Is sex with a 3rd world prostitute a form of rape?

The Free Speech Pamphlet Series: Prostitution
A proposed revision of the laws governing prostitution is a complicated and multi-faceted issue. Feminists for Free Expression advocates the decriminalization of prostitution. This paper sets forth why this position is necessary and why prostitution is a feminist issue. Although decriminalization will not solve all of the problems associated with prostitution, it is a first step in granting women and other members of the sex worker population their basic civil rights.
Definitions
Prostitution: For purposes of this position paper, “prostitution” means any consensual sexual activity among or between adults where money or any other material compensation is involved. Nonconsensual sex acts, whether perpetrated by fraud, threat of force, or force, as well as any sex acts perpetrated against minors are not prostitution, and are referred to instead as criminal sexual acts, collectively.
Prostitute: Anyone who by choice, either because she likes the work, likes the money or chooses it as a way to feed herself and her family, offers consensual sexual activity for money or any other consideration. Women are referred to in this discussion, because prostitutes have most often been identified as women. In reality, the prostitute population also includes men and transgendered persons, and these recommendations hold for those members of the profession as well. The 1996 San Francisco Task Force on prostitution concluded that prostitution is not a monolithic institution. It encompasses people working in the pornographic media industry, live theater, massage parlors, bordellos and through print advertising, as well as the street workers most commonly envisioned when the word “prostitute” is mentioned.
Sex worker is a term of self-definition created by those within the prostitutes’ rights movement in order to find a term that does not carry the pejorative connotations or legal implications of prostitution. The term includes people whose work involves sexual entertainment, art, or education that is not within the ambit of the laws against prostitution, though it might have been in the past. The term “sex worker” also includes all prostitutes.
Decriminalization means the removal of existing laws and is different from legalization which is the establishment of laws within which prostitution can exist (as in the regulated brothels of Nevada).

Why does FFE favor decriminalization?
Decriminalization allows those who are prostitutes to go into business for themselves. Self-determination is a tenet of feminist politics. Decriminalization removes hypocrisy within the criminal justice system and fosters responsibility, empowerment, self-esteem and self-care.

What are the present laws?
Laws that prohibit prostitution concentrate on Soliciting for the purposes of prostitution. A third party living off the earnings of a prostitute.

What issues are the present laws supposed to address?
1) Quality of life. These laws concern complaints about the adverse impact of street prostitution on neighborhoods: litter, traffic, drugs, and crime.
2) Trafficking, slavery, and protection of our youth.
3) Morality and the undermining of marriage and “traditional” family values.

Why don’t these laws work?
Quality of Life
Police crackdowns on street prostitution simply shift street prostitutes to other neighborhoods at tremendous taxpayer expense.
Arresting street prostitutes is selective prosecution. Some segments of the prostitute population, especially poor women and members of minority groups, are prosecuted more than others are. Street solicitation is prohibited but newspaper ads for prostitutes proliferate in most major cities.
In most cases only the seller of the service is arrested, not the buyer.
The quality of life for the woman who chooses sex work is ignored, as is the quality of life for the person who chooses to purchase the service.
Laws against third parties living off the earnings of a prostitute put prostitutes’ homes and families in jeopardy because domestic partners and landlords can be charged.
Arrest records stigmatize sex workers, making it difficult for them to find employment in other fields. Fear of arrest prevents sex workers who are victims of crimes from reporting those crimes.
Predators see sex workers as easy targets who “won’t be missed”. For example, Gary Ridgeway, the Green River strangler who murdered 48 women, admitted that he chose mostly prostitutes because he saw them as easy victims.o intimidate their victims.

Trafficking and Slavery
Unscrupulous people dupe women, especially those in poorer countries, with the promise of a good job in another country, and instead force them to work in brothels. This is non-consensual sex trafficking, not prostitution, and those who perpetrate it are guilty of fraud, kidnapping, and criminal sexual acts. Prostitution law does nothing to inhibit such individuals. In fact, these criminals are helped by the prostitution laws because they use the threat of arrest and deportation, as well as the shame these laws promote, to intimidate their victims.
Protection of Our Youth
Many children leave home, to escape child abuse or discrimination and abuse based on sexual or gender orientation. Some are runaways, and some are thrown away. They arrive in cities and become prostitutes for their survival. Money wasted on prosecution of adult prostitutes could be better used to provide care and services for these needy youths.
Moral Issues
The idea that consensual sex between adults involving financial or other remuneration is symptomatic of moral turpitude is based not on civil code but on religious ethic. Among Americans, there diverse opinions on religion and sexuality. Any law that respects an establishment of religion violates the First Amendment (1) to our Constitution.

