Introduction
The United States is a heteronormative and patriarchal society. From the time the country was founded, prostitution has been criminalized because of the perceived costs of legalizing it. The laws that criminalize prostitution are predicated on the idea that if it were legalized, it would corrupt the morals of women and destroy the American family. The argument for the wholesale decriminalization of prostitution is underpinned by the idea that people own their bodies because humans are morally autonomous beings. For proponents of decriminalizing prostitution, their capitalistic attitude is first revealed by the claim that having a law that limits the sexual autonomy of morally autonomous adults is bad law because it violates their right to liberty. Second, their capitalistic attitude is revealed that criminalizing prostitution violates the property rights all people have in themselves (and sexual organs) in an unreasonable way.
What are similarities & differences among voices sex workers, businessmen, activists, policymakers regarding legalizing sex work?
The United States is a heteronormative and patriarchal society. From the time the country was founded, prostitution has been criminalized because of the perceived costs of legalizing it. The laws that criminalize prostitution are predicated on the idea that if it were legalized, it would corrupt the morals of women and destroy the American family. The argument for the wholesale decriminalization of prostitution is underpinned by the idea of that people own their bodies because humans are morally autonomous beings.
For sex workers, this means that criminalizing prostitution is an unreasonable restriction of their rights as owners of their bodies. They deduce that this is so because their purported crime has no victim unless the prostitute is sexually exploited by a third party, or alternatively, the prostitute is below the age of consent. For activists, prostitution is the world’s oldest profession because it can never be completely eradicated. To them, criminalizing prostitution endangers the lives and welfare of sex workers. They conclude that to end the sexual and economic exploitation of sex workers, prostitution needs to be legalized nationwide.
For businessmen, prostitution should be legalized because sex workers can then be formally employed, and profits can be made from consensual sex between adults. This economic justification for decriminalizing prostitution has split policymakers into two camps. In one camp, prostitution must not be legalized because it has social costs that cannot be justified just because the government can open a new stream of tax revenues. In the opposing camp, legalizing prostitution involving consenting adults makes sense because there is no victim when it involves consenting adults, and doing so will make it a profession that can be taxed.
Explain why/why not their argument for decriminalizing sex work reflects capitalist logic?
Capitalism is a broad term used to define a society built upon the foundations of liberal democracy and a free market economy. The basic norm in a capitalist society is recognition, respect, and defense of private property rights. The argument pushing for the decriminalizing of prostitution, therefore, reveals capitalistic attitudes about self-ownership, sexual autonomy, liberty, and free-market economics. The concept of liberal democracy is grounded in the idea of a government that recognizes and protects natural (individual) rights as a safeguard against arbitrary rule. One of these rights derived from the laws of nature is the right to liberty. Proponents of decriminalizing prostitution assert that from the day we are born, we own ourselves because of our right to liberty. Hence the parent-child relationship is custodial in nature because it ends when minors transition into autonomous adults. Furthermore, as autonomous adults, we distinguish ourselves from other animals by using human reason to police our behavior. Hence, we have the freedom to do what we want as long as we do not break the law. Consequently, the moral justification underpinning laws that prohibit certain forms of behavior are constantly being evaluated from the prism of whether they victimize other people.
For proponents of decriminalizing prostitution, their capitalistic attitude is first revealed by the claim that having a law that limits the sexual autonomy of morally autonomous adults is bad law because it violates their right to liberty. Second, their capitalistic attitude is revealed that criminalizing prostitution violates the property rights all people have in themselves (and sexual organs) in an unreasonable way.
