Sex Work: Prostitution and Pornography

1. Sex Work: Prostitution and Pornography • Feminism Lecture III 24/01/2014

2. Introduction • Pornography & Prostitution (Sex Work) • Undesirable Practices? • Current Practices are Undesirable • Undesirable Now: Would be better now without them • Ideally Undesirable • Practices that are Wrong • Practices that We Should Not Engage in

3. For the view that Sex Work is Undesirable • Harms Sex Workers • Harms Women in General • Sex Work makes the world less valuable

4. Is Sex Work Undesirable because it harms Sex Workers?

5. Physical & Mental Harms • Prostitutes run the risk of many Physical & Mental Harms: (a) Disease; (b) Physical; (c) Mental. So, prostitution is undesirable. • But many other jobs = very risky. • Would it be better now if no one did those other jobs? • Would it be better nowall things considered if there were no prostitutes? • (a-c) could be eliminated by reformed practice of prostitution

6. Sex Work is only engaged in as a last ditch option • Only women in poverty with no other options undertake sex work • But this shows that sex work benefits such women • But if no other option, then the practice exploits their lack of choice • Not only women in poverty get into sex work

8. Sex Work is only engaged in as a last ditch option • Massive class divide in sex work (prostitution especially): might see 2 different practices here • The problem here is poverty not sex work!

9. Sex Workers Cannot Have Meaningful Sex • Scott Anderson, Prostitutes lose the possibility of attaining ‘a certain kind of good that can be achieved through sex, one that depends on a connection between sex and intimacy or between sex and commitment’

11. So, does sex work harm sex workers?

12. Does Sex Work Harm Women in General?

13. Pornography & violence: the data • Pornography depicts women as less than men and approves of this depiction • Porn is taught as the model of sex to teach some people & others learn sex through porn • Empirical research indicates that men come to enjoy rape porn the more they watch it and to enjoy consensual-sex porn less the more they view it • So, pornography causes violence against women & the expectation of violent degrading sex • Problems: Most studies only show attitudinal changes. Not sufficient.

14. Pornography Silences Women • Some speech acts can also be actions: ‘I do’ ‘I baptise this ship Helen’ ‘Kill’ - Pornography likewise silences • How? • It can prevent a ‘no’ mattering to a potential rapist • It can prevent ‘no’ being understood by a potential rapist • But a piece of pornography is not a speech act.

15. Pornography & violence: the data • But: some evidence shows that porn renders subjects more likely to accept rape myths • However, the same is true with being shown non-sexual violence against women • Could education help here? • Subjects who have watched porn but been debriefed explaining that rape myths are false are less likely to accept those myths months later • So, if sufficiently regulated could in fact challenge rape culture

16. Pornography & violence: the data • Might think that pornography is responsible for rise in sexual violence • Some rapists and murderers of women talked about porn whilst doing these things • But this doesn’t show that porn caused the violence & studies show that sex offenders tend to have less exposure to porn than other men

17. The roles & norms of sex depicted in pornography • In pornography women are subordinated as servants of men • Does this pornography further these views? • The view that BDSM porn furthers these views misunderstands BDSM culture • A different worry is that men who watch standard porn want sex that looks like that & become obsessed with porn

18. Prostitution perpetuates gender inequality • Prostitution is overwhelmingly female • Women working as prostitutes reinforces negative stereotypes of what lines of work are ‘women’s work’ • Problem: So does women working as secretaries, care-givers, housewives, and teachers • Response: Prostitution is more connected to violence • Problem: housewives, secretaries, and caregivers are far more visible than prostitutes

19. Prostitution perpetuates pernicious norms • Prostitution in our culture re-emphasises, in a particular way that only it can, particular pernicious stereotypes regarding women • There are some cultural ideas about women, sex, and prostitution that are transmitted through awareness of our female dominated practice of prostitution • That men have powerful emotionally destabilising sexual appetites • That men are suited for dominant social roles • That contact with male genitals is damaging and polluting to women • That a person’s sexual practice renders them a particular type of person

20. Prostitution perpetuates pernicious norms • But if our practice were re-conceived & prostitutes were seen as experts, prostitution would not provide a venue for such pernicious stereotypes • This sometimes happens already, so perhaps it could happen

21. Does Sex Work make the World Less Valuable?

22. Sex in sex work is impoverished sex • Sex that is paid for is a poor form of non-paid for sex and is to that extent undesirable • Sex should just be for its own sake? • Even if paid for sex were worse, this would not show that paid-for sex is undesirable

23. The total commercialisation of sex would be awful • It would be awful if we could only see sex as an economic transaction • If sex work were normalised, would this lead us to treat all sex transactionally? • Should sex work be treated as just another form of work?

24. Is Sex Work so Different from other work? • Compare a prostitute to: • A factory worker who plucks feathers from nearly frozen chickens • A professor of philosophy • A skilled masseuse employed by a health club • A forehead advertiser • Someone who makes money by doing medical trials of flu and similar • Someone who is paid for having her colon examined with the latest instruments to test out their range and capability • However, is sex work the worst of all worlds + pleasure not science?

25. Bad Consequences of Treating Sex Work as just another form of work • Job descriptions might be re-described to involve sexual tasks • Welfare might be denied to people who are capable of doing available sexual work • People could write enforceable contracts that include sexual services. Courts would be required to uphold them • Corporations that provided sexual services could monitor the sexual acts of employees • Sex workers would have to not discriminate between customers • The government would be entitled to prohibit risky sexual behaviour outside of work • Corporations might market aggressively to change prejudices against buying sex • Schools would have to counsel students about options in sex work • Liberto’s Response: Distinguish between sexual-rights-alienating & sexual-rights-preserving prostitution

26. Ideally, would the world be better off without sex work? • Pornography allows for sexual expression? • Can allow for positive portrayal of forms of sexuality and relationships undervalued by society • But would there be prostitution ideally? • Doesn’t seem like trade in food for instance in an ideal society • This might show us that prostitution is not exactly like other forms of work

27. Summing Up • Many arguments against Sex Work are overblown • A somewhat reformed practice of Sex Work would avoid most of the undesirabilities we have evidence for

28. Further issues • If all the arguments against sex work fails, what explains why so many feminists are anti-porn? • Individual Responsibility: Is it wrong to watch porn? Is it wrong to go to a prostitute? Is it wrong to be a sex-worker?