La Strada Documentation Center

The mythology of prostitution: Advocacy Research and public policy

Document number
2316
Date
2010
Title
The mythology of prostitution: Advocacy Research and public policy
Author/publisher
Ronald Weitzer, Department of sociology, George Washington University/Springer Science + Business media, LLC 2010
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Sex industry, sex work, sexuality policy, prostitution myths, legalisation
Summary

The  article examines the claims and reasoning made by anti prostitution activists, scholars and organizations, and highlights some of the consequences this perspective has had regarding legislation and public policy. The author links anti prostitution to what he calls the “Oppression paradigm”; a paradigm that views prostitution as exclusively harmful and exploitative, as well as a manifestation of men’s domination of women. The author criticises the paradigm for being one dimensional and unable to deal with the broad diversity that is present in the sex industry. The author also points out that the scholars and activists that promote anti prostitution tend to objectify sex workers themselves, by insisting that they be called victims, prostituted women and/or survivors instead of sex workers or prostitutes. Furthermore he shows, with a number of quotes and examples from various reports, that the Oppression paradigm is pre-scientific and heavily biased, and that this leads researchers belonging to this paradigm to (directly or indirectly) be selective in the analysis of their own results. Weitzer shows how this biased and flawed research has lead to a mythology of prostitution in which sex workers are seen as victims, objects or survivors, clients as predators or rapists and the sex industry in general as coercive, oppressing and harmful. This mythology has further affected legislation and legalisation policies in USA and other places, claims the author. The author suggests an alternative perspective, the “Polymorphus paradigm”, that is able to deal with the high level of complexity that is present in the sex industry. He suggests that concepts such as exploitation, free choice, victimisation, choice and job satisfaction be treated as variables, depending on location, period in time, type of sex work etc., and that the big variations and differences within the sex industry should be recognised.

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