Terms & Definitions
# Prostitution as a sequence
Is virtual sex through cameras prostitution? Does marrying a rich man you can't stand mean prostitution? Is nudity prostitution?
As we wrote before - fornicate many faces (and arenas). This claim also allows an opening for discussions about what constitutes "real" prostitution and what is considered legitimate and reasonable.
It is convenient for us to divide the world into black and white, what is true and what is assigned. This division helps us to create order, even if simulated - and more than order, this division helps us in preserving the feeling of a safe world, while removing from our awareness the normalized injustices that occur in it all the time and without interruption.
However, it is important that we know - life is not black and white, but contains complexity within it. In other words, prostitution is often a continuum. The meaning of this is that even if a woman is on a certain platform, the dynamics of the industry often means that this platform will be a steep slope to enter other, distinct and more obvious platforms. More than that, it was said - many of the women did not enter into its depths directly, unless in a slow, but also steep, process of deterioration down the continuum.
At the same time, it is important to emphasize - we do not see the problem as lying solely in the potential for deterioration along the continuum. We hold the position that any act of selling the body, even if it does not include physical contact or is not defined as prostitution in its clear sense, constitutes exploitation of distress. This understanding can be startling, as it opens a window to the understanding that each and every one of us can be on the continuum of fornication to one degree or another, and not one of us is immune from being on this continuum. If so, does this indicate that a substantial share of the female population is on the continuum of prostitution?
Our answer is that by "not standing" we will allow a woman to define herself and we will not interfere in her definitions. However, the claims that we will not accept or believe are arguments that there are manifestations of prostitution as empowerment and choice on the continuum.
Our position can perhaps be perceived as an internal contradiction. Some would even argue that this is privileged and arrogant feminism. We recognize these claims, and in spite of them we see our position as precisely reflecting the understanding of the complexity of the prostitution continuum, in its multitude of manifestations, while taking the firm position that prostitution is always sexual violence, exploitation and harm - in any place, in any space - even if it is considered legitimate and normalized.
The post was written in collaboration with "Shelgia", a survivor of our community.
# Prostitution and language
Language represents thoughts and social attitudes, so let's examine the different terms and offer alternatives:
"Escort girl" - a term designed to glorify traumatic sex with strangers by blurring the traumatic component and replacing it with a refined and glamorous term. In practice, we are not talking about glamorous girls, but girls, girls and women in need, who certainly do not accompany anyone anywhere - but are exploited.
"Sex worker"/"service provider" - a capitalist term designed to normalize prostitution and present it as a profession like all professions, on the same level as professions such as saleswoman/lawyer/teacher (only we don't know that you need special training or experience to "engage" in prostitution).
Slut/exotic/prostitute - terms that reflect the social perception of the low moral level of those women, and in light of that - the legitimacy of denigrating these women, a legitimacy that alleviates our social feelings of guilt.
Customer/client/man who pays for sex: additional capitalist terms designed to give us a sense of normative commercial relations, as a normal transaction between a service provider and a client, buying and selling, and not in the law of souls.
The correct terms:
Survivor of prostitution, woman in prostitution, victim of trafficking, women in the sex trafficking industry.
And also: adulterer!
*The post was written in collaboration with 'Shelgia' surviving our community.
# Prostitution and feminism
We will try to put some order in the confusing terms. Feminism, like all schools of thought, has different currents, sometimes complementary and sometimes opposing each other.
Someone can define herself as a feminist and see prostitution as a celebration of female power and sexuality, control over the male gaze, etc.
And someone can define herself as a feminist and see prostitution as a place of female oppression, exploitation of disadvantaged situations, and the like.
This group belongs to the second stream, called more than once: radical feminism (since it is identified with the second wave of feminism in the 1970s in the US and Europe). Although among us there is nothing radical in demanding that our body not be an object
# Prostitution and prostitution rings
Deniers of the harms of prostitution will explain to you that there is a very big difference between street prostitution and "escort girls".
The prevailing claim in society is that prostitution has many faces (and arenas). According to this claim, alongside the existence of street prostitution in which there is no doubt that there is exploitation, as well as severe distress of the woman, there are many and other prostitution arenas where women are found who did not come to these areas out of distress, but out of choice and a desire to earn a lot of money.
Compared to street prostitutes we are marketed as classy women, quality girls or escort girls - nicknames that emphasize differentiation and separation from the image of the poor woman found in street prostitution.
This, of course, makes it possible to strengthen the narrative of choice, normativity and wealth - a narrative that enables the continuation of the denial of hardship and exploitation even in the Eli spaces.
The working conditions in the institutes, in the discreet apartments and on the street are different, but in many ways it is only a different setting that hides from our interests the exploitation and violence embodied in this world: long shifts, paying percentages to the landlord and of course having sex with complete strangers.
The marketing of these spaces as high-quality and prestigious allows the pimps to attract an additional audience while pretending that this is not an underworld, but a high-quality and completely normative business.
Hereby we emphasize - hierarchy does not exist in the world of prostitution!!
Prostitution is exploitation and a crime - everywhere and in every space. Therefore, all the different spaces - the prestigious, the professional and the considered - can be grouped into one term, and it is: a space of harm that is disguised, normalized, and transparent - mostly transparent, because how easy it is to deny the truth - as long as possible.
*The post was written in collaboration with 'Shelgia' a survivor of our community.