Directed research by: Sylvia Davis with professor: Martha Shaffer c Introduction Throughout time prostitution has aroused a wide range of emotions from the communities in which it exists. Some are morally outraged by its presence, others merely curious. Some view it as a threat, others as a necessary evil. However, at least in recorded history, no society has completely accepted it as a valid and integral part of the community.
Prostitution is something to be abhorred or tolerated but never condoned. It is a "nuisance," a "problem," but above all it is an embarrassment. For the religiously inclined it reminds us that we are far from the moral standards set for us by most scriptures. For government officials it is considered a sign of their mismanagement since prostitution is taken to symbolize a society in decline. For police officials it is a blotch on their record, an indication of incompetency, because it is something they are unable to control much less eradicate.
For many feminists it signals the continued entrenchment of the patriarchy, the ultimate exploitation of women, a significant indication of how far we are from achieving full gender equality. Prostitution is the poor relative of whom we are slightly ashamed, the black sheep of the family who is a reproach to our cultural image of ourselves. And so like most families in this situation we would keep prostitution out of sight, if not out of mind, as much as possible.
As a result, while societies have varied in their approaches on how best to handle the "problem" of prostitution -- should it be criminalized, decriminalized, regulated, de-regulated or a combination of the above -- the main concern has been to keep it invisible. We wish it invisible whether for the short term, as we work to eradicate it, or in the long term, if we have decided to tolerate it.
We wish prostitutes to be invisible whether we condemn them for their acts or seek to "reform" them. It is the contention of this paper that regardless of ones views on prostitution, its appropriateness or lack there of, in modern society, the insistence on invisibility as the overriding factor in any policy decision dooms that policy to failure, regardless of the time and money spent on its creation or administration.
