Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful Business (9 page)

The same dynamic is evident in bars and clubs frequented by tourists in other Asian countries as well as near foreign military bases, where local women sell intimacy and acquire a repertoire of cultural capital—valuable language skills and knowledge of other societies—that enhances their status relative to other local women.
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Each party can develop an emotional bond to the other, albeit for different reasons. A survey of 466 Thai bar prostitutes found that more than 80 percent of them had experienced “a relationship with a customer in which they had developed strong feelings for him,” and about half of the 141 clients interviewed said that they had developed feelings for the woman as well.
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The women’s relationships with foreign men, if they lasted more than a night, were often experienced as “more authentic, intimate, esteemed, and more
critical to women’s sense of their own identity.”
¹¹⁰
In order to distinguish such relationships from those in which the sexual encounter is brief and superficial, Heidi Hoefinger coined the term
professional girlfriend
. Hoefinger interviewed women in Cambodia and discovered that “the work that they do is far more complex than merely providing sexual services, and it was common for the women to stop viewing the relationships as ‘work’ soon after they began developing feelings for the men.”
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These women exchange sex for material benefits but only as part of their larger role as professional girlfriends. If the relationship lasts a week, a month, or longer, the girlfriend aspect can become much more genuine than what is typical of the truncated GFE offered by escorts who see a client once or periodically.

I have already noted a similar pattern for gay male tourists and local men, and there is a parallel for some female tourists as well. This occurs when affluent Western women meet young local men at clubs and beaches. Male and female sex tourism is similar in certain respects. Economic inequality between buyer and seller is pronounced in both cases, giving the buyer a similar measure of control over the worker. Female sex tourists, like their male counterparts, capitalize on their economic resources in relations with local men. Economic inequality can translate into unequal power between the parties, with some women “expressing a preference for keeping a man dependent on them” so that he will be “fully available to meet her needs.”
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One study in the Caribbean highlighted the dominant position of female sex tourists: “The kind of control exercised in their relationships with local men is actually very similar to that exercised by male sex tourists in sexual economic relationships with local women. … They are able to use their economic power to limit the risk of being challenged or subjugated.”
¹¹³

There are differences between male and female sex tourism as well. A unique comparative study of male and female tourists and sex workers in the Dominican Republic reported that (1) the male prostitutes (known as “beach boys”) were motivated by both material interests and a desire for sexual conquest of a Western woman, whereas the female sex workers had largely economic goals; (2) the beach boys felt free to be seen in public (relaxing, partying) with female tourists, which only enhanced their reputation among other men, whereas female sex workers used public space only to solicit men and not for fraternization; (3) the beach boys sold sex and intimacy only to tourists, whereas the female workers sold sex to both local and foreign men; (4) the women were dependent on prostitution for their livelihood, whereas the beach boys had other jobs; (5) “the female sex workers were stigmatized far more than were the beach boys by the local population”; and (6) female tourists
were more likely than their male counterparts to have relationships with sex workers lasting for an extended period of time (several days).
¹¹⁴

Like male tourists, some women become long-term companions or benefactors to a local man, occasionally leading to marriage.
¹¹⁵
But female tourists are more likely than their male counterparts to enter into a sexual exchange with a local person situationally: a minority of women plan it ahead of time, whereas many male sex tourists do.
¹¹⁶
Typically, female sex tourists reject the notion that they are “customers” buying sex from local men. Instead, they construct the encounters as a “holiday romance” or “real love,” not as purely physical.
¹¹⁷
Likewise, the local men do not see themselves as prostitutes. For both parties, the encounters are constructed as “romance tourism” rather than as sex tourism.
¹¹⁸
Still, the men do receive material rewards for the time they spend with foreign women, including meals, lodging, gifts, and money. According to Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor, these relationships have all the hallmarks of sex tourism, whether they are short or long term and whether or not money is exchanged, provided that the man receives at least some material benefits.
¹¹⁹
Similarly, Joan Phillips argues that these transactions can be “easily fitted under the umbrella of prostitution,” even if the two parties view it differently.
¹²⁰
Still, these relationships appear to be more complicated than what we find in male sex tourism and deserve to be more fully researched.
¹²¹

Male sex workers also transact with women in clubs and bars at home and abroad. Similar to hostess clubs where women entertain male customers, Japanese
host clubs
are bars where women go to enjoy themselves in the company of attractive male hosts. Such bars have flourished in the past decade, with approximately 200 in Tokyo alone. Male hosts, like their female counterparts in hostess clubs, are trained to be “good listeners, express sympathy and concern about their clients’ everyday complaints, and take time to comfort them”; in addition to these supportive practices, they have physical contact (kissing, fondling) with many of their female customers and sex with at least some of them.
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The hosts serve exorbitantly expensive drinks to their clients and lavish praise and compliments on the women they attach themselves to. The nature of this phenomenon is captured in Akiko Takeyama’s concept of “commodified romance.” Her ethnographic study of host clubs in Tokyo examines club dynamics and the reasons women seek these paid encounters with men. She reports that “customers claim that there are few other places in Japan’s male-centered entertainment world where women can safely enjoy romantic excitement.”
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The hosts treat them like queens, in stark contrast to how most men treat them in the wider society. According to this study and a documentary (
The Great Happiness Space
, featuring a host
club in Osaka, Japan),
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the vast majority of hosts have had sex with at least some of their customers, although they prefer to delay sexual intercourse in order to keep the woman coming back to the club and paying the high prices, of which the host gets a commission.

