Whenever one hears the word prostitute the image of a woman comes to mind; it is treated as a one person act. It is one of the world’s oldest profession and although I believe that it is a woman’s right to do whatever she wants with her body’ I do not believe that prostitution should be legalized.
Prostitution is a profession that enslaves women whether they are forced into it or enter it freely. There are different types of prostitutes; there is the one that a woman dresses up nicely and meet wealthy men in a hotel or act as companion for them for the evening; there is the one when a woman stays home and wait to be called; and there is the woman who walks the streets and frequent truck stops; and there are the men who sell themselves to other men. These are the free-willed prostitutes. There is another group and these are the one who work for someone else or they are young girls more often than not who are trafficked to the United States and are forced to work for men who are called “pimp.”
Is the job as prostituteion different from other jobs? Yes. The common denominator for all prostitutes is sex; it does not matter how it is preformed or how forcible it is still sex or maybe I should say they get paid for serveries because prostitution travesties sex. Mostly these women are able to choose their work schedule and they can decide for whom they want to work. Their job is also risky; no one can grantee that he or she will live to see tomorrow, but prostitutes are really narrowing their chances of living out their lifetime. They also decide their dress code and how long they will work each day. The one thing that compares prostitution to other jobs is prostitutes only get paid when they work.
Prostitution endangers society. Many women become prostitute because they are addicts who will not be hired and since they are not going to clean up, their only recourse to acquire drugs is prostitution. Rebecca Hayes-Smith and Zahra Shekarkharb say in their research that prostitution is a threat to society and themselves because it can spread disease. An addicted prostitute who shares a needle does not know what kind of disease the other person has or versi versa; one infects one and that one another and it never ends (2010). Serial killers drive around truck stops for the soul purpose of attracting prostitutes and to kill them. I.S. Alikhadzhievaof says that ”in this marginalized and ‘hidden’ community, there has been a substantial increase in the prevalence of forced involvement in the occupation of prostitution, unlawful deprivation of freedom, the application of physical force, involvement in narcotics use and so on” (2010). ‘Andrea Dworkin thinks that “men hire prostitutes in part because of the accompanying power to treat women inhumanely and to degrade them” (Liberto, 2009). Prostitution needs to be kept illegal because of these reasons.
Sometimes some people need to be saved from themselves and prostitutes are one of these groups of people, they like to play with danger. Most prostitutes feel that they have no choice and prostitution is there only way to survive. The talk of legalizing prostitution has worn thin and if the government wants to keep it illegal than it should be doing more for these women. Around the country there are nonprofit groups that are established exclusively for recovering prostitutes but as much as I search could not find one program to redeem prostitute that is government funded. Prostitutes are arrested and sent to jail and the government takes care of them while they are in prison; rather than keeping them in jail use that money to help them stay clean. One does not get rid of a problem by putting it out of sight, doing that means that at some point he or she will have to pick up that problem again. These women are trapped and need help, therefore saying lock them up will not work and prostitution should not be legalized.
The only way keeping prostitution illegal is ever going to work is to develop programs for these women and teach them how to be self- sufficient; take from them the stigma that they are worthless and show them who they can be.
Biblography
Alikhadzhieva, I. S. (2010) “Public Opinion About Prostitution and Measures to Prevent It.” Russian Social Science Review, vol. 51, no. 3, , pp. 62.
Liberto, Hallie, Rose. (2009). “Normalizing Prostitution versus Normalizing the Alienability of Sexual Rights: A Response to Scott A. Anderson. Ethics 120. Chicago, The University of Chicago, pp. 139.
Hayes-Smith, and Shekarkha, Zahra, (2010). “Why is prostitution criminalized? An alternative viewpoint on the construction of sex work.” Contemporary Justice Review
Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.40.
