Prostitution: evolution, dilemma and cultural differences - Research Paper Example

Prostitution: evolution, dilemma and cultural differences Prostitution has been rooted back from the early history of man and has taken many forms in many places worldwide. In many nations today, prostitution has been viewed with varying points of views and has been plagued with tons of social and moral issues and discussions since time immemorial until presently with regards to the health threats posed upon the society if such industry persists and what things could be done to address this issue. This paper will trace the roots of the controversial sex industry more commonly known as the prostitution in the lures of ancient India. How such worldly profession did rise and come of age in such a nation of great culture and how it was resisted and how it persisted amidst the great cultural norms of India. The paper contains the ancient trails of historical background of sex industry in India and how it was viewed socially, culturally, politically and economically and the impacts it brought to India and its society. Prostitution in India can be traced back from its cultural relics that traces back to ancient India. According to Bhattacharji (32), the earliest mention of prostitution occurs in the most ancient literary work in India, the Rgveda. Even in the earliest Vedic age, love outside wedlock was a familiar phenomenon and unions promoted by mere lust are mentioned in quite an uninhibited manner. Prostitution as a profession appears in the literature of a few centuries after the Vedas, although the reality that it must have been common in society much earlier is a big possibility and could have been undocumented due to un-evolved primitive culture (Bhattacharji 32). Extra-marital love citing in the Indian literature may have been voluntary and unpaid but there is the possibility of it being regarded by the male partner as a form of service for which he was obliged to pay in some form. It was deemed as a temporary contract then and was not regarded as a profession (Bhattacharji 32) or maybe the awareness of the bargain was not yet coined to the term prostitution. Gradually, out of the abuses to women in India, paved for the rise of the new set of women group either because they could not find suitable husbands, or because of early widowhood, unsatisfactory married life or other social pressures especially if they had been violated, abducted or forcibly enjoyed and so denied an honorable status in society, or had been given away as gifts in religious or secular events- such women were frequently forced to take up prostitution as a profession- or at least a way to freedom. They found themselves in a unique position who had to be their own bread winners and guardians. Unlike all the others that were wards of men. So, these women who took up prostitution had to be reasonably sure of an independent livelihood (Bhattacharji 32) somehow being out of the shadows of unfair gender system by taking account over their own power despite the social issues they will be faced. There is absolutely no way of knowing when prostitution in India arose as a recognizable profession or how much the prostitute received by way of payment. Its emergence and recognition as a profession was presumably concomitant with the institution of strict marriage rules, and the wife being regarded as the private property of her husband (Bhattacharji 33). The process of the emergence of prostitution must have been slow, varying from region to region and from age to age. By the later Vedic age, at around the eighth or seventh century B.C., references to a more regularized form of prostitution were recognized as a social institution. Early Buddhist literature, especially the Jatakas, bears testimony to the existence of different categories of prostitutes, and incidentally provides some information about their fees as also of their financial position (Bhattacharji 33). Although the later Vedic literature tacitly assumes and sometimes even overtly mentions prostitutes, it is in the Buddhist texts that we see them first as professionals (Bhattacharji 38). Prostitution in ancient India existed both overtly and covertly. In other words, besides brothels or open establishments run by and for one or more prostitutes, ancient texts give a list of many professions for girls where she could potentially be enjoyed by her employer with impunity (Bhattacharji 39). Prostitutes as described in the early Indian scriptures cited striking points of how differently prostitutes are treated by the society and how women in particular were denied of equal societal rights and were deemed created merely for men’s pleasure. Prostitution can clearly be seen to have emerged from the unequal treatment of women as secondary to men’s existence. Many social issues were thrown upon how unfairly unfair prostitution in India is. One point is that those women were regarded as inanimate objects of enjoyment. They