Avoid context and specifics; generalize and keep repeating the generalization. – Jack Schwartz
In yesterday’s column I examined the original source for the spurious and exaggerated claims about the number of involuntary teenage prostitutes and the average age at which prostitutes enter the trade, namely the 2001 Estes and Weiner study. Today I’d like to cite the original sources for a few other spurious claims made by prohibitionists, thereby revealing their inapplicability as generally used. I myself was made aware of these sources via a very long March 13th post from a commenter called “Eva”, responding to the claims of the trafficking robot called “M. Smith” in the reply thread for the Belle de Jour guest blog I mentioned in my column of March 25th; I know that I appreciated the information, and assumed my readers might be equally interested. Thank you, Eva!
As we’ve discussed before, studies of streetwalkers, especially imprisoned and/or drug-addicted streetwalkers, are a rich source of anti-prostitution propaganda because the life of the average streetwalker is so much more chaotic, dangerous and unsatisfactory than the life of the independent escorts who make up the majority of the profession. It’s a bit like studying street peddlers and then using that to make pronouncements about every other sector of the retail economy from dollar stores to Ferrari dealerships, with predictably inaccurate results. A 2005 study (“New Directions in Research on Prostitution” by Ronald Weitzer of George Washington University in Washington, DC) calls attention to a number of these differences; for example, 97% of California escorts surveyed reported an increase in self-esteem after they entered harlotry, compared with 50% of Nevada brothel workers and 8% of streetwalkers (Prince, 1986: 454). That study (page 497) also reported that the escorts saw their work positively, while the brothel girls were merely satisfied and streetwalkers were largely dissatisfied. Another study of low-end escorts in the U.S. found that 75% of them felt that their lives had improved since becoming escorts, 25% reported no change and 0% said their lives were worse. (Decker, 1979: 166, 174). A Dutch study (Dalder, 2004: 34) gave the same results, and all of the escorts studied by Foltz (1979: 128) took pride in their work and viewed themselves as more sensible than amateurs; “they consider women who are not ‘in the life’ to be throwing away woman’s major source of power and control [sexual capital], while they as prostitutes are using it to their own advantage as well as for the benefit of society.” And an Australian study found that half of all prostitutes surveyed ranked their work as a “major source of satisfaction” in their lives, and 70% said they would definitely choose prostitution again if they had their lives to live over (Woodward et al., 2004: 39).
Yet over and over again, neofeminists trot out their incarcerated-streetwalker studies as representative of all prostitutes (despite the fact that they’re not even representative of the majority of streetwalkers). We’re told that “75% of women in prostitution become involved when they are under the age of eighteen,” a figure taken from Benson, C. and Matthews, R. (1995), “Street Prostitution: Ten Facts in Search of a Policy” in International Journal of Sociology of the Law, Vol. 23, pp 395-415. Another claim is that “45% of prostitutes report childhood sexual abuse and 85% childhood physical abuse”; these figures derive from a paper on streetwalkers by Hester & Westmarland (2004) which was commissioned as part of a crime reduction program. Or how about “More than half of prostitutes have been raped and 75% beaten by a pimp or customer” and “the mortality rate for prostitutes is 12 times higher than that of other women”? Both were drawn from the UK government report “Solutions and Strategies: Drug Problems and Street Sex Markets.” To my knowledge, NO study of mainstream prostitution has ever been done by an officially-sanctioned entity in either the U.S. or U.K.; both countries seem to prefer the rantings of neofeminists and extrapolation from the least-fortunate third of the least-fortunate 15% of the hooker population.
