History of Prostitution in Canada and Beyond - Essay Example

The Sex Industry in Canada and Beyond The Sex Industry In Canada And Beyond Academia Research Farzeela Faisal History of Prostitution Prostitution- a dilemma that has always been into consideration since slavery. With the arrival of slavery (particularly African American) prostitution began to broaden its prospects and today, in this modern world, although slavery rarely exists but prostitution has captured the entire society, either in the form of corruption or in the form of profession. Before going into further detail, I would like to highlight some of the important aspects of its history. The emergence of the sexual abuse and exploitation discourse started in the early 1900's that were the era when reformers lobbied for greater protection of young women and children involved in prostitution and focused their efforts primarily on females involved in the trade. (Bittle, 2002, p 317) In order to understand late nineteenth-century prostitution rescuing in Canada, one must take into account the complexity of social and personal factors interaction, which is in turn arbitrated by the immediate circumstances of the interaction itself. However prostitution as a profession is still abhorred among the decent people and families. The public response to prostitution in Canada remains highly contested. However most of the female public wants it to be eradicated at grass root levels. Of all forms of slavery, sex slavery is one of the most exploitative and lucrative form with some 200,000sex slaves worldwide bringing their slaveholders an annual profit of $10.5 billion. Although the great predominance of sex slaves are women and girls, a smaller but significant number of males and both adult and children are enslaved for homosexual prostitution. (Leuchtag, 2003, p 10). Youth involvement in prostitution is also an increasing cause arising from male sexual socialization and female poverty. More recently, during the 1980's, attempts to combat street prostitution in various Canadian cities focused on the public nuisance aspect of the sex trade. "Street prostitution was the break down of law and order, and most of the talk was about how to restore order" (Bittle, 2002, p 317) Causes of Prostitution The most common cause of the dilemma, an unsophisticated profession in which a woman enters but not according to her own will, but due to all those circumstances which are created for her by one of the face of society called 'poverty'. A woman whether of any religion, race, culture or civilization abhors to present herself to men, this unwilling attitude of her later affects her psychology and her reluctant attitude when transforms into her determination, that means she has entered into a profession called 'prostitution'. A profession with no morals, no values creates an environment where there is no distinction between day and night, no distinction between mother and daughter, but a distinction is there between wealth and poverty. Another major cause of increasing prostitution, which is often ignored by our society and culture, in my opinion is the increasing rate of betrayal of moral values. Example: Particularly in the Western culture as far as my observation is concerned, issues of disloyalty in relationships have a gradual increase day by day. It often happens that a woman who belongs to a good family has boyfriends, she slept with two of her boyfriends, and afterwards she got pregnant unaware of whose child she is bearing. The worst is the situation in the cases when after ten twelve years after her kids have grownup, her husband comes to know that he is not the father of his children. Such cases can be seen on daily basis, which not often but sometimes lead the victim towards any negative activity, couldn't it be prostitution in the worst sense To respectable people prostitution is a curse, more than a slang, which creates an environment where property values and businesses in red light areas decline through the 'bad reputation' of that area, where 'innocent and decent men' are approached, where fear of molestation is increased by the presence of men on the streets late at night, where other women may be corrupted because they 'may imitate prostitutes in times of financial distress' and where young children are continuously exposed to the manifestation of prostitution. (Phoenix, 2001, p 22) Prostitutes are not the same as other women because they operate with a fundamentally different set of sexual values. The very visibility of such women thus causes the public nuisance, that is the problem of prostitution. A common woman's sexual services is limited to her husband while a prostitute offers her services to all men of Industry, regardless of age, race and culture. However in Western culture where sexual exchange is considered as personal and private, the exchange of sex for money, however, is variously seen as deviant or immoral, is subjected to legislative and police control, and is stigmatized. Despite this vilification, a number of places are popular with Western travelers. Amsterdam draws tourists to its commercial sex sector, Thailand has a reputation as the destination of choice for sex tourists. Bangkok is also very well known place to tourists as they don't have to search for their requirement, but the prostitutes bid for themselves. Travelers cross a threshold from the realities of home to a surreal world where familiar norms and traditions are suspended. At home, the exotic and forbidden sexual performance found in these destinations is experienced