Sex Workers Are Dehumanized

Thinking back to video games and media, who are the people most appropriate to kill besides the enemy? Prostitutes. In video games such as Grand Theft Auto, picking up and killing prostitute are seen as cool and essential parts of this popular series. Keep in mind teens are playing this and being exposed to the viewing prostitutes as easy targets at a very young age. If a video game says its okay to treat prostitutes like vermin, then it would reflect in real life and vice-versa. The whore stigma is a never ending cycle, and it is dangerous. Sex workers are dehumanized to the extent of being acceptable targets, where “ 82% had been assaulted and 68% had been raped while working as prostitutes.” In another Colorado case study, prostitutes are 18

When one compares a woman who chooses to sell her body versus a man who is violent on the sex workers, less disgust is view upon the man than the woman who “saw it coming.” In 2013, Texas man shot a prostitute for refusing to have sex with him, but was cleared of murder because he was “deprived of property.” (NY Daily News) It was justified by the court that the murder of the sex worker, who technically is not protected by the law, was justified because she is property. Many objectify prostitutes, but not enough, not even the law, condemns those contributes the sex trade just as much and those who enact violence on the workers. Sex is a two-way street after all, yet it seems that only women are ashamed and loathed for selling their bodies even though men have to buy in order for them to sell. About 15 percent of American men have ordered an escort- a portion of clients are married men. So who is the bad guy here? The man unfaithful to his wife, or the worker who was providing service to a consenting adult? The sex worker did not coerce him; in fact, he must pay her in order for the service to be done. Yet, society will view the woman as despicable rather than the

This is a stigma that is not only persistent in America, but almost everywhere in the world prostitution is seen as a subordinate career, even in Canada where most ideas are accepted. Prostitution should be made legal as it would construct the norm of its presence in society, just how alcohol and pornography have. It will also protect the women who work in it. On the long term benefits, there will be less rape, less transmission of diseases, and more tax revenue if prostitution is