Li Yinhe talks about sex

Chapter 24 Teaching Prostitution and Decriminalizing Sex Work
Prostitution itself should not be illegal.

A few days ago, a professor at Fudan University was blackmailed after going to a prostitute. As a result, he lost his job and ruined his reputation.Public opinion reacted strongly, with various comments.These comments can be summarized as follows: the first one is the one with the largest number of people and the loudest voice, and strongly condemns a decent professor for doing such a disgraceful thing; the second one is that the professor is too angry. Can you leave a business card for a prostitute?It’s no wonder that tens of thousands of people who went to prostitutes were not caught, but he was caught; the third one believes that personal problems in private life should not affect his studies, and the Nobel Prize winner publicly thanked sex workers when accepting the award , Didn't it also affect his writing novels and winning awards?Why does a professor in China have to resign?

In a footnote to his famous book Sexual Politics, the feminist writer Millet said: "Communist China is said to be the only country in the world free of prostitution." Everyone now knows that's not true, and it never was. From the 20s to the 50s, female prostitutes also survived along the mines and long-distance transportation routes, but the number was much smaller than now.Perhaps it can be said that our country was quite close to this goal during the 20 years of the 70s, 50s and 60s, but it did not fully achieve this goal.But now, we are getting farther and farther away from this goal.

As a result, China now also faces policy choices on the issue of prostitution.As early as 1959, the United Nations document "A Study on Individuals and the Transaction in Prostitution" stated that prostitution itself should not be illegal.According to this spirit, very few countries make prostitution illegal, and even our country's "Criminal Law" does not punish prostitutes and prostitutes, but only punishes those who force, organize, and shelter others into prostitution.However, in the administrative regulations ("Public Security Management Regulations of the People's Republic of China"), prostitution and whoring are prohibited.

Why does the UN believe that sex trafficking should not be outlawed?Mainly due to the following considerations:

First, the practical consequences of decriminalizing sex work work against women.The current situation is that both buyers and sellers want to continue to do business. The government's anti-prostitution policy can't really eliminate prostitution. The effect of government policy is to make sex work more difficult, so that lawbreakers can exploit more from prostitutes.This is the practical consequence of the abolition of prostitution policy.

Second, there is a contradiction between criticizing prostitution and criticizing prostitutes.The human rights of prostitutes are rarely guaranteed, and the punishment for robbing and killing them is relatively light or less likely to be punished.According to statistics, hundreds of prostitutes were killed in the Northeast in a certain year. They died silently in the gutter. Some people not only showed no mercy, but thought they deserved what they deserved.Don't say that their behavior did not violate the "Criminal Law" and cannot be considered a crime. Even if it is a crime, it shouldn't be a capital offense, right?These women are the most isolated and stigmatized of all women groups in a patriarchal society. They are not only belittled and cursed by the whole society, but also belittled and cursed by the police, prostitutes, pimps and even feminists.

Third, analyze prostitution from a functional perspective: it serves the majority of male unmarried, perverted and ugly men.In China, there is a special group, tens of millions of migrant workers. In 2004, statistics from Beijing showed that 57% of rape cases were committed by migrant workers from other places. Although it can be attributed to the low moral level of this group, it also reflects the degree to which their physical needs are suppressed.This functionally explains the demand for sex work.People who don't have this need tend to ignore people who do and their needs.

Fourth, power has no right to interfere with women's personal behavior.Caral Leigh, an important member of the American prostitutes rights group COYOTE, created the word "sex work" in the prostitutes' rights movement in 1979, injecting a new feminist term into English and reaffirming female dominance the right to one's own body.

From the standpoint of feminism, from a long-term perspective, the sex trade system must be eliminated, because it is the product of the economically unequal status of men and women.The day when gender equality is fully realized is the time when the sex trade will completely die out.As Engels argued, unless marriage ceases to be in any sense an involuntary contract based primarily on economic interests, marriage can only continue to be an institution of prostitution (i.e., sex for money and goods) a variant.Only after the end of male economic dominance, and only after women enter the economic sphere with absolute equality and independence, will sex cease to be a barter based on some form of economic coercion.

On the issue of sex work, the goals of feminism should be divided into two levels: strategic (short-term goals) and strategic (long-term goals): From a strategic point of view, one should strive for the decriminalization of sex work in order to minimize harm (taking illegal Compared with decriminalization and the exploitation of sex workers, the strategy should strive to improve the political, economic and social status of women, so as to eliminate prostitution.

(End of this chapter)