Goðsagnir um vændi: númer 65. febrúar 2014

Myth 6: “Prostitution is about sexual freedom, abolition is anti-sex.”

Let us be more precise: whose sexual freedom are we talking about? Everyone agrees that sexual freedom consists of enjoying sexual health and rights, based on equality and free from any discrimination, coercion or violence (definition of the World Health Organisation). Prostitution is not about sex, it’s about power: the purchase of sex is the denial of the other person’s desire. Paying for sex is denying another person’s right to sexual desire and consists of a profound disempowering of sexual agency in another human being. In other words, buying sex from someone can never be about sexual freedom. Abolitionists are pro-sex: they want genuine sexual freedom and equality between women and men, and this cannot be achieved as long as sexuality is placed within the scope of the market.