Raise your voice against the Pimp State - Part one

This is an extract from the Feminist Party of Spain's dossier on the abolition of prostitution, "Raise your voice against the Pimp State". The document was written by Nerea Sanchís Rodriguez & Margarita Morales. Part two, "Ten myths about prostitution" to follow. 

Prostitution is the sexual exploitation of women and children’s bodies. It exists to serve men, whose desires are considered to be natural and inevitable ‘needs’, which even attain the status of 'rights' in sexist societies. According to English feminist and political theorist Carol Pateman, prostitution legitimises men's sexual rights and their public recognition as owners of women (1995, pp.287). Therefore it is one of the most brutal forms of male violence and, in the words of the Feminist Party of Spain’s founder Lidia Falcón, ‘patriarchy's greatest success’. Prostitution is a universal phenomenon because it is part of the patriarchal system which prevails all over the world.

Prostitution is the slavery of the 21st century, having created a market for sex slaves that may soon outnumber the African slaves sold from the 1500s to the 1800s. Today, 1.39 million people around the world are subjected to sexual slavery each year, 85% of whom are women and children (Cacho, L, 2010, pp.3). Over 500,000 women are trafficked each year in Spain, a country which holds the sad record of having the greatest number of sex buyers and pornographers in Europe. Prostitution’s success lies in the firm and powerful alliance between two institutions: patriarchy and capitalism. Prostitution meets the patriarchal mandate of granting men the power to dominate women’s bodies, wherever, whenever and however they want; through coercion, abuse of power, humiliation, hatred and rape. At the same time, prostitution enriches the capitalist system, thanks to the sex buyers (or ‘johns’), mafias, and pimps and who market and traffick millions of women and girls to satisfy the growing demand. Today, almost 40% of the male population in Spain are sex buyers or have bought sex in the past (Casas Vila, G, 2016).

Prostitution is the exercising of absolute control over women’s bodies and sexuality. As with any type of slavery, it dehumanises women and deprives them of the ability to develop their talents and potential in life. Almost all women in prostitution suffer what feminist psychologists denominate dissociation. To be able to withstand and survive the abuse, captivity, and repeated rapes, they have to create a defence mechanism: disconnection from their own bodies and identities (Kraus, I, 2015). Furthermore, it has been shown that 68% of prostituted women suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of their constant exposure to traumatic experiences (Mau H, 2016).

The phenomenon of prostitution provides the clearest existing evidence of the profound sexual inequality that still characterises our societies. The sex trade was born from this inequality, feeds from it and shows the power relation of women's subjugation to men. The most visible aspects of prostitution are extreme poverty, racism, sexual abuse, rape, and trafficking. In the face of this, prostitution can never be considered to be a job like any other, as it always constitutes a violation of human rights. The sex that men pay for is never desired by the prostituted women, but is forced upon them. A woman in prostitution’s sole motivation is the survival of herself and her family. They live under constant threat of violence, extortion and manipulation. In the words of Mexican journalist and human rights activist Lydia Cacho, they are ‘slaves of power’ (2010).

Studies have shown the mortality rate of prostituted women to be 40 times higher than the national average (Mau, H, 2016). In Spain, around 30 prostituted women have been killed by men since 2010 according to Graciela Atencio of feminicidio.net, a website which tracks male violence against women. The true figure is almost certainly higher if we consider the difficulties in studying the phenomenon of prostitution in depth, and just how few men are brought to justice and convicted for the crimes they commit against women (Atencio, G, 2015). ‘Pimp states’ are characterised by their impunity and complicity, which disguises the fact that many politicians, soldiers, police officers, ministers, judges, lawyers, famous athletes, artists, musicians, intellectuals and writers are sex buyers. A deal has been made. A state that is not abolitionist becomes complicit in it. (Falcón O´Neill, L, 2015).

 SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS 

Most of the women who are trapped in the market of sexual exploitation are victims of trafficking. Human trafficking, together with the trade in arms and drugs, forms part of the biggest market in the world. In Spain, the inclusion of this powerful hidden economy in the government's national accounts would boost the GDP by an estimated 4.5%. (El País, June 2014). In light of the role that trafficking plays in sexual exploitation, we cannot consider the trading of their bodies in prostitution to be a free choice for women. The fight against human trafficking should be an international obligation, in accordance with basic human rights. Therefore, regulating an activity such as prostitution, or even just adopting a passive attitude towards it, prioritises economic interests over social ethics and devalues human dignity.

The Stop the Traffik campaign sent a clear message against whitewashing the reality of prostitution in their video "Girls going wild in the red light district", filmed live in Amsterdam. The scene opens on a two-story brothel, with a woman occupying each of the six windows. It is night, and a crowd of men gather to watch them from the street. Suddenly, a loud burst of electronic dubstep music erupts and the women begin to move like professional dancers. The crowd become excited and start to dance along with them. There is a party atmosphere. All of a sudden the music stops and the women freeze before the onlooking men. The billboard above the brothel is revealed and the spectators' smiles disappear. The white letters on a black background read;

Every year, thousands of women are promised a dance career in Western Europe

Sadly, they end up here

All of the studies carried out by feminist researchers have produced very similar statistics and provide evidence of the reality of prostitution. In Spain, 90% of the prostituted women are immigrants. In Germany, 90% come from Romania and Bulgaria. In Ireland, 85% are from Eastern European countries.

