How Is The International Sex I Essay, Research Paper

Prostitution- the world s oldest profession . Although this statement contains an element of truth, the effect of globalisation has seen the sale of women move from the sale of the individual woman s body to an organised and systematised global industry. Consequently, sex work, which has always been an issue of unequal gender relations, has arrived as one of the most profited international markets; may they be called go-go dancers, mail order brides, massage girls or prostitutes, they are in effect but commodities in a multi-billion dollar transnational sex-trafficking industry, which profits from the sale of women and children within and across borders. While all those with vested interest in the industry may benefit financially, the women who are merely commodities in this international market find little or no benefits from the economical development that follows its success. Their situation is on the contrary perpetuated by the structural patriarchy of society, which pays little attention to the development of women s opportunities for economic independence, leaving prostitution as the highest paid job or only job available to many women in South East Asia or in the states of the former USSR. Subsequently increasing the vulnerability of women with least resources as they become not only targets for the sex industry but also at times the only desperate source of income for poverty stricken families. Furthermore the women who find themselves in the sex industry are increasingly exposed to severe health and social risks such as venereal diseases including AIDS, substance abuse, physical and mental abuse as well as social stigmatisation and mental breakdown. Circumstances that are maintained by the existing ideological constructs as well as a legal framework which reinforces male domination and ensures limited protection for women in the area of sexuality. Finally, the economical benefits of the sex industry propagate the structural vulnerability of women as changes in laws, which lead to the empowerment of these women can be but made by loss of financial gain, may it be by brothel keepers, airline companies, marriage bureaus, international syndicates or even states. A factor that greatly contributes to the increased vulnerability of sex workers with the least resources, who in effect face an oppression of gigantic proportions in order to defend their interests.

In written history, there are references to slave auctions of women who were bought either for domestic labour or brothel bondage. Traffic in women and children have since not only persisted but also increased in magnitude. In South East Asia, the sex industry prostitutes between 0,25 and 1,5 per cent of the total female population in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and accounts for between 2 per cent and 14 per cent of the gross domestic product. The United Nations estimates that 4 million people (men and women) are trafficked each year, resulting in $7 billion in profits to criminal groups. Many countries have weak, unenforced or no laws against trafficking in human beings, often making it less risky and more profitable to criminal groups than drug or arms trafficking.

While slave auctions of old times sold men and women captured by conquering armies, today s trafficking in women is perpetuated not only thorough abductions and false promises of good jobs or marriages, but also through the up-front sales pitch that women can earn more through sex work. In the Philippines for example, hospitality girls can make as much as [US$49] a night, almost the average monthly salary in the country. Other studies have shown that the income of sex workers can be twenty five times that attainable in other professions and that at times entire families in the countryside are supported on the earnings of one daughter in Bangkok, and entire rural villages are made up of such women In many cases, sex work is often the only viable alternative for women in communities coping with poverty, unemployment, failed marriages and family obligations in the nearly complete absence of social welfare programmes. However, the argument that prostitution actually benefits in women because it gives them jobs must be viewed as a fallacy. The revenue gained by the industry does not always benefit the sex workers there within but rather those with larger economic interests. In fact Korea Church Women United estimates that prostitutes receive less than one-thirtieth of the fees their patrons pay. Of this total they must spend large amounts on their clothes, transportation and cosmetics. Another large portion, which is uncalculated for often goes to support their families. “At the end of the day (or night), therefore, most of these sex workers… usually find themselves helplessly and, worse, perpetually trapped in a debt maze” They thus end up more unable to cope with economic disadvantage or further impoverished. Furthermore, women in the sex industry stop in general being marketable as sexual commodities in their early 30s, since the male demand is for younger women. The fact is that this so-called sex work is temporary, and women end up with no job skills, often so debilitated that they are unable to work, and more destitute than when they began.

