Prostitution exists because inequality exists. At the same time, prostitution embeds into society the very inequality it feeds on; thus perpetuating the subordination of women. For prostitution to exist as a monetary exchange, women must be commodified as products in the stream of commerce. In commercial terms, I have a problem with both supply too many women live in poverty and demand too many men believe they have a right to sexual access.
Both facts require that women be subordinate. That is why the radical feminist position on prostitution is abolition. Abolition is the only way to address the root cause of prostitution i. We must both improve the lives of women around the world so that they can truly exercise choice and independence and teach men to understand that sexual access is not a right.
In an ideal world, where everyone has equal power to negotiate, people could work out their desires and needs themselves. But no such world exists. No country in the world has ensured equality for all its citizens, especially women and minorities. Therefore, it remains the task of societal and governmental institutions to put into place structures that ameliorate and ultimately prevent that imbalance in power.
Of these individuals, seventy percent are women. The answer to the poverty of women cannot be prostitution but must be the fair distribution of power and resources. Maintaining prostitution as the last refuge for poverty stricken women is exploitation and cannot lead to gender equality.
Prostitution is also often the gateway for entry into sex trafficking. Human rights or liberties never exist in a vacuum. We do not live on an island; no right is absolute. Just like the movements that named domestic abuse, marital rape, child abuse, sexual harassment and date rape for what they are β violence against women β we must likewise name prostitution as violence. The radical feminist stance against prostitution is based on the lived realities of women, something often missing in the pro-prostitution narrative.
