Before we decide whether to legalise prostitution, it is important to know what prostitution is and what it is not. It is not a job like any other job.
In prostitution, men remove women's humanity. Buying a woman in prostitution gives men the power to turn women into a living, breathing masturbation fantasy. He removes her self and those qualities that define her as an individual, and for him she becomes sexualized body parts. She acts the part of the thing he wants her to be. A john who was guaranteed anonymity said prostitution was like "renting an organ for ten minutes". Another man said, "I use them like I might use any other amenity, a restaurant, or a public convenience.
As shocking as these men's observations may sound to those who think prostitution is like the movie Pretty Woman , their descriptions closely match women's descriptions of prostitution. The women explain to us how it feels to be treated like a rented organ.
You become in your own mind what these people do and say with you. You wonder how could you let yourself do this and why do these people want to do this to you? Women who prostitute have described it as "paid rape" and "voluntary slavery". Prostitution is sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, often worse.
His payment does not erase what we know about sexual violence, domestic violence and rape. This understanding of the realities of prostitution by the john and the woman he buys is at odds with the notion of prostitution as slightly unpleasant labour that should be legalised. Whether or not it is legal, prostitution is extremely harmful for women. Women in prostitution have the highest rates of rape and homicide of any group of women ever studied. They are regularly physically assaulted and verbally abused, whether they prostitute on the street or in massage parlours, brothels or hotels.
