WINMX Assorted Textfiles/Ebooks.tar/Text - Society - Prostitution in Nevada.txt

Text File | 2003-10-05 | 12KB | 253 lines

Sexual passion, especially amongst young males, is a very urgent and
strong passion, only coming after the need for food and drink. To
suppress this trenchant and basic need amongst males, especially young
males, is to promulgate very disturbing emotional and physical upheavals
amongst males, especially young males which  can have very deleterious
affects on them and society as a whole. One solution to this is to
legalize, control, and tax prostitution so that this very strong and
basic need can be met. Marriage should not be based upon the exchange of
sexual favors for economic support as is the case in North America. The
same is destructive of trust and the binding relationship which should
be based upon mutual respect. To promulgate the institution of marriage,
in my opinion, females should no longer be allowed to be married to the
state which supplies the female, through various programs and
privileges, all of the benefits of marriage without any of the
responsibilities of the same . There is no need for a female to respect
the male nor the institution of marriage when the state supplies all of
her needs, financial and otherwise, and provides for her defense. Unless
this practise is stopped , the institution of marriage is doomed as well
as the essential social cohesiveness which is requisite for an ordered,
productive, and civil society.



"A regulatory system such as Nevada's provides the state
with a controlled means to sell women's sexual services
and eradicates choice for prostitutes themselves, rather than
providing a way for prostitutes to gain a degree of control
over their lives. The few references in articles about prostitution
written either by prostitutes themselves or leading theorists,
seem to confirm that being a licensed prostitute in one
of the brothels in Nevada is not a liberating experience.
Laura Anderson, a former brothel worker, states
that the system results in mandatory exploitation.
"Prostitutes are giving up too much autonomy, control,
and choice over their work and lives. Because prostitutes
are not allowed to work independently, or outside
the brothel system, Nevada has essentially institutionalized
third-party management with no other options." n158
According to another prostitute who worked at the Mustang Ranch
outside of Reno, it was "just like a prison." n159

Prostitutes under the brothel system are considered
"independent contractors" and not full-time employees. n160
Therefore, prostitutes do not gain the benefits of health
care, vacation pay, retirement benefits, or any of the
other benefits and rights many workers have. n161
When a prostitute receives a license,  she gives up some
of her rights, including the right to freely travel when
and wherever she wants, her right to refuse testing for sexually
transmitted diseases, and her right to live and work
where she wants. n162 Prostitutes have little or no
say in choosing their customers or the numbers of
hours they work. n163 A typical shift in a brothel is
twelve to fourteen hours a day, every day for three
weeks. n164 A legal prostitute must share her earnings
with the brothel, unlike the un-licensed prostitute who
can try to work on her own and keep her earnings. n165
By the time a prostitute is finished paying for all her expenses,
her share of her earnings is about fifty percent. n166 Each
prostitute has to pay for room and board, maid services,
supplies (including condoms), mandatory tipping for house
employees, one dollar for each pair of panties washed,
twenty dollars for the weekly venereal disease checkup,
two dollars for each prescription, and any additional
cost to have it filled. n167 While a prostitute may be
able to make a decent income if there is a steady
stream of customers, it is clear that the brothel and
the county benefit far more than the individual
prostitute. n168

While legal prostitutes in Nevada may no longer suffer
the stigma of being criminals, they are stigmatized by
the licensing scheme and the widespread belief that
prostitutes are the source of disease. Many prostitutes
do not want to risk further stigmatization by going
public as a prostitute and obtaining a license,
or give up their freedom by working in a brothel,
so the vast majority of prostitutes remain illegal.
While legal prostitutes may not be stigmatized by arrests,
they may suffer a similar stigma by being licensed. n169
Just because something is not criminal does not necessarily
remove the stigma of being considered an "other"
woman or a source of "filth" and contagion. In
fact, a significant part of the regulations passed
surrounding prostitution concern the spread of
disease.

C. Scapegoating Prostitutes for the Spread of HIV

The regulations requiring mandatory HIV tests for all
licensed prostitutes serve to perpetuate the image
of the prostitute as a transmitter of HIV and are an
ineffective method of reducing the spread of the disease.
Historically, prostitutes have been scapegoated for
the spread of venereal disease. n170 According to
Kathleen Barry, "creating the illusion of controlling
venereal disease in order to promote the prostitution
market was the original basis of regulated prostitution." n171
Prostitutes were first blamed for the spread of syphilis
and now for the spread of HIV and AIDS. By labeling
prostitutes as the source of disease, policies and regulations
focus on prostitutes as the infectors, instead of
prostitutes as victims of infection. n172

Women have a higher likelihood of contracting AIDS
from men than men from women. Furthermore, men who
buy sex in prostitution are members of the very population
that engages in the promiscuous sexual behavior that is
likely to transmit it widely throughout the female population.
Whenever men get HIV infected, they carry the virus to
prostitutes and to wives and other women. In other words,
it is men's promiscuity that is responsible for the spread of AIDS
to the population of women made available for male
promiscuity. n173

