Sonia Sánchez - 'No woman is born to be a whore'

In this interview Sonia Sánchez, a former prostitute and the author of Ninguna mujer nace para puta ('No woman is born to be a whore'), explains why prostitution is a form of exploitation and violence against women, and can never be a legitimate job.

Sonia uses the word ‘puta’ (the Spanish equivalent to ‘whore’) because “it doesn’t disguise the sexual violence and abuse” that women suffer in prostitution.

She never tires of telling the story of how she left her home province of Chacao for Buenos Aires in search of work at the age of 17, only to become one of the estimated 4 million women and girls sold into prostitution each year.

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"How did you end up becoming a prostitute?"

It was prostitution that came to me; through lack of food, a job, a home, and a good education. That's why I implicate the state and the government. They made me into a puta because my economic, social and cultural rights were violated, allowing me to be abused by others.

"Why does prostitution exist?"

It exists because of the men who go whoring; our husbands, priests, judges and politicians. Without the demand there wouldn't be putas, and without putas there wouldn't be prostitution, and without prostitution there wouldn't be human trafficking for sexual exploitation. I would tell the governments not to legalise prostitution, that it is violence against women.

"What would you say to those who claim that prostitution is a job like any other?"

If you are a puta I wouldn't say anything to you, because I was there myself, and in order to survive the concentration camp of prostitution, I had to maintain the lie that it was work. I would tell the governments that they must not regulate this massive violence towards women; that they were elected by the people to uphold our rights, not to create laws that legitimise violence. Because prostitution is violence.

You say that prostitution left you without a voice and that you lived through this stage in your life in a haze. How did you escape?

By expressing the anger that I had inside me - which is not the same as hate. The only thing that prostitution didn't manage to destroy was my capacity to love, and that is how I could start to reconstitute myself as a rebellious and disobedient women. Today I can say that this is my body and I can speak for myself, and not as a mouthpiece for others.

I don't use the word puta to humiliate or label women. I use it because it doesn't disguise the violence, but makes it visible.

What would you ask of society? How could the people around you have helped?

I would ask society to stop being complicit in this violence because everyone, whether you take action or not, is involved. It would be good if we started to question the division between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people; between what happens in the home and out in the street.

And what would you say to the women that practice prostitution voluntarily?

That I understand them because I've been there, and I know that when a woman becomes a prostitute, it is through physical and psycholgical violence. In order to survive she has to lie to herself, and on behalf of others. But above all, I would tell them to find themselves, because when you are made into a puta, you are hidden from yourself. I would ask them to look for that rebellious and disobedient woman inside who can say 'enough is enough", because they are not in control of their own lives. And I would say ‘work to overcome what you fear’’, because there is a lot of fear.

Translation by Ben Riddick

Original interview in Spanish here.

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Watch Sonia Sánchez's talk for TedX here: