I recently heard you speak, but was unclear on your point that the criminalization of prostitution suppresses the sexuality of women in general, not just the sexuality of sex workers. Could you please make this connection clearer?
The criminalization of sex work is nothing less than the criminalization of thought. Sex outside of committed relationships, even with total strangers, is perfectly legal for motives such as fun, excitement, relief of boredom, experimentation, gratitude, friendship or whatever; it’s only when the woman has a “bad” motive, ie profit, that the act becomes illegal. Criminalization of sex work therefore gives cops the “right” to guess what a woman’s motive for sex might be, and if they decide (correctly or incorrectly, with or without proof) that her motive is a pragmatic one, to brutalize, rob, abduct and cage her, and in most places even to rape her to “collect evidence”. Prostitution laws therefore suppress all women’s sexuality, because women who dare to be sexual outside of committed relationships, especially women of color, are always in danger of cops deciding to harass or violate them under the premise of “investigating the crime of prostitution”. And in the aftermath of FOSTA, we are even beginning to see an erosion of women’s right to go unescorted in a public place without being discriminated against or even accused of “prostitution” or being a “sex trafficking victim”.
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And it finally comes down to keeping women second-class citizens. if women do not have control of their bodies, they don’t have control of their lives. If they don’t have control of their lives, they are slaves in all but name.
A few years ago I (and anyone who read local newspapers) saw ample proof of that. I may have posted a comment about it here. But it’s worth repeating.
Late one afternoon, not far from my home, downtown in a major university town that is also the birthplace of what is now Silicon Valley, a woman smartly dressed in a business suit and holding a briefcase stood on the sidewalk at a major intersection.
A man driving a snazzy sports car pulled over to the curb near her. She walked to the car. They exchanged a few words. She got into the car, and they pulled into traffic.
Cops converged on the car, full lights and sirens, and ordered them out of the car.
The man was charged with soliciting prostitution. The woman was charged with prostitution. Undercover cops had observed the entire exchange, and had given the signal to the uniformed cops and cars.
Cops were mightily embarrassed at arraignment. The man and woman were husband and wife. She was a lawyer at an upscale downtown law firm. He was an executive at a Silicon Valley high tech company. He was picking her up at the end of the workday.
ROTFLMAO!!! I hope they ended up owning half of the jurisdiction they were in after they sued the cops.