Marcia White

Professor Friedman
RPOS 433Z
Final Paper
The Legalization of Prostitution Debate
Prostitution is one of the oldest professions in the history of this country yet, there is little
to no discussion about the legalization of prostitution. Most debates are wrapped up in morality,
law, and sexual politics. Other countries have legalized prostitution because of the economic
benefit and have created sex districts which attract tourists from all over the world. Of course,
there is an economical argument; however, this argument often leaves out the women who work
in law, work in sex work activism, and actually do the sex work. Frequently, politicians try to
control womens bodies without asking women how and if their bodies should be governed.
Prostitution is also a big fight within the feminist community because some feminists believe that
sex work is a result of the economic inequality between women and men. They believe that
social and political circumstances have forced women into sex work and that women should be
liberated from sexual slavery. However, there is another feminist argument that claims that
women have the freedom to choose any job including sex work and legalizing sex work would
make it a safer profession. This debate is something that is new to American politics but has
previously never been taken seriously. It is time that we look at the three sides to the argument
that are often forgotten, the female lawmakers, the social justice fighters, and the actual sex
workers who fight for the legalization of their profession.
First, we must look at why prostitution is illegal in the first place. In this paper,
prostitution will be defined as any sexual service in exchange for money. As previously mention,
other countries have decided to profit off of womens bodies and this kind of business has

received both positive and negative backlash. Although America claims not to have one national
religion, Christianity and morality are strong contenders for why prostitution is illegal in
America. Deborah Stone argues that we have morality politics that are based on an ideology and
is used as a vehicle for a moral cause (Altnik and Wagenaar 283). She argues that morality
politics are usually backed by a large organization that has an agenda against a certain cause.
Often there are two sides to this debate: the conservative side and the feminist side. Stone states
that another characteristic of morality politics is the way both pro and anti-prostitution
organizations twist facts and pay little attention to the data (Altnik and Wagenaar 285). The
organizations that argue against the legalization of prostitution believe that prostitution is
immoral, encourages adultery and child prostitution, and spreads diseases (Altnik and Wagenarr).
However, pro prostitution organizations may argue that legalizing sex work gives sex workers
more political rights and it also can make prostitution safer because sex workers see no justice
when they are abused because of their profession.
Still, we are forgetting to include the two groups that are affected by this debate the most:
sex workers and female law makers. Female law makers have a double interest in this argument
because as women politicians, they represent women as a group. Support from female politicians
in this debate would be powerful in legalizing prostitution but lack of support can equally affect
the legalization process as well. There are already feminist organizations who support the
legalization of sex work because they see the benefit. However, many scholars leave out the law
perspective from the law makers because this debate is not as popular as abortion. Recently three
female lawmakers, Reps. Amanda Bouldin (D-Hillsborough), Carole McGuire (R-Merrimack),
and Elizabeth Edwards (D-Hillsborough), in New Hampshires House of Representatives have
introduced a bipartisan bill to decriminalize prostitution and sex work (Brown 2016). The bill

reads, This bill legalizes consensual sex between consenting adults and makes any solicitation
of sexual contact involving a person under 18 years of age or through the use of force or
intimidation a felony (HB614, 2016). Rep. Edwards made a point to say that this law would
make prostitution legal for consenting adults over 18 which would combat child prostitution and
perhaps statutory rape. The three women introduced the bill as a response to Amnesty
Internationals August 2015 recommendation that governments should legalize prostitution
(Brown).
The legalization of prostitution and sex work seems like a very liberal policy to enact;
however, one of the legislators who put forth the bill is a Republican. Often, Republican women
have very conservative views on morality and sex. Carole McGuires voting record shows that
she has voted conservatively on womens issues; for example, in January 2016 she voted to
investigate and defund Planned Parenthood (New Hampshire Bill Record). Although Planned
Parenthood does provide sex workers with condoms and other forms of birth control, she decided
to vote to defund this project. Her voting record shows that she is vehemently against abortion
but still joined this bill to support the decriminalization of sex work. So female law makers in
this situation are not supporting their bills by their party affiliation. Scholars usually argue that
politicians strictly vote along their party affiliation and that Republicans will almost always vote
conservatively. However, Carole McGuire has put aside her party to vote for this innovative bill
to decriminalize sex work and prostitution.
This bill is an active response to repair the bridge between politicians and their
constituents. Rep. Elizabeth Edwards stated that We expect passage of this bill to result in
reduced violence against women, reduced spread of sexually transmitted infections and an
increase of cooperative relationships between sex workers and police including access to the

