Is Regulating Sex Work Really Beneficial?

By Cameron Redburn

Imagine youre at work, just doing your job and minding your own business, when

suddenly, youre being handcuffed and put in the back of a cop car. Doesnt sound too

pleasant, does it? This is how thousands of sex workers feel every year, when their

career is criminalized. Sex work is seen as a lowly industry, a job only chosen as a very

last resort. This is widely caused by the United States stigma around sex and sex

workers, seeing it all as taboo and inappropriate. It is the goal of many legal brothels in

Nevada to end this stigma.

Many people arent familiar with sex work or brothels, and many dont know that

there are many legal brothels in the state of Nevada. The book Playing the Whore by

Melissa Gira Grant shows that sex work has been present in America since the 1900s,

with the launch of the 1973 prostitutes rights organization Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics

(COYOTE).

in 1975, more than one hundred prostitutes occupied a church in Lyon, France,

to protest police repression, issuing statements that they would stay until prison

sentences against their members were lifted. The movement for what was then

called prostitutes rights may have been born from demands for sexual freedom,

but its own demands were for freedom from police violence (Grant, Page 22).

In the Business Insider article 7 Reasons Why American Should Legalize Prostitution

by Erin Fuchs, Fuchs explores the world of legal brothels, finding out that they are

currently only allowed in rural counties of Nevada, they must have a license, and their
workers must be tested routinely for sexually transmitted infections. Regulating this kind

of work would allow laws to be made, like the ones in Nevada, about use of condoms

and the health of the sex workers and customers. In an interview with Fredrick Fabian

from the Desert Club Brothel in Nevada, he says that the health checks on his girls are

state regulated and monitored weekly, and that there has never been a girl in his

brothel with a sexually transmitted infection. This shows how safe and healthy sex work

really has the potential to be.

A big problem in the sex work industry today is violence and humiliation. A

perfect example of this Brian Bates, a man who tracks prostitutes and films them with

their pimps, only to post the video to his website, JohnTV.com. (Grant, Page 2) This is

complete invasion of privacy and not to mention utterly humiliating to the workers. ...the

camera isnt just a tool for producing evidence: Its his cover for harassing women he

believes are selling sex, pinning a record on them online even when the law will not.

(Grant, Page 2) Transgender women in Queens, New York are also often humiliated

due to the criminalization of sex work. They are often mistaken for prostitutes, being

followed by police in their own neighborhoods. I was just buying tacos, a transgender

Latina woman from Jackson Heights told Make the Road New York, They grabbed me

and handcuffed me. They found condoms in my bra and said I was doing sex work

they asked me to kneel down and they took my wig off. They arrested me and took me

away. (Grant, Page 2) Innocent women are being punished and humiliated as a result

of these laws.

Many illegal prostitutes experience violence from customers who are mentally ill,

unsatisfied with their experience, or just plain cruel. A good example of this is present in
the ABC show Desperate Housewives, Season 6, Episode 20, Epiphany, where a

teenager who is mentally unstable strangles a prostitute to death simply because she

laughed at him. In the CNN online video Inside a Legal Brothel, Lisa Lang explores the

Moonlight Bunny Ranch, hoping to see the difference between legal brothels and illegal

sex work. She goes on to talk about how in the legal brothels, the workers have the

freedom to say no, and turn down any customer they dont feel safe with or just dont

want to do business with. While in many illegal sex work circles, the workers are

controlled by pimps and have no say in who theyre going to do business with. She later

says that in comparison to illegal sex work, The worlds could not be more different.

(Lang)

With this, the Business Insider article 7 Reasons Why America Should Legalize

Prostitution, by Eric Fuchs elaborates on the subject of violence, stating that

Prostitutes in America (mostly women) are vulnerable to violence from customers and

pimps. (Fuchs) In Colorado Springs, prostitutes are 18 times more likely to be

murdered than those who are not prostitutes. (Fuchs) A study of San Francisco

prostitutes found that 82% [of prostitutes] had been assaulted, and 68% had been raped

while working... Brothels offer protection from violence. For example, a sex worker who

is working legally would be able to report violence without fear of getting in legal trouble,

unlike ones that are working illegally. (Fuchs) Frederick Fabian of the Desert Club

Brothel confirmed this, denying that any violence has ever happened in his licensed

brothel. As of right now, the only victims of prostitution are the prostitutes themselves.

With the regulation of sex work, prostitution would be a victimless crime. (Fuchs)
 Outside of the social reasons, Ive found many economic benefits to the

regulation of brothels. The state could issue a tax on brothels, and use the tax revenue

for fixing roads, funding schools, and other things that normally comes out of the

taxpayers pockets. (Fuchs) Regulating sex work could also give the workers legal

rights, such as minimum wage and a safe work environment. Frederick Fabian says that

all licensed brothels in Nevada let the girls set their own wages, and while most split

them 50/50, the Desert Club lets the girls keep 60% of their wages. On top of this,

investigating illegal sex work is time consuming and expensive.

Every hour spent going after prostitution is an hour that couldve been spend

going after terrorists and going after people who victimize. (Alan Dershowitz)

What I got from this quote in the Business Insider article 7 Reasons Why America

Should Legalize Prostitution by Erin Fuchs was that prostitution is going to happen

whether its legal or not, so theres no point trying to stop it. Its the business of two

consenting adults, and the law should be worrying about murderers, rapists, terrorists,

and all of the criminals who actually do bad.

On the other side of the argument, many people have concerns about the

regulation of sex work. Ive heard many arguments that say it is objectifying women,

giving men the option to buy sex and do whatever they want to the woman. Going

against religion, condoning premarital sex and many forms of sodomy, such as BDSM

and homosexuality. Many people have said that they dont want their schools (and

many other state funded services) funded by sex work. (Fuchs) I understand that people

have their concerns, but these problems are easily solved. A girl in a legal brothel is

more than welcome to turn down ant customer, at any time. (Lang) As for religious
reasons, there is a separation of church and state, and anyone who doesnt wish to

participate in sex work does not have to. Brothels dont always have to pay state taxes.

May licensed brothels in Nevada pay taxes to the county, so the state is not involved at

all. (Fuchs)
Sources:

1. Epiphany. Desperate Housewives, Created by Marc Cherry. Directed by David

Grossman. Season 6, Episode 20, ABC, 25 Apr. 2010

2. Fabian, Frederick. E-mail interview. 6 Oct. 2017

3. Fuchs, Erin. 7 Reasons Why America Should Legalize Prostitution. Business

Insider, 13 Nov. 2013 http://www.businessinsider.com/why-america-should-

legalize-prostitution-2013-11

4. Gira Grant, Melissa. Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work. Verso, 2014

5. Lang, Lisa, Inside a Legal Brothel. CNN,

http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/10/14/lisa-ling-21st-century-brothels-orig.cnn

Accessed 13 Oct. 2017