The Problem of Sexual Accessibility and Prostitution

Sex workers have been around for a long time and always been looked down upon. Many people have disagreements on prostitution but they all are around the same reasonings: immortality. Beside the questionable moral aspect of prostitution, there are many benefits to legalizing sex workers. People tend to forget that along with other things that were against the law that became legal, the government changes it to become safer. Sex workers must be legalized to move us closer to a safer community. Thinking of sex workers, many people forget sex is inevitable, so it’ll always exist and sex will always sell. “They found sexual imagery in 20 percent of the ads. Using sex to sell everything from alcohol to banking services has increased over the years: 15 percent of ads studied used sex as a selling point in 1983. That percentage grew to 27 percent in 2003.” (Mulvey 6) These statistics will only grow more. This demonstrates that many industries sexualize their company, and it helps them get more exposure and clientele. Although I would agree that I wouldn’t want children having access to learning about these things at such young ages, I would also agree that it’s always going to happen one way or another. Children are exposed to the “sex talk” earlier and earlier as time goes on. Children movies and shows often throw in humorous sexual jokes which is made to entertain adults, but they all soon catch on. They will always be exposed to the thought of sex, it is up to them and their parent/guardian. In countries such as New Zealand, Netherlands, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, and many others that prostitution is legalized, crime rates insanely decrease. This is possible because many places such as Dutch, supply an extra monitoring system so that the sex workers can feel safer in their work of place. Tippelzones are made to help sex workers do their job without coming across issues that would occur in a place where it is illegal. According to the HuffPost, “In cities that licensed the prostitutes permitted to work in these tippelzones, rapes and sexual abuse dropped by as much as 40 percent, while the reductions in sexual violence were slightly lower in zones that did not enforce the licensing of sex workers.” Prostitutes are looked upon as worthless, as if no one would care if they’re gone. This is one of the main reasons they are the most targeted by rapists and killers. “A study of San Francisco prostitutes found that 82% had been assaulted and 68% had been raped while working as prostitutes. Another study of prostitutes in Colorado Springs found they were 18 times more likely to be murdered than non-prostitutes their age and race.”(Fuchs 5) This is because they are easy to access, not protected, and frowned upon by the people and government. As ACLU stated about sex workers, “they are vulnerable because they often work in jobs that are hidden from the public view and unregulated by the government.” Criminals know that the abduction of a prostitute would not be as important to law enforcement as it would be for a person of a legal job. “According to criminologist Kenna Quinet of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, as many as one-third of repeat killers have included prostitutes among their prey.” (Alan Fox 3) Crimes against sex workers aren’t taken as seriously as if it were people of another occupation. If a sex worker is raped, they have little to no hope for being able to press charges against their attacker because of their lack of protection from the government. They are still people who are trying to make a living to survive. If prostitution was legalized, it could help protect our sex workers from these horrific incidents. The decriminalization would lead to more job opportunities and have people less afraid of being a part of this occupation. The unemployment rate is only increasing so the more job opportunities there are, the more it will not only help our citizens but out country as well. But, I would concur that I wouldn’t want it being promoted as something to live up to be for children. There are so many men and women who have no jobs or opportunities open for them that they would prefer to turn to sex working to support themselves. If they see nothing wrong with it why should others? America has an unemployment rate at almost 12 million and is in debt of more than $21 trillion. According to the Havocscope, the revenue total worldwide of prostitution is currently at $186 billion. These statistics are including the places of it being illegal so the prices will go up more when people won’t look at it as a crime anymore. The legalization of sex workers would help our economy as a whole. As I have mentioned before, when illegal things become decriminalized, the government modifies it to be safe for our communities. Sex workers are often at high risk of HIV because of the lack of use in condoms with clients, lack of checkups, and sharing of needles for drugs. The countries that allow sex workers to work try to prevent these things from continuing or spreading. They make sure sex workers have checkups at the clinic, use condoms with clients, and don’t engage in drugs. “The study found low levels of risk practices for prostitutes working in legal brothels in Victoria.” (Haste et al.) Legal brothels take care of their workers like any other occupation would do for their workers.

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