The harm of sex work is graphically evident in its health consequences. Women in sex work suffer the same injuries that women subjected to other forms of violence against women endure, including bruises, broken bones, black eyes, concussions, and loss of consciousness. The reproductive health effects include a high incidence of unwanted pregnancies, miscarriage, multiple abortions and infertility. In addition to HIV/AIDS, chronic pelvic pain and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are alarmingly high among women in prostitution. In the study done by Human Rights Watch/Asia of Burmese women prostituted in Thailand, fourteen of the thirty girls interviewed were HIV positive, infected by the men who bought them “The AIDS epidemic appears to have indirectly resulted in a rising demand for ever-younger children because of the belief among clients that they are not likely to be infected with the disease” Children as young as eight years old are now been purchased for their sexual services, in effect increasing the health risks as children are more prone to contract the HIV virus. One estimate claims that in 1992, 20 to 30 percent of child prostitute-victims in Thailand were HIV-positive.

Adding to their already vulnerable situation sex workers find themselves under both psychological as well as social pressure. This frequently resulting in increased substance abuse or conditions of severe psychological breakdown. A United Nations study of a thousand Thai prostitutes revealed that a quarter were regular users of speed, barbiturates, and heroin. A horrific example of the adverse effects of the trade is the following statement from a young sex worker: After having my body ravaged by several customers in a row, I just get too tired to move my limbs. At times like this, a shot of heroin is needed. This enables me to handle five or six men in a single night. I can t help but take the drug in order to keep myself in working condition. Furthermore, a study by the IOL* show that”…prostitution is one of the most alienated forms of labour; the surveys show that women worked ‘with a heavy heart’, ‘felt forced’ or were ‘conscience-stricken’ and had negative self-identities. A significant proportion claimed they wanted to leave sex work if they could

Meanwhile the subordinate situation of the sex workers is perpetuated and seemingly ignored as economic interests are allowed to predominate those of human rights. Even tough one hundred and sixty five countries of the members of the UN ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which defined trafficking of women to broadly include sexual slavery, generally and by the military, the deception of migrant women, and mail-order and false marriages , most countries have significantly failed to ensure effective legal protection of women and children within the sex industry. Out of 17 ratifying countries in the Asia Pacific region alone, 14 yet have extensive operations of sex trafficking. This even though the convention clearly states that State Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women. (Part 1. Article 6).

A compliancy, which can be attributed to the vast economic benefits derived from the industry where officials in key positions and at many levels use their authority to provide protection to criminal activities. During a two-year investigation of trafficking in women from Russia for example, the Global Survival Network found evidence of government collaboration in the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As the influence of criminal networks deepens, the corruption goes beyond an act of occasionally ignoring illegal activity to providing protection by blocking legislation that would hinder the activities of the groups. As law enforcement personnel and government officials become more corrupt and members of the crime groups gain more influence, the line between the state and the criminal networks starts to blur. Another argument that supports the current position is the gendered stereotypes that operate which see sex workers entering voluntarily and enjoying their trade. This reasoning however must be seen as an approach that hides the real agenda, that of sex work being a lucrative business for ruthless men to states in need of economical development.

Consequently, the bodies of women and children are continued to be exploited in a two folded oppression which not only uses them for the sexual pleasure of men but also for the financial gain from what predominantly is a male run industry. An oppression that is maintained by the existing patriarchal structure of society which ignores the importance of sound economical alternatives for women, making sex work a much despised but at times only financial option. Studies on the health of women in the sex industry indicate that many women have serious health problems and are exposed to life-threatening risks. Sex workers suffer from infectious diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, injuries from violence, drug and alcohol addictions, depression and other mental health problems as a result of trauma. The question of AIDS is increasingly alarming and affecting a growing number of women within the industry. Hence an examination of the nature of sex work; its health effects, its dynamics, concludes that it is incompatible with the maintaining the dignity of a human being. Prostitution and trafficking are not victimless crimes, or just another form of work Even when women voluntarily enter into these situations, in hope of making money or finding a better life, the dynamics of the brutal, often illegal sex industry, quickly leave the women with few other options and often powerless to leave. The women often end up with nothing, or any money they earn comes at great cost to their health, emotional well being and standing in the community, thus marginalizing already vulnerable women, who in such a situation will doubtlessly be unable to defend even their most basic interests and human rights.

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