Prostitution: In search of Myth and Truth

One wonders what images appear in people’s mind when they hear the word “prostitute”. What would that word mean to different individuals? That, what kind of person is ‘a typical prostitute’ to them? The answers may vary since it is a very subjective question. Therefore, one yearns to search for their ‘identity’ inside the complicated labyrinth of myth and truth about them. To introduce different ways of seeing and helping people understand better about the complex mystery that surrounds them—prostitutes. Is there a difference between ‘whores’ and ‘sex-workers’? Or are these just terms created under the rules and regimes of ethics, morality, religion and state law created by men? As the essay goes deeper into the problems, one will realise how much society has contributed to prostitution in reality. And how much society has cont

Not only Asian sex-workers are degraded but also to an extent, sex-workers are priced differently according to their ethnicity. Young women from the rural Northeast supposedly favored by Westerners are looked down on in Bangkok as dark-skinned and ‘Lao’ in comparison to fair skinned ‘Chiengmai girls’. Many intricacies exist about issues involving race and gender with prostitution which this essay will not discuss further. What Asian society then has done for sex-workers who composed most of the growth sector in the economy? It was really a phenomenon to find out that despite their active economic roles, there has been the cultural devaluation of women, especially within prostitution. They were “ruthlessly denied by employers, threatened by police men and a local abortion nurse who provided her services would deny them anesthetic to ensure the ‘female animals’ suffered appropriate pain” (Cook 1998, p267). This will make the sex-workers even more vulnerable and silent, hidden in the web of social injustice, where women shall never achieve equal status as men that modern feminists are striving for.

ributed to creating wrong or false image of prostitutes, which lingers in the minds of people till now. It was not surprising to find out that women have been identified, then ‘objectified’ with the words ‘passive’ ‘inferior’ and ‘submissive’. The popular terms that have been tagged along with the characteristics of women, which bestowed another par excellence stereotyped identity. And it was even more surprising to find out that there are men prostitutes, although they are not as explicit as compared to women prostitutes.

Last of all, the essay will discuss the different meanings attached recently to ‘prostitutes’ and ‘sex-workers’ and are they different in any ways? According to one of the most expressive statements, coming from the Indian group Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, “the prostitute is rarely used to refer to an occupational group of women earning their livelihood through providing sexual services, rather it is deployed as a descriptive term denoting a homogenized category, usually of women, which poses threats to public health, sexual morality, social stability and civic order”(Altman 2001, p.101). Whereas, sex–worker is a deliberate scheme to demystify the category of ‘prostitute and the terms “sex work”, “sex workers”, “have been coined by sex-workers themselves to redefine commercial sex, not as the social or psychological characteristic of a class of women, but as a income-generated activity or form of employment for women and men” (Altman 2001, p.101). Although linguistically the word entail slightly different meanings to those above, the important thing to realize is, one believes, not just the definition of words. Instead, how are both being seen and treated in our society? It is sad but true that whether prostitutes are being called ‘whores’ or ‘sexual workers’, prostitutes do not gain respect from the society. Thus, is there a necessity to define words differently? Or by differentiating these two words, does it create even more discrimination among prostitutes who will be further divided by class of body? A division between black and white prostitutes… The division between high-class prostitutes who are paid higher than the lower class ones, the rural area prostitutes… Is this a fair practice or brings even more chaos to the underground society? Is there actually a difference between a courtesan and whore then? Do people respect and recognize them as one unique individual in our society regardless of their status? These are all open-ended questions that come to one’s mind through the various readings and research, where the answers could be very subjective. However, hopefully, this essay will help to at least alarm the situations mentioned above.

As discussed above, if women are working in the sexual industry for the solitary re

Some topics in this essay:
O’Rourke Manderson, Sleightholme Sinha, Samanwaya Committee, Sen Stivens, Perfumed Garden-, Thailand Cook, Middle Ages, NGOs Feminists, Margaret Jollyeds, AIDS/HIV Lastly, sinha 1996, sleightholme sinha, sleightholme sinha 1996, sex industry, sinha 1996 p3, 1996 p3, stivens 1998, sen stivens 1998, sen stivens, 1998 254, stivens 1998 254, sexual behavior, gender inequality, women prostitutes, hear word “prostitute”,