justice system for people who have not had access to our institutions (New Hampshire
May...). There is a desire to increase the access that sex workers have to institutions that could
possibly help them receive services. Although this bill is largely supported by organizations who
are pro sex work, it has caused an upheaval in New Hampshires House of Representative, .
House Majority Leader Dick Hinch [said] strong efforts will be made to be sure the bill doesn't
pass because society is just not ready for that We're going to put a full court press in from
the leadership standpoint to make sure that (the bill) doesn't have a lot of daylight to it
(Shaughnessy 2016). New Hampshire legislators still have not finished voting on this
comprehensive bill but if it would pass it could be used in different states to decriminalize
prostitution. We must look at this bill as an example of women using their influence to change
the lives of lay women on the ground. Female lawmakers use their personal experience as
women and their knowledge of specific gendered problems as the basis for which policies they
may or may not support. Even if the gendered issues is as controversial as legalizing sex work,
powerful women are determined to make change for the other women on the ground.
Besides female lawmakers, there are organizations and groups doing social justice work
around this issue. Often the argument that feminist organizations use is that legalizing sex work
would allow female sex workers to profit off their business, but it would also make sex work
much safer than it is now. According to Joyce Outshoorn, feminism has shown different attitudes
towards prostitution and sex work. In the first wave of feminism, feminists wanted to get rid of
brothels all together so the prostitute could be saved and often feminist organizations were tied
to religious organizations (Outshoorn 145). In the second wave of feminism, feminists wanted to
free women from sexual slavery and oppression or white slavery otherwise known as sex
trafficking (Outshoorn 145). Feminism has always viewed fighting prostitution as apart of their

liberation movement and is now working around freeing sex workers from their economic
enslavement and sexual violence. Outshoorn argues that social justice work is often focused on
changing the consequences of sex work from the law and not working on what causes women to
go into sex work (146). She states that now feminist organizations do not see prostitution as the
problem but how the act is carried out, Prostitution itself is therefore not the problem, but the
context within which women engage in prostitutionsuch as forced prostitution and trafficking,
as well as the often bad conditions under which the work is doneis problematic (Outshoorn
146). This also forces lawmakers to look at the way their policies will affect sex workers on the
ground and take suggestions from organizations like Amnesty International.
However, there is a split within feminism because some feminists feel that
decriminalizing sex work would not really change the negative circumstance that sex workers
often face. Liberto focuses on combating the part of feminism that does not see any changes even
after the decriminalization of prostitution and sex work. Some feminists believe that it is not
enough to change the law and that they need to work on the image of sex workers, If the law
were to treat the sex trade as it treats any other trade, then the stigma associated with being a
prostitute would eventually wear thin. Once prostitution loses its stigma, it will be easier to
regulate it and to protect prostitutes (Liberto 140). Scot Anderson argues that legalizing
prostitution could create further problems like People could write enforceable contracts that
include sexual services. Courts would be required to uphold them and Sex workers might have
to adhere to non-discrimination standards when taking on clients (Liberto 140). Most feminist
organizations preach that legalizing sex work has much to do with freedom of choice and giving
agency to people who do not have much agency in the law. Anderson states that the prohibiting

