A man's right?

Silvia Chejter

Some people talk about freedom of choice when they discuss prostitution. Is a prostituted woman free? Does she have the power to choose or is she chosen? Is it right to say that she is only free not to be free?(1) One of the paradoxes that emerges from the debates on the sex trade is the absence of the demand aspect - no mention is made of the clients. The clients are mentioned only incidentally in these debates, as secondary actors or mere extras, as if the demand were created by the supply and not - as is, in fact, the case - the other way round. The importance of the primary role of demand-side factors in generating prostitution practices, and of the constant need for bodies to satisfy that demand, is thus minimised.

Feminist discourses have not escaped this tendency, and their discrepancies and internal controversies -whether tacit or explicit- are also centred much more on the image and role of the prostituted women than on the clients, the vast majority of whom are men. This is evident in the discourse that claims that all forms of prostitution are forced and therefore should be seen as variations of female slavery, in this case sexual (2). It is also a feature of the opposing discursive position, which does not condemn prostitution, but rather aims to struggle against the stigmatisation of prostituted women (3), by seeing them as activists in a liberating and transgressive experience (4).

The time has come to ask ourselves whether the practice of prostitution, as a "man's right"- in the words of Françoise Collin (5) - should not be approached in the first instance from a position that questions the exercise of that right, a right which implies the ready availability of prostituted bodies to satisfy male desire, even when those bodies are themselves male.

"I stopped being a little girl and became pregnant without knowing how or when. I don't have a daughter, luckily I just have three sons. Because life stinks, for women it stinks. I always say how lucky I am to have only boys, they will suffer less, men suffer less (...) I was telling you that I was just a little girl, wasn't I? I had a boyfriend, I was living with my mother, father, uncle and brothers and sisters. My mother wouldn't let me have a boyfriend, but I had one all the same, I had no idea then. My boyfriend used to say, you have to do this, let me do it, and so I let him. I also let his friends do it, he used to tell me to let them do it, that they were his friends and that he knew what he was talking about, and anyway, I was a little girl, I didn't know anything. Well, one day my father came home drunk and grabbed my mother by the arm, threw her on the floor and beat her up, you have no idea how he hit her, everyone was shouting and I hid in the bedroom. Finally I understood that he was shouting that their daughter was a whore, she went with everyone, and that it was my mother's fault for not looking after me properly. Then he got hold of me and almost killed me ... he said I wasn't to go out any more. Well, for a time I didn't. I didn't go out, but my father used to hit me just in case. Then one day my uncle came home when I was alone at the pump doing the washing and said that if I had been with everyone I had to do it with him too and he raped me. Every afternoon he made me do it with him and told me not to say anything because my father would be angry with me ... Well, to cut a long story short, I got pregnant, I ran away and got rid of it with a woman who took me to work at a brothel, which to me -who had no idea- seemed high class.... She taught me to work. She was always on your back. With her you couldn't slack, you had to toe the line. But she never failed you. She never failed me. (...) When I left that brothel I went to another: I worked in several, I went from one to another, from place to place." (Patri, 33 years of age) (6)

This woman, from a middle class family, gratefully remembers the woman who took her to the brothel and the woman's sister, the owner of the brothel. Both of them "gave her shelter" when she was at her wits' end in what was, for her, a desperate situation. She is not aware of the extent to which these opportune or opportunistic "benefactors" (depending on which way you look at it) took advantage of her helplessness. Nor are these recruiters - in the service of male desire and often prostituted themselves - aware of the full dimension and meaning of their recruitment activities. The process of recruitment, which almost always plays a part in the introduction of new workers to prostitution, is what ensures the constant offer of new bodies, in response to an increase in demand, or to replace those that have aged or are worn out by years of work, physical or mental illnesses, or drugs. Recruitment is always based on techniques that appear to "save" girls, teenagers or adults, from circumstances of defencelessness and violence, which are often not directly related -or not only related- to poverty, a lack of economic resources or the social exclusion of their families, factors which are almost always seen to be the primary cause of sexual exploitation.

Judith Walkovich says: "Of course there were some girl prostitutes on the streets of London, Liverpool and other places, but most of these women were on the streets because their other options were very limited." (7) The author concedes that the absence of alternatives led to a forced choice, but she still regards it as a choice. She does not ask to what degree the lack of options is itself produced not so much by poverty, but by the need to satisfy demand. It is not only a question of the limited number of options available, but rather of the quality and meaning of those options. Thus the actions of benefactors, who "provide jobs" and the means of survival to those who would otherwise die of hunger, appear justified.

Reasons to be proud

In this context, the notion of "work" represents for the women their social inclusion -albeit stigmatised- in the cycle of economic production and the supply and demand market, which in turn contributes to the legitimisation and normalisation of these practices.

