful in itself because it leaves the prostitute cognitively and emotionally confused.
It is also possible to claim that prostitution may be harmful in itself because it necessarily harms society at large. Here, I will not be concerned with this way of understanding the idea that prostitution is harmful in itself.
See, e.g., Hoigard and Finstad (1992); Abel (2010) and Rössler et al. (2010). The study by Hoigard and Finstad is controversial because it is said to be biased towards a radical feminist point of view and because it focuses on prostitution on the street and in brothels. However, although the incidence of PTSD, depression, and self-hatred appears to differ depending on the segment analyzed (street, brothel, private, escorts and subsegments thereof), the average incidence of these mental conditions across segments is clearly high (see Rössler et al. 2010 for an interesting study using clusters). It has to be noted, however, that prostitutes in specific segments do appear to be perfectly healthy. In the Zurich study by Rössler et al., this group consists of Europeans working in studios. Weitzer (2005) reports no special incidence of mental health problem among escorts and call girls. These differences are difficult to interpret, as there are many factors involved: the conditions in which prostitution is practiced in the different segments, the differential use of drugs and incidence of drug addiction, general standards of living, etc. However, I think that one factor that could help to explain the fact that some segments are much better off than others in terms of mental health, is that prostitutes in these segments typically choose to do what they do for a living and have more control over their work (Rössler et al. 2010: 150).
In fact, the incidence of drug abuse, especially among street sex workers, may also have to do with how some prostitutes try to cope with what they have to do. The following passage is from an interview in Abel (2010: 209): “Yeah, well I used to take a lot of drugs to do the job. So I mean, when I think about it now, how it’s quite horrendous. But a lot of the time I was going through with these men, I actually cannot remember, because I was so… There was a big pill scene in Christchurch - you know, barbiturate scene, downers, moggies and valium. Anything to block out basically what you were doing. And then the alcohol on top. (Mandy, Private, Female)”. Abel observes that “many street-based workers in this study utilised drugs as a strategy to numb their emotions and perform the role of sex worker” (2010: 209).
See also Brewis and Linstead (2000).
I do not want to claim that all or only people with a more “monogamous” profile (so to speak) would be harmed by prostitution. Some people with such a profile may be good at detaching themselves from their work; while, in contrast, some more promiscuous people may be unable to make an “unproblematic” transition from casual sex to paid sex. However, I think it reasonable to suppose that prostitution would eventually be harmful to more people with a “monogamous” profile. Incidentally, it could be maintained that it is improper to speak of monogamous or promiscuous profiles, as there are in general no stable profiles. However, it may even be that these two profiles (monogamous and promiscuous) have a genetic and epigenetic basis. Comparisons between the monogamous prairie vole and the promiscuous meadow and montane voles suggests that the expression of certain genes is responsible for the higher levels of oxytocin, dopamine and vasopressin observed in monogamous prairie voles; which seem to account for their high level of attachment to their individual sexual partners (McGraw and Young 2010).
Here we could consider a case such as a couple who have not had sex for a month. The women has been willing to have sex all along, while the man, for reasons unknown even to himself, has lost his sexual appetite. However, he feels bad about it and one night he just “tries to be nice”, since he thinks he owes it to his partner. The experience is a bad one; even though he manages to fake some excitement, he is not aroused at all. From that day on, the problem grows and extends to other parts of his personality.
There are statistics on the incidence of serious mental problems in prostitutes, which, as I mention above, plausibly respond to several factors. There are no statistics on (and plausibly, no way to know about) how prostitution could affect people who have never exercised it and how many people, from the general population, would be harmed if they were to sell sex for a living. Thus, the claim above cannot be but an assumption or a “working hypothesis”. I find it plausible that selling sex for a living would not be non-problematic for most of us; and would be surprised if anyone argued against that. Informal talk with prostitutes, with people who work with them, as well as with non-prostitutes, suggests that this assumption is on the right track. Reports from prostitutes and ex-prostitutes, such as Yolanda Estes and Andrea Dworkin, also support the assumption.
Again, I cannot support this claim to the degree of completion felt necessary, as we lack the relevant information. I have to leave it as a plausibility judgment at this stage, motivated by the reports of some prostitutes and ex-prostitutes. (See again the quote above from Dworkin, as well as another report from the BBC page http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6183491.stm, 6/6/2015: “Prostitution is serial rape of our bodies. From a personal perspective I can say that not just the physical damage but the emotional and spiritual damage caused by prostitution is tremendous and it never goes away. To this day, I have physical problems and my emotional problems will fill a book. When I was in it, getting out seemed impossible because my sense of self-worth was non-existent. I have no solution as long as men pay to do this terrible thing to us”.)
Abolition laws such as drug or alcohol prohibition may be paternalistic in the above sense, as it can be said that they are aimed at protecting everybody from being addicted and suffering bad consequences. If we were to know that some people would never become addicted or suffer any bad consequences from consuming drugs or alcohol, I wonder whether an unrestricted prohibition law should be considered paternalistic.
See Smith and Davidson (2014) on the happiness derived from giving, also in these cases.
