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Re: MACHO ALERT: Women and World-System (Limits of Libertarianism and Moral Panic Rhetoric)
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      http://ews.ewha.ac.kr/ews/m7acws/9722.htm

      AJWS Vol. 3 No. 2. pp. 8-29.

      Contemporary Western Feminist Perspectives on Prostitution

      Alison M. Jaggar Philosophy and Women's
      Studies University of Colorado
      at Boulder Boulder, Colorado


                                                  Abstract

      This paper contrasts two prominent positions in contemporary Western
      feminist discourse about prostitution. The first is radical feminism,
      which emerged in the early 1970s; the second is libertarian feminism,
      which emerged in the late 1980s. The paper analyses the underlying
      assumptions and public policy recommendation of each position; it
argues
      that each illuminates important aspects of the situations of some
      prostitutes but ignores or denies others. An approach to prostitution
      capable of providing an adequate guide to public policy must be less
      dogmatic or "essentialist" than either radical or libertarian
feminism;
      it should investigate how the sex trade operates in specific locations
and
      the varying meanings it has in different cultural contexts. Such
      investigations must be feminist not only in their commitment to ending

      the subordination of women but also in their respect
      for choices made by women who already must often endure not only
      exploitation but also stigmatization, discrimination and exclusion.

      In this paper, I sketch two prominent positions in contemporary
Western
      feminist discourse about prostitution, discuss the strengths and
      inadequacies of each, and conclude by indicating an approach?as
opposed
      to a substantive analysis?that I find
      more promising.

      ***The 1990s: Prostitute's Rights and Libertarian Feminism

      What I call here `libertarian feminism' has roots in several Western
      cultural tendencies that converge on the issue of prostitution. These
      tendencies include the increasing strength of a liberal discourse of
      individual rights, the increasing commodifi-cation of sexuality via
      pornography, sex shops, and so on,2 the postmodern reclamation of
      submerged and often stigmatized discourses and, above all, the entry
of    prostitutes themselves into feminist debate. These new participants
not only demand
      rights as sex-workers but seek to defend prostitution in terms that
are
      explicitly feminist. Some merely make the liberal assertion that the
      state has no legitimate interest in banning or hampering prostitution
      because it is harmless but some go further, asserting that
prostitution
      has positive social value and even portraying prostitutes as sexual
      pioneers and prostitution as a form of political resistance. Those who

      hold this view have been described as postmodern feminists. I shall
      start by sketching the weaker defenses of prostitution and then move
to
      the stronger, so-called postmodern, justifications.

      Many prostitutes' rights advocates contend that prostitution is not as

      bad as it is painted and certainly no worse than many other socially
      accepted practices. For instance, they argue that prostitution is
better
      than most jobs available to women because it provides good pay for
short
      hours and considerable control over the work environment. The
prostitute
      is said to decide what services she will and will not supply and how
      long she will spend with her client, and prostitutes sometimes assert
      that they get paid for what other women have to give free. In addition

      to being a better bargain than many other types of paid employment
open
      to women, some have argued that prostitution is better than being
      married because a prostitute is much more independent than a wife.

      In defending prostitution as a legitimate profession, libertarian
      feminists simultaneously assert the agency of prostitutes. Responding
to
      charges that prostitution is a public nuisance and a social
      embarrassment, they insist that women's right to
      freedom of speech entitles them to solicit and that women, as well as
      men, have the right to stand around on street corners; other
businesses
      advertise and women's solicitation of men is a lot less threatening
than
      much male harassment of women. Libertarian feminists acknowledge the
      limited range of employment opportunities available to women but
insist
      that, within this range, most prostitutes choose their occupation,
      rather than being forced into it. Thus some Western prostitutes and
      their feminist advocates are developing a discourse of prostitute
      empowerment rather than victimization and entrepreneurship rather
      than exploitation.