Why does FFE take this position now?
Sex Workers’ Rights Movement
There exists today a unified international sex workers’ rights movement, consisting of thousands of members, including those in the United States, who have organized to demand their basic human rights. So far, this activism has resulted in the decriminalization of prostitution in Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, with very strong movements in other countries such as India and Taiwan, where tens of thousands demonstrate for prostitutes’ rights. In the United States, lobbying efforts by sex workers themselves are strongest in San Francisco, California. In 1996, a report by the city of San Francisco’s Task Force on Prostitution recommended decriminalization. The “Angel Initiative” to decriminalize prostitution nearly passed when it was put on the ballot in the city of Berrkely in 2004. We believe this will be the first of many more initiatives in this country, and FFE is in support of such initiatives. Among the many rallying points for this movement, the strongest is the fight to save the lives of prostitutes in jeopardy because of laws that silence them for fear of arrest or lead those who prey on women to believe that this is a “disposable” segment of the population.
Decriminalization models
We can benefit by using other countries that have decriminalized prostitution as research models.
Lawrence vs. Texas
The June 2003 ruling by the Supreme Court in Lawrence vs. Texas upheld the right of individuals to engage in consensual sexual acts in private. Before Lawrence, the courts held that one must prove that liberties not mentioned by the Constitution are valid to be pursued. Thus far, the Court has been silent on whether consensual sexual acts between consenting adults in which the participants also agree on financial remuneration are protected liberties; we question whether these activities are so different.
Model Penal Code
In his majority opinion in Lawrence vs. Texas Justice Kennedy cited the The American Law Institute that in 1955 promulgated a Model Penal Code and made clear that it did not recommend or provide for “criminal penalties for consensual sexual relations conducted in private.” It justified its decision on three grounds: (1) The prohibitions undermined respect for the law by penalizing conduct many people engaged in; (2) the statutes regulated private conduct not harmful to others; and (3) the laws were arbitrarily enforced and thus invited the danger of blackmail.
The New Sex Education Model
Left in the hands of the entrepreneurs and free from prosecution, the concept of the back alley bookstores has evolved into women-owned sexuality boutiques that are also centers of learning. The Adult Industry Medical Clinic (AIM), which offers medical care and education for members of that industry, is another fine example of the good that can come when practitioners are permitted to govern themselves. From these examples, we may assume that providers of sexual service left to govern themselves could also offer a great benefit to society. There are many prostitutes and others who consider sex work a healing art that enhances our quality of life on many levels, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It follows that those who are responsible providers of this service contribute to society’s health, not society’s ills, and should be given support and not condemnation. Prostitution laws have turned a social asset into a liability. It can be argued that this has been done for community hygiene, but we believe anti-prostitution laws, by keeping sex information underground, have only helped maintain a dangerous ignorance that breeds disease. Feminists For Free Expression supports the efforts of the organized sex worker movement. We believe that sex workers allowed to govern themselves have the greatest potential to promote positive change. Decriminalization fosters an environment where education, growth, and good health can flourish.

Whose Body is it anyway?
Some Comparisons
Reproductive rights analogy Some argue the state has an interest in a woman’s use of her own body for reproduction (Roe vs. Wade). Some may also argue that anti-prostitution laws are for the protection of women. In actuality, these laws infantilize women and usurp their power, undermining women’s rights to self-determination and liberty under the Fifth (2) and Fourteenth(3) Amendments. Whether a woman uses her body for reproduction, recreation or remuneration is her business, not the state’s.
Athletes choose to subject their bodies to physical stress that is not only within the law, but widely praised and financially compensated.
Cosmetic surgery that greatly changes the body is not against the law; moreover, it is very popular and doctors are handsomely paid for this service.
Adult Movies: Hardcore adult movies in which people engage in sex acts for fun and profit are widely accepted and enjoyed by a very large segment of the population.
Gender Parity: Women do not have equal rights under the Constitution. The Equal Rights Amendment was never passed. It is, therefore, more difficult for women to fight for and retain their rights to equality and autonomy under the law. Women fight for equal pay in almost every field. Yet, society arrests women for performing the only job in which they can set their own rates and make more than men who provide the same service. Many women who do not identify as prostitutes need and are able to use prostitution for a limited time in their lives to support themselves, be it for one night, one year, one semester, etc. The fact that so many women are prosecuted for exploiting this asset reinforces the position of women as second-class citizens.
It is for the reasons set forth in this paper that Feminists For Free Expression advocates the decriminalization of prostitution.
© FFE developed for FFE by Veronica Vera
1 First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
2 Fifth Amendment: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
3 Fourteenth Amendment: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

krd wrote: »

There is a discussion in the UK on the legalisation of prostitution and the liberalisation of strip clubs etc.

If you legalise and normalise prostitution, where do you stop?