figure in lists of material gifts, sacrificial fees, donations, entertainment, prizes, rewards, and dowry (Bhattacharji 55). In other words, society refused to look upon her as a human being; she was just a commodity, nothing more. If a price had been accepted the commodity was the customer for use (Bhattacharji 39). Even Daughters can be easily given away as payments or a female tagged as a prostitute and can be forced to be one. Another noticeable flaw is that women had very little initiative or choice about their destiny. They were pawned, lost or gained in battles, given as gifts at sacrifices and weddings, were relegated to the position of slaves and chattel in palaces and rich households, sexually enjoyed whenever their owners so desired (Bhattacharji 55). Another proof of the double standard is that although associating with prostitutes or accepting their food was punishable there is no rule against accepting benefits from them. Many rich prostitutes have engaged in charitable works and have given a vast amount to poor and the order and often set up works of public utility in the forms of wells, temples, tanks, bridges etc. Though all the charitable works benefited the public, the community deemed it a sin to touch a prostitute or to eat a prostitute’s food. Though the society enjoys reaping the labors of a prostitute still the very same community looks down upon prostitution. In return society ostracized the prostitutes, but not their customers. They had scant provision for old age and infirmity. Their bodies, accomplishments, and gifts and charity were enjoyed by the community that otherwise treated them as untouchables and showered curses and imprecation on the profession itself, as if prostitutes alone could make prostitution viable as a profession (Bhattacharji 56-57). Prostitution: America versus India A woman who accepts sexual relations with almost anyone who pays her in money is called a prostitute in a more contemporary definition. This seems to be the sense of much popular usage and of most serious studies of prostitution as a form of behavior unlike in India where prostitution seemed to be forcedly imposed by the bias of the society. In America prostitution is loaded with negative connotations. It was generally regarded by legislators, social reformers, and vast masses of citizens as an evil to be suppressed. Vice crusades were launched periodically to stamp out the brothels, the red-light districts, and the traffic in women. The prostitute was seen as a focus of venereal infection, a corrupter of young men, and a threat to the family (Esselstyn 129) different from the social biases of India that deems prostitution as a help to reduce adultery and rape cases. Prostitution is highly discouraged in America and is regarded as regrettable and undesirable. A prostitute is seen as one who should be "rehabilitated" or otherwise deflected into some other career or mode of behavior. Public sentiment in America was perhaps more protective toward the prostitute than punitive compared to India where a prostitute takes all the scrutiny (Esselstyn 125). American movements were also made to lift the social dilemma imposed upon prostitutes despite the moves to suppress it that seems to be in context with prostitution in other areas. The social norms that somehow deviated prostitution to the far side of the society that no matter how open the public is regarding the existence still it is left unappreciated. The first ever movement COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) was formed in San Francisco under the leadership of Margo St. James, a flamboyant former prostitute, in 1973, when no comparable organizations existed elsewhere in the United States. COYOTE insists that prostitutes have basic rights to occupational choice and sexual self-determination. Prostitution is legitimate work and women have the right to control their own bodies, including sale of sexual favors. Denial of these twin rights constitutes the central grievance of COYOTE, whose chief goals are: public education regarding the costs of existing prostitution controls, decriminalization of all aspects of voluntary adult prostitution, and normalization of the occupation and the individuals involved in prostitution. The group seeks to enlighten the public about the adverse consequences of existing prostitution controls to kindle sentiment for decriminalization. These consequences include: cost-ineffective law enforcement, harms caused by criminalization, and unconstitutional laws and enforcement practices (Weitzer 24-25). Prostitution Engagement Women are attracted to prostitution because the income is high and because it affords an opportunity to earn more, buy more, and live better than would be possible by any other plausible alternative. In India though prostitutes were only given the right of use and never of ownership, expensive gifts and jewelries are given by rich patriots. Other obvious reasons include various