This paper sheds light on the comparison between the freedom of sexworkers and freedom of sex within marriage.
Development as freedom: Theoretical Framework
Who are Sexworkers? And from where they come from?
Sex workers are usually women who are already subsumed by other elements of social marginalisation. They are predominantly illiterate, have limited economic opportunities and lower social status. Women belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have a higher representation among sex workers (in particular devdasis and women from the Nat and Bedia tribe, communities traditionally excluded from mainstream brahminical society) while a significant proportion of women are those who have been deserted, widowed or victims of violence.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of women and children are abducted, apostatized, seduced, or sold into coerced prostitution, coerced to accommodation hundreds if not thousands of men afore being discarded. These trafficked sex slaves form the backbone of one of the world's most remuneratively lucrative illicit enterprises and engender astronomically immense profits for their exploiters, for unlike narcotics, which must be grown, harvested, refined, and packaged, sex slaves require no such ‘processing,’ and can be perpetually ‘consumed’. There has been report which says that there is evidence of men breaking into the shelter home and sexually abusing the inmates. It says that several inmates have been held there illegally for months despite court orders for their release. Women who can grease the palms of the superintendent are released; others just languish in inhuman conditions. The report concludes that the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) “has neither the heart, will nor sk...
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...ich women are able to manipulate their personal environment through control over material and social resources. At the same time, studies conducted in patriarchal settings of India and Bangladesh have observed that other factors that traditionally conferred power to women, such as the number of sons they bore or the amount of dowry they brought, also protected women from physical violence (Jejeebhoy and Cook 1997; Rao 1997; Schuler et al 1996). While there have been studies that have looked at the links between aspects of women’s empowerment and physical violence, few have looked at their links with women’s experience of forced sex within marriage. Available studies document that while education attainment decreased a woman’s risk of experiencing forced sex, her employment seemed to increase this risk).
Comparison between sexworkers and married women
Conclusion
The book Renting Lacy: A Story of America’s Prostituted Children by Linda Smith addresses the topic of the underground world of child sex trafficking. Unfortunately, it is a topic that has been purposefully neglected in our society for many years. The author presents every chapter with a real story of a sexually exploited child. The stories are intense, powerful but especially touching which makes the reader feel frustrated, desperate, and vexed. After every chapter, Smith tries to include commentaries that presents a deeper understating about human trafficking. It seems that the purpose of her commentaries is to make the reader think deeper about the problem of sex trafficking and accumulate desires to act towards this issue as they continue
Sexual exploitation exploits women and provides a vehicle for racism in a “first world” country like America, where victimization rates are disproportionately higher with “third world” women (O'Connor & Healy, 2007). Goodson is an anti-trafficking activist, is director of international programs for Shared Hope International which is an organization who works with victims of sex trafficking. From her experience, many victims are poor and are sexually abused children and young adults who are swayed by the promises of a better life. Once they reach the United States, the victims are psychologically and physically abused. In the United States, victims of international sex trafficking come primarily from South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa through states such as Florida, California and New York (Goodson, 2006). The U.S. Department of State estimates that about 600,000 to 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked across national borders annually. Furthermore, it is estimated that 17,500 to 20,000 victims are trafficked into the U.S. annually, with Florida receiving a high percentage of those victims. Although the people who enter the United States are often not legally permitted to enter the United States, Lagon asserts that it is important to note the difference between human
Domestic sex trafficking is the vile new innovative business model used in the sex industry to promote prostitution. The myth about sex trafficking is that it is a foreign not a domestic problem. Sex trafficking is a very lucrative business. The “John’s” create a demand and the “pimps” provide the supply. Child abuse, child neglect, pornography, pedophilia and prostitution are all links in the chains that enslaves America’s children for the pleasure of adults.
In order to understand how sex trafficking affects its victims, one must first know the severity of sex trafficking and what it is. The issue of sex trafficking affects 2.5 million people at any given time (Abas et al., 2013). The form of sex slavery affects many women and children across the world. Even though both males and females are sexually trafficked and exploited, there is a deep emphasis on the sexual exploitation of women and children. This is due to gender discrimination (Miller, 2006). This is because women and children are more vulnerable and appeal to the larger populations of brothels and the so-called “clients” since the majority are men. Ecclestone (2013) stated that children as young as age three are trafficked. Sex trafficking has changed over time; “Today, the business of human sex trafficking is much more organized and violent. These women and young girls are sold to traffickers, locked up in rooms or brothels for weeks or months, drugged, terrorized, and raped repeatedly” (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011). It is found that many of the victims of sex trafficking are abducted, recruited, transported and forced into involuntary “sex work”. These sexual acts include prostitution, exotic dancing, pornography, and sexual escort services (McClain & Garrity, 2011). What happens to these sex trafficking victims is extremely traumatizing.
There are a ton of women and young children being trafficked as sex slaves all around the world mostly in areas like Thailand or Central Asia. There are 1.5 million sex slaves today; most of them are in Asia, while the remaining is in Thailand. I am going to analyze the many different people and organizations that hold women from their will by forcing them onto the streets....
In 2000, the United States Congress came together in Washington D.C, to take a stand against sex trafficking. Laws and programs that protected women from violence were implemented, and they...
