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Moid Shaikh 2014-02-0409 Raazia Waseem Writing and Communication 100 13 May 2011 Should prostitution be legalized? The beginning of the society was matriarchal as woman was seen as the creator of life force. She was worshipped as the Great Goddess and was the hub of all social activity (Roberts 1). They gathered 65 to 80 percent of the communitys food. Because women held such a powerful position, it was inevitable that women were autonomous in their sexual expression (Robert 3). Around 3000 BC, things started to alter as the male dominated nomad tribes began to invade the matriarchal territories. It led to the establishment of patriarchal societies where the balance of power then shifted from women to men. Men were now, the head who owned number of slaves, over whom they had the power of life and death. The reckoning of descent through the female line and the right of inheritance through the mother was overthrown as the male lineage and the right of inheritance from the father were instituted (Karl, Engels and Tucker 736). In order to protect the inheritance rights, the institution of marriage was established. This was the defining point in the history because the establishment of institution of marriage led to the division of women into wives and prostitutes. This was actually where prostitution got its defining name. It is here important to define prostitution and what does legalizing prostitution means. Prostitution is an act of performing sexual intercourse or other sex acts in exchange for financial

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benefits. Prostitution is one of the oldest professions and its existence has roots since the beginning of the mankind. Hetaerism refers to the earliest social organization of the human race in the patriarchal societies which were characterized by the absence of the institution of marriage in any form and women were the common property of their tribe, and the children never knew their fathers (Hetaerism - LoveToKnow 1911). This shows that prostitution is just another form of paid slavery for women in todays era. In recent years, prostitution has been legalized in many countries including Canada, most of Europe including England, France, Wales, Denmark, etc., most of South America including most of Mexico (often in special zones), Brazil, Israel (Tel Aviv known as the brothel capital of the world), Australia, Nevada (US) and many other countries (Decriminalize Prostitution Now Coalition Your Tax Dollars Are Being Wasted Ruining Citizens Lives Instead of fighting real crime). It is important to understand what type of legalization is being referred here. Legalizing prostitution does not only mean that we are decriminalizing it which means that prostitutes could practice it anywhere. Prostitution is legal in Nevada in the form of heavily regulated and licensed brothels. Outside brothels the prostitution is still illegal all over the state. There is also a comprehensive health program for prostitutes in order to check Sexually transmitted diseases and consequently allowing them to practice prostitution only if they are free from such diseases. Although, the opposition raises so much concern and criticism on the option of legalizing prostitution but that just delays the matter and put it on hang, what they dont realize is the fact that even if it is not legalized, it is impossible to eradicate its illegal form from the society. No matter how long you take, eventually this issue has to be dealt with and the best possible way out is its legalization. Nevertheless, it raises a few issues like commoditization of sex and degradation of women but it is the right of women to choose. If they want to pursue this profession than they have

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all the right to do so and to provide them with a legalized system would root out other problems and a smooth working of this institution would enhance harmony in society. The significant factor highlighted by most of the people denying the legalization of prostitution is their concern towards the aspects of morality. Many people consider prostitution as an immoral act because according to them, prostitution has brought down sex to the levels of pleasure rather as previously it was seen with purity representing love and monogamy. The people arguing on the basis of morality to prohibit prostitution have ignored many fundamental aspects before proposing this argument. First of all, prostitution could not be considered as immoral because it doesnt harm anyone, instead it satisfies both the parties involved in the act. The clients are satisfied in terms of sexual pleasure they receive while prostitutes are satisfied in terms of the financial gains achieved. Therefore, it should rather be considered as a beneficial practice. Moreover, the establishment of the institute of marriage has differentiated between women as wives to be the good women and the bad women are the prostitutes. Before that there was no such concept and the act of treating women as slaves was not considered immoral. So why should prostitution be considered immoral and not be legalized, just because now there exists the institution of marriage which acts as a differentiating force for women. Another argument put forward is that husbands would start cheating on their wives after legalization of prostitution as they can easily approach prostitutes which might become a threat to the existence of the institution of marriage. Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh said I don't think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing. The act performed by both a wife and a prostitute is the same; its just the institution of marriage that makes the role of wives respectable while derogating the role of prostitutes. Legalizing prostitution would not be threatening to marriage as it would in actuality promote more sincerity in the relationships because