An anonymous referee points out that my text might suggest a better solution: given that some segments of working prostitutes clearly fare much better than others in terms of PTSD, depression, etc., and that I myself suggest that this may be due to their having more control over their work, maybe the best solution would be to restrict the practice of prostitution to those segments (e.g., escorts and call girls). I think that this kind of result might be a consequence of applying the policy I recommend. I want to maintain that only people who really want to work as prostitutes should do so; and also that they should be autonomous while they work as prostitutes. If only escorts and call girls meet these conditions, then prostitution will be restricted these segments, but only as a result of applying the general policy I recommend (that is: general principles come first). It should, however, be noted that many prostitutes prefer to work in the street (Abel 2010). I see no motivation for not allowing them to do so, as street prostitution is not necessarily harmful. The statistics reveal greater incidence of PTSD, depression, etc. among prostitutes who work the street, because it is more stigmatized, more marginal, more related to drug use and abuse, and a larger proportion felt forced to begin and to continue. A liberal policy with strict vigilance may alleviate this situation, without the need to prohibit street prostitution; which, as numerous studies show, is extremely difficult to eradicate, while prohibition makes life worse for prostitutes (e.g., Kilvington et al. 2001).
Thanks to an anonymous referee for pointing this out.
I myself suggested above that there may be a profile of person who tends to be more harmed by prostitution. I think that it is prima facie reasonable to believe that what I have called a person with a more “monogamous” profile would suffer more. However, what we would need in order to prevent somebody from working as a prostitute is real knowledge; and clearly we lack that kind of knowledge. We could manage to get some ideas as to what profiles or groups of people are more at risk than others, but I take it that this is not enough to prevent an individual from doing what they say they want to do.
It could be argued, however, that if someone really wants to do something, and to continue doing it, then it is unlikely that he/she would be as harmed by doing that as someone who was forced to do it.
References
Abel, G. (2010) Decriminalisation: A harm minimisation and human rights approach to regulating sex work, PhD Thesis. Christchurch: University of Otago
Abel G (2014) A decade of decriminalization: sex work ‘down under’ but not underground. Criminol Crim Justice 14:580–592
Barry K (1995) The prostitution of sexuality: the global exploitation of women. New York University Press, New York
Brewis J, Linstead S (2000) ''The worst thing is the screwing” (2): context and career in sex work. Gend Work Organ 7(3):168–180
de Marneffe P (2010) Liberalism and prostitution. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Dworkin A (1997) Prostitution and male supremacy. In: Dworkin A (ed) Life and death. Free Press, New York, pp. 138–216
Ericsson LO (1980) Charges against prostitution: an attempt at a philosophical assessment. Ethics 90:38–39
Estes, Y. (2001) Moral reflections on prostitution. In Essays in Philosophy, 2 (2): The Philosophy of Love and Sex. Mississippi State University
Estes Y. (2008) Prostitution: a subjective position. In A. Soble and N. Power (eds.) The philosophy of sex: contemporary readings. 5 edn. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 353–365.
Farley M (2004) “Bad for the body, bad for the heart”: prostitution harms women even if legalized or decriminalized. Violence Against Women 10:1087–1125
Hoigard C, Finstad L (1992) Backstreets: prostitution, money, and love. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park
Kilvington J, Day S, Ward H (2001) Prostitution policy in Europe: a time of change? Fem Rev 67:78–93
McGraw LA, Young LJ (2010) The prairie vole: an emerging model organism for understanding the social brain. Trends Neurosci 33:103–109
Mill, J.S., (1859) On liberty, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956
Moen OM (2014) Is prostitution harmful? J Med Ethics 40(2):73–81
Nussbaum M (1998) “Whether from reason or prejudice”: taking money for sexual services. J Leg Stud 27:693–723
Rössler W., Koch U., Lauber C., Hass A.-K., Altwegg M., Ajdacic-Gross, V., and Landolt, K. (2010) The mental health of female sex workers. Acta Psychiatr Scand 122: 143–152.
Scambler, G. and Scambler, A. (1997) Afterword, In G. Scambler and A. Scambler (eds.), Rethinking prostitution: purchasing sex in the 1990s. London: Routledge.
Smith C, Davidson H (2014) The paradox of generosity: giving we receive, grasping we lose. Oxford University Press, New York
Sullivan M (2007) Making sex work: a failed experiment with legalised prostitution. Spinifex, Melbourne
VV. AA. (2000) Consensus statement on the live organ donor. J Am Med Assoc (JAMA), December 13,—Vol 284, No. 22
Weitzer R (2005) New directions in research on prostitution. Crime, Law Soc Chang 43:211–235
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Lorenz Lauer, Antonio Casado da Rocha and especially to Javier Peña Echeverria, who discussed with me previous versions of this paper. Thanks also to two anonymous referees provided by Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, who helped me to improve the paper more than significantly. Funding for this paper was provided by Research Grant FFI 2014-52196-P of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vicente, A. Prostitution and the Ideal State. A Defense of a Policy of Vigilance. Ethic Theory Moral Prac 19, 475–487 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-015-9645-x
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-015-9645-x