Rachael Lockwood

SCOM 280
Andrew Barnes
Research Paper

Cover Page 1
Introduction Page 2 4
Literature Review & Methodology Pages 5 10
 We live in a gendered society and as such we as a society have established roles
for men and women to perform on a daily basis. From the day we are born we are set to
play a role and that role is entirely dependent on the sex the doctor assigns to us. Once
you are wrapped in that pretty pink fuzzy warm blanket your world has been fixed.
Fixed in the sense that you are expected to perform certain characteristic traits that have
been established as feminine. This means wearing those super uncomfortable high heels.
This means waiting your turn to talk - that is, if you have a voice at all. This means
staying home to take care of the kid(s), because its part of your womanly duties. Dont
forget about having dinner on the table when your man comes home. It is these types of
societal roles, which may seem extreme but are still very prevalent today, that we are
made to perform and have their implications. These gender associations we deem as
appropriate shape our actions, aspirations, goals, relationships, etc. As a new critical
scholar I want to seek to empower women and give back a sense of control over their
bodies, minds, and lives.

This article is going to seek out feminist arguments to improve womens equity of
basic human rights. More specifically this article is going to seek to evaluate the
arguments surrounding the feminist agenda to legalize consensual prostitution, the
stigmatization of sex work, the potential impacts if legalized relating to the rate of
reported sexual abuse, and the audiences of these arguments. The article will analyze
previous literature completed and the foundation for its exploration, go through the
potential positive effects of legalizing consensual prostitution, as well as the negative.

The entire underground nature of prostitution has made this a sensitive subject
and significantly debatable. It is not everyday we come across the rhetoric that is pro or
even anti prostitution legalization, because it is seen as an insignificant topic when people
all over the world are still starving and poverty still exists. However we need to keep in
mind, we as scholars have the power to educate and make influential arguments for
policy change. We need to work to empower women and children who have been subject
to a life of subservience to their pimps to allow them come forward without fear of being
jailed.

We should take this subject matter seriously due to the sheer vastness of all those
who have been or know someone affected by prostitution, sexual abuse in some way, or
simply believe in basic human rights. We have a duty as communication scholars to give
a voice to those too weak and uninformed to speak for themselves. We as scholars have a
duty, the power, and the linguistic skills to educate nations in order to evoke social
change to alleviate such issues. The oppressive nature of prostitution leaves women
vulnerable, susceptible, powerless, and all too often defenseless. As I conducted my
research I found an excerpt worth noting from PhD author Melissa Farley in Prostitution,
Trafficking ad Traumatic Stress. She writes This harm is made particularly difficult to
see because of the invisibility of prostitutions harm to women in the mainstream media.
She goes on to describe a personal account from a prostitute recounting her experience
and relating it to the film Pretty Woman. The line Anything you want it to be when
Richard Gere asked Julia Roberts what her name was. In prostitution, she is
depersonalized; her name and identity disappear. According to a study also done by
Melissa Farley PhD and Howard Barkan DrPH, called Prostitution, Violence, and Post
Traumatic Stress for the Journal Women and Health; One hundred and thirty people
working as prostitutes in San Francisco were interviewed regarding the extent of violence
in their lives and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fifty-seven percent
reported that they had been sexually assaulted as children and 49% reported that they had
been physically assaulted as children. As adults in prostitution, 82% had been physically
assaulted; 83% had been threatened with a weapon; 68% had been raped while working
as prostitutes; and 84% reported current or past homelessness.

In another study by Tamerra P. Moeller and Gloria A Bachmann called Child

Abuse and Neglect in September through October 1993, Volume 17, Issue 5 published by
Elsevier the abstract states; The long-term health effects of physical, sexual, and
emotional abuse during childhood were studied in a sample of 668 middle class females
in a gynecologic practice who responded to a self-administered, anonymous
questionnaire covering demographic information, family history, physical and
psychological health, as well as stressful events and abusive experiences as a child. Half
(53%) of the sample reported childhood abuse, with 28.9% recounting exposure to one
type of abuse, 18.7% to two types of abuse, and 5.4% to all three types of abuse. In
comparison to women not abused during childhood, the abused reported significantly
more hospitalizations for illnesses, a greater number of physical and psychological
problems, and lower ratings of their overall health. The greater the number of childhood
abuses, the poorer one's adult health and the more likely one was to have experienced
abuse as an adult. Thus, in addition to the deleterious psychological consequences of
abuse described in the literature, physical health also appears to be adversely affected in
women abused as children.

This is where I want to interject and do my duty as a scholar to empower women

so this is not something they must feel. I have been privileged enough in my lifetime to
never know the physical or psychological implications of prostitution.

