Should sex work be decriminalised?

Normalising the act of purchasing sex reinforces the cultural narrative that women's bodies are a commodity that can be bought and sold

Question: Should sex work be decriminalised?
Position‹3 of 3: Sex work should not be decriminalised
Argument‹8 of 9›: Normalising the act of purchasing sex reinforces the cultural narrative that women's bodies are a commodity that can be bought and sold

With the motto "sex sells" running rampant in advertising and human socialization, prostitution only serves to emphasize that women are only worth their bodies.

The argument

Prostitution contributes towards the validation of traditional gender roles and the frequent sexual subordination of women. While sex work is, in theory, a valid form of labor available to both genders, the demographics of those purchasing and selling sex remain consistent: men buy what women are selling. It is rarely the women selling themselves, but more likely a pimp or brothel using them as a subset of their overall product. Younger and younger women are buying into the idea that they can profit off of a "sexualized economy." The cultural narrative of women's bodies has been written and rewritten throughout human history, but the female form is frequently used as an advertising product, with the unwritten assumption that they are tempting the buyer with the potential of sex. Women's bodies are tossed between two extremes: sinful temptation or flagrant sensuality. One is condemned, the other is rewarded through capitalism, but yet again, it is rarely women themselves seeing the profits of their body's exploitation. Both of these options, the "prude" and the "hustler," lead to social shaming and societal consequences. Sex work is a mere extension of those values being forced upon women. In a society where women's bodies are commodified, we only reinforce the idea that their bodies can inevitably be bought for some price, whether intentionally or not.

Premises

[P1]Prostitution validates traditional gender roles, with men consistently buying what women, often controlled by pimps or brothels, are made to sell. [P2] It extends a culture in which the female form is already used as a commodity, leaving women shamed whether cast as "prude" or "hustler" and rarely profiting themselves. [P3] Normalising the purchase of sex only reinforces the narrative that women's bodies can be bought for a price. [C] Therefore, because normalising the purchase of sex reinforces women's commodification, sex work should not be decriminalised.

Counter-arguments

Stigmatizing women's bodies through the criminalization of sex work and prostitution also contributes to commodification by emphasizing scarcity as a selling point.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The pattern the premise describes is a feature of the market as it currently operates under criminalisation, which is the condition decriminalisation would change. It does not show the pattern is intrinsic to the exchange itself. [Rejecting P2] The wider use of women's bodies as a commercial image is not created by sex work and would persist without it, so the premise does not isolate the practice as the source of what it describes. [Rejecting P3] The argument reasons about cultural meaning while the question asks about legal status, and it never addresses the outcome decriminalisation is argued for — the safety of and legal recourse available to the people selling sex. As the counter-argument notes, criminalisation carries commodifying effects of its own, so the symbolic case does not point in only one direction.

Proponents cited

Sheila Jeffreys
“[Prostitution is] socially constructed out of men’s dominance and women’s subordination.”
President Jimmy Carter
“Some assert that this ‘profession’ can be empowering and that legalizing and regulating all aspects of prostitution will mitigate the harm that accompanies it. But I cannot accept a policy prescription that codifies such a pernicious form of violence against women. Normalizing the act of buying sex also debases men by assuming that they are entitled to access women’s bodies for sexual gratification. If paying for sex is normalized, then every young boy will learn that women and girls are commodities to be bought and sold.”
Jill Filipovic
“Empowerment' is apparently not about equitable allocation of resources, or influence in politics and policy, or really power at all. It's shorthand for "I wanted to do this and it made me feel good" ...'Empowerment' is an empty catchphrase, a term used primarily to salve over the near-total lack of power held by women and girls around the world, a kind of head-pat to keep us satisfied with subservience. Note that you never hear the word "empowered" used to describe a man. You don't need to be "empowered" when you are, plainly and simply, powerful.”