sex work actually improves sexual autonomy because it forces sex workers to keep their personal
lives from their work lives (Liberto 141).
Liberto begins to combat these ideas by arguing that sex workers and businesses do not
have to enter into agreement with each other (143). She addresses Andersons claim that this
could potentially make corporations pimps by stating that this could only happen if society
normalizes and legalizes the alienation of sexual rights for sex workers (143). This a situation
where you must weigh the option of which is better giving sex workers the choice of selling
themselves to corporations or taking away all sexual rights in order to protect them from one
potential issue. Anderson is making somewhat of a moral argument in that his concern is that
contracts will permit sex workers from opting out of certain sexual acts because of the courts.
(146). However, Liberto points out that presently sex workers do not have a choice to opt of sex
work and are even less protected, but also that sex workers often do not opt out because sex work
is necessary for their survival; she argues it is how they make their living (146). Realistically, we
do not live in a perfect world and even if prostitution becomes legal there will always be those
who choose to engage in sex work illegally. There are economic benefits to legalizing
prostitution as well because sex work might be something that insurance companies may cover
and sex workers would finally have a taxable income. There will always be people that want to
cheat the system and sex trafficking may decrease but not enough to stop the market completely.
The focus of decriminalizing sex work should be on the sex workers themselves and creating
more protection of their rights. First we must understand that they have political, social, and
economic rights that deserve protection and that is more important than focusing on the negative
backlash that could occur because of the decriminalization.

There are many actors and voices in this conversation but the loudest voice that often gets
ignored is that of sex workers and their allies. There is a large disconnect between the lawmakers
and the people who will be affected by these laws. Often, lawmakers create policies that they
think help a group of people without asking that group what laws would improve their situation.
According to Crystal Jackson, politicians and lawmakers have started to create more protection
policies and focus on saving sex workers than asking sex workers what policies they would like
implemented (28). Lawmakers are forgetting about the basic rights and access to health care that
would also greatly improve sex workers lives. The reason for this may be because lawmakers
have a stereotypical and uneducated idea of what sex work actually entails; they may view sex
work strictly as dirty and undercover work. It is problematic that politicians often choose to
ignore the policies that sex workers want and focus on what they think would better improve the
situation. Even though many theorists claim that law is more focused on protecting sex workers,
we must also recognize that legalizing prostitution decreases crime statistics and makes it seem
as though government is eliminating the economic inequalities women may face.
Decriminalizing sex work still does not change the reason why women go into sex work in the
first place, especially for young girls who feel this is their only option. Allies and sex worker
activists have a unique outlook on the situation because they are the ones who do the social
justice footwork on the ground.
Because law makers have actively forgotten to include sex workers and their allies in this
conversation, sex workers have begun to organize in order to be heard and taken more seriously.
Jackson points out that the legalization of sex work in other countries in Europe and in Canada
was mostly a sex worker effort and sex workers organized themselves politically in order to be
heard by their lawmakers (29). Jackson argues that most law makers think that sex workers are

happy with their circumstances and have no input on how to improve their situation (29). There
are serious issues that come along with being a sex worker that law makers are ignoring, sex
worker activist efforts have attempted to draw attention to how sex workers suffer
disproportionate violence and discrimination, which in turn has effects on their education, social
mobility, occupational opportunities, quality of life and health (Jackson 29). It is possible that
many lawmakers do not include their opinion because they assume sex workers are uneducated
and do not understand the way that policy works in the U.S. which in turn causes their policies to
be very one sided and ineffective.
In the last few years, law makers and social activists have focused more on protecting
victims of sex trafficking and trying to capture people who exploit young girls for sex which has
increased the arrest of sex workers. Jackson states that feminism is contributing to this problem
through, carceral feminism [which] focuses on promoting regulations that empower
criminal justice and their related social service institutions by further criminalizing third parties
involved in prostitution as well as increasing surveillance f already criminalized prostitutes
(30). She introduces a new type of policy called end demand that focuses on criminalizing
those who sell sex and those who buy sex in order to end the demand for sex work (Jackson 30).
This increases legal action against sex workers is problematic because its primary focus is to
discourage sex workers and their clients to abstain from the activity. Again, this solution does not
provide sex workers with social services or programs that could help them seek other
employment option; it recognizes that there is a problem without fixing the source of that
problem. Frequently, sex worker activists frame sex work through sex trafficking and assume
that most women are forced into this work so they support policies to stop sex trafficking without
separating the two forms of sex work (Jackson 31). Instead of these policies helping sex workers