The sexual socialization of girls, throughout the world, deters many women from becoming clients. But some clearly buy sex, and we need much more research on female clients of male providers and of female providers as well. Further research on female customers will help to clarify the impact of gender on the dynamics of paid sex transactions.
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The material presented in this chapter is just a sample of the wide variety of types and settings of indoor prostitution throughout the world. We have seen that the indoor market is hardly monolithic. At the same time, indoor prostitution can differ radically—in its social organization and in the activities and experiences of workers and customers—from what is typical in street prostitution.

Having explored aspects of indoor prostitution, I turn to selected policy issues in Part II of the book and then to case studies in Part III of three settings where legal prostitution is primarily or exclusively confined to indoor venues. The differences between street and indoor prostitution, documented in this chapter, help to explain why most states have not decriminalized street prostitution. When considering legal reform, legislators are often cognizant of the problems associated with street prostitution, including public visibility, disorder, and nuisance as well as the elevated level of danger and risks to public health. This translates into a reluctance to decriminalize street prostitution and a preference for indoor settings instead.

America and Beyond

Sex is legal. Selling is legal. Why is selling sex illegal?

—George Carlin

For as long as people have traded sex for money, there have been conflicts over such exchanges. The intensity of the conflict varies over time and place, but the sale of sex rarely goes uncontested by those who are fiercely opposed to it. Legalization of vice does not put an end to the matter, even when it can be shown that reform has certain benefits, as in the case of medical marijuana. Yet George Carlin’s question in the epigraph above remains apt. Few activities, apart from prostitution, are criminalized just because money is exchanged.

Over the past generation, the United States has grown increasingly tolerant of certain vices. John Dombrink and Daniel Hillyard’s book
Sin No More
traces the evolution of public opinion and legal norms on abortion, gambling, gay rights, and assisted suicide but also documents resistance from social forces opposed to any liberalization in these areas—the net effect of which Dombrink and Hillyard call “problematic normalization.” They describe a “rising floor” of tolerance but one that has stopped short of full liberalization.
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A similar dynamic can be seen in marijuana policy in the United States, marked by noticeable changes over the past decade. Medical marijuana is now permitted in 15 states, and polls show that four-fifths of Americans support this policy.
²
Regarding recreational marijuana, a remarkable event occurred in November 2008, when two-thirds of voters in Massachusetts approved a ballot measure decriminalizing possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.
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This may be a harbinger of things to come because of the growing number of Americans who support decriminalization not only of medical marijuana but also of recreational marijuana, with the legitimacy of the former apparently spilling over to the latter.
⁴
The level of support has steadily risen over the past four decades, from 12 percent of Americans in 1969 to
25 percent in 1979 to 36 percent in 2006 agreeing that the “use of marijuana should be made legal.”
⁵
Two 2009 polls reported that a slim
majority
of Americans now support legalization.
⁶
This does not mean that change is imminent (a legalization measure was rejected by California voters in 2010), but the opinion-poll trends seem to auger well for legal reform in the future.

There is no such liberalizing trend in American prostitution policy. Although some observers have documented a growing “mainstreaming” of the sex industry—especially pornography and stripping, where there has been some spillover into mainstream media and proliferation on the Internet
⁷
—prostitution remains beyond the pale in the United States. The dominant trend has been in the direction of greater criminalization, not less. One difference between legalization of marijuana and prostitution is that activists are better able to identify victims in prostitution. Another difference is the sheer number of individuals who are current consumers and, as such, potential supporters of decriminalization. About four in ten Americans have smoked marijuana, which is much higher than the number who say that they have paid for sex or been paid for sex (9 percent of total population, 16 percent of men in 2008).
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And there is far less stigma attached to marijuana consumption.

This chapter describes prostitution policies and trends in the United States as a prelude to my analysis of several other nations in the remainder of the book.

In the United States, prostitution legislation is largely devolved to the states. Federal law bans interstate transportation of prostitutes (under the 1910 Mann Act), and sex trafficking is outlawed under the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act. But otherwise prostitution law is determined by each state. Almost all states prohibit solicitation for prostitution as well as pimping, procuring, operating a brothel, and running any other business that offers or allows sex for sale. There are two exceptions: Nevada permits counties to license and regulate brothels, and Rhode Island had no prostitution law until 2009, discussed later in this chapter.

Approximately 60,000 Americans were arrested in 2009 for violation of prostitution laws.
⁹
Most arrests involve the street trade, though indoor workers are targeted in some cities. Arrests are sporadic and selective in most cities; in some jurisdictions they are more sustained and may result in displacing street prostitution to another locale.
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Criminalization has several consequences. First, arrests and fines have little deterrent effect on the sellers, who quickly return to selling sex. Yet arrest and punishment can be considered harmful because of the stigma of a criminal record. Second, at least some of those arrested present no harm to the public, insofar as their activities occur in discreet private settings between willing sellers and buyers. Third, criminalization is costly to the criminal justice system, expenditures that could be reallocated to other priorities. Fourth, criminalization jeopardizes sex workers insofar as they fear reporting victimization to the police. Many prostitutes are reluctant to report rape, robbery, and assault because they want to conceal their illegal activities or because they believe the police will not take their reports seriously. These are not irrational concerns. American police have a long history of routinely discounting this victimization, seeing prostitutes as somehow deserving of their fate, or exploiting individual workers by demanding sex in lieu of an arrest.
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