Menu

Argument: Legal prostitution fosters a culture of woman-hating and rape

Issue Report: Prostitution

Support

  • Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW). “Frequently Asked Questions About Prostitution”. Mar. 8, 2007 – “…[I]n cases of gang rape by sportsmen in Australia in 2004, it has become clear that the use of prostituted women and strip clubs is integral to the womanhating and male bonding which led to the sexual violence. The argument also suggests that women who are not prostituted are safer because some other women are set aside to be commercially raped on their behalf. Women’s equality requires that all women should be free from sexual exploitation. Prostitution cannot eliminate rape when it is itself bought rape. The connection between rape and prostitution is that women are turned into objects for men’s sexual use; they can be either bought or stolen. A culture in which women can be bought for use is one in which rape flourishes[.]”[1]
  • Melissa Farley, Ph.D., Founding Director of the Prostitution Research and Education. “Bad for the Body, Bad for the Heart”. Violence Against Women. Oct. 2004 – “Legal sex businesses provide locations where sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and violence against women are perpetrated with impunity. State-sponsored prostitution endangers all women and children in that acts of sexual predation are normalized…”[2]