      Some prostitutes emphasize that prostitution provides a needed social
      service, a kind of sex therapy in a non-judgmental context, asserting
      that prostitutes really listen to men and are sensitive to the needs
of
      their clients. One prostitute asserted that women should have similar
      services available to them, implying that prostitution is not, after
      all, a distinctively gendered institution. Political theorist Shannon
      Bell argues that, through these sorts of claims, prostitutes are
      transvaluing accepted values, assigning new meanings to prostitution.
      "The prostitute is constructed as healer rather than disease producer,

      as
      educator rather than degenerate, as sex expert rather than deviant, as

      business woman rather than commercial object"(Bell, 1994: 100).

      The fact that prostitutes, hitherto stigmatized and/or excluded from
      both mainstream and feminist discourses, are now staking their claim
to
      be subjects rather than simply objects of discourse is seen by Bell as
a
      manifestation of post-modernity(Bell, 1994: 100). She analyses
      prostitutes' public demand for the legal right to be recognized as
      citizens just like all others not as a demand for equality in spite of

      difference but a demand for equality based on the distinct difference
of
      being a prostitute.
      Thus, Bell writes:

      Prostitutes' rights discourse, by appropriating the rights discourse
of
      hegemonic and feminist liberalism and articulating these rights
demands
      in the context of collective identity politics, transgresses the
liberal
      framework while adhering to it. Identity
      politics is based on the active affirmation of the experiences,
dignity,
      and rights of historically marginalized or excluded people, going
beyond
      the conventional liberal construction of all human beings as
essentially
      the same and therefore entitled to the
      same(abstract) rights(Bell, 1994: 100).

      Just beneath the surface of prostitutes' apparently liberal demand for

      legal rights and equality, Bell asserts, there exists "a doubly
      transgressive ethical gesture: an affirmation of a negative identity
and
      a revaluation of values through the recognition of
      commercial sex as being just as valid and worthy as noncommercial
      sex"(Bell, 1994: 101).

      This interpretation of prostitutes' rights discourse focuses on the
      counter-hegemonic aspects of prostitution. It construes prostitution
as
      making a positive `pro-sex' political statement, undermining narrow,
      anti-sexual, so-called `politically correct' values. For instance,
      prostitution is said to assert tacitly that extramarital sex,
anonymous
      sex, recreational sex and sexual novelty and variety are morally
      unobjectionable; it is also said to challenge the stereotype that
women
      should have only one partner. For this reason, one prostitute
      representative, Margo St. James of the prostitutes' rights
organization,
      COYOTE(Call Off Your Tired Old Ethics), declares, "Prostitutes are the

      only emancipated women."

      Bell identifies the prostitute as a new political subject, engaging in

      the radical democratic struggle for the extension of equality to more
      and more areas of life. One aspect of this struggle involves a new
      understanding of prostitution: whereas liberals and Marxists
      conceptualize prostitution as work and radical feminists conceptualize

      it as sexual abuse, prostitutes' rights advocates portray prostitution

      as a self-determined activity midway between sex and work, sometimes
as
      a kind of sexual performance art. Although presenting prostitution as
      work is the discursive strategy most likely to be effective in
      influencing government policies and social attitudes, the
International
      Committee for Prostitutes' Rights(ICPR) identified the sale of sex as
an
      act of "sexual self-determination, linked with the right to refuse and

      to initiate sex, the right to use birth control(including abortion)
the
      right to have lesbian sex, and the right to have sex across lines of
      color and class"(Bell, 1994: 110).

      Bell regards prostitutes' public sexual performances as having special

      significance and she characterizes these performers as "sacred
carnival
      theorists of the female body." Her analysis links up with claims made
by
      others, such as stripper Amber Cook,
      that sexual entertainers are artists because they get to define what
is
      erotic, to express their own sexuality, and often find the work
creative
      and empowering. One chapter of Bell's book describes the work of six
      North American prostitute performance artists, whom she sees as
      reunifying the sacred and the obscene in the same female body(Bell,
      1994: 137). In Bell's
      interpretation, these performers, "reconstitute themselves in the
      performance medium as living embodiments of resistance, re-mapping,
      redefining, and reclaiming the deviant body, the body of the sexual
      outsider and social outcast"(Bell, 1994: 139).

