How to treat prostitutes

Written by Wenqing Wang In feminist theory, the issue of prostitutes has always been a very important debate focus. In the last 2 years, a new school of feminist theory [2] has developed, which has become a worldwide trend. Many countries have their various organizations, publications and movements, and they have gained more and more considerable recognition. Just as any qualified monograph on gender studies should have the views or participation of women's movements or feminists, almost any valuable monograph on sex industry in the west has the views or participation of feminist activists or feminist theorists of new schools. We also believe that no matter how the country, society and individuals treat prostitution and prostitutes, we should be aware of the existence of another voice that we are not familiar with, and we should all listen to what the feminist activists, theorists and prostitutes of the new school say themselves. Only by making a comprehensive observation of the sex industry from a diversified perspective can we avoid discrimination and chauvinism infiltrating academic research. The so-called "listening is bright, listening is dark", which is the truth. However, in Chinese mainland, not only the mainstream media lacks the presentation of new feminist viewpoints, but also the intellectuals in the academic and cultural circles know little about it. Therefore, we deeply feel that it is necessary to deepen the discussion on the sex industry and strengthen our understanding of the new feminist viewpoints. This is also the original intention of systematically introducing the new school of feminist theory to everyone. There is an old saying in China, the traditional image of prostitutes, that is, "an irregular name means a bad word". Therefore, if you want to convince others, you must first clear your name. Feminist activists and theorists of the new school also believe that in order to get a complete and clear understanding of prostitutes, we must first remove the stigma imposed on them by society and correct some wrong general understanding of prostitutes. This is the first step to fight for basic human rights for prostitutes. In English, Prostitute, when used as a noun, means "a woman who sells her body and provides all kinds of sexual services indiscriminately"-at least as explained in the Oxford Concise Dictionary-and when used as a verb, it can be further interpreted as: selling her dignity for a little profit, or using her abilities for humble purposes. In other dictionaries, men (male prostitutes) are added in the explanation of nouns, and shame is added after humiliation in the explanation of verbs, and lewdness and wrongdoing are added after "despicable use". So, the term prostitute clearly refers to a person-especially a woman-who provides heterosexual sexual intercourse services for money; The verb prostitute can refer to any controversial activity, but it is not necessarily related to sex. Many people incorporate the second explanation into the first one. Thus, prostitute's explanation becomes: A woman sells her dignity, offering her body to others for humble interests or purposes, especially sexual intercourse. This is also the view of ordinary people. However, the feminist theory of the new school tries to show us that there are great differences between the interpretation of dictionaries and the actual behavior of prostitutes, as well as between the views of ordinary people and the views of prostitutes themselves. First, the net comes to all (prostitutes are not selective about customers) In the eyes of most people, prostitutes are not selective about customers. "You prostitution is to make money. As long as someone gives money, what else do you choose?" This is their thinking logic. However, most prostitutes believe that having the right to choose-that is, choosing guests-is the basic right to engage in this industry. In fact, the quality of the sex work environment is determined by how many prostitutes have the right to choose customers. It is true that many prostitutes have little right to choose their guests, but prostitutes think that they have no right to choose, not because of the nature of prostitution, but because their safety and human rights are deprived. At a rally, about 3 prostitutes listed their requirements for work, among which the top priority was the right to refuse guests in all workplaces. Many prostitutes suggest that the guests who refuse include: 1. drunkards; 2. People who don't want to have vaginal sex, oral sex or anal sex with condoms; 3. rude people; 4. People who remind them of bad experiences in the past; 5. People who are unwilling to pay in advance; 6. People who intuitively feel violent; 7. People who force prostitutes to do unwanted sexual activities; 8. People who appear to have infectious diseases. An American prostitute said, "As long as I have any doubts about customers, I will refuse." Another Canadian prostitute said, "A few years ago, I completely trusted my intuition. Now life is hard, and I am less sensitive to those red flags-because I really need money." In fact, in addition to the pressure from the third party (for example, there is no right to refuse in nightclubs), economic pressure is probably the main reason why prostitutes have no right to choose. Many industries often restrict their freedom of work because of management requirements and financial pressure, and these restrictions will especially hurt or humiliate prostitutes because of the nature of sex work. What I want to emphasize here is that for prostitutes, prostitution does not mean that they have no choice. In fact, it is