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Australian studies in law, crime and justice

Conclusion [from The prostitutes' response]

Published in:
Working girls : prostitutes, their life and social control / Roberta Perkins
ISBN 0 642 15877 0
Canberra : Australian Institute of Criminology, 1991
(Australian studies in law, crime and justice series)

This final Chapter began with a summary of the findings for the sample of the 128 prostitute women in this study. By subdividing this group into three "types" based on age of entry into sex work, it was discovered that variations in motivations for entry and social factors existed between them. This suggested that: about five per cent of women in prostitution began in their early adolescence, were motivated by negative homelives and/or problems with their mothers, and socialised with other homeless "kids" surviving by casual prostitution; about a quarter enter the sex industry in their mid-adolescence as females having identities as "bad girls" through involvements with juvenile authorities and the courts, or due to drug addiction, and survive as full-time prostitutes supporting these or later addictions; and, about two-thirds turn to prostitution as a work option in their adulthood as a consequence of economic crises. This, the common prostitute stereotype of the drug addicted teenage streetwalker represents a small portion of sex workers, while adult women from ordinary social backgrounds, including average homelives, the general work force, and a family life as wives and mothers, who make clear economic choices about sex work, represent the majority of the prostitute population.

Since mostly ordinary women take up prostitution due to the general social conditions which are not favourable to women in society, it has been argued that the continuance of repressive and punitive laws against them is a violation of a number of human fights, as well as further oppressing women as the sex most likely to take up prostitution for economic survival. In response to this legal repression, prostitutes in the past two decades have organised into advocacy groups calling for decriminalisation. The AIDS crisis has provided some of these groups already communicating with governments with funds to fight the disease. But, as the experiences of the Australian Prostitutes Collective demonstrates, there is a real fear that the "benevolence" shown by government funding bodies is a subtler means of controlling prostitutes through co-opting their organisations. By themselves, prostitute advocacies are unlikely to win their struggle for decriminalisation and self-determination in their industry. They require the assistance of other branches of the women's movements. Unfortunately, feminist ideologies have adopted negative analyses of sex work by a focus on the sexual interactions in a patriarchal context instead of developing a theory on prostitution as a reflection of male economic dominance and moralism. Prostitutes and feminists now need to co-operate in an endeavour to improve women's general situation in society, so that they can control sexual interactions and take command of the sex industry if they choose to work in it.

This book has covered a lot of ground since its opening passages on prostitution as an occupation. What I have tried to emphasise is the normality of the women who become prostitutes. This normality is often submerged beneath a repertoire of myths about sex work that are far from reality. These myths from patriarchal perspectives frame the laws, the social attitudes, and the popular image of the women. A review of feminist writings about the sex industry concludes the book because the negative response from feminists demonstrates the extent of influence by this mythology; a mythology which is part of the overall social reflection of women's subordinate position in society. The social expectations of women in society are their submission to men in public and private life as compliant, obedient, sexually passive beings. The mythology of prostitution presents a view of sex workers as brazen, socially defiant, and sexually animate. The disparity between mythology and expectation is an obvious divide and rule tactic, but prostitution remains a social venue not just for female misfits with aggressive personalities. It serves as a medium in which women with assertive natures may express themselves, and women normally suppressed in social life are able to assert themselves. And, after all, encouraging women to be more assertive has been a political strategy for feminist demands for over a century and a half.

Probably the last word should come from one of the prostitute women in my study. Martine:

When I started working in prostitution I soon realised that being "bossy" wasn't always negative and actually it is a really strong attractive characteristic in you to some men. I feel good about it now and a lot more comfortable with myself. I'm not going to take it any more that women have to be nice and sweet and, you know what I mean. I come from a feminist background, but I still get all that shit put on me all the time, like: "You're too aggressive!" or "You're too direct!" Now, how can you be too direct, I ask you. Now I just don't take any notice of that shit, and I don't get as much of it these days because I mix with other women who are in prostitution, and we actually shut up.