When Sex Is a Business, You Can't Forget About Demand

Whether it's a $30 sex act in a brothel in Flushing, Queens that markets to dishwashers and day laborers, or a $4,000 sex act sold through a glossy website, the demand by men for commercial sex in the United States today is overwhelming. It's time to take a hard look at the culture and laws in our society that make it so easy for television commentators to say it is a "victimless crime." I've been to Roosevelt Avenue in Queens where men on corners in this prostitution district get paid to hand out fliers covered in naked women's bodies. They'll guide you to the brothels that line the side streets filled with trafficked women from Central and South America. Men pay $30 for 15 minutes of sex.

Our image of the jet-set call girl is an illusion. Rare news about the workings of the upper-end of the prostitution industry is now before us and the undeniable truth is they aren't the empowered women characterized in movies, music and the American psyche. Behind the polished pictures and polite language of the now-shuttered Emperor's Club VIP is the woman Governor Eliot Spitzer summoned to Washington D. C. for paid sex: a 22-year-old from a broken home, who's abused drugs, been abused and wasn't sure how she was going to pay the next month's rent.

There's a clear link between the proliferation of prostitution and a flourishing sex-trafficking industry. Our country and the State of New York have made great strides in passing laws that are aimed at stemming the tide of prostitution and trafficking. In 2000, the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed and gave the Justice Department further tools to fight the proliferation of organized prostitution. Led by Governor Spitzer himself, New York State passed a tough anti-trafficking law in 2007 which gives local prosecutors the new crime of trafficking to indict traffickers and pimps. But we still have a long way to go. The bill, while important, lacks the funding or the teeth to enact real change. (As I wrote in the Albany Times-Union today, New York state is currently allocating only $450,000 in this year's budget to combat sex trafficking. It takes more money than that to clear snow from New York City streets for one day.)

All the while, the prostitution industry has boomed. JFK Airport is one of the main hubs used by traffickers, according to the Justice Department. Flip past the electronics category of the Yellow Pages and you'll find dozens of pages of escort service listings. Manhattan's Verizon Yellow Pages has startling images of girls that appear to be as young as 10 years old. And it's clear that these are big operations: it costs $45,000 upfront for a full-page ad in the escort category.

We will never make progress until we address demand, until johns face stiffer penalties and public shame instead of a free pass and bragging rights. As it stands, the men who drive the demand are barely held accountable. In most cities, women are arrested for prostitution in far greater numbers than men. There are 20 times more arrests of women in some cities. The johns get off easy, while women receive arrest records and also suffer from drug abuse and violence. In one study, 82 percent of women had been assaulted since entering the prostitution business. Even in "high-class" prostitution, women are warned not to wear thick necklaces, shoulder strap handbags or scarves that can be used to choke them.

It's time we take notice of the harsh reality of the world of prostitution. At this moment, what is right for New York and for our country is to take a hard look at the value we place on the lives of women and girls, what we expect from the men in our lives, and to get serious about ending the practices and cultural norms that allow prostitution, trafficking, and violence to flourish in our communities.

Comments

[AntiSocialite]

I recently watched a documentary on the American Drug War and something one of the people in it said struck me. "Regulation, treatment and education always work better than prohibition." Think about that comment for a second, roll it over in your mind, let it seep in. Do you honestly believe that publicly shaming and jailing men who solicit prostitution or women who provide it will help the situation? Prostitution has been in every society since the dawn of time with varying degrees of acceptability; now ask yourself, does that sound like something that can be stamped out? Regulation would not only provide tax revenue and free up police time but also help to curb the more despicable practices of the business like human trafficking and the exploitation of children. Treatment and education for people in the business could also help to cut down on disease while providing prostitutes with alternative job ideas to steer them out of the profession or psychiatric counseling if they were abused or withother emotional problems. Both men and women buy and sell sex for a multitude of reasons and for anyone to look down on them for doing it is ridiculous. Lets try and find a sensible solution that doesn't involve locking people up for acting on our most primal instincts.

[cylindar]

Sonia, you are right about some things but dead wrong about others. It would appear from what you have written that you think prostitution in itself is a bad thing. You are not only wrong but you are going to lose the game. You exhibit a bit of an ego if you think that your words are stronger than the urge to participate in sexual activity. Indeed!! The only intelligent way to protect sex workers is to give them a legal status. In tihs way many of the problems that you have noted will disappear overnight. Yes, as in anything else there will always be problems but lets be adult about this and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Personally I do not prefer prostitutes as sex givers because they are so lame and business like about it that it is a major turnoff. The best sex is free but I do not think that banning it as a business is a smart move. In fact it just won't work.