also a wrong assumption to say that prostitutes will sleep with "anyone"; Not all prostitutes are like this, and no prostitute thinks so. The dictionary tells us that these women are "rented", which means that there must be money transactions. Many prostitutes choose their clients carefully, but people still think that they don't choose their clients at all. One of the possible reasons is that people generally think that many (men) represent any (men). However, the fact is just the opposite. Prostitutes often choose not only individual guests, but also men of certain social classes or sexual preferences. Undoubtedly, compared with call girls or self-help window prostitutes, street blocking girls are often poor, colored, young and addicted to drugs, so they have less right to choose guests; But the lack of choice is not inherent in prostitution, but is caused by abuse, poverty, poor working environment, inexperience or despair. Like other workers, prostitutes want to improve their working environment, not change careers. The word sexual intercourse is not enough to cover all the work of prostitutes, because there are many sexual transactions that do not include sexual intercourse. Strangely, just like "no choice", once sexual intercourse is put in the context of prostitution, its definition becomes particularly narrow and divorced from reality. In reality, sexual activity itself, like its cost, can be negotiated. Prostitutes can provide choices and guests can also make requests, but the final decision is still in the hands of prostitutes. Sexual intercourse is only a possible form of activity, and it may be the norm for some prostitutes and the exception for others. It is precisely because prostitutes are not selective about customers that they also have the problem of being raped. One situation is that prostitutes are forced to provide sexual services for free, and many sex workers have personally experienced the sexual demands of police, lawyers, judges or other powerful men. In one case, prostitutes are dissatisfied with customers, and customers force prostitutes to provide sexual services. In the latter case, although the customer is willing to pay, his behavior still constitutes rape. In the eyes of ordinary people, this may be nothing. They will say, "Isn't it just one more time? What's the big deal? Who are you doing with? " However, this is only their opinion. Feminist theorists of the new school believe that prostitutes are also human beings and should enjoy the most basic personal rights from rape, and there is no difference in nature between raping prostitutes and raping other women. Second, the weeping woman in the dark night-the image of the weak who is completely passive In the minds of ordinary people, the image of prostitutes is basically a pattern: family misfortune, running away from home, abduction, prostitution, humiliation and beating, and secretly crying. In this image, prostitutes are completely passive, miserable, humiliating and enslaved. But what is the real situation? Research shows that as far as underage prostitutes are concerned, the proportion of being neglected and sexually abused by their parents at home is higher than that of ordinary underage families; In the adult population, the difference between prostitutes and non-prostitutes is not so great, but the proportion of adult prostitutes who have been abused is still high. However, these data by no means mean that other women's childhood sexual abuse cases are not common, nor do they mean that prostitutes who are not abused are very few. In fact, there is no necessary and obvious connection between childhood abuse experience and becoming a prostitute in the future. Various literary works and investigation reports always tend to describe prostitutes' servitude as forced. Indeed, some prostitutes were forced to leave prostitution. They were either cheated or sold by traffickers to brothel owners. But we must not ignore that there are many prostitutes who voluntarily engage in prostitution. They go into prostitution because they think prostitution is the most suitable job they can see. In their view, prostitution is a good job compared with other jobs that women can do, which is relatively easy and can earn a lot of money. Moreover, they think that their situation is much better than that of housewives-housewives are busy all day without any pay, and they have to provide sexual services to their husbands for free. However, many people in life always tend to deny this, paranoid that the sex industry is dark, ugly and inhuman, and all prostitutes are forced into prostitution, without thinking about why the sex industry is like this. Feminist theorists of the new school believe that the reason why there are human trafficking, coercion and a large number of criminal acts in the sex industry is not because the sex industry is dark and evil in nature and people don't want to enter, so they have to take coercive measures to drive some people into it; But because of the strict control of the government, the severe punishment of the law and the stigma imposed on prostitutes by society, the free inflow of population is limited. The original intention of the law is to protect women and save prostitutes, but because it can't eradicate human trafficking and other crimes and violence related to the sex industry, it also puts prostitutes in a more dangerous and harsh environment by pushing prostitution to a more secretive social stratum. Prostitutes are not completely passive and bullied by others, which can be proved by prostitutes' choice of customers and many prostitutes' voluntary participation in prostitution. If