Of course, not all of the statements made by prohibitionists are drawn from streetwalker studies; a few are in fact probably true for most whores, but this is only because they’re true for nearly everyone who works in virtually any field. I’m speaking of statements like “most prostitutes are driven to it by financial need” and “9 out of 10 prostitutes would like to exit prostitution immediately.” Well, duh; nearly everyone in every job is driven to it by financial need, and at least 90% of people would like to quit working immediately if they won the lottery or something. Are these statements supposed to demonstrate that prostitution is pretty much like any other job? Because one would think that’s what the prohibitionists were trying to disprove. Perhaps the reason for ridiculous statements like these or “no little girl wants to grow up to be a prostitute” is that many academic neofeminists (who generate most of these bogus statistics) are so isolated in their ivory towers that they really don’t know that there are many jobs far more stressful than prostitution, and that very few people work for anything but purely economic reasons.
Other than outright lies and mumbo-jumbo about the female sexual gestalt, there is one other general class of prohibitionist claims: statements based on neofeminist gender-war politics. But these, too can be refuted by proper research, for example Dr. Suzanne Jenkins’ “Beyond Gender: An Examination of Exploitation in Sex Work”. Neofeminists call prostitution “humiliating” and “degrading”, but Jenkins reports that 72% of escorts feel their self-esteem is higher because of their work. Neofeminists claim that prostitution constitutes “oppression” of women, but Jenkins’ study shows that 72% of escorts like their work for the independence, 67% for meeting people and 93% for the money. Neofeminists believe that males have the power in a prostitution transaction, yet Jenkins found that 54% of escorts consider the transaction as equal, 26% said that the whore had power over the client and only 6% perceived the client as having power over them. Neofeminists also proclaim that men view prostitutes as things to be used, but 77% of Jenkins’ escorts felt their clients respected them. And what about that neofeminist buzzword, “exploitation”? Jenkins found that 56.6% of escort felt they had never been exploited by their clients, while only 3% often felt exploited.
Taken out of context, facts become lies and true statements become misrepresentations, and when combined with unrealistic ideology they all become powerful tools of deception. Make no mistake, the prohibitionists have no compunction against lying; they think of their anti-prostitution campaign as war and intend to win by any means necessary. But because outright lies are more easily exposed than bogus or misinterpreted facts, the latter are more effective in the long run. Fortunately, this allows those who care about the truth to undermine those false statements by presenting them in context. It’s a long, arduous process, but it’s the only way to fight implacable enemies who believe that the end justifies the means.
Why is analysis like this not more widely available?
Feminists seem to rule every media post I’ve ever been in. There’s no way I’d ever be able to report any of this.
On the other hand, I should.
Village Voice is making a stand against the nonsense; take a look at this recent article.
This would make an excellent documentary: How it’s reported.
Thank you! 🙂
Believe it or not, this is what I do.
I’m going to draft a brief proposal for a nice 1-hour. It could take a month. But I know exactly the right person to approach.
Incidentally, this is what I do; News and docs for various companies. I used to do reporting (and I know exactly how the media works – it’s not a big conspiracy; it’s worse; because it’s not a big conspiracy, it’s harder to fight).
This subject really interests me and you could really scratch a few sores with this subject. It’s guaranteed funding if approached properly.
Might not be produceable in the US. Definitely doable in a few other markets.
You might have just supplied me with work for 2012. Who knows.
(BTW, I’m not kidding. Really. if anything comes of it, I’ll let you know).
“most prostitutes are driven to it by financial need”
That is hysterical. Pretty much ALL men work from financial need. The old chinese saying “if you don’t work you don’t eat” applies. Women are the ONLY ones who have the OPPORTUNITY to get a man to provide for them. How many WOMEN provide for men? Not many.
In Australia there was an article a while ago headlined something like “Recession forces more women into prostitution”
1. The women are NOT being FORCED into prostitution.
2. MEN don’t even have the OPTION of going into prostitution. We have to get different job.
Actually, men can be prostitutes; they just have the same clientele as we do, i.e. men.
Peter-Andrew,
If you are willing to have sex with a man, then you can get into the business. Unfortunately, female clients are few, even in big cities.
One day, that might change. Who knows.
LOL Susan. Even when I was a little boy and my dad would kiss me or cuddle me I didn’t like the feel of his stubble on my face. One thing I know for sure is that I’m not gay!!! Even today my Dad and I cuddle or hug eat other. And even today I don’t like his stubble!!