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the marriage would now be based on the notion of love, not on sex love that represents mans lust and his hunger for sex. Previously, people who used to marry just for the sake of sex love and fulfilling their desires could now easily approach any prostitute in a brothel rather than risking the whole life of a women by marrying her just for the sake of having a sexual partner. People argue that prostitution signifies inequality and exploitation as women are treated as a commodity which could be bought, sold and abused. Why women have to commodify themselves and choose such a profession, just for the fulfillment of sexual desire of males? The legalization would be another step towards male supremacy as they could now legally buy women for sex just because of the fact that these sex workers are economically subjugated. Why should we further raise this exploited inequality through legalizing prostitution? But prostitution is rather a matter of choice and freedom than of exploitation and inequality. Legalizing prostitution would rather encounter this inequality because, what happens is that women are disproportionally punished for engaging in commercial sex acts. Ninety percent of all convicted prostitutes are women and studies have also shown that male prostitutes are arrested less frequently than female prostitutes and receive shorter sentences (Spector 189). Legalizing prostitution would further enable to reduce this gender inequality rather than increasing it. Before further countering this argument, it is necessary to differentiate between forced prostitution and free prostitution. Forced prostitution should be prohibited and checked, as it is exploitive for women because they are forced through coercion to enter prostitution. While free prostitution is the one in which women themselves make the conscious decision to enter prostitution. Thus, only the legalization of free prostitution should be taken into consideration. In

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todays arena, most of the world markets including the economy of USA operate as free markets where goods and service are freely traded. So why not sex? It could also be treated as a service like other services and allowed to freely operate in the market on the principles of demand and supply. It is a financial exchange for the sexual service provided by the prostitutes and should be regarded as profession. Most of the women enter this profession to earn a good days wage to support their children and to spend more time with them as most of the other mothers do. Its their choice to earn a living through choosing an appropriate profession which is more convenient to them. Ease of access to prostitution through legalizing it would provide an alternative way to the frustrated teenagers to get over their sexual desires/tension which would lead to a reduction in rapes and incest. In the recent decades, the ease of access to pornography, influence of media and the comprehensive sex education program has lead to a drastic increase in the frustration levels of teenagers as they get information on such a thing which they are told not to try and not to even talk about. Pornography has been developed in to a multibillion dollar industry which has its revenues larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink. Every second - $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography and every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video is being created in the United States (Pornography Statistics). Comprehensive Sex Education program in US starts at kindergarten and continues through high school. It brings up age appropriate sexuality topics and covers the broad spectrum of sex education (Witmer). This sexual frustration is so much in teens that even masturbation is not enough to overcome it and as a result teenagers are more prone towards incest and crimes such as rape. In 2007, there were 248,300 victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault (RAINN). Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (Rape Statistics). The pornography industry in the

