I often find a fair bit of schadenfreude when I witness by-the-book liberals twisting in the winds of dissonance. One of the more satisfying forms of this comes when an organization exalted by the Left says something that the Left cannot abide. Watching the outrage, sputtering and freak-outs by people who are told whose narratives they should repeat when one of the narrators goes off book makes for great sport and more than a little sense of cosmic justice.
A recent policy paper from Amnesty International called for the global decriminalization of prostitution as the best way to “respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights of sex workers.” In a time where efforts to conflate all prostitution with human trafficking in order to ramp up awareness and action against the latter, such a declaration by an organization that’s sacred to the Left was certain to draw howls of outrage. They certainly didn’t disappoint http://bit.ly/1RWkarF.
As a matter of public policy, the criminalization of prostitution has been about as effective as the criminalization of alcohol and narcotics. That is to say, it’s been a dismal failure. While strict enforcement in places like New York City managed to chase away streetwalkers, the rise of the Internet has made it easier than ever for prostitutes and johns to connect. As a matter of public good, the criminalization of prostitution mirrors that of alcohol and drugs. Those who wish to participate in the trade are pushed underground, where they’re more vulnerable to predation and have no legal recourse if wronged.
Libertarians have long argued against the criminalization of prostitution from both principled and practical positions. We not only believe that it is a violation of people’s individual rights to prohibit consenting adults from trading sexual services for compensation, but also that it’s both harmful to those who engage in such transactions and futile to try and stop them. Amnesty’s position reflects the latter, recognizing that the best way to protect people who are going to do this anyway is to offer them the recourse and protections that above-board workers and businesses enjoy.
Liberal opposition to prostitution also seems at odds with the basic premises espoused in the “my body, my choice” pro-abortion-rights campaign and in the message of female empowerment in general. While there is a camp within feminism that is pro-prostitution, the louder voice emanating from that world is that prostitution is the product of a patriarchal society, is therefore demeaning and disempowering, and so even the most informed and self-aware women should be debarred from practicing it. The irony that this attitude itself is paternalistic is obviously lost on those who think this way.
We also witness the inconsistency of opposition to sex work in the “exception” carved out for pornography. It’s not legal to receive money for sex – unless someone with a camera records it and then sells the recording for money. It’s also not illegal for a woman to get herself a “sugar daddy,” probably because it’s harder to prove the quid pro quo of gifts for sex in an on-going relationship/transaction. While anti-prostitution crusaders might bristle at porn and sugar babies, I doubt they have much chance of derailing either practice.
In response to the Amnesty recommendation, legislators in New Hampshire are debating a bill to decriminalize prostitution. The bipartisan bill, sponsored by three women, is a good first step. It acknowledges and responds to reality and to the eternal failure of government efforts to ban the world’s oldest profession.
If the self-righteous liberals who’ve been trying to convince everyone that ALL prostitution is sex trafficking could get past their hubris and let go of their intransigence, resources wasted on interfering with the choices consenting adults make could instead be redirected to combating forced prostitution, actual human trafficking and the exploitation of minors. People who do not or cannot legally consent to sexual activity deserve government protection, and in ending the paternalistic, puritanical and futile war on sex work would go a long way to help those who need it.
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