A girl walks by me while I was standing at the bus stop waiting for the next bus to arrive. There was something strikingly peculiar about her. She wasn’t any girl from next door. The way she was dressed up, was provoking enough for any man to turn heads. It seemed as if her body was screaming, paint me red. It didn’t take me long to identify that she was one of those unfortunate ladies of the night. I could use all kinds of bad words describing her, but I want to refrain from it.
How unfortunate she could be that she resorted to these means? Or are these means really used by those who are unfortunate? That’s was precisely the topic of debate, 3 years back, when I came up with a paper on anti-prostitution. The underlying idea that I had built in was that it was exploitation of women that we must stop in the form of prostitution. Prostitution in it self is not evil. It is like any other job. Every thing boils down to how lowly or how pristine you think sex is? If sex is really an ordinary thing then there is no problem with using it as means of earning money. However a lot of us think very lowly about sex. We think it is something even worse than the job of a sweeper. But still lots of people think that this job should be banned! We are totally confused, since if we go by this logic tomorrow we will have to justify the job of a peddler. All kind of relationships that involve exchange of money for services should be justified.
See, human beings have a survival instinct. And the society we have developed, here every one has to earn their bread. Different people use different means to do that, but on moral grounds they are justified.
Some people might argue that prostitutes are forced into this kind of business. Then I would say I was forced to become an engineer. We are actually slaves of the situation that society presents us with. We are slaves of the environment engulfing us.
Problem is not at the front of morality of prostitution as an occupation, but from the point of view of the extent of exploitation that is involved in it. I would say exploitation is present in all kind of jobs. The jobs where least exploitation happens are the high end jobs. Surely prostitution qualifies as a low end job. Doesn’t necessarily mean that we eliminate them on the basis of their being low end jobs, since, they surely are means of livelihood for someone.
If someone asks me would you like it to see your own daughter or may be your own mother working as a hooker? I would say yes. Given no other option for bread they might have to resort to this. Sex as livelihood would never be the first choice. It’s asking oneself this question. Would you like to see your daughter as a sweeper? No man, I would want her to become a doctor, may be a scientist, because I believe that these are jobs which require intellect and they from psychology point of view are healthier than the job of a sweeper or a prostitute. Choice of jobs at times is not in your hands. That’s what happens with people doing low end jobs. Who wants to do something that offers lesser returns, but nevertheless it is a JOB.
Crux, here is that the job of prostitute is morally correct, but may be a low end job. We should not hate them for doing that job. No one has the right to look down upon anyone who is at least self-reliant.