factors, for example, an unhappy love affair, the enticement of a persuasive pimp, early life as a girl surrounded by prostitutes as approved role models, an occupation where she is vulnerable to seduction and sexual attack, and the lack of stable family ties (Esselstyn 129). Poverty attributes to prostitution. The portrait of the desperately poor, uneducated teenager who turns tricks is only a half-truth. Many prostitutes have families and support children; some have college degrees; others are students trying to work their way through school (Peterson-Iyer 21) and to make it through thus comes easy money. All these reasons make a person vulnerable and engage in prostitution. On the conceptual point of view, the emerging field of psychoanalysis provided yet another explanation for women’s engagement in sexual intercourse in exchange for money. Freud (1949) argued that prostitutes were women with an inherent inability to internalize feelings of shame, rendering them fixated on early childhood developmental stages, and gaining pleasure from what healthy adults would recognize as sexual deviance. Conversely, Freudian analyst Abraham (1942) postulated that prostitution was the result of women’s inability to repress anti-male urges, while others, led by Lampl-de Groot (1928), diagnosed prostitutes as women with extreme cases of unresolved Electra complexes. Most neo-Freudian theorists in the 1950s and 1960s argued that women’s choice to be prostitutes stemmed from their need to repress female homosexual inclinations, through extreme, pseudo-heterosexual sexual activity such as prostitution (Levin & Peled 583). Prostitution: The Struggle in a Double Standard Society With all these reasons and factors that could have contributed in engaging in the sex industry, many people still sees the many possibilities of engaging in other fruitful activities aside from sexual marketing. This could be the very reason why amidst the legalization of prostitution in some countries still the social stigma that it is never socially right to engage in sexual activity in exchange of money nor is sex can be categorized as a talent or a skill for labor. Prostitutes attest widely to physical abuse, rape, sexual assault, and extortive pimping by policemen themselves. In contrast, customers of prostitutes are rarely even picked up by the police, let alone arrested or punished. Furthermore, violence against prostitutes by customers is notorious; prostitutes are powerless to report such abuse to the police, since their prostitution activities themselves are illegal (Peterson-Iyer 22). In the first European Sex Worker’s Congress in Frankfurt, an essay was delivered regarding the inhumane biased and unequal treatments upon prostitutes worldwide. Part of the essay quoted: We want the same rights and the same civil liberties as all other workers. We want to pay taxes, like other workers. But right now in Germany, if you are registered as a prostitute you have to pay 56 percent taxes, and you are listed under "ETC." But, unlike all other workers in Germany, prostitutes are not entitled to social security, health insurance, or pensions. We get nothing from the government for our taxes. If we want social insurance, we have to pay for it ourselves, on top of our taxes. But by insuring ourselves under a different profession than prostitution, which we have to do, we are lying, so they can charge us for that! So no matter what we do, we are in the wrong. (Aquan-Assee 33) Taking into account the words of Jasmin Aquan-Assee’s experience as a hooker seems to be a clear form of deviation from the humanitarian act. The legalization still seems to deviate from the unfairly side of societal norms even if it tends to protect the rights of both consumers and producers of the prostitution arena it obviously takes sides and neglects the very recognition of prostitution as a profession by not recognizing but rather depriving its professional rights. Prostitution in the Modern World Although prostitution in India has been amongst the dark shadows of its culture the contemporary views of the modern world strives to seek and to bring about changes in the down trodden controversial profession. Recent debates on prostitution and anti- prostitution laws in India have changed the parameters within which the debates around the issue have been conducted. Feminists have seen prostitution as being a violation of the rights of women, as constituting violence against women it is largely an illegal profession, and one rife with exploitation, harassment, and violence against women (Gangoli 504 & Peterson-Iyer 19). The debate has been enriched by the voices of prostituted women. One such voice is the manifesto the Calcutta Sex Workers Union (1997) which offers a critique of patriarchal oppression while arguing for a change in the prism through which their lives and work is viewed. The manifesto makes a plea for seeing sex workers as complete persons with a range of emotional and