I just like women. I really do. Over the last 3 years I’ve had two really good ‘favs’. I have written about them extensively on spearhead and quoted them in the book. One helped me save my life. How could I NOT like such a woman?
If I could have a wife like these two and they actually acted like these two as my wife? I would we married and quite happily take care of her. I make more than enough money to provide for a woman. I would be quite happy to ‘oppress’ my wife by giving her a life of relative luxury in return for loving me as a wife. But apparently this is no longer on offer so I will do without. That’s fine by me.
My fav1 tried very, very hard to close me on the deal of ‘marriage with children’. If it was ‘marriage without children’ she might very well have succeeded.
Peter, did you actually even read the article? She actually stated in no uncertain terms what you’re trying to cram down her throat. I’ve only read one article by Maggie but she seems to get it by far, and I’m sure feminists call for her head just like they do MRAs.
@Maggie: very interesting website, I’m one for legalizing prostitution not just from my belief that a person should be able to do whatever they want so long as it doesn’t infringe on others, but also because I think legalization would actually protect a lot of streetwalkers and even make it much harder for underage prostitution to prosper with some regulation standards. But ofcourse feminists/politicians(which more than after meld together) would call me a degenerate for a statement like this to which I’d have to reply “whine more.”, will be following this blog with interest
Thanks, Donn! Sex worker rights advocates feel that deregulation is the best way to proceed; it’s the way New Zealand has done it and is succeeding wonderfully there (there’s a link under “resources” at right).
I don’t know of any neofeminists calling for my head just yet, but I’m sure it’s inevitable. 🙂
np Maggie, I also sent you an email just now about an issue that’s razing the men’s blogosphere so to speak, about Prosecutor Mary Kellett, peruse it at your leisure and hopefully do a write up on it after you’ve gotten the information, it’s a rather chilling case, and Mary Kellett neeeds to be stopped asap.
I also agree fully with decriminalizing prostitution. By regulate I mean setting up some kind of databse or something that categories sex workers who are legally allowed to work(basically this is to stop underage sex workers), while also instituting standards or whatnot to help protect sex workers while on the job, as it seems our judicial system is more than willing to not give a shit about crime whenever it involves something happening to a sex worker.
The only problem with such databases, Donn, is that like registries of gun owners they’re inevitably used to further tyranny. Once a woman registers as a prostitute she might as well be wearing a scarlet letter; have you seen the big mess about the leaked porn actor database? Porn acting is a fully legal profession as legalized prostitution would be, and look at what can happen.
I just threw up in my mouth after reading that article and the comments, strike what I said about the database. just ugh
Sad, isn’t it? 🙁
I’ve discussed having this type of organization before and have briefly discussed it with Maggie. A private sector (what did we call it? ASWA or something) NGO consisting of a database of known voluntary adult sexworkers in which clients can peruse as a safety net of sorts to help ensure that they are not risking the hiring of an underage and/or forced sex worker. If eventually it becomes big enough and widespread enough, legitimate clients (the ones who DON’T actively seek underage types) will use our database more and thereby decrease any demand for the underaged. It would also include a database of sorts of violent clients, rip off alerts, etc in order to keep both client and prostitutes safe.
I’ve had the idea for years, a virtual brothel if you will. The problem would be finding the adult voluntary pros and ensuring that they are NOT underaged or forced WITHOUT having to collect any personal information that, should the government try to intercede, could be used against them. Personal interviews with each and every prostitute? I think it can be started NOW and the logistics worked out as we go along (can certainly foresee bumpy roads ahead and bridges to cross). Hmmm I may brainstorm on this and start yet another project LOL just to see how I can get it to look in practical application 🙂
B
Even if prostitutes ARE underage or drug addicts or victims of some soul-destroying childhood/abuse/crime, what is to be gained by EXCLUDING them from any legal scheme? That would only force them deeper underground where real abuse can and does happen.