      Prostitute performance presents a particular female body, the body
that
      dominant discourse and feminist discourse have marked as the obscene,
      the other, from the position of this body-speaking. Yet the artist is
      not only this body, or even primarily this body; she is many things at

      once: an artist/actress, erotic/sexual being, intellectual/critic,
      political/social
      commentator(Bell, 1994: 142).

      Thus, "Partly, prostitute performance art is about the refusal to fit
      into predetermined categorizations; prostitute artists use their
bodies
      as sites of resistance to reunify what patriarchy has pulled
      apart"(Bell, 1994: 142).

      Convergence and Contrasts in Feminist

      Public Policy Recommendations

      Despite fundamental disagreements in their conceptualizations of sex
      work, the policy recommendations of radical and libertarian feminists
      are not entirely opposed to each other. For instance, radical and
      libertarian feminists do not necessarily disagree about directions for

      long term social change: as feminists, both can agree that the range
of
      livelihood options available to women should be broadened by
eliminating
      the distinctively gendered constraints on women's employment
      opportunities, including inferior education and disproportionate
      domestic responsibilities. Nor do radical and libertarian feminists
      disagree on every aspect of current policy: all feminists agree that
      forced prostitution is indefensible and there is no controversy about
      the need to enforce immediately the numerous international treaties
      against trafficking, including trafficking in children. Feminists can
      also agree that states should establish shelters for women fleeing
      prostitution, as for battered women. All feminists must insist that
      these shelters not be punitive but rather offer rehabilitation and
      retraining programs, similar to those sometimes provided for other
      groups such as high school drop outs, runaways and drug abusers--some
of
      whom are also prostitutes. It should also be uncontroversial that
women
      should never be forced to enter or remain in the shelters against
their
      will.

      With regard to the situation in which prostitutes defend their right
to
      pursue their trade, radical and libertarian feminists also come
together
      in opposing conservative recommendations to prohibit and thus
      criminalize prostitution, even though they have
      different reasons for their views. The majority of radical feminists
who
      oppose prohibition do so because they regard the prostitute as a
victim
      and do not want to penalize her further; they believe that prohibiting

      and thus criminalizing prostitution is likely to produce disastrous
      consequences for the many women who, for whatever reasons, would
      continue to engage in sex work. In addition to making it more
difficult
      for women in prostitution to earn a living, prohibition increases
their
      vulnerability to arrest and prosecution, thus making them more
      susceptible to blackmail and possibly more dependent on their pimps.
      However, a few radical feminists find even de-criminalization
      problematic because it presumes a distinction between forced and
chosen
      prostitution whose validity they deny(Barry, 1995, cited by Ferguson,
      1997).?

      Libertarian feminists oppose prohibition for the entirely different
      reason that, in their view, it is an infringement of the prostitute's
      right to practise her trade; hence, they vigorously resist any
proposals
      to ban prostitution for the protection of the prostitutes,
      proposals which they regard as paternalistic and disingenuous. They
note
      that no one suggests closing the subways or cabs at night because
      passengers or cabdrivers may be attacked. They acknowledge that
      prostitutes sometimes are attacked but so,
      they point out, are other women; indeed, most battering occurs in
      long-term relationships. They assert that the violence prostitutes
      endure is mostly a result of the low-status and illegality of the
      occupation.

      On the libertarian feminist analysis, the main problem with
prostitution
      is not the nature of the work but rather the laws that interfere with
      prostitutes' practice of their trade and discriminate against them.
Laws
      against advertising, for instance, force
      prostitutes on to the street where laws against solicitation violate
      their freedom of expression without threatening men's freedom to
harass
      women. Laws against brothels make it possible for landlords to
blackmail
      prostitutes and laws against pimping isolate prostitutes socially and
      deprive them of domestic companionship. Labeling women as prostitutes
      deprives them of many civil rights; such women may lose custody of
their
      children, be deported if they are immigrants, lose the chance of any
      other employment so that they are trapped in prostitution, and be
      refused entry to other countries either as tourists or immigrants. If
      the violence endured by prostitutes results primarily from the low
      status of their occupation and the legal restrictions on it, which
      libertarian feminists view as a form of sex discrimination, the policy

      solution is clear: prostitution should
      be made respectable by being professionalized. It should be recognized

      as a decent and honorable occupation, like any other.

