The terms to describe the buying and selling of bodies for sex in the modern world convey much about the underlying ideological debate going on in the culture, and within feminism. But as a man rooted in a feminist critique of institutionalised male dominanceโin other words, a critic of patriarchy, perhaps an old-fashioned word but one that still describes our societyโI do not refer to the buying of sex as work but as prostitution. What is the best term for a woman in one of the sexual-exploitation industries?
Both men and women can be prostituted in this way but the majority are girls and women, and the vast majority of buyers are men. These language choices signal dramatically different analyses. We can understand these practices as a key part of a patriarchal system that attempts to control women and their sexuality, which therefore must be challenged the radical feminist position ; or as merely a type of labour that women can engage in to their potential advantage, which therefore should be treated as any other form of work the liberal position.
Is justice possible when the most intimate spaces of the bodies of people in one group can be purchased by people in another group? Another formulation: You are constructing a society from scratch, with the power not only to write laws if you decide there should be formal laws but also to write the stories people tell about themselves, each other, and the larger living world.
Last question: You are speaking with a girl who is considering future vocations. If she includes that on her list, do you respond in the same way as to other possibilities?
A just society that guarantees dignity for women is impossible in patriarchyโwhether the conservative or liberal version of institutionalised male dominance. We have to work not only to dismantle the structures of patriarchy but also to imagine what a society beyond patriarchy would look like.
