FEMINIST APPROACHES TO THE ISSUE OF PROSTITUTION: TOWARDS THE ABOLITION OF PROSTITUTION

Abstract

We can approach the issue of prostitution from different ideological positions. Approaches to this problem that are most often discussed are liberal, Marxist, and feminist. The first part of the paper will critically present the liberal approach to the issue of prostitution, together with legal models of regulation of prostitution which are based on values generated within liberal politics. This paper aims to show the inadmissibility of defining prostitution as a legitimate profession that needs to be decriminalized or legalized. With this in mind, a correlation between the Marxist and radical feminist approaches will be presented, with the idea of showing that left-wing should adopt an abolitionist approach to the issue of prostitution. (MacKinnon 1982). The Marxist approach to prostitution primarily highlights class issues related to this phenomenon. Prostitution is defined as a social phenomenon that is a consequence of capitalist exploitation of labor, which enables the Marxist relation towards prostitution to be characterized as abolitionist. Accordingly, most space will be left to show the place that prostitution, along with other forms of commercialized sexual activity, has within radical feminist theory. The paper will adopt the categorization of prostitution as sexual exploitation, which further entails the acceptance of an objective approach to the phenomenon of prostitution (Barry 1997).An objective approach implies an evaluation of the inherent harmfulness of prostitution, which will be presented on an individual and collective level. The evaluation of the harmfulness of prostitution emphasizes the connection between prostitution and two types of exploitation, capitalist exploitation of labor, and sexual exploitation. The paper comes to a normative conclusion about the activity of the left political scene, which should be aimed at eliminating commercialized forms of sexual activity