explicitly, mediated through advertisements and media. (Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale, 2005, p 45) Prostitution in Canada and Other Countries In Canada, the exchange of sex for money is not prohibited in law (Criminal Code of Canada, 1985). While sex work is not illegal, a number of activities associated with it are prohibited like communication in a public place for the purpose of prostitution or purchase sexual services from someone under the age of 18 years. Prostitution in Canada has provided the motivation for the rescuing of prostitutes. Windsor, Ontario, a city of 200,000 inhabitants, is located at the southern tip of Canada Residents of both countries usually look to the United States as a more urbane, exciting, and dangerous environment, and to Canada as safer and quieter. Crimes against persons and violent crime rates in Canada are a small fraction of those in the United States. Canadian federal legislation regulating the sex industry is more lenient than that in the United States. Selling sex for money in itself is not illegal in Canada, and total nudity is permitted in strip clubs. (Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale, 2005, p 45) While a variety of objectives appear to be embodied in the different components of Canadian prostitution law, one of its main functions appears to have been prophylactic that is to keep the prostitute out of public mind and sight. In keeping with this tradition, most political and media commentators, like the police, have interpreted the soliciting law introduced in 1972 as a mechanism for eliminating, or at least confining, street prostitution. (J. Lowman, 1986, p1) Prostitution when viewed as a system of organized sexual exploitation depends on a continuous supply of new "recruits," trafficking is essential to its continued existence. When the pool of available women and girls dries up, new women must be procured. Traffickers cast their nets ever wider and become ever more sophisticated. The Italian Camorra, Chinese Triads, Russian Mafia, and Japanese Yakuza are powerful criminal syndicates consisting of traffickers, pimps, brothel keepers, forced labor lords, and gangs, which operate globally. After the breakdown of the Soviet Union, an estimated five thousand criminal groups formed the Russian Mafia, which operates in thirty countries. The Russian Mafia traffics women from African countries, the Ukraine, the Russian Federation, and Eastern Europe into Western Europe, the United States, and Israel. The Triads traffick women from China, Korea, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries into the United States and Europe. The Camorra trafficks women from Latin America into Europe. The Yakuza trafficks women from the Phillipines, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Korea, Nepal, and Laos into Japan. Despite all the awful facts, no generally agreed upon definition of trafficking in human beings were written into international law. In Vienna, Austria, during 1999 and 2000, 120 countries participated in debates over a definition of trafficking. A few nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and a minority of governments including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United Kingdom wanted to separate issues of trafficking from issues of prostitution. They argued that persons being trafficked should be divided into those who are forced and those who give their consent, with the burden of proof being placed on persons being trafficked. They also urged that the less explicit means of control over trafficked persons such as abuse of a victim's vulnerability not to be included in the definition of trafficking and that the word exploitation not to be used. Generally supporters of this position were wealthier countries where large numbers of women were being trafficked and countries in which prostitution was legalized or sex tourism encouraged. (Leuchtag, 2003, p 10) Prostitution - Escorting to Suicide Prostitution now days have given rise to a new dilemma of depression and frustration in the form of 'Suicide'. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors among the sex industrial trade appear to be very strongly tied to low self-worth feelings of isolation, rejection, and lack of control. These are the elements of severe depression, which if not dealt wisely lead the victim towards suicide. Street youth is actually so much engaged in prostitution that they have almost lost their will power and lack of control and they are unaware of the crucial fact how deeply prostitution is impacting their lives, and monitoring the outcomes of occurrences such as assault during prostituted sex. (J. Kral, 2002, p 411) New Protocols In 2000, the UN General Assembly, while recognizing the largest amount of trafficking involvement of women and children, adopted a new convention and its supplementary protocol in which 121 countries signed the convention and eighty countries, signed the protocol for the convention. The protocol is the first UN instrument to address the demand for prostitution sex, resulting in the human rights abuses of women being trafficked. It suggests that prostitute women instead of considering them as illegal migrants, would be considered as victims of a crime and as such all victims which are subjected to trafficking are protected, without a consent providing any proof. The protocol recognizes an urgent need for governments to put the buyers of prostitution sex on their policy and legislative agendas, and it calls upon countries to strengthen legislative measures