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I know that I am not the first to support the legalization of prostitution. There are many arguments for it from the mere unconstitutionality of the criminalization of it, to making it safer for both the women and her johns as well as it being blatantly in opposition of the separation of church and state. I do not wish to rewrite what others have said and that you can easily find by doing a google search on “legalizing prostitution”, but I would like to express perhaps another perspective in the support of the de-criminalization of prostitution.

The criminalization of prostitution may seem as though that it was put into place to protect women but there is a subtle energy at play here. It is so subtle and so pervasive that most people don’t even recognize it. This energy began with organized religions attack on women beginning with God’s banishing of Lilith from the garden, then the curse of Eve and once again by labeling Mary Magdalene a whore. It is the underlying belief that woman is unworthy; unworthy of love, trust and of being compensated for her time and for the use of her body and the belief that it is a man’s right to have sex with a woman without giving in return. Since then women have been on a never ending journey of sacrificing ourselves to prove our worthiness to God and men.

We live in a society that knows and accepts that women have sex to get love and men lie about love to get sex. It is acceptable for a woman to dumb her self down, to do all she can to be loved, and all the while be manipulated and lied to so that a man can satisfy his physical desires. “Boys will be boys” many might say. But, shame on the woman who decides to even the playing field by not expecting love but only financial compensation for the use of her body.

In the business of prostitution a man can get sex and tell no lies and the woman is compensated fairly for her time and her body knowing that there is no promise of love. Prostitution allows the woman to stand in her power; in her power of being desired.

Prostitution will never go away whether it is legal or illegal. As long as men desire women and find it easier to pay her than to love her prostitution will be a booming business.

There are two sides to prostitution, there are the women who work through agencies (which do exist even though it’s illegal) and the girls that are on the streets. The women on the streets are most likely to be arrested and imprisoned for their business transactions; these are also the girls that are being dominated by abusive pimps and handing over their money. These are the girls that are most often violently raped and brutally beaten by their johns.

Many the women working the streets came from rape and incest and ran away from that experience only to find themselves in the same situation. She is frightened and doesn’t know where to turn. She has been taught not to turn in her pimp because he will find her and kill her. She has no back up. No place to turn because our legal system believes that she cannot be raped because she is a whore and if she is beaten she deserves it for putting herself in that position.

It is every woman’s right if she chooses to go into the labor business of selling her body and to be protected in doing so. She should be allowed to conduct business safely. No woman deserves to be raped or beaten and as long as we think she does we are letting our sisters down.

How much money are we wasting incarcerating women selling their bodies that are of no threat at all to society? All the while as a mother I am responsible for knowing where the sex offenders and pedophiles are living because it is their right not to have it publicly announced that they abuse women and children. Let’s stop using our hard earned money to incarcerate harmless women and let’s put our resources to use in a more effective and might I say logical way.

Not to mention that according to Randall Swift in his article “The Oldest Profession - Shocking Facts and Statistics About Prostitution” all arrests of prostitutes involve entrapment, invasion of privacy, and/or the use of discriminatory laws/tactics.
Also according to Swift:

70% of female inmates in American prisons were initially arrested for prostitution

77.8% of arrests are women, 22.2% men

Prostitutes account for 90% of the arrests, their clients for only 10%

One must ask is this really a war against prostitution or is it a war against women?

The second side to prostitution is the women who choose to go into the profession through an agency. These may be women like you and me, the single mothers or the married women who find that the only way to make the money they need and balance motherhood is to become a prostitute. These women will usually work through agencies that provide them with clients (a glorified pimp). This is a little safer but most agencies do not provide protection for the woman that is meeting with a john and there are not regulations in preventing the transmission of STD’s. Because prostitution is illegal the woman has little to no ability to report a beating or rape.

Although in the United States it is illegal for a woman to have sex with a man or men behind closed doors for her own financial profit it is perfectly legal for her to be paid to have sex for a pornographic movie. This is a gross double standard. The women and girls (one must only be 18 years old to be in a movie) who are in these movies are not provided with an advocate in the room during filming. She left alone in a room full of men telling her what to do. Once again she has no protection. Condoms rarely if every used in pornographic movies and if a woman requests that they be used she will not work again. This is frightening for the woman who knows of no other way to earn a living.

It is our right as women to be safe and protected no matter the business we choose to be in. It is our right to profit from our bodies. Let’s legalize and regulate prostitution for the safety of all. It has been proven that criminalizing it does not eliminate it. Let’s us the money we save by not arresting and incarcerating prostitutes to stop human smuggling of girls (and boys) to be sold on the black market as sex slaves (yes even Americans), let’s use the money for continued incarceration of sex offenders, and let’s educate women, girls, men and boys about the preciousness of the feminine.

You can read Swift’s article in its entirety at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/451423/the_oldest_profession_shocking_facts.html?cat=17

Michelle Lee