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laws that they believe will eliminate prostitution in all of its forms. As a
means to achieving the abolition of prostitution, radical feminists argue
that the male demand for prostitution needs to be eliminated.10 This rests
on a complete transformation of male attitudes toward women, whereby
masculinity is no longer intrinsically tied to sexual dominance over
women. 11 Partial criminalisation of the client is seen as the most effective
legal scheme for radical feminists, because the weight of legal
condemnation affects clients and fundamentally condemns prostitution as
a socially unacceptable activity for men to engage in.
Ibid, 301.
Katie Beran, Revisiting the Prostitution Debate: Uniting Liberal and Radical Feminism in Pursuit
of olicy Reform (2012) 30 Law and Inequality 42.
12
Turner, above n 5, 7.
13
MacKinnon, above n 9,281.
11
Socialstyrelsen (SoS: The National Board of Health and Welfare), The Ban Against the Purchase
of Sexual Services. An Evaluation 1998 - 2008.
<http://s3.amazonaws.com/zanran_storage/www.dublinpact.ie/ContentPages/2470369900.pdf>
15
Turner, above n 5, 22.
16
Beran, above n 11, 37.
17
Turner, above n 5, 5.
18
Mishka Gora, Australia and the Swedish Model of Prostitution <
http://davidcollard.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/australia-and-the-swedish-model-of-prostitution/>
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid.
21
Turner, above n 5, 21.
22
Ibid.
LAWS5172, Advanced Jurisprudence, Assignment 4
23
Ibid, 20.
Beran, abve n 11, 34.
25
MacKinnon, above n 9, 299.
26
Turner, above n 5, 17.
27
Ibid, 6.
28
Jay Levy and Pye Jakobsson, Abolitionist feminism as patriarchal control: Swedish
understandings f prostitution and trafficking (2013) 37:333, 336.
29
Ibid, 335
24
Turner,above n 5, 3
Beran, above n 11, 31.
Beran, above n 11, 30.
Ibid, 31.
Ibid.
contract. On that basis, the second rationale for legalisation is that the law
should treat prostitution as an ordinary business transaction, where the
state has the same interest in prostitution as it has in any other contract,
and may regulate it accordingly.35
To complete this analysis, it is instructive to address the purposive
intention of liberal feminism, which explains its support of legalisation.
Fundamentally, liberal feminists promote policies and laws that they
believe will legitimise sex work and destigmatise sex workers, whilst
promoting the working conditions of sex workers. To achieve these
reforms, liberal feminists argue that it is not the behaviour of male clients
that needs to be changed; change needs to be made to bad laws that
criminalise prostitution and engender negative social opinions of sex
workers and sex work.36 If there is any inherent harm in being a prostitute,
such harms are a result of societal prejudice and the non-legal status of
prostitution. Thus, liberal feminists advocate for legalisation because it
serves to legitimise prostitution as a profession and works to combat the
stigmas and stereotypes about the sex industry that permeate society. 37
2.2 Evaluating the Liberal Feminism Approach
If the legalisation approach of prostitution advocated by liberal feminists is
to be convincing, it needs to be able to defend itself against the criticisms
that are levelled against it by radical feminists. In this case, there are two:
firstly, radical feminists challenge the liberal feminist notion of freedom of
choice, arguing that women are coerced into becoming prostitutes rather
than freely choosing it; and furthermore, that liberal feminism wrongly
discounts the patriarchal social reality that structures sexual relations
between men and women.
2.2.1 Assumption of Freedom of Choice
Fundamentally, radical feminists challenge the liberal feminist notion of
freedom of choice, arguing that women are coerced into becoming
prostitutes rather than freely choosing it. This is a significant criticism of
the liberal feminist perspective, because as explained above, the
presumption of agency is crucial to the liberal feminists rationale that
prostitution should be legalised. As explanation of the criticism, radical
feminists argue that women in prostitution are compelled by their social
circumstances into prostitution, and therefore believe that the
involvement of women in prostitution is always non-consensual.38 As
MacKinnon puts it, "If prostitution is a free choice, why are the women
with the fewest choices most often found doing it?39 Radical feminists
also cite studies to corroborate this sentiment, including one that has
35
36
37
38
39
Ibid.
Karni Kissil and Maureen Davey, The Prostitution Debate in Feminism(2010) Routledge, 7.
Beran, above n 11, 30.
MacKinnon, above n 9, 274.
Catharine Mackinnon, Womens Lives, Mens Laws (Routledge:1993)
Mackinnon, above n 9,
Beran, above n 11, 49.
42
Kissil and Davey, above n 36, 6.
43
Turner, above n 5, 5.
44
Mishka Gora, Australia and the Swedish Model of Prostitution <
http://davidcollard.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/australia-and-the-swedish-model-of-prostitution/>
45
Kissel and Davey, above n 36, 6.
46
Kissel and Davey, above n 36, 7.
41
Ibid
Ibid
Ibid
Turner, abve n 5, 6.
This is a reference to Jacques Vergs, defence lawyer.
Levy and Jakobsson, above n 28, 334.
Ibid, 336.