      It is at this point that the divergence in their respective public
      policy recommendations finally reflects the deep disagreements between

      the perspectives of radical and libertarian feminism. Libertarian
      feminists advocate the legalization and state regulation
      of prostitution, moves which would maintain a minimum standard of
      working conditions, make contracts for service and payment enforceable

      and generally legitimate prostitution, raising its status and making
it
      more like any other job. Radical feminists object that legalizing
      prostitution and taxing it on the same basis as any other work would
      express the state's acceptance of prostitution and its willingness to
      benefit from sex work, thus normalizing the sexual exploitation of
      women. They also note that the legalization of prostitution would
create
      a permanent public record identifying women who had ever engaged in
      prostitution. Thus, despite their shared opposition to legal
      prohibition, radical and libertarian feminists sharply disagree on
what
      policies should be recommended in situations where the coercion of
      prostitutes, if it exists, is not unmistakable or
      incontestable. Basically, libertarian feminists support the
      professionalization of prostitution whereas radical feminists advocate

      at most a grudging and temporary tolerance.

      The Limits of Radical and Libertarian Feminism

      Despite their concurrence in advocating the decriminalization of
      prostitution, radical and libertarian feminists offer portrayals of
sex
      work and sex workers that are so opposed as to be the inverse of each
      other. According to one portrayal, the prostitute is a degraded sexual

      object whereas according to the other, she is a powerful sexual
subject;
      on one view, the prostitute is a disempowered sexual victim, on the
      other, a practitioner of a sacred craft; one analysis presents
      prostitution as the provision of `nourishing, life-giving' sexual
      services, the other as a trade that is debasing, dangerous and
      ultimately deadly. Both accounts are, in my view, simplistic,
      reductionist and quite inadequate for feminism.

      Libertarian feminists sound extremely parochial when their analysis is

      applied to a global context. They largely ignore the enormous and
      rapidly growing international and worldwide traffic in women--and
      girls--for prostitution, including sex tourism, and forced marriage.
The
      1995 Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights focuses
on
      the
      well-documented traffic in women from Burma to Thailand, Nepal to
India,
      and Bangladesh to Pakistan, although these are certainly not the only
      countries involved in such traffic. The report finds that this traffic

      relies on slavery-like practices, illegal confinement, forced labor,
      debt-bondage, and torture. Such traffic is forbidden, of course, by
      national laws, as well as by many international conventions since the
      Convention on the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and the
Exploitation
      of the Prostitution of Others first denounced trafficking in persons
in
      1949. Despite these bans and treaties, Human Rights Watch has
      found that many state parties fail to protect women and girls from
      coerced trafficking and forced prostitution or fail to prosecute
      vigorously those who commit such abuse(Human Rights Watch, 1995: 199).

      Many police officers and other local government officials facilitate
and
      profit from the trade in women and girls: for a price, they ignore
      abuses that occur in their jurisdictions; protect the traffickers,
      brothel owners, pimps, clients and buyers from arrest; and serve as
      enforcers, drivers and recruiters. If a woman is taken across national

      borders, immigration officials frequently aid and abet her
passage(Human
      Rights Watch, 1995: 196).

