Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T02:09:03.624Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Prostitution, Sexual Autonomy, and Sex Discrimination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Abstract

Feminist critics of the stigmatization of prostitution such as Martha Nussbaum and Sybil Schwarzenbach argue that the features of the practice do not, or at least need not, differ essentially from those of other more respected sorts of labor. I argue that even the least degraded forms of the current practice of prostitution remain objectionable on feminist grounds because patrons demand a semblance of sexual self-expression that engages discriminatory beliefs about women's sexuality.

Type
CLUSTER: SEXUAL EXPRESSIONS
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albert, Alexa. 2001. Brothel: Mustang ranch and its women. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Alexander, Priscilla. 1987. Prostitution: A difficult issue for feminists. In Sex work: Writings by women in the sex industry, ed. Delacoste, Frederique and Alexander, Priscilla. San Francisco: Cleis, pp. 184214.Google Scholar
Anderson, Elizabeth. 1993. Value in ethics and economics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Scott A. 2002. Prostitution and sexual autonomy: Making sense of the prohibition of prostitution. Ethics 112 (4): 748–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archard, David. 1998. Sexual consent. Boulder, Colo.: Westview.Google Scholar
Baldwin, Margaret A. 1992. Split at the root: Prostitution and feminist discourses of law reform. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 5:47120.Google Scholar
Baldwin, Margaret A. 1993. Strategies of connection: Prostitution and feminist politics. Michigan Journal of Gender and Law 1:6580.Google Scholar
Brownmiller, Susan. 1971. Speaking out on prostitution. In Notes from the third year, ed. Koedt, Anne and Firestone, Shulammith. New York: Notes from the Second Year, Inc, pp. 3738.Google Scholar
Chamallas, Martha. 1987. Consent, equality, and the legal control of sexual conduct. Southern California Law Review 61 (4): 777862.Google Scholar
Chapkis, Wendy. 1997. Live sex acts: Women performing erotic labor. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cooper, Belinda. 1989. Prostitution: A feminist analysis. Women's Law Reports 11:99119.Google Scholar
Ericsson, Lars O. 1980. Charges against prostitution: An attempt at a philosophical assessment. Ethics 90 (3): 335–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farley, Melissa. 2007. Prostitution and trafficking in Nevada: Making the connections. San Francisco: Prostitution Research & Education.Google Scholar
Freund, Matthew, Lee, Nancy, and Leonard, Terry. 1991. Sexual behavior of clients with street prostitutes in Camden, N.J. Journal of Sex Research 28 (4): 579–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hampton, Jean. 1999. Defining wrong and defining rape. In A most detestable crime: New philosophical essays on rape, ed. Burgess‐Jackson, Keith. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 118–56.Google Scholar
Hirshman, Linda R., and Larson, Jane E. 1998. Hard bargains: The politics of sex. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie. 1983. The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kupfer, Joseph. 1995. Prostitutes, musicians, and self‐respect. Journal of Social Philosophy 26 (3): 7588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langton, Rae. 2009. Sexual solipsism: Philosophical essays on pornography and objectification. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leigh, Carol. 1987. The continuing saga of the Scarlot Harlot VI. In Sex work: Writings by women in the sex industry, ed. Delacoste, Frederique and Alexander, Priscilla. San Francisco: Cleis, pp. 106108.Google Scholar
Lemoncheck, Linda. 1997. Loose women, lecherous men: A feminist philosophy of sex. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKinnon, Catharine A. 1989. Toward a feminist theory of the state. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, Catharine A. 1993. Prostitution and civil rights. Michigan Journal of Gender and Law 1:1331.Google Scholar
McKeganey, Neil, and Barnard, Marina. 1996. Sex work on the streets: Prostitutes and their clients. Philadelphia: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Miriam, Kathy. 2005. Stopping the traffic in women: Power, agency and abolition in feminist debates over sex trafficking. Journal of Social Philosophy 36 (1): 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monto, Martin A. 2000. Why men seek out prostitutes. In Sex for sale, ed. Weitzer, Ronald. New York: Routledge, pp. 6784.Google Scholar
Morgan, Peggy. 1987. Living on the edge. In Sex work: Writings by women in the sex industry, ed. Delacoste, Frederique and Alexander, Priscilla. San Francisco: Cleis, pp. 2128.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 1999. Sex and social justice. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
O'Connell Davidson, Julia. 1998. Prostitution, power, and freedom. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
O'Connell Davidson, Julia. 2002. The rights and wrongs of prostitution. Hypatia 17 (2): 8498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overall, Christine. 1992. What's wrong with prostitution: Evaluating sex work. Signs 17 (4): 705–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1988. The sexual contract. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Phillips, Lynn M. 2000. Flirting with danger: Young women's reflections on sexuality and domination. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Posner, Richard. 1992. Sex and reason. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Primoratz, Igor. 1993. What's wrong with prostitution? Philosophy 68 (264): 159–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radin, Margaret. 1987. Market inalienability. Harvard Law Review 100 (8): 1849–937.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radin, Margaret. 1996. Contested commodities. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Richards, David A.J. 1982. Sex, drugs, death, and the law. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Satz, Debra. 1995. Markets in women's sexual labor. Ethics 106 (1): 6385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulhofer, Stephen J. 1998. Unwanted sex: The culture of intimidation and the failure of law. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schwarzenbach, Sybil. 1990-1991. Contractarians and feminists debate prostitution. Review of Law and Social Change 18:103–30.Google Scholar
Shrage, Laurie. 1989. Should feminists oppose prostitution? Ethics 99 (2): 347–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shrage, Laurie. 1994. Moral dilemmas of feminism: Prostitution, adultery, and abortion. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Shrage, Laurie. 1996. Prostitution and the case for decriminalization. Dissent, Spring: 41–45.Google Scholar
Simons, Marlise. 2008. Amsterdam tries upscale fix for red‐light district crime. New York Times, February 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/world/europe/24amsterdam.html (accessed March 12, 2010).Google Scholar
Tolman, Deborah L. 2002. Dilemmas of desire: Teenage girls talk about sexuality. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tong, Rosemarie. 1997. Prostitution. In Sex, morality, and the law, ed. Gruen, Lori and Panchias, George. New York: Routledge, pp. 107–26.Google Scholar
Verbeek, Hansje, and van der Zijden, Terry. 1987. The red thread: Whores’ movement in Holland. In Sex work: Writings by women in the sex industry, ed. Delacoste, Frederique and Alexander, Priscilla. San Francisco: Cleis, pp. 297300.Google Scholar