I chose this research project because it appealed to me. I wanted to know how criminalization’s of sex work or prostitutions were causing structural violence in society. This presentation itself proved to be interesting in the sense that it goes against what my friends and I were thinking. I always thought that criminalizing sex work was a beneficiary for the society because that would stop the flow of HIV as well as other STI’s between sex worker populations. I never realized that it had the opposite the effect, and instead of being a beneficiary, it caused high-risk environments as well as even more ease to find a sex worker. At first, I thought that this research project was going to be about how the “Criminalization of Sex Work” was going to be about how Sex workers stopped working due to the criminalization, however as I came across it, it was the complete opposite and that grabbed my attention and made me curious, and now I completely understand why it was viewed as structural violence. The focus of this research project was to demonstrate to us that the policing of sex work do...
During the eighteenth and nineteenth-century, notions of freedom for Black slaves and White women were distinctively different than they are now. Slavery was a form of exploitation of black slaves, whom through enslavement, lost their humanity and freedom, and were subjected to dehumanizing conditions. African women and men were often mistreated through similar ways, especially when induced to labor, they would eventually become a genderless individual in the sight of the master. Despite being considered “genderless” for labor, female slaves suddenly became women who endured sexual violence. Although a white woman was superior to the slaves, she had little power over the household, and was restricted to perform additional actions without the consent of their husbands. The enslaved women’s notion to conceive freedom was different, yet similar to the way enslaved men and white women conceived freedom. Black women during slavery fought to resist oppression in order to gain their freedom by running away, rebel against the slaveholders, or by slowing down work. Although that didn’t guarantee them absolute freedom from slavery, it helped them preserve the autonomy and a bare minimum of their human rights that otherwise, would’ve been taken away from them. Black
Recently, a horrendous gang rape and murder case in India has caused many people to speak out against sex crimes. A female medical student was beaten with metal rods, raped, and then thrown from a moving bus by four men. In response, many people have called for stricter laws dealing with sexual violence. This has also lead to some focus on the sex trafficking aspect of sexual violence. In an article by the Editorial Board of the New York Times, issues of enforcement were brought to light by explaining that sex trafficking is growing in India because of extreme poverty, “a gender imbalance resulting from sex-selective abortion practices,” and “India’s affluence.” The writers of “Sex Trafficking in India” adequately argue that in order to solve the issue of sex trafficking there needs to be stricter enforcement of existing laws that deal with sex crimes by appealing to their intended audience through statistics, expert testimonies, cause and effect, and descriptive language.
Rights and protections for sex workers includes a variety of goals being pursued by individuals and organizations surrounding the human and labor rights of sex workers. The goals of these policies generally aim to allow sex work and ensure decent treatment from legal and cultural forces on a local and international level for everyone involved in sex work. Sex workers refers to prostitutes, adult video performers, dancers in strip clubs, and others who provide sexually-related services. The back and forth argument over sex work is characterized as an women’s rights issue, especially by those who argue that prostitution is naturally unjust, but there are also males and gender non-binary individuals involved in offering sexual services. The
Sex work has long been criticized and stigmatized in our society. Whereas several members of society read sex work as immoral and degrading to girls, feminist argue that sex work is basically simply work, which it's not essentially harmful to girls. beneath circumstances within which sex work is accepted and controlled in society, within which the sex employee is protected and granted an equivalent rights as the other laborer, sex work has the chance to be helpful to girls.
Since prostitution has been around there have been labels and stigmas behind the workers, their morals and the job itself. Leaving these men and women to be rejected rights, health care, insurance, etc. Weitzer observes, “[i]nstead of viewing themselves as ‘prostituted,’ they may embrace more neutral work identities, such as ‘working women’ or ‘sex workers’ […] These workers are invisible in the discourse of the anti-prostitution crusade precisely because their accounts clash with abolitionist goals.” Weitzer is hinting at the fact that these women and men see themselves as workers too, deserving of workers rights and protection, just as you and I would expect. But they are declined help and benefits because of the stigma following their line of work, based on societal values.
Women's status in India has generally been poor since colonial times. Prithvi Nath Tikoo identifies that, "the treatment of Woman in ancient Indian culture was, however, different. Here the concept of male chauvinism did not start as early as it did in other countries. This sort of mentality took roots in this country (India) years after the Aryans came and settled here" (Tikoo, pg 5). Here it is identified that the maltreatment of...
This essay will explore the question of whether prostitution should be seen as a job like any other through several key issues relating to the sex trade industry. The argument against prostitution as a job for women will be supported by various feminist theories. By following the discourse of prostitution as a chosen profession by women and the implication of the choice in the society, this essay will provide academic findings in answering the key issues in the sex workers profession. This essay will discuss the politics of women’s choice through prostitution and how feminist views have influenced it. The moral aspects of prostitution will be highlighted as well. The relationship of violence and abuse with prostitution is another key findings
For women in India, the last century has marked a great amount of progress, but at times it has been as stubborn as all the centuries before it. Women have been expanding their roles in society, at home, and even politics with female Prime Minster Indira Gandhi. Gender roles are ingrained deeply, however, and that is no more apparent than in the current rape epidemic. Specifically the last 40 years have been some of the most promising for Indian women, but they have also seen an 875% increase in rape cases (Park). The answers to why this is happening, and why it is happening now may open up a much deeper issue. The social climate is changing; a power struggle between genders steadies the quantity of violence against women. Meanwhile, their empowerment to speak out and hold a rapist accountable brings it to the attention of the world. A longstanding injustice that has been occurring right bellow the surface for years may have reached its boiling point.