      Prostitutes in these coercive situations have little access to medical

      care and are extremely vulnerable to injury and disease. They are
      especially likely to suffer from sexually transmitted diseases(STDs),
      including HIV infection, because they are not allowed to negotiate the

      terms of sex. The AIDS pandemic has actually encouraged forced
      prostitution in countries such as Thailand and India, where clients
fear
      of infection has led traffickers to recruit younger women and girls,
      sometimes as young as ten, from remote areas perceived to be
unaffected
      by AIDS. Human Rights Watch found that of the nineteen Burmese
      women and girls they interviewed who had been tested for HIV, fourteen

      were found to be positive(Human Rights Watch, 1995: 225). If
prostitutes
      are not infected directly by clients, they may be infected through the

      needles used to give them contraceptive injections.

      The libertarian feminist analysis is inadequate even if its range of
      applicability is restricted to sex work in the West. Just as it
ignores
      the situations of many prostitutes in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia,
and
      Latin America, so it also ignores the situations of many prostitutes,
      often illegal immigrants, who are held in slave-like conditions in
many
      large cities across North America. It similarly dismisses the voices
of
      many Western prostitutes, such as the voices of women in WHISPER(Women

      Harmed in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt), a North American

      grass-roots movement that is both local and national but not
      international. Like prostitutes' rights organizations, WHISPER is a
      first-person movement based on women's experience in prostitution but
it
      relies on a radical feminist analysis which portrays prostitution
      entirely as sexual exploitation and aims at
      getting women out of "the life"(Bell, 1995: 123-4). WHISPER
"recognizes
      all commodification of women's bodies for sexual exchange as
violations
      of human dignity and therefore of human rights"(Bell, 1995: 125). It
      insists that prostitution is "a system of violence against women," so
      that all prostitutes are battered women.

      Consideration of such situations reveals the limits of libertarian
      feminist analysis. It is true that the North American based
      International Committee on Prostitutes Rights(ICPR) explicitly
      recognizes that Western prostitution is shaped by the interconnections

      among racism, capitalism, and patriarchy so that in the United States,

      for instance, "of the 10 to 20 percent of prostitutes who are street
      workers, 40 percent are women of color; 55 percent of women arrested
are
      women of color; and 85 percent of prostitutes in jail are women of
      color"(Bell, 1995: 111). The ICPR also recognizes that "Prostitution
      exists, at
      least in part, because of the subordination of women in most
societies."
      But, as Bell notes, the libertarian feminist discourse of prostitutes'

      rights is inherently incapable of addressing the social structures
      shaping Western prostitution, which produce its characteristic gender,

      class and race inequalities(Bell, 1995: 111). Within the libertarian
      framework, the market is the only means for prostitutes to achieve
      economic and sexual self-determination.

      Radical feminism, of course, emphasizes just those harms and
constraints
      which are neglected by liberal feminists and it is precisely the
      exclusivity of its focus on harms and constraints which provokes much
      criticism. Central to the radical feminist
      analysis is the denial of any distinction between forced and voluntary

      prostitution, a denial which grounds radical feminism's refusal to
      recognize prostitution as a profession(Barry, 1986-87: 1). Libertarian

      feminists insist that it is condescending and disrespectful to dismiss

      prostitutes' declarations that they chose their occupation by
asserting
      that in fact they were psychologically coerced or `brainwashed.' Since

      everyone's choices are surely influenced by unconscious processes, why

      should prostitutes' decisions be singled out for skeptical challenge?
      Libertarian feminists charge that it is similarly condescending and
      disrespectful to claim that prostitutes are controlled by male pimps,
      when in fact the women may regard the
      men as their lovers.

      Although radical feminists see themselves as working to `rescue' or
      rehabilitate prostitutes, it is paradoxical that the radical feminist
      invalidation and dismissal of many prostitute voices replicate the
      marginalization and exclusion of prostitutes, practiced
      by the dominant society. In consequence, many prostitutes regard the
      radical feminist analysis of prostitution as dogmatic, insulting and
      paternalistic. Feminist solidarity, in their view, is better expressed

      by supporting sex workers' demands than by insisting on `rescuing'
women
      who do not regard themselves as in need of rescue.