Any fifteen year old crack smoking prostitute is in need of help. If fully aware and engaged grown up women are not going to help them, who will? Feminists? Ha! Not likely.
And it’s not like there are a lot of them. They should be encouraged to come into brothels or licenced facilities so them can get some help. If that is what they want.
Sorry don’t mean to confuse the issues. There are plenty of services for victims that include rehab for young crack addicts (more than there is for AVP’s anyway). There are very few that cater to adult voluntary prostitutes. What I was speaking of was something that would be beneficial to those of us engaged in AVP (adult voluntary prostitutes, don’t feel like typing it out all the time) with a side effect (I believe) of decreasing some of the so called “demand” by clients who may wrongfully assume a person is of legal age. A place where prohibitionists would be less likely to compare to CraigsList or BackPage in that we would not allow (somehow) child sex trafficking.
15 y/o crack addicts is a different issue than what I was referring to. Sorry for any confusion
In a brothel setting (or even an escort agency, to some extent), there are jobs to do that don’t involve having sex with anybody. The fifteen year old crack smoking prostitute could enter one of these establishments and become a fifteen year old crack smoking floor-sweeper or laundress (even brothel girls can’t run around naked all the time). While there, she can earn some money, get some job experience, see a side of prostitution that isn’t what she’d be doing on the streets, and who knows? maybe get some help with her crack problem. If she isn’t wanting help, well then nothing was going to make the difference anyway, and at least she’s off the street.
Oh I can just imagine it now. “Brothel/Escort Agency Hires 15 year old.”
Wouldn’t matter if she just folded laundry for the business, because everyone would “KNOW” that the evil owner is exploiting her and actually making her have sex with clients. Out comes the Farley’s effectively shutting down the business (and displacing AVP’s) until we can prove beyond the shadow of the imagination that she was not exposed to sex-rays.
I hear and agree with what you are saying. But somebody is going to try and step in and create some law thinking they are “helping the children” when in fact they won’t be. I think AVP’s should be allowed to teach high school girls and at risk youths that if you ever find yourself in x situation then this is how to be safe and these are the resources you can turn to. But that’s another story.
An NGO (ASWA) can have many divisions, one of which could be helping 15 y/o crack addicts in a way that will help the public sleep better at night while still allowing AVP’s the freedom to conduct their own business.
Well… yeah. I mean, if a teacher who was in porn a decade ago can defile a classroom of students who don’t even know, then scores of whores (and currently active!) are going to cause a troubled teenager to spontaneously combust.
I guess I was looking at some some undefined point in the future, when the stigma has largely faded away. But I didn’t say that, didn’t even think it in any specific way.
note I was also talking about the prosecutorial immunity article as well, what a fucking joke, I wouldn’t trust gov’t with regulating anything anymore
The prosecutorial immunity article Donn speaks of is one I sent him via email and comes via The Agitator; it hit home particularly for me because I’m from New Orleans and remember Harry Connick’s shenanigans quite well.
N.B.: The well-known singer is the son of the Harry Connick in the article.
I felt a lot more exploited when I was temping and my temp agency was taking over 50% of my salary then when I was giving handjobs in the massage parlor ;).
My concern with the database would be if a whore decides to switch careers; even if prostitution were to become legalized, I doubt the social stigma were to disappear overnight. I would hate for someone to be denied a future job based on a past career as a sex worker.
There was a perfect example just a few weeks ago; she was a legal sex worker (porn actress) in the mid-’90s and lost her current job (teacher) because of it.
That’s one of the problems I have with the Nevada system. I don’t think a privately held database should be searchable by employers (though they could pose as clients) and one of the reasons why I don’t think real life information should be included in the database anyway.
Of all these statistics, I really wouldn’t be surprised to find that the higher murder rate was true. But of course that’s not an effect of prostitution itself, but of its illegality.
[…] rather than regularly. Experience leads to mastery and confidence, which increases self-esteem; over 72% of escorts report that their self-esteem increased after entering the trade. Clients, on the other hand, have to contend with demeaning or demonizing cultural messages about […]
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