Following recruitment, the girls and teenagers endure the situation as they go through a process of adaptation: from denial of their suffering, to resignation, but also to feelings of pride and satisfaction as they acquire and use their limited power over their environment, even over their clients. An example to illustrate the "pride" and exercise of "micro-powers" just mentioned, is that of Sharon, one of the interviewees. She is seventeen years old and was thirteen when whe was initiated into prostitution and exploited by her boyfriend at the time. She tells how, when she was almost 15, her boyfriend was put in prison and, while he was there, a pizza cook from the neighbourhood, who knew she was a prostitute, approached her.
"The first time I kept all the money for myself I almost died, I couldn't believe it. It was wonderful, I felt great, it wasn't the same as working and never seeing a penny. (...) I let him touch me, then he grabbed my hand and put it down his trousers, and said, see how you turn me on, so I thought this is my chance ... I pulled my hand away and said, that'll be twenty pesos ... Well, the guy turned pale and stared at me -he didn't understand a thing. He took away his hand and said, What? You charge? Of course I do, I say, I'll do whatever you like but it'll cost you twenty pesos. The guy thought I'd be happy with just some food, but no. I waited till he was really turned on and the I told him it'd cost him twenty pesos. I had it really sussed, even if he didn't give me the money, the look on his face -a guy with the hots and me saying to him, you have to pay me... you have no idea (she laughs). In the end he paid me ten pesos and not the twenty I asked for... he said I'll give you ten and I said, okay. See, I'd never had ten pesos for myself, so it was better than anything I'd got before... I kept the ten for myself and it was a whole new deal." (8)

The illusion of freedon

A girl of fourteen working the streets compared her present situation with her former state of dependency working in a brothel/sauna, where she had to do a full shift9 and accept any client, including the owner of the premises:

"That's why I like the street, on the street you charge 30 and 15, I won't go for less, and then if they agree, you keep it all. If you don't like their face you say it's 100 and they move on. So you can do what you like with your life, it's not the same, you can leave whenever you want, without any fuss. At the brothel where I worked before, if you wanted to leave early it was a problem -you can't, you have to stay till closing time." (10)

This is what doing what one wants with one's life amounts to. The illusion of the possibility of freedom. In these contexts, the triumphs and the pleasures are of this tenor.

A job for whom?

When they talk about their lives, we discover another story. One of coercion and violence. These contradictory stories reveal their efforts to survive, to make their intolerable situation bearable.

One of the arguments always present in their discourse is the assimilation of sexual exploitation to a job. A "job", like any other, part of the market and subject to the laws of supply and demand; a more profitable job than most, which is carried out under freer and more attractive -although sometimes also more risky- conditions. Moreover, in some cases there is even the possibility of working in festive social environments. Or else in premises which offer greater security, housing, food, companionship, that is, circumstances which provide what, in many cases, was lacking in their homes.

The generalised acceptance of these social discourses turns attention away from questions about what is being trafficked, what the causal factors are, and above all, to whose benefit and on the basis of what rights.

The desire to end the stigmatisation and marginalisation of prostituted women is certainly praiseworthy, as is the practice of solidarity with them in their resistance and struggle to improve their living conditions. However, this does not mean that the practice of prostitution should be accepted, legitimised and condoned, or that we should refrain from criticising or seeking to eradicate it.

"They all do the same thing, but some do it out of need, others for fun. The girl I went with wanted to try out new experiences, that's how she started doing this. One day she needed money, so she went for it and after that she didn't need to work any more ..." (Client) (11)

"To me they're all the same. They're tarts. They all have what it takes to do it. I don't want them to marry me, just to say yes, and then button up. If they keep their mouths shut, all the better. Just spread their legs and screw. The other day, one of the hookers told a friend of mine that she had children and he didn't know what to do -whether he should just give her the money and leave, or give her the money and do it, but at the same time he'd be like her boss who is torturing her (emphasis added) (...) In the end he did it. If you want to get laid, you have to just not give a damn about what the hooker says to you." (Client) (12)

On the threshold of the twenty-first century we should perhaps ask ourselves whether the time has not come to make men face up to their responsibility. They are the main users of prostitutes and they consider that they have the unquestionable right to use others' bodies as mere objects. This is a violation of the essential human rights of persons, whatever their age.

Silvia Chejter is an Argentinian sociologist and co-director of CECYM.
chester@wamani.wamani.apc.org

Translated by Victoria Swarbrick

(1) Marie Victoire Louis, "Libres de no serlo", Le Monde Diplomatique, Buenos Aires, August 1999, p. 30.
(2) One of the clearest examples of this line of thought is to be found in the work of Kathleen Barry. See, for instance, her book, The prostitution of sexuality, New York University Press, USA, 1995.
(3) Raquel Osborne paraphrases Mary McIntosh in her critique of the abolitionist position: "In this analysis, there is no place for the flesh and blood sex professional, only for the whore who inhabits the masculine imagination. Dworkin is infuriated by the injustice of our being considered whores, but in her conception there is no room for reform, for the political struggle of these workers." La construcción sexual de la realidad, Raquel Osborne, Ed. Cátedra, 1993, p. 277.
(4) This conception is developed in the work of Judith Belladona, cited by Cinta Canterla, in the Prologue to El mal menor. Política y respresentaciones de la prostitución en los siglos XVI y XIX, published by Cadiz University, Spain, 1998.
(5) "Les femmes et les enfants de confort: un droit de l'homme?", Françoise Collin, mimeo, 1998.
(6) Testimonial, extracted from the Report " La Explotación Sexual Comercial Infantil", UNICEF, September 2000, in press.
(7) Judith R. Wakowitz, "Vicio masculino, y virtud feminista: el feminismo y la política sobre la prostitución en Gran Bretaña en el siglo XIX", in Amelang James & Mary Nash, Historia y Género: Las mujeres en la Europa Moderna y Contempóranea, Ediciones Algfons el Magnanim, Spain, 1990, p. 225.
(8) UNICEF Report.
(9) In Argentina, brothels are open for a twelve hour shift. The brothel / sauna where this girl worked was open from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., seven days a week.
(10) UNICEF Report.
(11) UNICEF Report.
(12) Interview with a client.

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