I know in the US, where there is less social welfare, many women who end up in prostitution or working strip clubs do so because they have no alternative. And before you think any pretty young girl should be able to get a receptionists job so she doesn't go hungry - think of the ugly inner city black girl who has no other alternatives or options.

So the situation of women forced into prostitution for basic existential reasons is already a reality in the developed world.

Remove social welfare in Ireland - people will not be magically energised and incentivised to start world beating enterprises. We'll have prostitutes coming out our ear.

I have been informed by people who have seen the ads that massage parlors and strip clubs in England do recruit through the job centres. Though the ads are not explicit in their description of the advertised work. Cleaners and receptionists for massage parlors are also paid a premium. They're usually coaxed into doing the grubbier work by the threat of the sack, once they've done a little time as receptionist/cleaner.

People are groomed into prostitution.

seenitall wrote: »

I wonder what Permabear would make of a situation where an Irish woman was stripped of "all other choices" by her father and then her husband, by being sold into marriage like chattel and being kept a prisoner on a farm by virtue of social and religious mores, and repeatedly forced into sexual intercourse until subdued and acquiescent in her own abuse.

(I'm only asking because I have read somewhere, whether true or not, that this is exactly what used to happen in Ireland not too many decades ago.)

I honestly can't believe what I'm reading here.

krd wrote: »

The client is exploiting the prostitutes addiction. And feeding their addiction. The client is effectively supplying the prostitute with drugs, even if they're one step removed. It's not a fair contract for goods and services. It's the exploitation of someone with an illness. A drug addict is not simply a drug user - they have an uncontrollable compulsion to use drugs. It's essentially drug assisted rape - even if a little money changes hands it doesn't make the situation any better. If you offered one of the women their drug of choice - they take it in lieu of cash payment.

It's a moral question. You either believe you have no moral responsibilities and a moral right to exploit the helpless for your pleasure - or you don't.

Having sex with these women is like having sex with a down syndrome.

No I don't like seeing it. Desperate looking women, who look sick, offering me a blowjob every time I head to the shop late at night. They also do their business in the open - so if you're not careful you might walk up on them. Then the frequent trouble with clients - from what I've seen, there are men who come down to attack the women. Possibly because they know they can get away with it.

What's there to like seeing? If anyone thinks these women are erotic temptresses, they seriously need to seek professional help.

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Pressure groups lock horns over changes to laws on prostitution


By JIM CUSACK

Sunday February 20 2011

IRELAND'S first mini-marathon to promote rights and better safety for sex workers is to be held this June. It is also being organised to highlight what they say are dangerous proposals coming from left-wing, feminist and Catholic groups, seeking to outlaw prostitution entirely.
The Sex Workers' Alliance of Ireland (SWAI) says it is very concerned that proposals from an alliance of groups opposed to prostitution will oppress women and men who are voluntarily working as prostitutes and would force them on to the streets and so put them in greater danger.
The alliance of groups advocating the total prohibition of prostitution in Ireland is calling itself 'Turn off the Red Light'. It has emerged after a group calling itself the 'Dignity Project' submitted proposals for new legislation to Dermot Ahern, then Minister for Justice, in January. Mr Ahern passed these proposals on to the Attorney General's office for consideration.
The main prohibitionist proposal is to adopt the model currently in use in Sweden, where men are prosecuted, along with the prostitutes, if they attempt to pay for sex.
A group, including representatives of the Irish Council of Women -- a State-funded body -- and Ruhama, the Catholic organisation which encourages women out of prostitution, An Garda Siochana and the Department of Justice, took part in a visit to Sweden last year, which led to the proposals.
Teresa Whitaker, one of the founders of the SWAI, told the Sunday Independent that sex workers' views had not been sought. She said the introduction of the "Swedish" model would force prostitution further underground and create much more dangerous conditions for those voluntarily in the sex trade.
Last year, the supreme court in Canada overturned that country's laws on prostitution, which were almost identical to those in Britain and Ireland. The court found that laws which criminalised prostitution put the sex workers' lives at danger.
The "harm-reductionist" proposals being put forward by the SWAI would provide protections that are not in place in Britain, Ireland or Sweden.
The 'Turn off the Red Light' campaign says it wants to "end prostitution and sex trafficking in Ireland". It states: "Trafficking women and girls for the purposes of sexual exploitation is a modern, global form of slavery."
- JIM CUSACK


http://www.independent.ie/national-news/pressure-groups-lock-horns-over-changes-to-laws-on-prostitution-2548122.html

Susan McKay, New Campaign Against Prostitution

Posted on November 23, 2009 at 11:59 AM

Susan McKay, Director, NWCI

The newly formed Sex Workers Alliance urges us to accept that prostitution is a freely chosen occupation, as viable a way of paying your bills as any other. The Alliance claims it can promote the health, safety and empowerment of those it calls sex workers in what it calls the sex industry. These are not victims, it insists. This view sees the man who uses prostitutes as a person buying a service from a person selling it.
Choosing to do something means weighing it up against other possibilities and deciding it is the best option. As in: will I be a doctor, or a civil servant, or a shop assistant, or will I be a prostitute? But of course that isn't how women enter prostitution. For the most part, they do it because they feel they have no choice. They feel they are forced into it.

