Essay Example on Sex trade work profession

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Sex trade work is a profession that for a long time has been frowned upon and argued against More recently however liberal feminists consider sex trade work as the sale of sex solely for economic gain For the purpose of this presentation I will be arguing how sex trade work is linked to the exploitation of women's bodies Feminists against sex trade work see it as a kind of exploitation of women and male dominance over women as well as a form of work that is the result of the patriarchal societal order we currently live in These feminists argue that sex work has a very negative effect not only on the workers themselves but on society as well as it promotes stereotypes about women who are already seen as sex objects to be used or abused by men In one of our readings titled Exotic Dancing and the Negotiation of Identity Wesley argues that cyclically the sexualized fantasy body was used to acquire capital to afford a particular body technology and this body technology further contributed to the objectification and instrumental use of the body PAGE 259 She describes how many of the strippers she interviewed mentioned having their customers pay for some form of cosmetic surgery whether it was a boob job or liposuction and the level of ownership that the customer felt towards that part of the woman after doing so

These situations of vulnerability among the women may lead one to wonder why men are not nearly as present as women within this industry In this instance we are able to draw attention to the fact that this debate is taking place within a society characterized by imbalanced power relations between men and women particularly in terms of financial and economic resources These relationships continue to influence the sexuality of men and women and perpetuate the image of men buying sexual services from women In addition to reinforcing gender stereotypes sex trade work is thus also seen as an expression of the idea that men have potentially unlimited access to women s bodies and to sexuality corresponding to their level of economic power It also conveys the idea that sexual needs are a kind of right vested in every individual male We see this when we look at what has now been called the Weinstein effect The term refers to a global phenomenon of people who came forward to accuse powerful people that were mostly male of sexual misconduct The Weinstein effect inspired the hashtag MeToo which encouraged people to share their repressed experiences of sexual assault 



This created a series of accusations in a multitude of industries that caused the rapid expulsion of men in positions of power globally For feminists against sex trade work this line of work can therefore be seen as damaging to the advancement of women human rights and equality between women and men According to a study published in 2014 by the European Parliament it can be said that in international law and in the literature sex work is hardly separated from sexual exploitation and trafficking in human beings They argue that sex work and sexual exploitation are highly gendered issues with in most cases women and girls are selling their body either by coercion or consent to men or boys who pay for this service Accordingly the majority of those trafficked for sexual exploitation are women and girls Sexual exploitation is a lucrative business that enriches a globalized sex industry The groups most vulnerable to sex trafficking are minors and those involved in the sex industry i e dance clubs massage parlors escort services etc As stated by Professor Richard Poulin if we look at things from an economic point of view the goods provided by sex workers are doubly valuable because bodies are both a good and a service In her text Wesely states that when looking at what she calls superficial visible identifiers that is to say anything that might be considered a form of body technology such as breast augmentation liposuction other cosmetic surgery hair colour or even simply one s skin colour the bodies of women become depersonalized dehumanized and commodified 



This considerably strengthens the system of oppression of women and their enslavement to the pleasure of others to male pleasure By reducing women to a commodity that can be bought sold rented appropriated traded or acquired sex trade work affects women as a group It reinforces the archaic equation between women and sex reducing women to a lower humanity and helping to keep them in a lower status around the world Horley and Clarke state that the process of commodification involves turning sexuality in all its forms from reproduction to bodies to sex acts into objects of economic desire for exchange in the market They argue that while sex as a commodity can be used to sell pleasant and benign objects like crimson lipstick through pictures of naked or near naked bodies the trouble with commodification of sexuality is that sexuality can become detached from people s experiences intentionally exploitative and downright harmful We know that the female body can be seen as an object of exchange a commodity that contributes to the balance of our economic system The neoliberal system conceives women's bodies as a commodity and therefore can lead to the desire to abolish the phenomenon of sex trade work Sexuality is an economic exchange that tends to be maintained within systems where social and material inequalities exist It is important to give a voice to marginalized and less visible groups like sex workers so that they can overcome the social structures that oppress them We must reposition the power of dominant paradigms to make room for emerging discourses that claim the right to self determination In doing so the voice of these women can contribute to their social recognition and allow social change to take place

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