“It allows us to overlook the fact that most of the men doing the buying are what we would consider “normal.” Many of these men wouldn’t dream of sexually abusing the girl next door but when it comes to a ‘prostitute,’ event a ‘teen prostitute,’ they figure it doesn’t really matter. She’s already out there. She kinda wants it anyway… there is an underlying belief that men have needs, and that sometimes those needs may be legitimately, if not legally, fulfilled by purchasing someone.” (Lloyd 66-67)
After reading this I felt saddened at this societies view regarding human beings who are in ‘the life’ and at our participation in the system that continue this cycle of oppression. In this society we equate someone with something once it is ‘bought,’ therefore the dehumanizing of a person who is a ‘prostitute’ brings forth the general belief that they (now it) can be treated in any way the buyer see’s fit. This is also reflected by Lloyds quote when she states that sexually abusing ‘the girl next door’ is an unthinkable act, its because the girl next door has a ‘family’, she is someone, she is ‘innocent’ and ‘frail’ and needs to be guarded, but this sentiment is non applicable to the girl who is walking the streets, its perplexing to me how a girl the same age as another is considered non human, or ‘trash’ not only by society, but by legal agencies that are said to protect us, like law enforcement. They are now a sexual object to men who can afford to purchase it and a nuisance to society, a thing who is only there to fulfill a need or a troubled kid to be corrected in a detention facility. This also speaks about constructs of masculinity and relations of power dynamics within sex. Once someone dehumanizes someone who is bought, they feel entitled to degrade, assault and abuse these humans for their personal pleasure. In the Newsweek article “The John Next Door” sex buyers assert that:
“You’re the boss, the total boss,” said another john. “Even us normal guys want to say something and have it done no questions asked. No ‘I don’t feel like it.’ No ‘I’m tired.’ Unquestionable obedience. I mean that’s powerful. Power is like a drug” (Bennetts.)
Power and control is often seen as important contributors to a strong and admirable masculinity, it is this flawed construction of what it means to be a man in all areas of ones life (especially sexually) that perpetuates this cycle of oppression where buying someone is a license which justifies abusing human beings in such a way that we would find ‘unthinkable’ when regarding ‘the girl next door.’
This view is very much classed and raced because it is those women who do not fit the mold of ‘the girl next door’ who has a loving family and the means to be a human being who is exploited. We must examine how we as a whole, view people who are in this ‘line of work’ not as humans but in contrast to how we view ‘the girl next door’, how WE construct ourselves by what we are not, the others. It is not until we examine our role in perpetuating this system that we can dismantle some of the very problematic aspects of the sex industry we all seem to want to talk about.
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Bennetts, L.. The john next door. N.p., 2011. Web. 10 Apr 2012. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/07/17/the-growing-demand-for-prostitution.html.
Abi, this quote reminds me exactly of what we were discussing in class today; the fact that society views men as beasts and more animalistic and therefore have certain needs that need to be met; which makes it conceivable and even acceptable that they be allowed and encouraged to purchase another human being is alarming. I agree with Sarah Bromberg of Feminist Issues of Prostitution, in that these feelings are not biological, but rather they are ideals that are taught to men throughout society, and can therefore be modified. As men and women when someone brings up the idea of buying or selling another individual, harsh feelings of past injustices begin to rise to the surface and leave everyone either angry or uncomfortable. So how is it that society encourages the behavior of men buying women and men to be used as objects to fulfill their sexual needs justified? Why does no one see this as inherently wrong, and where are the sirens and the screams of injustice? I think society needs a complete over hall in how it views people; instead of women being chastised for even thinking about sex and men being praised for buying and selling people we need to look at the system of oppression that we are currently operating in, acknowledge the role we as individuals play and go from there. I'm not proposing a solution because this issue is so interwoven with many other larger systemic issues that it’s not that easy, but I am saying that we as a people cannot continue to believe in these systems of oppression without hurting our own people. Not just those that live next door, in the same state or the same country. But those in African, Asia, Europe and every other body of land on this planet; because although many of us cannot see it we are them and they are us. There is no delineation except the one that the system perpetuates in our minds.
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Work Cited
Bromberg,Sarah. Feminist Issues in Prostitution.(1997):1-3.Web. 10 April 2012.