[NicoleAnonymous]

Are you joking? I really think you need to read more about the "victim" because Ashley ran away from the million dollar home she lived in and decided to star in a Girls gone Wild video and then realized she could make more money from sex than anything else and continued to do it. The reason she doesn't know how she is going to pay her rent is because the man she was living with "suddenly" moved out, according to her because she was angry at him although it was probably because he found out she was a prostitute when she didn't have any choice but to tell him the story was going public.

Some men need sex from prostitutes - maybe we should just stop trying to make men feel guilty about something that is normal and healthy and focus on women who really are victims. The prostittutes working on the streets are victims but blaming the men who have sex with them won't solve anything. Making men feel bad about it is the same as making women feel bad about wanting children - we can't change human nature. Also also you're missing the entire point about why they wanted Spitzer gone but I give up - if people prefer to talk about prostitution then I'll let them.

[hopefulintexas]

If Ashley's performance in that Girls Gone Wild video does not support the thesis that the "high-class call girl world is a myth," then .... I don't know what to tell you. I agree, though, Ashley Dupree is not a "victim" like the sex-slaves are victims, and some of the "facts" here are simply wrong.
But tell me, what men do you believe "need" sex from prostitutes? Where did you learn this? Do you mean ugly rich men who can't sleep with beautiful women without an outright swipe of their credit card or married men who refuse to deal with the issues in their marriage and instead go to hookers for sex? Need? Really?
Normal and healthy??? Really???

[elbowguts]

Are you equating "men who refuse to deal with the issues in their marriage" to "women who don't care for sex with their husbands anymore"? Because if so, then I think you are way confused. Might it not be possible that in some cases it's the wife who refuses to deal with the issues in the marriage?

At any rate, shouldn't it be up to the people involved? If a 25 year old woman decides to "date" a 50 year old man who takes her out for nice dinners and vacations to the Caribbean (but doesn't really "love" him) should she be hauled in for prostitution? Where do you draw the line?

[RepublicanBrain]

You're kidding, right? This is just another smear campaign against men. Don't punish the women, punish the men. Man bad, woman good. Repeat ad nauseam.

You want to get serious about prostitution, punish the women that willingly do this business. Demand exists, but the demand is not for prostitution, it is for sex. Sex is not prostitution by itself. The want of sex is a biological imperative on both sides, men and women. That is not wrong, neither can it be changed. To end prostitution, one must stop supply.

[ElkoJohn]

`
if the so-called moral majority, anti-choice folks
would devote some of their time
to saving the already-born, young girls
being sold as sex slaves in the good ole USA
methinks it would make a difference
.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Well, it appears the MALE commenters are out in force tonite. ;-)

[colleen2]

I greatly fear that the men who use prostitutes aren't apt to view what they do as exploitive. They do not care that the majority of the women they use were sexually and emotionally abused as children and they certainly don't care that women and children are being bought and sold as slaves.
What disgusting men so many Americans are.
I would liove to see men who purchase sex arrested, fined, publically exposed and jailed. I would love to see 'John' schools in every city.

[elbowguts]

Nice when you can just make up statistics to support your case. Like when I was listening to NPR after the Spitzer story broke: a woman was making a similar case about prostitution not being a victimless crime using police statistics. Never mind that police rarely get involved in the bulk of actual prostitution cases; they typically only get involved with the most desperate women, like streetwalkers. Cherry-picking your stats and then extrapolating to the general population is generally done when you already know what you want to conclude from your "research".

BTW, it's not just American men who are disgusting. Prostitution is legal in the Netherlands and Germany, and generally tolerated in most of Europe.

[hopefulintexas]

it has become a real problem in the united states due in large part to internet porn increasing the demand. the "demographics" of these "johns" are such that exposing them and punishing them would have a great deterrent effect. they are not the same guys who would patronize a prostitute 10 or 20 years ago.
for example, in 2004 or 2005, the police shut down 200 brothels in Houston, Texas -- and had more to go. Houston was rivaling Vegas in the sex industry; that's how much it had exploded. i don't know the recent stats, but understand that the local sex-trade went from there largely to online brothels a la Eliot (though Eliot was paying alot more than your average Houston Joe, I'm sure).
this is not the same old "oldest-profession-in-the-world" problem. in the "old days," Eliot Spitzer would have just taken a mistress. and thus be forced to reckon with a woman as a human being ... not a commodity.
i fail to see how we benefit from turning a blind eye to this new "trend" -- or worse -- responding to it by a call for legalization of prostitution.