prostitutes are weak and passive now, it is also caused by strong external pressure, rather than prostitutes' natural weakness. Therefore, the feminist theorists of the new school believe that if prostitutes are to become more active and stronger, and if their basic human rights are to be protected from infringement, what we need to do is not to completely eradicate the sex industry and eliminate prostitutes, but to make a clear distinction between being forced to work as prostitutes and actively working as prostitutes, sex industry and crimes related to sex industry. It is generally believed that irresponsible promiscuity by prostitutes is the chief culprit leading to the rapid spread of AIDS in society. The feminist theorists of the new school do remind us: Are prostitutes really irresponsible? The body is their own, how can they spoil themselves? In fact, because prostitutes are at greater risk of contracting AIDS, they are more concerned about AIDS than ordinary people and know how to protect themselves. Research data also show that most prostitutes use condoms when they engage in sex trade, whether it is vaginal intercourse or masturbation and oral sex. Except those prostitutes who are extremely poor, desperate or unable to get condoms on the spot, most prostitutes will ask their clients to bring condoms, otherwise they will refuse to have sex. Safe sex trade will not infect AIDS. What is really threatening in sex trade is high-risk sex, that is, sex without condoms. In most cases, the resistance to wearing condoms is not from prostitutes, but from customers. Many countries force prostitutes to undergo regular physical examinations to check whether they are infected with HIV. The original intention of the national will is to prevent the spread of AIDS, but in fact it has played a role in fueling the flames. Because the compulsory physical examination only encourages the illusion of customers, making them think that inspection can ensure safety, so there is no need to wear condoms. Many brothel owners stipulate that prostitutes are not allowed to wear condoms in sex transactions, while some customers force prostitutes to have sex without condoms. Prostitutes have no right to refuse high-risk sex, which further aggravates the threat of AIDS. The culprit behind the scenes is the illegal status of prostitutes and all kinds of stigma they bear. Feminist theorists of the new school believe that in order to truly solve the problem of spreading AIDS in sex trade, we should not abolish the sex industry or put it in a completely illegal position, nor should we force prostitutes to undergo regular physical examinations. Instead, we should establish sound rules for sex trade, remove the social stigma borne by prostitutes, improve their social status, and give them the strength to resist threats from customers. Fourth, the sexual apathy of prostitutes Many men say that prostitutes have no feelings and no emotional input when they have sex, and sometimes they watch TV or newspapers while doing it. In this way, the image of prostitutes' apathy is formed. However, a large number of cases of prostitutes show that prostitutes are more active in their private lives than non-prostitutes. The stereotype of prostitutes' apathy may come from the difference between private life and public life. At work, many prostitutes consciously pull themselves away from sex. They do this not only to protect themselves (which we will introduce in detail later) but also for economic reasons (it will undoubtedly take more time to put their feelings into orgasm), and most prostitutes do have the ability to do this. However, the aloof attitude at work does not mean that it is the same with friends or lovers. Many prostitutes think that they are more emotional and emotionally free than the average person. Being able to separate sex work from feelings does not mean that you lose the ability to love, nor does it mean that you can't have a sexual reaction even if you want to. V. Prostitution-All-uniform villains The so-called prostitution is a third party related to prostitution (the other two parties are prostitutes and clients). In legal terms, prostitutes are people who profit from the income of sex workers, and their income comes from prostitutes' despicable and illegal sex work. In layman's terms, a pimp is a so-called pimp. In most people's minds, prostitutes are people who abduct women, beat them up, rape them, make them addicted to drugs, force them to engage in prostitution, and brutally exploit them. It must be admitted that there is some truth in their thinking, because there are indeed tyrannical pimps; But obviously they are too paranoid, because not all prostitutes are. The stereotype about prostitutes may be a pattern of male chauvinism (men are animals) or a pattern of feminism (women are victims). However, just as prostitutes are not completely passive victims, prostitutes are not all cruel and inhuman. In fact, many prostitutes choose to hire prostitutes voluntarily, and they do so to resist risks. Although the law threatened to protect them, it sat idly by when they were beaten and raped; On the contrary, when men pay them, they punish prostitutes and even arrest their clients. The law can't protect them, so they have to turn to prostitutes. Moreover, not all prostitutes are introduced by prostitutes, and not all prostitutes have prostitutes. Feminist theorists of the new school believe that pimping and abuse are not the same thing. We should not vilify pimping in general, but ask the law and society to condemn abuse. Prostitutes are also opposed to unilaterally defining prostitutes as villains, because in