While legal prostitutes and those arrested for illegal
prostitution or solicitation are subjected to mandatory
HIV tests, those who seek the services of licensed
prostitutes are not subjected to any test. n174 This scheme
perpetuates the notion that prostitutes are to blame
and underscores the fact that prostitution
is still illegal except when it occurs within a regulated brothel.
[...]
In addition to far less freedom than the image of legal prostitution
suggests, prostitutes in Nevada earn a meager living by the time
they pay for all the expenses they are required to pay. These
prostitutes do not earn an adequate income even though
prostitution, in a limited sense, is condoned by the
government. A prostitute, unlike a McDonald's
cashier or a waitress, is essentially a prisoner in
a brothel for a three-week shift and cannot collect
unemployment insurance if she is fired. While all three
workers have to follow health regulations, only a
prostitute must submit to regular physical examinations
and blood tests. Legal prostitutes may have more medical
check-ups than most illegal prostitutes and non-prostitutes,
but these mandated check-ups are meant to protect the customer
from infection by a prostitute, not a prostitute from a customer.
Licensed prostitutes in Nevada appear to gain little by the
limited governmental permission to engage in prostitution
and suffer almost all of the disadvantages of being an
exploited worker in a capitalist society."

(Yale Journal of Law and Feminism
1998
10 Yale J.L. & Feminism 69
ARTICLE: Nevada Sex Trade: A Gamble for the Workers
Micloe Bingham)

-------------------------------
n158. Wendy Chapkis, Live Sex Acts: Women Performing
Erotic Labor (1997) (interviews with and
contribution from women in the sex industry)

n159. Kathleen Barry, The Prostitution of
Sexuality 127-30 (1995)

 n160. See Chapkis, at 163.

 n161. See generally Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service,
Publication 15-A (1997). A worker's classification can effect
both the employer and employee in terms of taxes, social security
and benefits. If a person is not considered to be an employee
under common-law rules, then an employer generally does
not have to withhold federal income tax from that person's pay.

There are 21 common law factors that are considered in
determining whether a person is an employee or independent
contractor. See Dierdre White, WLN Employee/Independent
Contractor Pathfinder, in 1996 WLN 669239. According to
the Internal Revenue Service these factors fall into three general
categories: behavioral control, financial control, and the
type of relationship of the parties. Department of the
Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Publication 15-A (1997).

n162. See generally Barry, Chapkis,
Helen Reynolds, The Economics of Prostitution (1986)
(analyzing the method of dealing with prostitution in different communities including
Nevada).

 n163. See Chapkis, at 163.

 n164. See id.

 n165. See id. at 162-63; Reynolds, at 116.

 n166. See Chapkis, at 163; Reynolds, at 116.

 n167. See Barry, supra note 87, at 113; Kathleen Barry, Female
Sexual Slavery (1979) (examining the use of sex as power to dominate).
Barry argues that prostitution is female sexual slavery and is the basis
for sexual exploitation. In her more recent book, Barry identifies
four stages in which prostitution socially constructs the sexual
exploitation of women: (1) distancing, (2) disengagement, (3) dissociation,
and (4) disembodiment. at 232;
Chapkis, at 163; Reynolds, at 116.

 n168. See generally Reynolds; Chapkis, .

 n169. See John F. Decker, Prostitution: Regulation and Control 462 (1979).

 n170. See generally Barry; Chapkis;

 n171. Barry, supra note 59, at 242. While Barry recognizes
the connection between controlling prostitution and venereal
disease she is criticized for her position on promoting condom
use among prostitutes. "She thinks it is wrong to promote
condom use among prostitutes because, she says, since condoms
sometimes fail, giving them condoms increases the women's risk."
Priscilla Alexander, Feminism, Sex Workers, and Human
Rights, in Whores and Other Feminists 90 (Jill Nagle ed., 1997).
"Barry's recommendation that we cease promoting condoms
and instead rescue women from prostitution is not only
absurd, it is genocidal for women who continue to work
as prostitutes. The prostitutes who are the most vulnerable to
HIV infection are usually the poorest women with the worst
working conditions, which are conditions most countries ignore.
Because no country treats prostitution as a "form of work like any
other,' none has used such tools as occupational safety and
health regulations to improve prostitutes' working conditions." Id.

 n172. See generally Chapkis, s

 n173. Barry, at 243.

 n174. See Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. 201.356, 201.358.

 n175. See Joni Seager, The State of Women in the World Atlas
66-69, 78-79, 118-119, & 121 (1997). Women account for
approximately 36% of the paid labor force. More women work for
pay but most are paid less than men and jobs defined as women's
work tend to be low in pay and status.

n176. Liz Highleyman, Professional Dominance: Power, Money,
and Identity, in Whores and Other Feminists, at 148.

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