connect with social programs and institutions that can help them, it makes them scared to come
forward.
Unlike many of the scholars and critics in this discussion, Crystal Jackson actually
interviews sex work activists who are either former sex workers or current sex workers for
analysis of how the law affects them. She goes to the 2010 conference, titled Working Sex:
Power, Practice, and Politics, in Las Vegas, Nevada which is held by the Desiree Alliance, a sex
workers activist group that formed after a conference in 2006. In her results she finds what this
paper has already concluded: sex worker activists are resistant to protection policies because they
do not see themselves as victims who need saving (Jackson 31). For example, one woman who
aids sex workers stated that everybody wants to paint all sex workers and anybody that does
prostitution with a broad brush, saying theyre victimized, they dont know, theyre poor women
who dont know any better. Its deeply troubling (Jackson 33). Another interviewee stated that
she would want law to work on their working conditions and the implication of criminalization
on their lives (Jackson 33). Some of the other activists that Jackson interviewed expressed the
same frustration that sex workers always seen as victims who need saving from this terrible
industry without really asking what sex work involves (Jackson 35). There is also this push back
that many sex work activists recognize which is a whore stigma. Many of them argued that
society constructs women who willingly do sex work to earn money rather take up a respectable
job as whores (Jackson 36). One activists goes as far to say that most sex workers are antitrafficking because they promote choice and agency; the activists argues that sex trafficking and
sex work are two different things (Jackson 37).

Sex workers and their allies are actively working to have their voices heard in a number
of ways but there are barriers that law does not recognize. Jackson interviews one woman that
says that she was forced to join one of the largest organizations when she wanted to create her
own organization but did not have resources or support to start one (38). This woman says that
the large sex trafficking organization has decided to outsource their information on sex work and
has started to rally against sex trafficking. Nonetheless, sex workers and their activists have
begun to combat the stigma and stereotypes about sex work by passing out educational
information to social service program. Jackson highlights two organizations, Red Umbrella
Project in New York City and Different Avenues in D.C, because they both focused on fighting
myths around sex work and the risks that laws like anti-prostitution create for sex workers (39).
Sex workers are also combating their own stereotypes by providing definitions and terms to
educate people so they can begin to have this conversation. Instead of waiting for lawmakers to
understand sex work and ask sex workers to join the conversation, sex workers are being
proactive by injecting themselves in the conversation. Theyve created groups and begun to
create their own resources when the larger organizations would not pay attention to them.
The legalization of prostitution statewide in America seems like a faraway idea but New
Hampshire is not the first state to have proposed this bill. Nevada has legalized prostitution in
some areas since 1971 and since then been the capital of sex work in America. Many people
know Nevada for Las Vegas or Sin City as many affectionately call it so it no surprise that
Nevada legislatures would be the first in the U.S to legalize prostitution and sex work in their
state constitution. However, the Nevada laws are not looking at prostitution through a rights
based policy and more of a protection policy. The laws forbid prostitution or brothels to occur
near respectable neighborhoods where schools or playgrounds are located; the law prohibits sex

