Goðsagnir um vændi númer 7 og 89. febrúar 2014

Myth 7: “Prostitution is part of women’s historical struggle to control their body.”

In the 1970s in Europe, women indeed struggled for the recognition of their reproductive and sexual rights, in particular the right to safe abortion. They were denouncing structural gender inequality and therefore any authority imposing its views on women’s human rights: religion, tradition… and the market. The commodification of sexuality and women’s bodies cannot be considered part of a collective struggle for women’s rights: prostitution is about men entitling themselves to buy sex, it is not about realising gender equality.

Myth 8: “Some women claim that it is their right to prostitute themselves.”

Some people freely accept to work for less than the minimum wage (especially undocumented migrants for example); some even agree to sell one organ. In both cases, our society has decided to protect the most vulnerable and guarantee decent life for all; in such cases, the law therefore condemns the employer, or the buyer of the organ. Similarly, the law should criminalise the sex buyer, not the person in prostitution. Some persons might indeed claim that they choose to be in prostitution; but a democratic society is not built on the basis of individual claims that don’t reflect the situation of the overwhelming majority. At stake is the future we are creating, the society we want to live in. In this day and age, we should be more concerned about women’s and men’s right not to be in prostitution.