Common Myths About Prostitution

Sometimes we want to believe things that simply can't be supported by research or facts. One of these areas is prostitution.

It is often assumed that most prostitutes are drug addicts and mentally inadequate women that have been forced into a lifestyle that they don't like, but can't escape.

In actual fact, studies have shown that in terms of psychological attributes, prostitutes do not appreciably differ from other women. And, except for "street walkers" controlled by pimps, most appear to have freely chosen to both be in and to stay in the lifestyle.

Moira Griffin, writing in an American Bar Association publication, asks, "Are wives and hookers really all that different? Why is a woman who trades sex for money branded a criminal, while a woman who trades sex for domestic services for financial support is accorded society's approbation?"

One answer is that one is seen as providing sex to only one man, and the other to multiple men. As we've noted elsewhere, sexual exclusivity was codified into Jewish religious law, and then into civic law, primarily to protect the church and men's property. Included in the latter was a man's wife. Later, Jewish law, which by that time had become "God's law," was absorbed into Christian teachings.

With the advent of effective birth control some 50 years ago, and apart from traditional beliefs and the "woman as male property" concept, the original justification for sexual exclusivity has all but disappeared. Even the argument of controlling sexually-transmitted disease, which is still a significant concern, applies less to prostitutes than to the general population. Data suggests that only a small percent of STDs are transmitted by prostitutes, and most of this is by street walkers, many of whom are associated with drugs.

What we might call "the higher-class prostitutes" are even more careful about avoiding STD than the average "girl next door." One of the reasons is that sex is their business, and STD can end their livelihoods—and possibly their lives.

With the male-centered laws against prostitution, men are assuming jurisdiction over how females are allowed to conduct their sexual lives, even though hundreds of thousands of those same men regularly help define the sexual lives of women by using the services of prostitutes.

Civil Court Judge Margaret Taylor in handing down a 1978 opinion related to prostitution, said, The arguments that prostitution harms the public health, safety or welfare do not withstand constitutional scrutiny. A subsequent court, motivated largely by public opinion, felt that Judge Taylor's decision should not be left unchallenged, and succeeded in overturning it.

While it is true that prostitution is often associated with crime, this is due in large measure to the fact that society has pushed it into the unsavory world of criminal activity. After reviewing crime research, Moira Griffin notes,"Many social scientists have concluded that such crime is a byproduct of the environment of which society consigns prostitution, rather than being caused by prostitution."

To a significant extent, prostitution is associated with criminality simply because society chooses to define it as a criminal activity.

It is widely assumed that organized crime relies on prostitution for a major part of its revenue. This is another myth. Today, only a very small part the money brought in by organized crime activities is related to prostitution. Data suggests that organized crime has turned its efforts to much more profitable white collar ventures, such as politics, investment, and securities.

Rather than harm families, an argument can be made that prostitution actually protects the family structure.

Fist, given the male propensity to seek out new sexual experiences, visiting prostitutes is less threatening to the family unit that seeking out liaisons with single women looking for a husband—or married women dissatisfied with their marriages. The same could be said for women who seek the temporary companionship of "escorts." In both cases the "sex-for-hire" individuals are typically not interested in marriage, or in breaking up a marriage.

Several countries that have legalized prostitution have found no adverse effect on marriages. According to Griffin, "Prostitution has been practiced for centuries, and disruption of the family has never been casually related to it."

The issue of prostitution and sexually-transmitted disease (STD) is also a common argument against prostitution. But, as we've noted, only a very small percentage of STD cases can be traced back to prostitutes Again, the exception is street walkers, who are sometimes associated with drug use.

The final argument against prostitution is that when the sex trade moves into a neighborhood prostitutes and their johns become a nuisance and ordinary citizens are harassed. While this is true with some street walkers in some neighborhoods, there are nuisance and harassment laws that clearly cover this. They just have to be enforced.

It is the site of prostitutes in a neighborhood and what they represent—"the sin of wanton non-married or extramarital sex"—is what the public typically objects to, which brings us to...

Organized religion, specifically the Catholic Church, officially feels that sex should be reserved for procreation, and enjoying sex for its own sake is a sin. Interestingly, the Catholic Church condoned prostitution at one point in history, although possibly reluctantly. It was only when the anti-sex movement swept the church hundreds of years after Christianity started that attitudes were reversed. (Biblical scholars feel that Christ, who came from a Jewish background, had a much more open-minded view of sex.)

The sex-is-not-to-enjoy stance is one of the reasons the Catholic Church opposes reliable birth control, despite the fact that it results in three major problems: (1) unwanted children that can't be properly fed, clothed, or educated, (2) friction between a husband and wife, and (3) the husband frequently turning to "other women" for sexual satisfaction.

The general public also has a strange love-hate relationship—or, possibly more accurately, a love-fear relationship—with sex. It tends to feel that sex and love are inextricably associated, even though we know that millions of men and women regularly enjoy sex without being in love.

In addition, millions of affairs take place annually, without a mate knowing; and since the mate does not know, the marriage stays intact.

Since it is well known that sex can be enjoyed without love, one major question is why sex so often supersedes love in dictating whether a marriage stays intact.

Many people assume that for strictly economic reasons prostitutes have to provide a service that they are basically adverse to. Since many wives find sex is simply a "duty" of marriage, this seems logical.

However, Amy, a former full-time prostitute who we interviewed, said that she generally enjoyed her work, especially the sex. The fact that she regularly climaxed with the men she spent the night with would seem to support this. After more than two years as a prostitute without contracting an STD or becoming pregnant, Amy found a job with a large U.S. corporation. We should also note that throughout her more than two years as a prostitute, Amy never used drugs or even alcohol. Possibly her case is unusual, but she did report that many of her prostitute friends shared her feelings.