to discourage demand, which foster all the forms of sexual exploitation of women. (Leuchtag, 2003, 10) Analysis of Street Prostitution In Canada Prostitution in Streets and public places is the most common dilemma, Canada is facing in this era. In order to control the Street prostitution at a grass-root level, Vancouver's Concerned Residents of the West End (CROWE) started a campaign, which attributed the arrival of prostitution into the West End to the Supreme Court's decision that rendered the soliciting law unenforceable. They reproduced the official line of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to enact stronger laws to control street prostitution. These laws were opposed by a variety of prostitutes' rights organizations such as the Alliance for the Safety of Prostitutes (ASP) and Other Women for Equal Rights (POWER), and the Canadian Organization for the Rights of Prostitutes (CORP), as they emerged to challenge the analysis of the street prostitution "problem" presented by their adversaries. This prostitution group emerged as lobbies to declare the right of prostitutes, to work. If prostitution itself is going to continue to be legal in Canada, the law should be designed in such a way that prostitutes can conduct their trade legally. Following this logic, and rejecting criminalization as either a workable or philosophically acceptable option, the committee recommended a blend of decriminalization and legalization, arguing that: Vulgar house laws should be changed to allow one or two prostitutes to work out of a private residence. Provincial governments should be empowered to license small-scale prostitution establishments. A law that would criminalize definable prostitution-related nuisances should control street prostitution. (J. Davis, 1993, p 81) While the history of prostitution in Canada and other countries suggests that such an activity should be eradicated to free the society from several other corruption as prostitution is linked with other crimes also or we can say that it serves as a platform where other crimes are welcomed. If seen in various shades of liberalism, feminism, socialism, and religious moralism this activity is strictly forbidden. The advocates of modern and cultural values consider it as either a sinister source of neighborhood decay or, at least, a general public nuisance, especially in residential areas. Socialism and feminism generally call for the long-term elimination of the prostitution trade because it represents one of the most extreme forms of commodifying and objectifying women. Prostitution poses some difficult problems for feminist political action. On the one hand, it is insensitive sexual exploitation and ought to be eliminated. On the other hand, if women ought to be allowed to control their own bodies, they ought to have the right to prostitute themselves. From this perspective, many sex trade workers argue that prostitution is a form of labor, just like any other labor, the only difference they portray is that human labor is sold for a price, and that any position that criticizes the prostitute's separation of sex and love is, in fact, an old-style moralism that is not conducive to sexual liberation. Most feminists argue for the decriminalization of prostitution, for a criminal code following with prostitution laws. Advocates of legalization view it as a more realistic form of prostitution control than criminalization and as a pragmatic solution to a trade that is unlikely to go away. One form of free market conservatism maintains that prostitution should be legalized because the insatiable demand for it could be harnessed for individual and state profit in a regime that its advocates suggest would facilitate disease control and allow management of the visible aspects of the prostitution trade. (J.Davis, 1993, p 78). In my opinion Prostitution should not only be exterminated but it should be considered forbidden, with the help of enacting several acts against it. Women should be given equal liberty to prosecution, and live her life accordingly, as there is no woman in the world who is born corrupt. It is the societal predicaments that escort her to adopt such a profession. Annotated Bibliography Bittle, Steven. , (2002) When Protection Is Punishment: Neo-Liberalism and Secure Care Approaches to Youth Prostitution. Canadian Journal of Criminology. 44,3: 317 Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale, Megan Street, Making a Place for Escort Work: A Case Study The Journal of Sex Research. 42:1 J. Lowman. , (1986), Prostitution in Vancouver: Some Notes on the Genesis of a Social Problem, Canadian Journal of Criminology. 28:1 R. Graham,John. , (1999) William Lyon Mackenzie King, Elizabeth Harvie, and Edna: A Prostitute Rescuing Initiative in Late Victorian Toronto. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality. 8: 1 Leuchtag, Alice. , (2003) Human Rights Sex Trafficking and Prostitution. The Humanist. 63, 1: 10 Martin A. Monto. , (2001), Prostitution and Fellatio, The Journal of Sex Research. 38:2 Michael J. Kral. , (2002) Suicide and Prostitution among Street Youth: A Qualitative Analysis. Adolescence. 37: 146. J. Davis.Nanette , (1993) Prostitution: An International Handbook on Trends, Problems, and Policies. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. Phoenix, Joanna. , (2001) Making Sense of Prostitution. Palgrave. Basingstoke, England p 41. Stephen Q. Muth, Lynanne Phillips, John J. Potterat, Richard B. Rothenberg (1998) Pathways to Prostitution: The Chronology of Sexual and Drug Abuse Milestones. 35:4 Read More