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United States grosses $8 billion annually (Bowles). Legalizing prostitution would act as an alternative to relieve sexual tension and would no longer encourage teens to attempt rapes. Kirby R. Cundiff, wrote in his working paper entitled "Prostitution and Sex Crimes, It is estimated that if prostitution were legalized in the United States, the rape rate would decrease by roughly 25% for a decrease of approximately 25,000 rapes per year. As quoted by R.N. Barber's a study conducted in Queensland showed a 149% increase in the rate of rape when legal brothels were closed in 1959, while other offenses against the person by males increased only 49%. This shows how significant role prostitution plays to reduce the rape offenses. Legalizing prostitution would improve the sexual health of the prostitutes and also of their clients. Without proper procedure, the present STD statistics (including HIV/AIDS, Chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, human papilloma virus, and syphilis) are alarmingly high among women in prostitution (Raymond). Legalized prostitution would mean that the sexual transactions could now occur in a clean and safe environment at brothels where the use of contraceptives is made compulsory and condoms are freely available (Trapp). Prostitutes would have regular health check-ups for any sexually transmitted diseases. If the health check proves containment of any of the sexually transmitted disease, the prostitute would not be given the license to operate and would be provided with the appropriate medical treatment by the state. Furthermore, in USA according to the Centre for disease Control, the prevalence of HIV ranged from zero in Nevada [where prostitution is legalized] to 45.3 percent in New Jersey (G.Scambler and A.Scambler 143). This research of Centre for diseases control proves that in Nevada where prostitution has been legalized, HIV has been reduced to minimum levels. Similarly in Australia where prostitution is legalized, according to John Godwin, policy analyst of Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations (AFAO), Australian sex workers have very low rates of STIs and HIV because there is a strong

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culture of safe sex in the industry and condom use is now an almost universal practice. By providing appropriate medical and health facilities to prostitutes through legalizing them would ensure security of millions of lives from STDs. Moreover, it must also be ensured that the legalized system of prostitution mandates the health checks not only to the prostitutes but to their clients as well, since they can also originally have STDs which might be transferred to the whores. In this era of 21st century, the right to choose ones own profession is considered amongst the fundamental rights of the people especially in the democratic state of US. Paul Armentano wrote in article "The Case for Legalized Prostitution," that prohibition and criminalizing prostitution is violation of most basic and inherent rights as individuals own their own bodies and their own labor services, they have the absolute right to decide how those labor services should be used as long as it is voluntarily. There is even no point in criminalizing prostitution and prohibiting it, as it is a victimless crime. Victimless crime is one in which there is no victim and it does not endanger peoples economic or personal well being (Schaefer 103). Sherry F. Colb, JD, Professor of Law and Judge Frederick Lacey Scholar at Rutgers Law School, wrote in a Dec. 17, 2006 e-mail to ProCon.org that:"Prostitution should not be a crime. Prostitutes are not committing an inherently harmful act. While the spread of disease and other detriments are possible in the practice of prostitution, criminalization is a sure way of exacerbating rather than addressing such effects. We saw this quite clearly in the time of alcohol prohibition in this country. So how come state can criminalize prostitution when no one is being harmed from it. When prostitution is not actually a crime so whats the point in prohibiting it, rather it should be respected as a profession and people willing to choose it, must be allowed to do so. Another significant advantage of legalizing prostitution is that government would be able to collect significant amounts of revenue in terms of taxes from both the prostitutes and the pimps.

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Assuming a 25% tax rate, this gross income would produce $20 billion each year in previously uncollected taxes (Carroll 531). The International Committee for Prostitutes' Rights (ICPR) wrote the "World Charter for Prostitutes' Rights" at the first World Whores Congress, in Amsterdam in Feb. 1985, which stated: "Prostitutes should pay regular taxes on the same basis as other independent contractors and employees, and should receive the same benefits." Already the US is going through economic down turn, and its annual expenditure on prostitution is also significant. The expenditure could now be directed towards the welfare of the prostitutes in terms of providing better health facilities, which was previously spent on policing to foreclose prostitution. Prostitutes are also a part of the community and cannot be deprived of their basic rights and discriminated. Legalizing prostitution would diminish the role of pimps who exploit prostitutes rigorously. A pimp is a person who finds customers for a prostitute. In the absence of legalized system of prostitution, pimps have a significant role in the operation of the black market as they are the mediator of sex trade, keeping in consideration the issues of police and avoiding them. Pimps have controlled prostitutes and their earnings mainly through means of coercion, traditionally including violence. Beatings, rape and even murder of prostitutes by pimps is not uncommon and the Council for Prostitution Alternatives, in Portland, Oregon, reported that of 179 women in their program who left prostitution in 1990-91, almost half were raped by pimps an average of sixteen times per year while out of 55 women in their program, 63 percent were horribly beaten by pimps on an average of 58 times a year (G.Scambler and A. Scambler 122). At present, prostitution is criminalized due to which many violent crimes committed by pimps against prostitutes goes unreported because prostitutes are afraid of reporting to the authorities as they are already the law breakers. This shows the vulnerable situation of prostitutes which could be made much better

