The Social Stance Of Prostitution

Prostitution, also referred to as “the oldest profession,” has always been a controversial and challenging social issue. It is practiced in many different forms including: call girls, convention prostitutes, apartment prostitutes, hotel prostitutes, house prostitutes, bar girls, streetwalkers, and parking lot lizards (). Civilizations such as the Samarians, and countries including Morocco and parts of India engaged in a form of prostitution known as temple prostitution. Temple prostitution is based on the belief that “generative activity of human beings possessed a mysterious and sacred influence in promoting the fertility of nature” (Clarkson). In other civilizations, such as the Roman and Byzantine Empires, prostitution was looked upon as less of a religious ceremony, and more of a sin practiced by “women of evil life” (ProCon.org). Today those differentiating view are still present in modern society, but there are also new ideologies surrounding the everlasting presence of prostitution. This Essay will use the Symbolic Interactionism Theory to identify those new ideologies, and evaluate the meaning of prostitution within three relationship: the husband and wife, the Call girl and client, and the Pimp and the sex trafficking victim.

People hear story of young boys and girls going oversea and getting kidnap. That child is into force labor or sex. In today society pimp are glorified as a lady’s men. In reality pimp are not lady’s men pimps are criminal. The relationship between pimps and prostitutes is not what the society imagining it more brute than what people perceive. Many people think that pimps are harmless because of the movies and the songs. Society needs to look deeper than the surface when it comes to pimps and prostitutes, that the relationship is master and slave as in human trafficking.

So more than half of the women in that program had some sort of abuse that ultimately lead them into prostitution. According to to many former prostitutes, just like in the documentary Nefarious: Merchant of Souls, they decided to just sell their body for money since it did not really mean anything to them anymore. The early childhood of someone can really affect how they grow up so, instead of treating prostitutes as offenders treat them as victims. Some prostitutes decide to go into the sex trade industry but they do not sign up for the effects and the dangers of

Victor Hugo, a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement once said, "Slavery still exists, but now it only to women and its name is prostitution."(Hugo) Pimps are finding new ways to get more girls to work for them. They do all this for money. They sell away someone's innocence just to make a few dollars. Pimps use the dependency the girls develop for them against them. They are finding new ways to recruit girls and they use love and emotions to manipulate girls. Dependency, love, and new ways of communication are things that pimps are using to win the war for prostitution.

It is rather odd to think that prostitution, which is considered to be the world’s oldest profession, would be illegal and harmful in nature. The issue of legalizing prostitution has entered public conversation around the world, which is severely divided. Many, like myself, consider prostitution to be a victimless crime. Despite such opposition to legalizing prostitution, many argue that legalizing it would result in decreased morality issues, increase the economic activity in the United States, and help decrease the number of sexually transmitted diseases among both prostitutes and those who patronize them,

Prostitutes do mostly part-time work and can make a lot of money to support themselves, as opposed to taking other jobs, due to the fact that the work is illegal and customers are willing to pay. In addition to supply and demand to support oneself, the motivation for this field of work is also related to differences in how much money a woman earns compared to a man. A woman is willing to be a prostitute, since she can charge a higher. With relations to economics, prostitutes are involved in cost-benefit analysis when it comes to having a pimp, just like people do when it comes to real estate agents. In both situations people decide that it is better to provide money to someone else for a more beneficial

First of all, after learning all the materials in this class I viewed sex tracking differently because my initial thought on this topic was that because the girls were taken unwillingly. Yet, when I learned that girls were enticed by the pimps on the streets because of love, debt, addiction, physical might and authority (Marcus, Horning, Curtis, Sansan, & Thompson, 2014). In addition, according to a classmate, Brenda Muthoni, not all girls who were sex workers were innocent because some girls who had a chance to get out of the business would go back in again. Sometimes it was because of their addiction to drugs because when they needed to have more drugs, they went to their pimps. In other cases, some girls kidnapped or sold as sex workers

There are many sociological theories that can be used to explain prostitution in modern society. Two such theories are functionalism and symbolic interaction. Many people feel that prostitution may be an immoral act however, from a functionalist perspective there are social needs that are being filled through prostitution. Both social actors are gaining through the engagement of prostitution. Another sociological perspective; symbolic interactionism; focuses on the interaction that occurs between social actors. The labeling theory of symbolic interaction states that a prostitute is deviant only because he/she is labeled as such.

Women who get into the field of sexual services or at this point, prostitution are there for many reasons. A lot of women finds out about how much money they can make while there are still young and gets obsessed with money. Others see it as a way to pay for something, like education or loans that need to be paid back. A lot of women leave the business after their reach their desired goal. For many of them they see themselves as rescuers, giving men something they want and need.

