Hannah King-Guffey

Professor Johnson

English 1010

27 July 2017

Is Prostitution a Form of Sex Trafficking?

Prostitution is described as one of the world’s oldest professions and, depending on who you ask,

it can either be seen as empowering, degrading, slavery, or simply a choice. There are many

different opinions surrounding the differences between prostitution and sex trafficking. Lexie

Smith, a woman who endured years of sexual slavery, describes her experience as torture. She

was not held captive with chains but was brainwashed and blackmailed. She explains that

whether a woman is actually forced by a pimp or is simply without the right resources to earn an

income, she’s never truly empowered through sex work. On the other hand, a woman identified

as Mistress Matisse recalls entering the sex trade with enthusiasm and she completely rejects the

label of sex trafficking, no matter what the woman’s situation (Carpenter, Huffington Post).

Events such as the Super Bowl and the Olympics help the prostitution and human trafficking

industry thrive due to the amount of male foot traffic. In the summer of 2012, I traveled to

Krasang, Thailand and spent the summer in a safe house caring for many young girls who

escaped had sex trafficking. While there, I learned that Thailand’s struggling economy would

entirely collapse if the sex industry was destroyed. But despite what Ms. Matisse asserts, social

research has shown that at a minimum, not all prostitution is voluntary, so what is the difference?

Opinions range over the connection between sex trafficking and prostitution, and there is a lot of

political and cultural debate around the issues of how our society should create solutions for sex
trafficking; protect voluntary sex workers; enforce laws; and do what’s “best” for those most

deeply impacted by these overlapping issues. All of these touch on issues of the law vs. people’s

rights. Are sex work and sex trafficking two separate issues? Should sex work be legal if by

choice? How do you define choice? Is there a solution to the expanding dilemma? Sex

trafficking and prostitution are connected

Many organizations dedicated to end sex trafficking views prostitution as a form of

trafficking because of the same “work,” clientele, and risks that both groups of women go

through. When a “john” (a man paying for sex) hires a “prostitute” he does not always consider

how the woman got to that place but solely what she is providing him.

There appears to be a growing demand for prostitution, although the statistics on what

proportion of the male population engage in prostitution is an estimated “16 to 80 percent,”

(Bennetts, Newsweek). Given that the percentage of men paying for sex is so difficult to predict,

there is still a lot that is not yet known about transactional sex. However, it appears that the

numbers of sex workers have increased in the past years. There are indications that men who are

habitually participating in paying for a sex worker have gained growing access because there has

been an increase in the illegal purchasing of women. When 16-year-old high school sophomore

girls are being sold on backpage.com “like a pizza,” “handed over to be raped by strange men

every day,” it’s an “echo of slavery,” contends New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. In

the Growing Demand for Prostitution study, Bennetts claims, “Although sex buyers saw

prostitution as consensual, other men acknowledged that more complex economic and emotional

factors influence the “choice” to prostitute oneself. “You can see that life circumstances have

kind of forced her into that,” said one non buyer in the study. “It’s like someone jumping from a

burning building—you could say they made their choice to jump, but you could also say they
had no choice””. (Newsweek)

To many people sex is seen as sacred and the sale of it as wrong, and believe that what

prostitutes go through amounts to a degradation of the self-worth and humanity of all of those

involved with the sale of women’s bodies.

Is there a difference between Sex Work and Slavery?

There is no question that sex work is dangerous. According to the American Journal of

Epidemiology, prostitution is the most dangerous occupation. It is hard to argue against this

when the average age of death of sex workers is 34 years old, due to violence, STDs, and drug

use. This argument is further complicated by the fact that many women who were once trafficked

and have continued to prostitute themselves after being freed from slavery which causes a

continued debate around the question of whether or not prostitution is a form of slavery.

However, according to Aziza Ahmed, “In common parlance, sex work is a dangerous

phenomenon that routinely violates women's rights and perpetuates their subordination to men.

There is hardly a distinction drawn between sex work and human trafficking, which involves

controlling someone through threats or violence with the express purpose of exploitation. This

conflation leaves no room for sex workers who make decisions for themselves; they are all just

victims”. While in some cases, prostitution may not have not been forced upon a woman, many

have felt trapped and see selling their bodies as their only way to survive.

Prostitution is a Choice
 There are a select group of women who have grown up in loving homes, haven’t been

abused, or haven’t been involved in drug abuse that willingly choose to sell their bodies labeled

as prostitution. To some, prostitution is a a form of sex-positive feminism that sex work partly

embodies. As one writer, Kelly Bell, contends, “While many members of society view sex work

as immoral and degrading to women, I argue that sex work is essentially just work, and that it is

not necessarily harmful to women. Under circumstances in which sex work is accepted and

regulated in society, in which the sex worker is protected and granted the same rights as any

other laborer, sex work has the possibility to be beneficial to women. Sex work can be very

profitable for women, and many women may enjoy work that allows them to creatively express

their sexuality. Sex work can allow human beings a way to safely explore their sexual desires in

ways they cannot through the current social norm of heterosexual, monogamous relationships.

The sex work industry and its workers need not be chastised by a society that clings to puritan

ideals of what is “moral”. (Bell) Treating women who have chosen this lifestyle the same as

those who have been forced is unfair for those who have been given no choice. Although the

consequences of engaging in sex work can be extreme, there are people who have made the

decision to enter into a life of prostitution on their own accord. “Sex workers engage in this for

many reasons, but the key distinction here is that they do it voluntarily. They are not coerced or

tricked into staying in the business but have chosen this from among the options available to

them”. (Ditmore, Alternet)

My opinion

To my understanding, while there may be a few exceptions, sex work tends never to be a

woman’s first choice. Despite the exceptions, statistics show that the vast majority of prostitutes
have entered into prostitution by some kind of force. This force could range from a woman’s

economic struggle, to the direct threat of violence, to childhood and/or adolescent abuse, to the

forces of addiction, and to relational manipulation. In almost every case, some form of

vulnerability is exploited. I have heard said that prostitution is “the choice made by those who

have no choice.”

Ahmed, Aziza. "Think again: Prostitution." Foreign Policy, 2014, pp. 74, SIRS Issues
Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Bell, K. J. “A Feminist's Argument On How Sex Work Can Benefit Women. Mar 26, 2014
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/28/a-feminists- argument-on-how-sex-work-can
benefit-women

Bennets, L. “The Growing Demand for Prostitution.” Newsweek, July 18, 2011.
http://www.newsweek.com/growing-demand-prostitution-68493
Carpenter, D. “I asked 3 Women to Talk about Sex Work & Trafficking in the U.S.” Aug 6,
2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debra-carpenter/i-asked-3-women-to-talk-
a_b_7950164.html

Ditmore, M. “Sex Work vs. Trafficking: Understanding the Difference.” Alternet, May 9, 2008.
http://www.alternet.org/story/84987/sex_work_vs._trafficking%3A_understanding

Kristof, N. “When backpage.com Peddles Schoolgirls for Sex, New York Times” Jan 12, 2017
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/opinion/when-backpagecom-peddles-schoolgirls-
for-sex.html