On February 15, we met at the Feminist Workshop space for a talk on an important topic: “Sex Work or Prostitution: The Apple of Feminist Discord.”
We know that more people wanted to come to the event than our space could accommodate, so we are thinking about doing the same event online.
Here are the theses of the event by the lecturer Ksenia Termasina:
Statistics
Approximate gender distribution among sex workers:
- Women – 80-90%.
- Men – 10-15% of sex workers
- Non-binary and transgender – 1-5%.
Approximate gender distribution of clients:
- Men – 90-99%.
- Women – 1-10%.
Sources: UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) – indicates that women make up the majority of sex workers worldwide and that men are the main clients.
WHO – confirms that women predominate in prostitution, but that male and LGBT+ prostitution also exists.
Studies in Europe and the United States (e.g. reports from Germany, the Netherlands) show that approximately 80-90% of sex workers are women, with a smaller proportion of men.
Client criminalization (Swedish model, “Nordic model”) is a ban on the purchase of sexual services where clients are punished by law, but sex workers are not criminally liable. This approach is based on the idea that prostitution is a form of violence and that sex workers are the ones who experience violence. Examples are Sweden, Norway and France.
Legalization of prostitution is the state regulation of the sex industry, where prostitution becomes a legal activity with certain requirements (e.g. mandatory medical examinations, registration, taxation, etc.) The state controls this market similarly to other professions. Examples are the Netherlands and Germany.
Criminalization of prostitution is an approach where all aspects of prostitution are considered a crime. This may include Penalties for sex workers for providing sexual services. Penalties for clients for purchasing sexual services. Penalties for facilitators (e.g., pimps, brothel owners).
Because prostitution is illegal in Ukraine, there are no official statistics on its prevalence. However, experts estimate that about 50,000 women are engaged in commercial sex work in Ukraine. Regional data show a concentration of sex workers in large cities and regional centers. For example, there are about 9,000 women engaged in prostitution in Kyiv, 6,000 in the Odesa region, and 3,000 in the Donetsk and Dnipro regions.
Arguments from both sides
Swedish model
Reduces prostitution. Since the introduction of the Swedish model in 1999, which criminalizes buyers of sexual services, the number of sex workers in Sweden has not increased. According to a 2010 government report, street prostitution fell by half between 1999 and 2008. In 2013, another report reported a further decline in street prostitution over the last 10 years. However, it should be noted that accurate data is difficult to obtain due to the hidden nature of this activity.
Legalization
Since the reforms were enacted, the influx of foreign workers into the country’s sex industry has increased, especially after the eastward enlargement of the European Union to include Bulgaria and Romania. Brothels began to open in various parts of the country. 14 years after the introduction of the reform, “sex work” was present in 40% of the Netherlands, and there were a total of 833 such businesses at that time.
Stigmatization of women*
The Swedish model
Attitudes towards women* in society have deteriorated dramatically, and unlike NGOs, which see women* as subjects with increased vulnerability, the general public sees women as responsible for the act of buying and selling (Kuosmanen 2011). Therefore, the benefits of the reform are outweighed by the negative consequences. The state may even pay for a sex worker’s sick leave, but the police will treat such women with contempt (Hulusjö 2008, Levy 2014).
Legalization
At the same time, stigma has not disappeared in the Netherlands either: for example, sex workers have difficulty getting a housing loan if they declare their source of income, even though it is legal.