Reducing Stigma
We wish to broaden the discourse on the topic of sex work in Irish society and advocate for a group who don’t always speak for themselves and who have often been silenced by stigma. Those who do speak out often attract media attention that frequently seeks to sensationalise rather than discuss the issues. Historically, prostitution was largely considered sinful and immoral; in Ireland in 1767 in Lesson Street, Dublin’s, “fallen women” were often ‘rescued’ and put to work in Magdalene laundries – a brutal life considered better than that which they had chosen for themselves. We wish to move the discussion from the Victorian notions of ‘rescuing’ sex workers to a discourse that includes human rights. SWAI also challenges the stigma attached to sex work. Mc Gréil’s research on prejudice in Irish society (2006) (n=1,005) found that certain groups such as prostitutes, drug addicts ‘people with AIDS’, gays and travellers elicit a significant degree of prejudice. He wondered how the Holocaust could have happened in a society which was so civilised; he concluded that certain groups are ‘out groups’ or become hated in society because of prejudice which leads to their being stigmatised. The question should be asked as to whether societal attitudes towards sex workers are based on centuries of teaching as to the ‘sinfulness’ and immorality of sex work, or based on the actual negative consequences of sex work, which in our opinion are best explained by sex workers and their clients. In this regard, we do not stand in judgement of consenting sex between adults, even when there is money involved. SWAI has no wish to demonise or vilify the men who buy sexual services except of course those who buy services from minors, in which case it is child sexual abuse.

Research carried out by the NACD (2009) in which 35 sex workers were interviewed found that although a few of these women had been coerced into prostitution the majority had entered it voluntarily, mostly through female networks. In relation to choice, it can be argued that even the most desperate drug user exercises choice, women spoke about trying drug dealing, shop-lifting, etc. before turning to sex work to find funds not only for drugs but also for their children. From a public welfare perspective it is also a logical argument that forms of earning and income that have no victims (sex work) are far better than those which victimise such as shoplifting and robbery. Some of the women talked about how their earnings from sex work funded their children (of course), holidays abroad, private child care, and one woman had planned on buying a new car when she returned from her holiday.

‘Interventions that focus on changing behaviour among commercial sex workers and their clients are important strategies to reduce HIV transmission. Sex workers who work 'on the street' have been identified as being most at risk of HIV transmission , as well as finding themselves in circumstances where they are vulnerable to high levels of violence and exploitation.’
The National Drugs Strategy (interim) 2009-20016 also refers to drug using sex workers as an ‘at risk’ group , and identifies the importance of improving harm reduction services to them by providing access to needle exchange and condoms.
Members of our Steering Committee work as outreach workers on the street, distributing condoms and lubricants to reduce the harm of STIs including HIV. Harm reduction and health promotion emphasise the importance of respecting individuals choices and empowering them to maximise their health, whatever the circumstances.

Migrant Sex Workers
However, trafficking should not be conflated with sex work, and in particular migrant sex workers. Nicola Mai (London Metropolitan University) carried out research in England with 100 migrant sex workers and concluded that: contrary to public perception, the majority of migrant sex workers have chosen prostitution as a source of "dignified living conditions and to increase their opportunities for a better future while dramatically improving the living conditions of their families in the country of origin". After detailed interviews with 100 migrant sex workers in the UK, Mai found: "For the majority, working in the sex industry was a way to avoid the exploitative working conditions they had met in their previous non-sexual jobs."

theg81der wrote: »

Yes I believe it is rape. I don`t believe all prostitution is bad thou, there is empowered women who choose to do it and more power to them.Its about power and control.

When I think of the alternative options available to that man who goes to buy sex with that girl -he probably has more money and education than her and he could choose to help her, could choose to change her life. He does bare responsibility for his choices.

seenitall wrote: »

I frankly find it quite scary how someone brought up in a civilised first world country cannot seem to grasp that the name of the act of forcing someone into sexual intercourse against their will/without their consent is rape, irrespective of circumstances ("married", gang-banged, enslaved, forced by pimp). Just because there are (always) "worse" rapes committed doesn't take away from this fact.

As to your "law may view..." argument, I have addressed that already. Different laws in different countries will have different tolerances of this abhorrent act (usually a good reflection of the degree of misogyny of the culture).