The "having to provide sex," anti-prostitution argument is clouded by the fact in many states a wife can't legally claim that she was forced to have sex with her husband against her will. In other words, when it comes to her husband, a rape charge can't be effectively sustained.

Even when regularly abused by a husband, many wives feel that they have no alternative but to stay in the marriage — sometimes with devastating consequences. Each year, more women are killed by husbands than they are by johns or pimps.

This does not mean that prostitution is not a dangerous business. Prostitutes, especially street walkers, are at best considered second-class citizens whose personal welfare isn't valued as much as "decent women." Street walkers frequently get raped, sometimes by policemen who threaten them with imprisonment if they bring charges.

There is no doubt that some women to turn to prostitution to support a drug habit—just as many men turn to crime to support their drug habit. Once this spirals down into the depths of drug dependence, it can represent a slovenly and shameful sight.

The media often focuses on this very real and very tragic element of prostitution. It both supports public perceptions and further encourages politically popular efforts at control.

Interestingly, if the media focused on the six-figure income and jet-set lifestyle of some prostitutes, they know that the public—especially that part of it with young females were in the house—would strongly object. It's a message they don't want the media to disseminate, because, however true, it's a message that threatens traditional beliefs. This brings us to...

The negative aspects of prostitution notwithstanding, when you compare the life of a "better class" prostitute with the average woman in the work force, it's easy to see why so many women enter "the life."

Wives and women in the general work force often feel more trapped their lifestyle than prostitutes. This is due in part because the average female worker earns about 60-cents for every dollar a man makes, and she must often must struggle to survive economically.

Plus, no matter how talented they are or how hard they work, it seems that many women in the general work force sooner or later confront the "glass ceiling" that keeps them from moving up to the six-figure executive positions held almost exclusively by men. The income of the 'better class" of prostitute can easily exceed six figures. A prostitute can make more in one day than the average waitress or office worker can make in a week.

Not being anchored to an office, her time is also much more flexible. Since the average prostitute has one child, this gives her time to be with her children. Higher class prostitutes frequently have the opportunity to travel, often with clients who pay the bills.

While it might be argued that a large part of the success of a prostitute depends on her beauty and not all women are endowed with this advantage, we also have to concede that a large part of any person's success depends upon factors such as latent intelligence, or in the case of sports, physical agility—factors that they simply have been "endowed with."

reduce or eliminate the rampant victimization of prostitutes by pimps, johns, and the whole unsavory raft of criminal elements now associated with [prostitution]
control disease by requiring regular checkups and health certificates
get many prostitutes off the street and into a controlled environment
put more of our limited law enforcement resources into fighting major crimes
take away the impetus to get young women (and men) hooked on drugs in order to turn them into prostitutes (and profit)
eliminate a significant source of income for organized crime
put prostitution officially on the tax rolls."

After hearing from some "working women," he amended his column and subsequently noted, "They would prefer that prostitution be decriminalized instead of legalized.

"They feel that if prostitution is just legalized, it will allow the government to impose all manner of unrealistic controls, which means that the new laws will also be largely ignored."

According to Horne, "Decriminalizing it would make it no different than safe little sports like boxing, demolition derbies, and ice hockey."

According to Margo St. James, of COYOTE, an organization for "working women," prostitutes should not be treated any different than a typist working our of her home or a freelance writer. She does feel, however, that pimps should be regulated, and that they should be subject to the same laws that govern any third-party industry that hires independent contractors—workers' compensation, health insurance, usury laws.

Obviously, this requirement would go a long way toward eliminating the issue of women being victimized by pimps—not to mention going a long way toward eliminating them.

In many countries, and even in two small areas of the United States, prostitution is legal. In a great many countries prostitution is simply ignored. In at least one society, since only the most beautiful women become prostitutes, they are, to a degree, even venerated. In some societies, which are otherwise ultraconservative, polygamy is a way of life; and in a few societies "borrowing a wife or husband" is condoned. Clearly, when it comes to sex, cultural values and beliefs differ widely.

In societies that are the most religiously conservative, such as Islamic societies, women are afforded the lowest status. The most conservative segments of these religions deny women the chance for either education or employment. Conservative Christians who claim to take the Bible literally, feel that women should be subservient to their husbands. Plus, among conservative Christians the Bible is often used to tacitly justify a type of second-class status for women.

Societies that take a more liberal attitude toward sex, such as the Scandinavian societies, allow women more opportunities than the United States, which, by comparison, is more sexually conservative.

Even though we claim church-state separation in the United States, when facts and research do not support anti-prostitution views, Judeo-Christian scriptural justifications are commonly invoked—notwithstanding the fact that we know that many other Biblical injunctions are now ascribed to "times past" and ignored.

In general in the United States, we are confronting centuries of belief that has embedded itself into the fabric our thinking. When all the myths are dispelled, what we often come down to with many people is in effect, "Prostitution should stay illegal because it's obviously wrong." Facts to the contrary are irrelevant.

Unfortunately, if we've learned anything from history it's that this type of thinking, even as widely accepted as it may have been at the time, has resulted all manner of human problems and tragedies that could have been avoided.

NOTE: Sexual disease, especially AIDS, is widespread. Sex with anyone other than a trusted partner requires protection—generally in the form of a condom. Although if properly used, condoms provide a high degree of protection, that protection is not 100%.