As for those that sell themselves willingly without being forced to by an outside party like that of pimp, still in some way, have the ability to harm others in the process. To put in simply, participants in the act of prostitution, and other victimless crimes, are indirectly inflicting harm upon others by directly committing the crime themselves (Ruskin, 2012). With that being said, the offenders’ families/significant others may be hurt, and this crime (as well as many others) could even lead to other problems where there are unwilling victims (Meier and Geis, 1997). For example, prostitutes and the act of prostitution are considered by the United Health Organization a reservoir for the spread of HIV/AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases (Rosenberg & Weiner, 1988). Although the paying user at the time is willing and understands that such diseases could be transmitted, this doesn’t count for those who engage in intercourse with said person after he/she has participated with a prostitute. If the new person ends up contracting any form of STD from the paying user,

Several studies have been conducted looking at the risk factors for entering street-level prostitution, the characteristics of those involved, and the barriers to exiting. For example, Kramer and Berg (2003) examined the influence of minority status, education level, and the experience of risk factors (such as physical and sexual abuse) on entry into prostitution. It is important to learn why women enter prostitution in order to better learn what barriers may be trapping them in the work. Women were located and surveyed through a program set up for prostitutes that worked both inside and outside of a women’s prison. The study found that half of the women were physically or sexually abused and that continuing education reduced the risk of women entering prostitution (Kramer & Berg, 2003).

There are many cases as to why people get into prostitution. One of the most common reasons women decide to become a sex worker is usually to help pay for schooling, or other financial debt. Here in California minimum wage is now about ten dollars an hour which is not nearly enough money to support oneself, let alone pay for college loans. In an AlterNet article Celine Bisette talks about how people let ignorance get the best of them as they assume her being a prostitute is a product of sexual abuse. Celine states,” The reality is that I had a happy childhood that was completely devoid of abuse of any kind. I grew up in a very ordinary middle class family. My parents cooked dinner for me every night, helped me with my homework, and told me they loved me every single day.” When people make judgements about why sex workers are doing what they are doing it puts these workers in an uncomfortable position, making them regretful and embarrassed about a job that they like doing.

After the Escorts comes the Bar girls/boys who are hustlers, strippers and table dancers that work in night clubs, bars and strip joints primarily. Then comes the house girls that work in brothels which would run by a madam (female recruiter) or a pimp (male recruiter); they have very little to no freedom in selecting their client and cannot turn down a customer. After that come the bottom two classes – street-walkers and drug-addicts. The street-walkers are prostitute work at a specific location and in open street and dress very provocatively to entice their customers. The bottom tier, drug-addicts are man or woman who would have sex with others just to have drugs or money to buy drugs. These five ranks also determines how much freedom and options you have and the entry and exit in the sex industry; the higher the rank the hard to enter and easy to quit while it remains the opposite in the lower rank. The higher rank prostitutes also have more protection and security than the lower rank ones and there are more violent events (rape, death etc) in the lower rank than the higher rank that have an established business with higher and exclusive clientele. Despite it’s danger and the cultural taboo condemning it, in the documentary Prostitution: the oldest trade, where several prostitutes were interviewed on how they feel about

Prostitution has frequently been touted as the world's oldest profession, for the simple fact that it has been prevalent in society for quite some time. In order to properly discuss the many social ramifications of this particular crime and possible ways for dealing with them, it is first necessary to define prostitution and to explore the reason why it is a crime. Prostitution is the exchange of money or monetary assets for sexual favors and pleasure. It is the paying for sex in all of its myriad facets, from conventional coitus to a number of lewd and arcane acts from which people derive pleasure. Prostitution is part of the sex industry, which includes legal business such as strip clubs (Weitzer 7). There are a couple of different reasons as to why exchanging money for sex is deemed illegal. One principle reason is that if it were legalized, it would be exceedingly difficult for the government to tax and to capitalize off it, which is one of the reasons in which marijuana is widely considered illegal. More importantly, however, prostitution is illegal because it promotes the objectification of women and their bodies, and inherently reduces the degree of parity between men and women in which the latter are viewed as things simply for the fulfillment of men's sexual desires. Additionally, there are a variety of noxious activities that accompany prostitution such as trafficking in which the will of another is subjected to someone else's.

One of the oldest known jobs in history is Prostitution, otherwise known as the sex labor industry. It is a major part of our society as an illegitimate source of income and employment. The prohibition of Prostitution creates a larger number of issues in society. Before, prostitution was a more individual decision, where countless women picked it as a last resort in emergencies; whereas now these women are coerced into the industry and experience abuse, murder, etc. The involvement and trauma prostitutes experience results in mental disorders. Furthermore, I investigate how the prohibition of prostitution has greater drawbacks on our society and introduce three policies that may help resolve the social issue within sex workers. Some policies I believe will provide the most benefits are first, the legalization of prostitution, second, enforcing and strengthening the law enforcement for human trafficking, and third, development of availability of medical resources.