material needs, living within a concrete and specific social, political and ideological context and not only in terms of sexual behavior (Gangoli 504). This manifesto seeks out equality in terms of living and working as a prostitute to be as equal as any working individual. Internationally, many prostitutes are also organized. The International Committee for Prostitutes' Rights was formed in 1985, when it sponsored the first World Whores' Congress in Amsterdam. This meeting resulted in the adoption of the "World Charter for Prostitutes' Rights," a document calling for the decriminalization of all aspects of adult prostitution resulting from individual decision. The charter also calls for the upholding of the human rights and civil liberties of prostitutes, including the freedoms of association and travel (Peterson-Iyer 24). With the advent of non curable diseases such as aids, prostitution is never out of the equation. HIV/AIDS-related are most closely related to sexual stigma. This is because HIV is mainly sexually transmitted and in most areas of the world, the epidemic initially affected populations whose sexual practices or identities are different from the norm. HIV/AIDS has therefore appropriated and reinforced pre-existing sexual stigma associated with prostitution, and sexual deviance. Female sex workers are often identified as vectors of infection that put at risk clients and their clients’ sexual partners and aggravates the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (Parker & Aggleton 2). AIDS being an incurable health disease is one of the very reasons why sex workers are placed under the social dilemma and are subjects for unjust opinion out of public health threats and the more need to propagate public knowledge on sexuality and sexually related diseases. In India a study on the rate of prevalence use of female sex workers imply that about 8.5 Million (95%) men aged 15–49 years in India used female sex workers in 2006. Half of these men (4.2 million) were located in the high-HIV states, where nearly 8% of sexually active men were sex industry clients compared to 3% of sexually active men in the low- HIV states. Nationally, more than half of all clients were married (4.7 million; 55%), with both a larger number and a larger proportion being married in the high-HIV states (2.7 million; 64%) than in the low-HIV states which is 2.0 million or 47% (Gaffey et al. 5). These findings are rooted to problem imbedded in the Indian culture regarding the views on sexuality and sexual practices and beliefs that needs to be addressed considering the high prevalence of HIV and AIDS that has become a global issue. In a study in India 79% of physicians felt that sex workers were responsible for spreading HIV in the community, and 47% believed that sex work should be banned to control HIV (Jayanah et al 131). Lots of comparative studies nowadays are being conducted regarding the prevalence of sex industry workers and the holistic impacts it has over a nation in truly finding viable answers on whether the sex industry can be propagated, promoted and decriminalized under careful studies and deliberation. Works cited: Aquan-Assee J. Prostitution Is Work. Social Text, No. 37, A Special Section Edited by Anne McClintock Explores the Sex Trade (1993), pp. 33-37. Print Bhattacharji S. Prostitution in Ancient India. Social Scientist, Vol. 15, No. 2 (1987) pp.32-61. Print Esselstyn T. Prostitution in the United States. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 376, Sex and the Contemporary American Scene (1968), pp. 123-135. Print Gaffey M., Venkatesh S., Dhingra N., Khera A., Kumar R., Arora P., Nagelkerke N. & Jha P. Male Use of Female Sex Work in India: A Nationally Representative Behavioral Survey. PLoS One (2011). (6) 7. pp. 1-9. Print Gangoli G. Prostitution, Legalisation and Decriminalisation: Recent Debate. Economic and Political Weekly (1998); (33) 10, pp. 504-505. Print Jayanna K., Washington R., Moses S., Kudur P., Issac S., Balu P., Badiger S., Mendonca V., Bhavimani S., & Banandur P. Assessment of attitudes and practices of providers of services for individuals at high risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections in Karnataka, south India. Sexually Transmitted Infection (2010). pp 13-135. Print Levin L & Peled E. The Attitudes toward Prostitutes and Prostitution Scale: A new tool for measuring public Attitudes toward prostitutes and prostitution. Research on Social Work Practice (2011) pp. 582-593. Print Parker R. & Aggleton P. HIV/AIDS-related Stigma and Discrimination: A Conceptual Framework and an Agenda for Action. The population council (2002). p. 2. Print Peterson-Iyer K. Prostitution: A Feminist Ethical Analysis. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 14, No. 2 (1998), pp. 19-44. Print Weitzer R. Prostitutes' Rights in the United States: The Failure of a Movement. The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 1 (1991), pp. 23-41. Print Read More