      Beyond Dogmatism

      Although the radical and libertarian feminist perspectives on
      prostitution are opposed to each other in substance, they share a
common
      methodological fault, a fault that Western feminists often call
      `essentialism.' Essentialism consists in refusing to recognize counter

      examples to universal claims and this dogmatism can be observed in
both
      radical and libertarian feminist arguments. In addition to their
shared
      essentialism, I suggest that both radical and libertarian feminist
      perspectives romanticize prostitutes as outcasts, victims or rebels;
in
      so doing, they follow a long Western tradition of romanticizing as
      outsiders
      marginalized people such as drug users, runaways and the homeless,
      people who in fact are often not only poor but also emotionally
      disturbed and desperate.

      Kamala Kempadoo has investigated prostitution in the Caribbean and
      neither of the two feminist models I have discussed here is adequate
to
      make sense of her findings. She observes that many women in the
      Caribbean frequently choose sexual labor as one among several income
      generating strategies to supplement other sources of livelihood, such
as
      domestic service, factory work, or teaching(Kempadoo, 1996-7: 50).
Thus,
      many women who engage in sexual labor in the Caribbean are not
      desperately poor or entrapped as radical feminism portrays them; but,
as
      they juggle their roles as mothers, wives, teachers
      and so on, they are also far from assuming the heroic identity of the
      sexual rebel.

      Many prostitutes conform neither to the radical nor the libertarian
      analysis: they are neither entirely free nor completely enslaved. Like

      most people, they choose between a limited range of options and like
      most of us, they would benefit from having their range of options
      enlarged. Because prostitutes' situations are not all similar,
      addressing the controversy over
      appropriate policy requires attention to particular cases. Rather than

      beginning with a set of a priori assumptions about prostitution, the
      commonalities and differences between various practices in various
      locations need to be investigated empirically, in order to determine
the
      likely consequences of the different policy options. However, these
      investigations must
      pursue feminist questions and be guided by feminist methods.

      Western feminist work since about 1980 has been very much preoccupied
      with the issue of difference among women, especially, although not
      exclusively, racial/ethnic difference. One interesting feature of
      Kempadoo's work is the light it sheds on the importance of the
      racial/ethnic identity of prostitutes to their clients, a factor
      neglected hitherto in many analyses of prostitution. Kempadoo finds
that
      a specific `racial' category of woman is eroticized in the Caribbean:
      the `sensual mulatta' of mixed African-European descent was the object

      of the sexual fantasies of European colonizers and today she is
      preferred by
      the predominantly black Caribbean clientele. Kempadoo observes that
      large proportions of women in the global sex trade are culturally,
      nationally or ethnically different from their clients. Sex tourism, of

      course, relies on the attraction of local women to foreign men and we
      have seen already that many of the prostitutes in Thailand, India and
      Pakistan come from elsewhere in Asia. The BBC reports that increasing
      numbers of the prostitutes in Beijing come from Eastern Europe, Russia

      or Vietnam. In the late1980s,approximately 60% of the prostitutes in
the
      Netherlands were from Third World countries; in the 1990s, an
      increasing percentage are from Eastern Europe. Fifty percent of the
      prostitutes in Paris are immigrants.

      Kempadoo argues that contemporary prostitution cannot be understood
      without an analysis of how the global migration of sex workers
      capitalizes on the exoticization of foreign women and the symbolic
      meanings that sex with women from different cultures has for their
      clients, especially meanings involving racial and national power and
      dominance. For instance, it has been suggested that Korean men's
      prostitution of Thai women expresses a symbolic conquest of the Thai
      nation. Thus feminist investigations into prostitution must not only
      explore the range of options available to women but also be sensitive
to
      the
      specific historical context of the sex trade in particular locations
as
      well as to the range of meanings that sex work has both for
prostitutes
      and their clients.

