Take their word for it: lots of hookers happy in their work

By JODY HANSON*

Rather than sanitising prostitution, as Herald columnist Barbara Sumner Burstyn claimed, the bill to decriminalise the sex industry which is before Parliament is the only reasonable option.

As someone who has researched the sex industry in eight countries over nine years, I am amazed to see Miriam Saphira quoted as saying that she has "not yet met one happy, robust prostitute. And all have been damaged". I would like to see the research on which she bases these observations.

Obviously, I conducted my research in different parlours and agencies. If 100 per cent of prostitutes have been damaged, how did I manage to meet some who weren't?

Of the more than 500 sex workers I've met, I can think of quite a number who are well-adjusted people making a living and getting on with their lives.

Of course, there are those who have been damaged and hate their work but I can also think of a significant number of teachers, nurses and secretaries who express the same sentiment.

Other sex industry researchers, such as Jan Jordan, Maggie Black and Shannon Bell, have also written about sex workers who chose to work in the industry.

According to a stripper in Shannon Bell's book, Whore Carnival, "I have been more exploited by some feminists and some of the artistic community than I have in a strip club". Whose interests are being served by the research is a question that must be asked.

Reading that 85 per cent of prostitutes use hard drugs, that 80 per cent are victims of rape and that 89 per cent did not have any other employment options is sobering. But doesn't it begin to sound like an "I was abused, therefore I had to become a sex worker scenario"?

Sex workers to whom I've talked get extremely upset with these sorts of statistics being tossed around when nobody has asked them about their experiences. Some people may be shocked to find out that some prostitutes haven't been abused. Nor do they use hard drugs.

And they might well live next door to you and you haven't even noticed what they do for a living.

Why are we looking at Swedish studies when there is a New Zealand one available? A study OF 225 massage parlour and escort workers in Christchurch found that 67 per cent never and 8 per cent rarely used drugs at work. Where were these figures published?

Street workers in that study did have a higher rate of drug use, but still nowhere near the 65 per cent quoted by American researcher Dr Melissa Farley. And from where did she get the figures for rape, incest and sexual abuse?

The Swedish model is held up as a liberal example of legislation. But how is it to be enforced? Will police camp outside brothels to arrest clients who are paying for a service? Will undercover policewomen pose as prostitutes to entrap men? We, as taxpayers, have to question if this a wise use of public funds and limited resources.

The idea that decriminalising the sex industry will triple the number of workers is suspect. Sumner Burstyn's article did not tell us who in Victoria said there are now three times more workers, but it certainly wasn't RhED (the Victorian counterpart of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective).

First, nobody is sure how many workers there are on any given day and there is no way of making anything more than a very rough estimate.

What about the law of supply and demand? Even if the number of sex workers increases by tenfold for a week, how many people will still be in the industry a month later? Where are all the additional clients going to come from? Are there enough street corners to work from?

While the researchers in Sweden might claim that sexual services have declined by 50 per cent, I cannot understand how they can come up with this figure when they don't have a base one to start with.

When the sex industry in Victoria was legalised (not decriminalised as Sumner Burstyn maintains) it created more problems than it solved. Individual sex workers are discriminated against because the state makes it difficult for them to work on their own. This strengthens the position of large brothel owners to dominate sex workers.

Tim Barnett's bill will, on the other hand, allow most sex workers to determine their own conditions supported by a strong legal framework.

But rather than quoting sex industry researchers interpreting sex workers, listen to Angelique, a prostitute who started working in her late 30s: "I wish I had started working as a prostitute when I was younger, I really do. In fact, I did ring around the parlours when I was about 32, but I backed out ...

"hs[Once I started working I found] other working women were saying that, basically, they, too, had felt the same inferior feelings I had until they got into working as prostitutes.

"Being in the industry developed their sense of being an individual; it brought them out of their shells.

"They discovered they were free people, that they could do and say what they wanted, and come and go wherever they pleased.

"I found that when my self-esteem increased, it gives me a positive attitude to the point I can't look back."

Angelique doesn't sound as though she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to me.

* Dr Jody Hanson, a former Waikato University lecturer, is a Melbourne-based sex industry researcher. She is responding to Barbara Sumner Burstyn's view that the Prostitution Reform Bill sanitises the reality of work as a prostitute.