The fellow being interviewed on the radio yesterday about harm reduction also had some rather dumb things to say about prostitution (here, Gentle Reader, we shall eschew the stupid politically correct moniker, the "Sex Trade." It does nothing to destigmatize prostitution and everything to legitimize it. There is nothing legitimate about selling or renting one's body.)
There is nothing legitimate about prostitution and neither is it inevitable unless there is a vicious pimp holding a gun to your head. Otherwise, please spare that claptrap that the girls have no other option. Last I heard, prostitution is not addictive and therefore does not require a harm reduction approach. Whatever happened to the word "no"?
Oh yes, it can be said that in survival prostitution anyway that is sometimes the most effective way that a woman with kids can pay the rent and put food on the table. Or is it? Is legit work really that hard to get? Even without a lot of skills or education? What about extra supports for finding employment and training for better job prospects?
Not everyone who is on social assistance is going to turn to prostitution to survive. Some women would not even consider hocking their privates for food and rent. Unless she has a personal history of childhood sex abuse, especially from a family member, and among hookers, survivors of incest are legion. This isn't to say that all hookers (not sex workers, Gentle Reader. I already said I have no interest in legitimizing this little career choice, oldest profession my ass!)
Just the other day, while walking by my former parish church, I noticed a monument recently erected in front of it to honour the street hookers who used to work in that neighbourhood until in 1984 or so when they were driven out of the West End of Vancouver. During that time I was involved in street ministry. I knew some of those hookers, female, male and trans. Some became dear friends. I took great care to not judge them, neither could I agree to the self-righteousness of the local residents who were intent on driving them out of the neighbourhood.
To this day I still will not judge the hookers. Neither will I judge the local residents for wanting to get rid of them. It was a bad situation for everyone. All these prostitutes. a lot of them teenagers, survivors of abuse and abandonment, trying to find their way across this horrible life they had been handed, while being shown not a smidgeon of compassion by those who felt inconvenienced by their presence. All those poor local residents, their nights rendered sleepless by constant noise and their neighbourhood made filthy and unsafe because of the local ho's and their johns.
More than thirty years later, I still refuse to take sides. The harm reduction approach is morally and ethically bankrupt. It allows for sex to be legitimized as a market transaction, a credible trade or career choice. Um, excuse me, you guys, but what if your daughters decided they wanted to be ho's? Hi Mom, hi Dad, I want to be a ho when I grow up. I'd be good at it, eh? Hey, I already had lots of practice with the high school football team. How about providing training courses in our community colleges, workshops in resume development: Well experienced and fully certified sex trade worker with excellent customer services skills and full knowledge of all the most popular toys on the market, fully equipped with complete bondage complement. References available on request.
Is this where we really want to be headed with this? Sex as a market commodity? Like everything else in this environment of unrestrained capitalism. I have always held sex to be something sacred. While I don't tow the Catholic line that it is for reproduction only, that is certainly the number one reason why people have sex if not it's prima facie. It is a special bond between two people who have devoted their lives to each other, and yes, I am strongly in favour of both marriage and monogamy. Why do we wish, through our politically correct idiocy, to consent to degrading something so sacred as a mere item for sale, rent and barter?
This isn't to say that hookers don't need nor merit special protection and support. And when addictions are part of the picture, as they often are, this really complicates matters.
For the record, I do not believe that prostitution should be illegal. It ought to be decriminalized, for the protection of the women, men and transpersons who are stranded in this disgraceful trap. Neither should their johns get off the hook. To this day, I strongly endorse the Scandinavian model: don't charge the hookers, charge their clients, probably the only legislation from our previous Tory government that I ever agreed with. While we are on the subject, I am sure that there is a lot more that could be done to educate men and boys to treat women with respect and their own sexuality with care and responsibility. They wouldn't be in business without the market demand and something has to be done to get men to change their attitudes.
But we still need to walk with these women, men and transpersons, not approving, but certainly not judging or condemning. Yes, let's try to make conditions as safe as possible for them, but let's also provide a way out, with drug rehab, counselling, mentoring, training, education, decent employment, and refusing to shame them. It is unfortunate that the harm reduction aficionados can seldom accept or appreciate nuance or paradox, which this kind of situation is full of. We can still support the persons without endorsing their career choice. It is called discernment. And old-fashioned common sense.
Yours from Jurassic Park.
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