      One necessary condition of this investigative work being acceptable to

      feminists is that the investigators must listen sympathetically but
      critically to the voices of the prostitutes themselves. Such listening

      does not mean that investigators should take everything they say at
face
      value, given that prostitutes, like other people, generally desire to
      present themselves in the best possible light. The investigators must
be
      aware that some prostitutes may wish to rationalize their work as
      voluntary and dignified, concealing its abusive and degrading aspects;

      they should realize that other prostitutes may seek to evade
      responsibility for their decisions by presenting themselves as
helpless
      victims. Those investigating prostitution must neither dismiss nor
      romanticize the words of prostitutes.

      Although empirical research is necessary to interrogate the sweeping
      assumptions often made by those who discuss prostitution, yet it is
not
      sufficient to settle the controversies over the formulation of public
      policies. Adequate evaluation of the varying policy options cannot be
      determined in ignorance of the social facts of prostitution but
neither
      can it rely exclusively on empirical research, since such research
      raises rather than resolves a number of difficult conceptual and
ethical
      as well as methodological questions. One cluster of conceptual
      questions, often seen as the province of philosophy, concerns
individual

      autonomy or freedom: given that choices are always made within a
      specific social context, at what point do inevitable social
constraints
      and unavoidably limited social options become so constraining and
      limiting as to be coercive? Another large cluster of ethical questions

      concerns sexuality: is sex work intrinsically or morally different
from
      other kinds of work? Is sexual objectification or the eroticization of

      dominance and subordination harmless in certain contexts? Is sex
morally
      respectable only if linked with intimacy and love, or may it also be
      accepted as a means of recreation and pleasure or as a means of
      honorable livelihood? How is gender produced and reproduced in various

      sexual activities? What are the links between sexuality and women's
      subordination? On the me-thodological level, we must ask how we may
      respect speakers while remaining aware of the possibility that they
are
      mistaken or self-deceived? On the level of feminist social analysis,
we
      must consider how to evaluate practices that may have both repressive
      and emancipatory aspects. Which decisions are private and which are
      political? Above all, what is collaboration with the subordination of
      women and what is resistance to it? Future feminist thinking
      about prostitution must address these questions.

                                                   Notes

      1. These arguments appear to be supported by the fact that average age

      of entry into prostitution is fourteen(Weisburg, 1996:
      94).

      2. In the United States, the commodification of sexuality is to some
      extent counterbalanced by the conservative `family values' movement
but
      this movement is often so virulently misogynist and heterosexist that
it
      holds little attraction for Western
      feminists, although they have occasionally made alliances with it,
most
      notably around the issue of pornography.

      3. Because radical feminists regard prostitutes as coerced, they
believe
      that even if decriminalization is accepted for humanitarian reasons,
it
      is necessary to retain bans on solicitation, pimping and harboring in
      order to protect prostitutes from
      those who exploit them; in contrast, libertarian feminists, such as
the
      Canadian Organization of Prostitutes(CORP), argue that such bans would

      deprive prostitutes of freedom of speech, a place of work, domestic
      relationships and intimate
      companionship.

                                                 References

      Barry, Kathleen(1995), The Prostitution of Sexuality, New York: New
York
      University Press.

      _______________(1986-7), "UNESCO Report Studies Prostitution," WHISPER

      Newsletter, 1: 3.

      Bell, Shannon(1994), Reading, Writing, and Rewriting the Prostitute
      Body, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana
      University Press.

      Delacoste, B. Frederique and Priscilla Alexander(eds.)(1987), Sex
Work:
      Writing by Women in the Sex Industry,
      Pittsburgh: Cleis Press.

      Ferguson, Ann(1997), "Prostitution as a Morally Risky Practice from
the
      Point of View of Feminist Radical Pragmatism"(forthcoming), Daring to
be
      Good: Essays in Feminist Ethico-Politics, eds. Bat-Ami Bar-On and Ann
      Ferguson, New York: Routledge.

      Giobbe, Evelina(1994), "Confronting the liberal lies about
      prostitution"(abridged version), Living With Contradictions, ed.
Alison
      Jaggar, Boulder: Westview Press: 120-126; The Sexual Liberals and the
      Attack on Feminism, eds. Dorchen Leidholdt and Janice G.
Raymond(1990),
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