Some of the previous literature and statistical data that has been conducted has
been to discuss the positive effect legalizing prostitution would have on decreasing the
percentage of individuals who contract HIV. In 2003 Congress passed a Leadership Act,
which was designed as a set of strategies for the President to seek to fulfill in order to
combat the 65 million people globally infected by HIV and the 25 million people who
had lost their lives to the virus. It was identified in the Leadership Act that the amount of
individuals contracting the virus poses a social and political threat to the international
community. The data signifies that prostitution left intact in its current social state could
have a negative effect combating the increase of HIV contraction. This one
consequencequential effect of prostitution, HIV infection increase, has proven itself to be
a significant item to be put on the national agenda. This rhetorical analysis is designed
entirely to explore the possible significant effects of legalizing consensual prostitution. It
is distinguished from other reviews by assessing the rhetoric behind the issue of
consensual prostitution.

Before we begin our analysis we must understand a few basic terms and
foundational behaviors that lead us to having such a conversation on legalizing
prostitution. To clarify sex is biological and gender is self or socially constructed. Like
the Borchers on Gender reading states gender is thought of on a continuum; from hyper
masculine to hyper feminine, and different people identify in different places on the scale.
Borchers also states that this creates expectations and inevitably conflict. We tend to
gender our society through social construction - what people think should occur, be said,
and performed. In the media we encounter everyday through; magazines, blogs, fashion
outlets, news networks, public figures, stores boys/girls sections, corporations, etc. the
setting of societal norms for how men and women should look, act, and think.
From these norms we assume to be so called right we then create identities through our
communicative behavior that we perform in a variety of contexts. We derive our own
interpretations of the messages we see, and this in turn leads men and women to evolve
different communication styles. The expectations we derive from these norms create
power struggles. Men typically perform more dominant language and actions based on
the media telling them certain characteristics are manly. A macho man usually has
bulging muscles is typically valued by society. When a few men reproduce this macho
norm, especially those in high society, we see an increase in replication by other men
advancing its value. Not only is the media telling men how they should look but also act,
specifically in regards to women.

The ways in which we use rhetoric to send these messages is very powerful and
influential. Rhetoric can either be very ambiguous and left for personal interpretation or
very precise. Most often its ambiguous. Like the way we define feminism. The use of
rhetoric has constructed multiple meanings for this particular word. For my analysis I will
borrow the definition of feminism from the Borchers on Gender Reading stating that
Feminism is inclusive and refers to all those (men/women) who work for the legal,
economic, and political advancement of women. Due to its multiple understood
meanings people have assumptions in regards to the word and those who identify as
being feminists.

By conducting a rhetorical analysis we can begin to understand how different

rhetoric is used, where it is being used, and who it targets. Most feminist movements
today who are seeking to legalize prostitution do so through blogs, newsletters from
specific organizations Amnesty International, feminist websites, and news outlets such
as the Associated Press. Just recently on Feb. 3, 2017 Tracy Ryan a transgender went to
the state capitol of Honolulu to advocate for the decriminalization of prostitution,
according to an article in U.S. News & World Report. Saying transgender women are
disproportionally impacted by laws criminalizing prostitution. Much of my research has
found that feminists are trying to influence lawmakers on a state level, but have been
derailed due to the polarizing moral arguments for decriminalizing prostitution. By
conducting this rhetorical analysis and review I hope to better inform others and myself
on the implications (good and bad) of decriminalizing prostitution. Upon my conclusion
of this review I will be a better feminist advocate and able to better contribute to the
conversation for decriminalizing prostitution.

Upon conducting my initial research I came across a law review done by

University of Pennsylvania and my understanding of how previous arguments have failed
to initiate change became much more coherent. This law review suggests that despite
sound arguments of excessive and wasteful enforcement cost little progress has been
made to decriminalize such issues. So my question is then; is it the types of arguments
surrounding decriminalization that have left them ineffective? Were these arguments not
properly written to appeal to the emotions of the audience? Was the critical audience
analysis missing? The Pennsylvania law review goes onto to discuss that if we seek to
understand why Americans are predisposed to view prostitution morally wrong, we will
then uncover an improper basis for the public morality of law.

The law review then goes onto discuss the absence of critical discussion of the
focal issue that divides proponents and opponents of criminalization has made
decriminalization arguments much less powerful than they can and should be. The entire
conversation revolving around decriminalizing prostitution subverts back to whether
prostitution is a moral issue. Im not interested in defining its morality, what I am
interested in is the affects if such a policy to decriminalize the act were passed. Would it
positively or negatively affect the women who are partaking willingly or unwillingly in
the act? The Law Review then goes onto describe different definitions of prostitution, and
how it has evolved over the centuries.