Many women in prostitution come from a socioeconomic environment of extreme poverty which forces them to sell their bodies for the survival of themselves and their family. This cannot be considered a freely made decision when the lack of alternatives, such as access to education and training, leaves them with no other choice but to go into prostitution. That is why we believe that institutions and administrations must make a serious effort to combat poverty and economic equality, to offer women from deprived areas another way of life.

Many women in prostitution have been victims of sexual abuse during their childhood or adolescence. Various studies show that many of these women have a lengthy history of abuse and subjection to rape in their lives, which may be a serious influence on their perception of themselves as objects. A global study by American psychologist and researcher Melissa Farley showed that 55 to 90% of prostituted women were victims of sexual aggression during childhood, and 59% victims of physical abuse (2003). The negative effects on self-esteem and self-worth caused by these truly traumatic experiences make these women more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. The women who make up the so-called 'luxury' or 'high-class' sector of prostitution have been victims of systematic abuse. As much as some people want to sell the idea that ‘luxury’ prostitution offers a happy and free lifestyle, the reality behind the facade is dramatically different. Exiting prostitution requires psychological support, which allows women to become fully conscious of the abuse they have suffered, and to identify the circumstances which induced them to sell their bodies.

According to Farley’s study, 47% of women in prostitution had been initiated before they were 18 years old (2003). Considering the great speed at which the sex industry has grown and specialised in the last decade (almost 1.5 million men buy sex each day in Germany alone: an estimated 547 million a year), it is hardly surprising that these figures have risen, as clients increasingly demand younger women and children (Banyard, K, 2016).

An analysis of these contexts leads us to conclude that 'voluntary' prostitution does not exist: a woman who engages in prostitution has serious reasons for doing so. As Rosen Hircher, a French activist who spent more than 20 years in prostitution, writes;

I will never forget the words of a prostitute who told me the first day: ‘You've already done this all your life.’ In fact, I had been sexually abused by my uncle since I was a child. My father was an alcoholic and was extremely aggressive. Since my childhood I was used to enduring the violence of men." (Hircher, R, 2009).

WHAT IS ABOLITION?

Abolishing prostitution means working to eradicate the slavery of the 21st century. Abolitionist feminism is not based in puritanism, paternalism, sexual repression, or the invasion of women’s lives. It fights for liberty, human rights, raising consciousness in society, real equality between women and men and the eradication of a sexist culture that ruins millions of women’s lives (Murphy, M, 2015). 

In this document we want to highlight and denounce the deep misunderstandings around abolitionist practices; which are in fact used habitually and deliberately to confuse the concepts of abolition and prohibition. That is why it is so important to clarify what abolition is and what its essential aims are.

THE AIMS OF ABOLITION

1. To decriminalise prostituted women and criminalise the sex buyers, pimps, mafias and        traffickers who create and sustain the sex industry.

2. To oppose traditional views that place women at the complete disposal of men, as sex objects to be traded and exploited.

3. To progress towards truly egalitarian societies. To educate and raise awareness of the need to eradicate a culture in which the rape of women is considered to be natural.

4. To break with societies’ tolerance of male violence, specifically including prostitution as one of its manifestations. To pursue all those who perpetuate it, whatever their social class or profession; politicians, legislators, police officers, labourers and artists alike.

            

5. To transform society and the state so that they are genuinely implicated in upholding human rights. To adopt a progressive model which opposes male violence, the commodification of women, the normalisation of sexual exploitation, and treats trafficking as a form of slavery that must be abolished.

6. To fight for the freedom of prostituted women and allow them to reclaim their lives by creating all necessary intervention measures; providing social, economic, legal, educational and vocational  support.

7. To put an end to the patriarchal myths that exist concerning prostitution and violence against women.

It is clear that abolition is very different to the prohibition model, as adopted in the USA, which criminalises the victims of prostitution as well as those who exploit them. The Feminist Party of Spain works for our country to adopt and implement the abolitionist model, in line with other European countries. Sweden passed the Kvinnofrid (women’s peace) law in 1999, widely known as the ‘Nordic Model’. In Spain, the city council of Seville enacted an ordinance against street prostitution in 2011 which allows the police to fine sex buyers. We demand that all political parties in our country follow suit, to make Spain's policies on equality and the eradication of male violence against women a model example for others.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE NORDIC MODEL IN SWEDEN

1. Quantitative and qualitative progress towards equality and a more democratic and free society for women.

2. A reduction in prostitution by up to 60%, showing that it is possible for women to leave the sex trade and go on to rebuild their lives.

3. A significant reduction in demand, thanks to the criminalisation of sex buyers and awareness raising campaigns. Before the law was passed, 1 in 8 Swedish men were sex buyers; the ratio is now closer to 1 in 13.

4. In the streets of the Swedish Capital of Stockholm, the number of prostituted women has been reduced by two thirds and the number of sex buyers by 80%.

5. The Swedish government estimates that, in recent years, between 200 and 400 women and girls have been trafficked into the country annually, which pales in comparison to the 15-17,000 trafficked into neighbouring Finland each year.

"In Sweden prostitution is regarded as an aspect of male violence against women and children. It is officially acknowledged as a form of exploitation of women and children and constitutes a significant social problem... gender equality will remain unattainable so long as men buy, sell and exploit women and children by prostituting them...Sweden's unique strategy treats prostitution as a form of violence against women in which the men who exploit by buying sex are criminalized, the mostly female prostitutes are treated as victims who need help, and the public is educated in order to counteract the historical male bias that has long stultified thinking on prostitution”. (De Santis, M, 2004).

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Translation by Ben Riddick

A bibliography for this document is in the comments box below.

Original text in Spanish