Prostitution is not a free choice for women

The feminist goal is abolition of prostitution—not acceptance of it and mere defence of ‘sex workers’.

https://www.socialeurope.eu/prostitution-is-not-a-free-choice-for-women


Prostitution has steadily grown in Germany in the two decades since legalisation

Prostitution is not about choice but exploitation, need and trafficking. It is not a job like any other. Nor does its longevity render it ‘natural’. The ‘oldest trade’ is not sustained in formally egalitarian societies that pursue substantive equality; rather, it constitutes a school of inequality for all. That is why the European Parliament adopted this month, by a clear majority, a report (the socialist MEP Maria Noichl was rapporteur) calling on the European Commission and the Council of the EU to act on prostitution, as clearly contrary to the fundamental values of the European Union. The report opts for a ‘Nordic’ or equality model; amendments misusing that label to advocate the decriminalisation of those who engage in prostitution fell.


Intersecting inequalities

The report argues that prostitution, which feeds on the lucrative business of pimps and trafficking networks, is one of the most extreme manifestations of the inequalities which intersect in the exploitation of women’s bodies and lives—exploitation which continues to grow within Europe’s borders, where most countries regulate or tolerate prostitution. This though article 2 of the Treaty on European Union affirms that the union is founded on the values of human dignity, equality and respect for human rights (including the rights of persons belonging to minorities), non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men.

That article also talks about respect for freedom. But freedom can only be guaranteed if one has a choice—something that does not exist for most women driven into prostitution. Most are victims of trafficking from impoverished or chaotic states or come from milieux of exclusion; their supply increases in times of economic crisis. In 2022, the European Parliament gave its opinion on the link between women’s poverty and the rise in prostitution, in a non-legislative initiative on women’s poverty in Europe (for which I was rapporteur). ‘Freedom’ is the language of associations and individuals critical of the abolitionist stance of the report the parliament has just adopted. Their arguments appeal to women’s autonomy over their bodies and associated empowerment, equating prostitution with sexual and reproductive rights. This, however, mangles words and principles: what free choice, what autonomy, exists when one has no real options?

Power and exploitation

In most cases we are not even talking about the myth of ‘free choice’, albeit stemming from extreme need, at all—but coercion by families who sell girls into the international trafficking and extortion networks that feed the brothels of rich countries. In this context, to speak of autonomy is to legitimise relations of power and exploitation towards women. Beyond that, the myth of free choice works by implying that everyone has the same range of possibilities, among which to choose. But this requires minimal material preconditions, so that the ‘choice’ is not between prostitution and destitution.

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