Part two of the law review begins to discuss commercial sex and the rights of the
person and the arguments for the criminalization of prostitution. It suggests four
arguments offered for criminalization of prostitution: (1) Criminogenesis; (2) the control
of venereal disease; (3) the intrinsically immoral and degrading nature of commercial
sex; and (4) cognate to (3) the self-destructive or debilitating nature of prostitution.

Criminogenesis justifies criminal prostitution because the number of crimes,

such as theft and assault of patrons, trafficking in heroin, and the enlarged scope of
organized crime operations, which are said to occur in prostitution and of which
prostitution is alleged to be the genesis. The law review then goes onto discredit this
idea by saying the criminalization of prostitution fosters criminal activity by drawing the
nature underground. It suggests that its decriminalization would allow for more candid
conversation among patrons and the police in disclosing criminal activity. Additionally it
suggests that prostitutes would more likely to bring to police attention the violence or
fraud sometimes directed against them by patrons or pimps. To summarize these
arguments are circular and question begging: they argue for criminalization of
prostitution on the basis of evils that criminalization, not prostitution, fosters.
 The next argument for criminalizing prostitution is made because of the spread of
venereal diseases. However this argument is quickly debunked and states that
prostitution is responsible for no more than 5% of all venereal diseases and that most
prostitutes dont suffer from the disease, and most tend to take precautionary measures.
It suggests that I order to decrease the number of cases of venereal diseases we would
benefit more by mass educating the public on precautionary measures. This argument
doesnt in itself justify absolute prohibition of commercial sex.

The third argument made for criminalization is the moral argument. Prostitution
is a moral evil because, in the Courts words the lives and example of such persons are in
hostility to a certain and enormously powerful vision of women, their sexuality, and the
role of marriage. It goes onto state that those who objectify prostitution today base it
not off of female promiscuity, but off of the transformation of sex into an impersonal
encounter with no emotional significance by means of commercialization. Meaning sex
is a significant interaction between a man and woman and commercializing prostitution
demeans the act of such an intimate relationship. The next part examined in the law
review is on Kantian ethics and how prostitution alienates the body to another and
undermines the ultimate roots of the integrity of moral personality. The law review
concludes the moral argument section by stating we must look critically at the underlying
logic within moral theory to enable us to understand all the relevant facts for opposing
prostitution decriminalization.

The third section of the Pennsylvania Law Review goes into detail about The
Concepts of Human Rights and The Public Morality Under Constitutional Democracy.
The first of four arguments is made is called A Right Thesis, which essentially
describes that the constitution was; one intended to put legal constraints on the exercise
of majoritarian power and two an idea of basic human rights which are enforceable by
law. Once acceptance of this is made you move onto the assumption that humans have
autonomy a fundamental sense to the theory of human rights. The second assumption
made is equality based on a capacity for autonomy and entitlement to equal respect
and concerns as persons. These two assumptions are made under the second argument
an Autonomy and Equality as the Values Underlying the Right Thesis. The next section
titled Contractarian Theory and Human Rights goes into the task of interpreting human
rights. The final argument, Concept of Public Morality and Criminal Law, states that due
to the institutionalization of human rights in our society; our criminal law rests on the
enforcement of public morality in some sense. However, this concept lacks a clearly
defined statement of public morality. Without this definition and subsequent definitions
to define subsequent circumstances we cannot know what is morally right and wrong. In
some circumstances there is a clearly defined role of moral right and wrong, but new
philosophical thought has challenged historical ideas and has separated people on many
subjects including decriminalizing prostitution.

The next piece I want to analyze is called Does Legalized Prostitution Increase
Human Trafficking, and article written by three co-authors including Seo-Young Cho.
The purpose of this article is to analyze the affects of legalized prostitution on human
trafficking inflows. This study completed a cross-sectional study of up to 150 countries
based on a scale effect. Their study concluded that on average countries where
prostitution is legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows.

The Introduction introduces the dark side of globalization and how

globalization has increased our capacity to traffic humans. It cites a source called
Outshoorn, 2005, indicating that many authors believe trafficking is caused by
prostitution and the best way to combat it is through enforcement of the law. They say
evidence seems to show that legalized sex industries actually result in increased
trafficking to meet the demand for women to be used in the legal sex industries (Farley,
2009). Opposing forces argue that legalization will improve working and safety
conditions for sex workers, allowing sex business to recruit among domestic women who
choose prostitution as their free choice of occupation. There seem to be two different
ideals that are butting heads. First are those who believe prostitution is done almost
always forcibly and rarely voluntarily. Secondly are those who believe prostitution can be
voluntarily. This seems to be a contributing factor as to why new policies to decriminalize
prostitution policy have not been made.