[RepublicanBrain]

You don't make a whole lot of sense. How, exactly, is exposing someone who buys a prostitute going to stop other people from solicitation. According to you, there is no shame. You state that it would, but provide no evidence and reason. If prostitution is indeed as prolific and ingrained as you say, then there would be no shame.

Seems to me that you are raging angry and have no idea why. Again, the demand is not for prostitution, it is for sex. The assumption is faulty from the getgo. Neither a legislation or exposure would solve the problem.

[Dan Stewart]

"...a 22-year-old from a broken home, who's abused drugs, been abused and wasn't sure how she was going to pay the next month's rent."

You lost me right there.

1. Half the population is from a broken home.
2. Half the population has abused drugs.
3. Her rent was $11,000 per month.

Pa-lease.

It's hard to sell a point when you loose your cred in the first paragraph.

[LondonTownNY]

Correction: Ashley's rent at The Chelsea Landmark (http://www.mahalo.com/Chelsea_Landmark ) was $4,000 per month for a Studio. See also: http://www.gogirlfriend.com/images/ashely-dupre-does-pr-chelsea-landmark-and-mayflower-hotel-8810

[elbowguts]

A typical smear job by "feminists" who want to equate kidnapped women with adults like Ashlee Dupree who make their own (admittedly bad) choices.

"a 22-year-old from a broken home, who's abused drugs, been abused and wasn't sure how she was going to pay the next month's rent."

Leaving aside that all of the above has nothing to do with prostitution per-se, I guess we're ignoring the story that she really left home because her step-dad wouldn't buy her another Porsche to replace the one she wrecked.

Guess what? Prostitution is already illegal. Like drugs, it's the illegality of it that encourages people who are already criminals (and hence have nothing to lose by adding another crime to their resume's) to get involved.

[LondonTownNY]

Prostitution must be legalized. You will never outlaw or ban human nature but you can get rid of the ugliest side of the business which is underage prostitution, human trafficking and pimps and other middle men who engage in the exploitation of "sex workers"

Sex Worker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_worker
North American Task Force on Prostitution: http://www.bayswan.org/NTFP.html
Sex Workers Project: http://www.sexworkersproject.org/
International Union of Sex Workers: http://www.iusw.org/
Coyote: http://www.bayswan.org/COYOTE.html

[baldmelon]

HuffPost's Pick

much like the "war on drugs" stamping out prostitution in the fashion that you are describing sounds like a no win battle to me. the demand will always be there...always! it must be legalized and regulated.

[hopefulintexas]

yeah; like alcohol? and gambling? and divorce? i don't mean to be a prude, but do we really want to say as a society "this behavior is ok"?
to me, the "victim" is not so much one of the players in any particular sex transaction, but rather, our society at large. not only our young girls--specifically--and poor, oppressed girls, more specifically -- but our CHILDREN. is this the world we want them to grow up in?
and we're not talking about the old parts of this that have always been around. we're talking about the new millenium, internet-porn-era "sex industry" -- check the statistics on how many families have been torn asunder due to it. and are being torn asunder daily. neither internet porn nor internet brothels even EXISTED a mere decade ago. judge the proliferation of it from that -- zero to now in ten years. there's no way we know the full impact this has had on our culture in general, and our girls in particular. and by the looks of the comments here, we're not even getting close to asking the right questions.
this proliferation of prostitution in our culture is providing the internet porn addicts the ability to take their addiction to the next level. it's not doing our families any good. ask someone who has been affected by it. check around--you probably know someone.
THAT'S what this Eliot Spitzer thing should tell you -- not that prostitution should be legal.

[jvarga]

Internet porn existed a decade ago, fyi.

[hopefulintexas]

actually, i was here. it's not really the same, though, when it takes 3 minutes to download one picture. i think it exploded with high speed internet.

[dexxjones]

yeah no. more laws, more excuses to try and effect natural, yes natural behaviour. ENOUGH. prostitution should be legalized. period, end of story. despite the better efforts of smug PC proponents and alleged "women's rights" folks, nature is nature. men are not going to change and the prospect of adding another "war on" to our growling list of failures is absolutely NOT going to fly. you are going in the wrong direction with this post. sorry. LESS laws, not more.

[OtayPanky]

Whether it's a $30 sex act in a brothel in Flushing, Queens that markets to dishwashers and day laborers, or a $4,000 sex act sold through a glossy website, the demand by men for commercial sex in the United States today is overwhelming. It's time to take a hard look...

===

Maybe you want to rephrase that, otay?