Prostitution is exploitative

They say prostitution is a matter of choice, but tell that to the woman who was forced into it by her parents, tell that to the child who was abandoned and needed food to eat, tell that to the young girl that nobody loved and they would ask you where did the matter of choice really come in?

Women become involved in prostitution for a variety of reasons such as homelessness, child sexual abuse, mental ill health, trauma, previous sexual violence, drug and alcohol misuse, money pressures and poverty.

These factors, which serve to lead or force women into prostitution, should not be mistaken for the cause of prostitution itself, which is the demand from men to buy sex.

If men were not prepared to buy sex, then prostitution would not work as a survival behaviour.

Psychologists found that men who pay for sex have less empathy for women trapped in prostitution than those who do not pay for sex. They claim to have found parallels in the attitudes of men who use prostitutes and those who at risk of committing sexual offences.

Once the factors behind women's involvement in prostitution are understood it makes no sense to label prostitution as work or legitimate employment, to do so would legitimise exploitation.

Despite chauvinistic belief spurred by male ignorance, women do not want to be treated like objects, they do not wanted to be sold, used, controlled or degraded.

What human being doesn't want love, respect and dignity? Is it really possible to divorce oneself from their body and to feel nothing at all? The choice here is between running into a brick wall or equally hard place.

We do not view prostitution as a choice for women, irrespective of age, and believe that it is contradictory to condemn child prostitution whilst condoning or ignoring adult prostitution. Neither should we recognise the false distinctions between forced and so-called ‘free' prostitution.

 All prostitution is exploitative of the person prostituted, regardless of the context, or whether that person is said to have consented to the act.

Yes you may claim that, woman have a right to do what they want with their bodies, we live in a generation where male domination is almost diminished, so why would a woman want the privilege of being in control of their physical self, just to throw it away in the name of money?

We need services that assist victims who are suffering from trauma, poor health, and physical injuries. States need to provide assistance to women and girls in the form of shelters and advocates. Prostitution is too ugly a world for a beautiful woman to want to be in, it is a daily series of force, beating, threats and abuse.

The arguments for legalisation relate to fools comfort, makes money for men and women involved in running escort agencies and brothels and for the state through supposed taxation but it does not improve the situation of prostituted women and children.

Some people take the view that it is naïve or unrealistic to aim to end prostitution as they sometimes call it the "oldest profession". In fact slavery is older and it can be argued that prostitution originally stemmed from slavery.

Many people said that it would be impossible to end slavery but we now have a situation where slavery is illegal throughout the world. Although people are still living in conditions of slavery, this is no longer legal slavery and there are rights and legal protection, which can be applied to the situation. The same can happen with prostitution

The hazards associated with prostitution include risk of pregnancy, high abortion rate, HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual assault, abduction, rape and murder. These would not disappear if prostitution were legalised.

We live in a completely interdependent world, which simply means we cannot escape each other. How we respond to such sensitive issues, in part, on whether we understand this interdependence, it is not someone else's problem. This is everybody's problem.

Clive Chiridza is motivational speaker and social commentator and can be reached at chiridzac@gmail.com or www.introspectioninsights.com