They conclude in their study that The Scale Effect of legalized prostitution leads
to an expansion of the market while a Substitution Effect decreases demand for trafficked
women over those who are illegal. This study strike significant importance since it gets at
the heart of my question: will legalized consensual prostitution affect human trafficking?
The answer to this Economic Theory clearly states legalizing prostitution will have a
negative affect on trafficking in most of the 150 countries studied.

The next Article I will examine is an article written by Melissa Farley on

prostitution and education. This piece questions whether physical, social, and
psychological harms of prostitution can be controlled or decreased by decriminalizing,
regulating or other state monitoring? In its essence it is seeking similar questions I am
and supplemental questions such as is it possible to protect the human rights of those in
prostitution?

The majority of the article analysis is based off of New Zealand and their decision
to decriminalize prostitution. I think its important to note the four of their five arguments
made for decriminalization were made to deal with issues concerning public health. This
language is designed to safeguard human rights by way of protecting sex workers from
exploitation, to promote the welfare and occupational safety and health of sex workers,
and create an environment conducive to public health.

Upon further reading of the article I found areas in which the state may have acted
selfishly so as to exploit the sex workers in the name of public good. The article says
women in Dutch prostitution were decriminalized as a way to tax the income of the sex
workers, defining it as a form of labor.

The following examples are organizations recommended policy decisions to

criminalize or decriminalize and the basis for their reasoning. WHO (World Health
Organization) recommended its decriminalization after defining prostitution as a
dynamic and adaptive process that involves a transaction between seller and buyer of a
sexual service. A policy recommendation was made by Amnesty International for
decriminalizing consensual sex work. They published a policy and research in 2016
regarding protection of sex workers rights and within the text was a quote by Tawanda
Mutasha; We want laws to be refocused on making sex workers lives safer and
improving the relationship they have with the police while addressing the very real issue
of exploitation. We want governments to make sure no one is coerced to sell sex, or is
unable to leave sex work if they choose to.

Going back to the analysis made by Melissa Farley she suggests that those in
support of legalized prostitution are mislead in their notions that it will decrease the harm
for participants. She denies the claim that it would reduce the harm to prostitutes. She
further claims that strategies working to frame prostitution into an issue of denied human
rights confuse more than educate. Farley warns that before you trust the name of a source
who must ask yourself who is funding the campaign to accurately gage motive. A
successful campaign to decriminalize prostitution was made on the majority basis that
public health would improve. Within that campaign was a claim that women would seek
health care once the stigmatization was removed form prostitution. Further more women
will seek out help and medical attention if abused, raped, or assaulted. Reading
testimonies from prostitutes in the Netherlands who has decriminalized prostitution still
want to remain in the shadows out of fear that being a registered prostitute will follow
them for the rest of their lives. A concern I as a woman understand. Farley adamantly
denies that any type of prostitution legal or illegal will do more harm (physically and
emotionally) than good.

In regards to pro-decriminalized prostitution arguments much of the rhetoric has

been based around the risks of safety and violence prostitutes face on an everyday basis.
There are three main arguments framing the pro policy. First is the legalizing (state
licensing and regulation, second is abolitionist approaches (laws punishing third parties,
not prostitutes themselves, third is decriminalization (regulating prostitutes as
independent businesses).

Early reformers identified the key problem with prostitution as male lust that
lured innocent women into a depraved life as prostitutes. The policies are working off
the assumption that prostitutes are helpless victims, leading critics to assert that this
perspective is paternalistic and disempowering women. This leads to justification of
decriminalizing in order for women to feel protected and feel they have a safe haven to
visit in the horrible case of sexual/physical abuse. Advocates feel the best way to protect
women is to regulate the industry.

To conclude much of the research I have found has been extremely divided.
Criminalization policies have been founded chiefly on the basis that it is morally wrong
to participate in prostitution. On the other hand decriminalization policies have been
founded primarily on the basis of regulation will reduce human trafficking, decrease the
rate of STIs, and regulation of the industry will reduce the violence against women. The
stigma surrounding prostitution will be reduced and women will feel they have an outlet
if a woman is assaulted. After my rhetorical analysis and becoming more informed I am
taking the position that prostitution should be decriminalized. This stance is formed on
the basis that more regulation of prostitution would empower women to have more
control over their lives and bodies, hopefully reduce the number of rapes, decrease the
number of STDs, significantly reduce physical and psychological harms. The argument
to keep prostitution criminalized is, in my opinion, on the fundamental moral grounds of
the issue and has an insignificant basis to keep prostitution criminalized.