trafficking and the creation of pimps (Brent and Hausebeck 276). Nevada has also taken great
measure to make sure all the women in the brothels are free of STDs and STIs by testing them
regularly especially after the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s (Brent and Hausebeck 276). So there
are secure safety measures that lawmakers thought about to ensure the safety of any woman or
man who enters a brothel as a sex worker or customer.
However, there has not been much discussion on what the brothels look like after the
legalization of prostitution and sex work in Nevada. Brent and Hausebeck toured some of the
brothels and discovered that many of the regulations are put in place by the brothel owners
themselves; they are concerned about the success of their business but also, the wellness of their
employees (277). Brothel owners are really focused on the overall health of its employees
because it relates the success of the establishment; they cannot have an overwhelming amount of
violence or they lose employees (Brent and Hausebeck 277). This counteracts Andersons
previous notion that workers would be forced to do certain acts and that businesses would run
sex workers like pimps. In Brent and Hausebecks analysis, these sex workers run as independent
agents and advocate for themselves; the brothel owners are really dependent on them to continue
their business so they must adhere to their employees demand. They discover that during the
negotiation for prices of the sex work, brothel house managers often listen in so that they can
collect their 10% which is a practice to ensure that sex workers do contribute their share to the
business (Brent and Hausebeck 278). There is also a level of safety that the brothels try to ensure
by putting a panic button in the room so that if a sex worker is ever in danger, they can press that
button and help will shortly be on its way (Brent and Hausebeck 279). This plan again protects
sex workers in the smallest of ways and runs itself the way a business should putting employees
and customers wellness first, and economics second.

Business Insider also took a look at the inside of a brothel in 2013. Dylan Love went to
Sheris Ranch and interviewed many of the women on their experience as brothel workers. Love
states that women who work at Sheris Ranch must licensed as independent contractors which is
a positive because they can acts as their own advocates (Love 2015). Loves interview focuses on
three women who all work at Sheris Ranch; the three women lead different lives: one has a
boyfriend, one moved to Nevada to avoid the consequences of illegal sex work, and one is a
mother and wife. This breaks the stereotype that women in sex work are dirty women without
families and need saving; most of the women have families and work at the brothel to make
money for their family. Love states that, Girls at the Ranch work one "tour" at a time, a
contractual stay at the Ranch that can last five days on the short end and up to two weeks or
longer. When they're on the clock, the girls work 12-hour shifts, either 5 AM to 5 PM or vice
versa (2015). So there are strict regulation rules to how much the girls work but also these
women get weekly sexual health checkups and are required to use a condom. It is obvious that
the safety and wellness of the business is overall a primary concern and none of the women that
Love interviewed seemed to hate their job
Overall, it seems that the myths and notions that anti-prostitution activists have around
sex work and legalized prostitution dont really exist in this situation. However, Sheris Ranch is
a unique business and neither Love nor Brent and Hausebeck discuss what legalization looks
outside the brothel. It make sense that not every sex worker works in a brothel so it would also
be important to look at the way the laws affect them as well. Nonetheless, both Love and Brent
and Hausebeck present evidence that is highly in favor of the New Hampshire bill and the fight
for legalization of prostitution in California as well. Although protection policy is somewhat
flawed, it seems that capitalism and sex work actually do less harm than Anderson may have

presumed. It seems that the legalization of sex work is something that is a potential positive for
sex workers especially if done through brothels.
In the beginning of this debate, the legalization and decriminalization of prostitution
seemed like a myth. America is so rooted in morality and religion that the legalization of
prostitution in New Hampshire is still a bill on the table and has not even been voted on. This
debate has split the feminist movement and has brought out a range of activists. It is obvious
from this paper that the legalization of prostitution will most likely not happen for some time but
Nevada is a perfect example of how sex work can fit into our society. As someone who identifies
as a feminist, I see the benefits and the problems that come with legalizing prostitution. I
understand that sex work is something should be protected just as any other form of employment
but I also understand that not every sex worker can be as lucky to work in a protected brothel. It
is important to look past the stigma of prostitution and look the legal benefits that this can have
more women overall. There is a beautiful sisterhood that forms when women in power band
together to help each other fight gender inequality and sexual violence. The three women who
introduced the New Hampshire bill represent a unique type of female lawmakers that understand
that they can influence politics in a way that favors women on the ground. It seems as though
this legal debate will continue for a maybe over a decade but the more and more we try to
understand how this affects sex workers the closer we move to finding a solution to this problem.
The problem is not that sex work exists but that we do not count sex work as work which leaves
those women vulnerable to social inequalities and violence. In conclusion, there must be a push
to change the conditions in which all women live in hopes that women who choose to be sex
workers have the freedom to choose to make their living another way.

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