File spoon-archives/marxism-feminism.archive/marxism-feminism_1997/marxism-feminism.9707, message 182


Date: Sun, 27 Jul 1997 12:35:19 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: Re: M-FEM: Prostitution


Peter wrote:
>The interesting suggestion which this opens for me is that with the
>development of the pill, and 'free love' (which in our society is of
>course not free), the institution of prostitution declined in importance,
>and the existence of male prostitutes who serve women became a reasonable
>possibility. It would be interesting to examine the prostitution industry
>to see if this prediction in any sense is born out by reality.

In Japan and the United States--the two countries I have lived in--despite
availability of contraceptions, abortion, and quantities of non-marital sex
of all kinds, prostitution as well as all kinds of commodified sex seem to
be more popular than ever. Perhaps because under capitalism, as Peter
points out, there is no "free love" in an ideal sense--free love betwee two
equals outside the relationships of power? In the land of the "buy one get
one free," sex can't, it seems, escape commodification, mass production,
and niche marketing.

>Now, on to the question of whether prostitution should be legal or not. I
>think the question is, who gains by making prostitution illegal? To answer
>this question, I would note that, in my experience, making prostitution
>illegal is just a way of controlling prostitutes - an activity the state
>has an interest in since it has an interest in the control of sexuality in
>so far as sexuality is linked to reproduction. The illegality of
>prostitution, at least in Western countries, tends to just mean that
>prostitution is practiced within the context of a set of unevenly applied
>vice laws.
>
>I would similarly think that socialists should argue against measures used
>to control or register prostitutes, following the argument that such
>measures are attempts by the state to put bounds around the distinction
>between the two forms of commodification of sexuality, and act as an
>attack upon prostitute's as workers. Similarly, I would argue for the
>support of genuine prostitutes' unions (whilst recognising that
>prostitutes exist in a contradictory class position, somewhere between
>being workers and being petty-bouergois (with their bodies as their 'means
>of production')).
>
>Finally, I doubt that anything akin to modern prostitution would exist in
>a socialist society, on the basis that a socialist society would at the
>same time act to destroy the commodification of sexuality (resulting in a
>more genuine form of 'free love', which would militate against the need
>for prostitution) and also remove the conditions of poverty which is
>the most common force behind the supply of female prostitutes in our
>society.

I generally agree with both your analysis of the current situation and what
would change under socialism. But as I wrote earlier, there would have to
be almost revolutionary reforms of labor and immigration laws in order to
protect prostitutes' rights as workers, given the fact that so many migrant
workers are involved in sex trades. Also, we cannot but recognize the fact
that there are women, men, and children of both sexes who are forced to
sell sex, and we must destroy the conditions that create such violation of
their human rights.

Yoshie




   

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