Sex Work Paradigms

As the debate continued, the sex work paradigm developed which proposed that if prostitution was regarded by government and society as a form of work, this could be used to win extended rights and to improve the working environment for sex workers (Weitzer, 2007). Although we have seen the sex work paradigm in practice in countries such as New Zealand, Australia as well as regions and states like Holland and Nevada, it has not replaced the deviant behaviour framework, and we still can see the attitudes associated with the framework apparent in society today as sex work is continued to be judged as deviant behaviour committed predominantly by women. As recently as last year, anti-prostitution protests were organised to interrupt a Coldplay concert

The most popular opinion is the view that prostitution is the epitome of the female state under the firm thumb of the patriarchy (Scoular, 2004). As much as it has been argued that many prostitutes are empowered by the choice to sell their services as sex workers, it is important to acknowledge that the “highly gendered nature” (Scoular, 2004, p. 348) of the sex industry creates an environment for male domination and could be considered to be “the absolute embodiment of patriarchal male privilege” (p. 219). Moreover, the gender oppression model agrees that prostitution fundamentally involves male domination over women in the sex work industry (Weitzer, 2007). For example, the physical and psychological abuse endured by female prostitutes in both street-based and indoor industries by predominantly male managers and customers is ubiquitous, and has been said to be “ineradicable” (Weitzer, 2007, p. 143). However, while it would be incorrect to assume that mistreatment in prostitution in minor, it is important to understand that it is not present in all sex work. There is variation across global location and the type of sex work showing that prostitution cannot be generalised and reduced to be the embodiment of gender oppression

For example, the demographic of the customers of the sex industries are predominantly men who use “both women and girls, men and boys” in the prostitution industry making it difficult to explain and understand why the trade should be a legitimate form of work if there are not similar brothels “full of men and boys for women to use” (Jeffreys, 2003, pp. 232, 233). Similarly, the lack of often demeaning and graphic pornography in which men take on the role of women in extreme sexual films reinforces the idea of an unequal, and patriarchal industry focused on the sexualization of women (Jeffreys, 2003). The stigmatization of particularly female prostitutes as displaying ‘deviant’ behavior by choosing to operate as a prostitute is further reinforced by the narratives surrounding male prostitutes. For example, in an article on the BBC about male sex work in London, male prostitute Josh Brandon was interviewed about when he won ‘Male Sex Worker of the Year’ and how he was congratulated by his family and friends, with his dad sharing that he was extremely proud of his son’s accomplishment (Azhar, 2014). This is just one example of the many male prostitutes being offered editorials in major publications to talk about prostitution due to the intrigue and mystery surrounding