Columnist Deborah Orr offers some insights into the world’s oldest profession.  Read the whole column at The Independent…

For most women, prostitution is not a life choice
by Deborah Orr

Who would want to “pay for sex with a person controlled for gain”? No one, surely, whose capacity for empathy – which scientists claim is an innate human quality – has not been damaged, perhaps to a dangerous degree, or even entirely destroyed. So why should the Government’s plans to make this act a criminal offence be so controversial?

The intent of this legislation, details of which are to be announced today, is clear. It presumes that women who sell sex under the management of a pimp, in order to pay a dealer for the drugs they are addicted to, or because they have been trafficked, are vulnerable. It presumes that they are being exploited not just by the people who pimp them, supply them with drugs, or traffic them, but also by the people who make such activities profitable, by paying to avail themselves of such services.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, has made it clear that ignorance of a woman’s circumstances will not be a defence, although she’s more hazy about how any prosecutions may proceed. Who is going to testify that a man was “paying for sex with a person controlled for gain”? The person controlled for gain? Their drug dealer?

Smith’s contention is modest. She believes that the mere threat of a criminal record will make men consider the possibility that a woman is taking part in a transaction because her choices are limited, or absent. If the legislation prompts even a small reduction in the number of men buying sex, says Smith, then it will be worthwhile.

For some, Smith’s resort to “gender stereotypes” in her locutions is in itself questionable, testament to a prejudiced mindset that always sees women as victims and always sees men as predators. Not all of these critics can be classified as being anti-feminist. On the contrary, many people who would describe themselves as feminists argue that any law that seeks to limit or eradicate a woman’s right to dominion over her own body, is wrong, whatever her motivations.

Vocal among this group are prostitutes themselves. The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) points out that prostitution is not itself an offence, and that any legislation that criminalises customers also targets their legitimate activity, not only by intimidating prospective clients, but also by burdening prostitute women with an unacknowledged assault on their privacy. Why should they feel obliged to reveal their motivations and business arrangements to clients?

Further, the ECP argues, even renting a room to a prostitute woman might be considered “control for gain”. This suggests that only people who are entirely independent – self-employed and with no overheads payable to others – could operate without fear of criminalising their clients.

Which brings us neatly to the much-pored-over Belle de Jour scenario, in which, supposedly, an attractive and intelligent young middle-class women with no abusive background and no lack of choices in her life, sells sex simply because she loves it. She embodies the libertarian idea that the moralistic state is attacking her freedom to choose her profession, and limiting her economic choices, just because they are sexual prudes who do not approve of her.

Whether Belle de Jour is “real” or not – and I can’t say I personally care – there are plenty of people who insist that her arguments are legitimate. A lot of the women who sell sex – or who sell other sexual services – reject the mantle of victimhood. They insist that it is they who are doing the exploiting, while their clients are the ones at the vulnerable end of the equation.