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through legalizing prostitution. Legalizing prostitution would restrict prostitution to the licensed and secured brothels where pimps would no longer be required. At brothels, the enclosed setting and the presence of other women, management and sometimes bouncers act as powerful deterrent to any would be-aggressor (Roberts 309). In a protected environment, prostitutes would be able to exercise a wider degree of autonomy as they could work according to their own rules and regulations. Thus, in this modern era, cultural diversity is at its peak especially in a country like US, where morals cannot be judged on the basis of one religion or one culture and cultural relativity is the better option as it speaks for all, and requires an open mind to accept radical ideas. The pros and cons of prostitution are discussed in detail and what needs to be developed here is the notion that legalization of prostitution would help the society and would do more good than bad. So as Nevada took up one step forward and legalized prostitution, same notion should be applied by other states of US to give this institution a proper legalized way out instead of overlooking this issue. Moreover, it is one thing which already prevails in society and is inexorable so its better to define rules and regulations for the legalized systematic prostitution which could help in setting up a proper way for fulfilling a very basic hunger of man; the sexual desire. Word Count: 2840 Work Cited Page Bowles, Jennifer. "Porn Conference Gets Under Way." Associated Press, 7 Aug. 1998. Web. Carroll, Janell L. Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning, 2010. Print.

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"Decriminalize Prostitution Now Coalition Your Tax Dollars Are Being Wasted Ruining Citizens Lives Instead of Fighting Real Crime." Sexwork Cyber Resource Center || Welcome. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.sexwork.com/coalition/whatcountrieslegal.html>. "Hetaerism - LoveToKnow 1911." 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica - Free Online. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Hetaerism>. Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and Robert C. Tucker. "The Family: Its Past, Present and Future." The Marx-Engels Reader. New York: Norton, 1978. Print. "How Often Does Sexual Assault Occur? | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network." RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network | RAINN: The Nation's Largest Antisexual Assault Organization. One of Americas 100 Best Charities" Worth Magazine. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/frequency-ofsexual-assault>. "Pornography Statistics." Family Safe Media - Parental Control Tools Including TV Guardian, Time Management, Filtered Internet, Telemarketing Blocks and More. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html>. "Rape Statistics." Paralumun New Age Village. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://www.paralumun.com/issuesrapestats.htm>. Raymond, Janice G. "Health Effects of Prostitution, Making the Harm Visible, Global Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls, Speaking Out and Providing Services." The University

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of Rhode Island. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/mhvhealt.htm>. Roberts, Nickie. Whores in History: Prostitution in Western Society. London: HarperCollins, 1993. Print. Spector, Jessica. Prostitution and Pornography: Philosophical Debate about the Sex Industry. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 2006. Print. Scambler, Graham, and Annette Scambler. "Healthcare and Regulation: New Perspectives." Rethinking Prostitution: Purchasing Sex in the 1990s. London: Routledge, 1997. Print. Schaefer, Richard T. "Deviance and Social Control." Sociology Matters. Boston, MA: McGrawHill, 2004. Print. Trapp, Robert. The Debatabase Book: a Must-have Guide for Successful Debate. New York: International Debate Education Association, 2007. Print. Witmer, Denise. "Sex Education in Schools." Teenagers Parenting Teens - Parents of Teenagers Find Help Raising Teens. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://parentingteens.about.com/od/teensexuality/a/sex_education.htm>.