Editing Sexism (section)

=== Prostitution ===

[[Prostitution]] is the business or practice of engaging in [[human sexual activity|sexual relations]] for [[payment]].<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Prostitution—Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prostitution |dictionary=Merriam-Webster |access-date=September 19, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Prostitution Law & Legal Definition |url=http://definitions.uslegal.com/p/prostitution |publisher=US Legal |access-date=19 March 2013}}</ref> Sex workers are often objectified and are seen as existing only to serve clients, thus calling their sense of agency into question. There is a prevailing notion that because they sell sex professionally, prostitutes automatically consent to all sexual contact.<ref name="Sullivan 2007">{{cite journal |title=Rape, Prostitution and Consent |author=Sullivan, Barbara |journal=[[Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology]] |year=2007 |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=127–142 |quote=In common law jurisdictions like the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, some of the evidentiary jurisprudence clearly linked chastity with veracity. So women who were or had been sex workers, those who were 'rumoured' to be prostitutes or who were simply promiscuous and behaving 'like a prostitute' lacked credibility as complainants, which made it difficult for the prosecution to prove the sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt. Women in any of these categories were seen at law as 'commonly available' to men, as always consenting to sexual activity and thus, as not able to be raped. Men accused of sexual assault were therefore able to use evidence of prostitution to defend themselves, to undermine the credibility of rape complainants and to successfully avoid conviction. |doi=10.1375/acri.40.2.127 |s2cid=145263451}}</ref> As a result, sex workers face higher [[violence against prostitutes|rates of violence]] and sexual assault. This is often dismissed, ignored and not taken seriously by authorities.<ref name="Sullivan 2007" />

In many countries, prostitution is dominated by brothels or pimps, who often claim ownership over sex workers. This sense of ownership furthers the concept that sex workers are void of agency.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://walnet.org/csis/papers/redefining.html |title=Redefining Prostitution as Sex Work on the International Agenda |website=walnet.org}}</ref> This is literally the case in instances of [[sexual slavery]].

Various authors have argued that female prostitution is based on male sexism that condones the idea that unwanted sex with a woman is acceptable, that men's desires must be satisfied, and that women are coerced into and exist to serve men sexually.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/Prostitution.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060903143328/http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/Prostitution.pdf |archive-date=September 3, 2006 |title=Readings on Prostitution}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/jan/18/ukcrime.prisonsandprobation |title=Julie Bindel: Eradicate the oldest oppression—UK news—The Guardian |author=Julie Bindel |newspaper=the Guardian |date=January 18, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/sep/10/endingatradeinmisery |title=Ending a trade in misery |author=Julie Bindel |newspaper=the Guardian |date=September 10, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9mlFgjEBYWYC |title=The Industrial Vagina |via=[[Google Books]] |access-date=2015-03-31 |isbn=978-0-203-69830-3 |last1=Jeffreys |first1=Sheila |date=November 11, 2008 |publisher=Taylor & Francis}}</ref> The [[European Women's Lobby]] condemned prostitution as "an intolerable form of male violence".<ref>{{cite web |title=European Women's Lobby: Prostitution in Europe: 60 Years of Reluctance |url=http://www.womenslobby.eu/spip.php?article472 |website=womenslobby.eu}}</ref>

[[Carole Pateman]] writes that:<blockquote>
Prostitution is the use of a woman's body by a man for his own satisfaction. There is no desire or satisfaction on the part of the prostitute. Prostitution is not mutual, pleasurable exchange of the use of bodies, but the unilateral use of a woman's body by a man in exchange for money.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jH2KPvZF1L0C |title=The Sexual Contract |via=[[Google Books]] |access-date=March 31, 2015 |isbn=978-0-8047-1477-8 |last1=Pateman |first1=Carole |author-link=Carole Pateman |year=1988 |publisher=Stanford University Press}}</ref></blockquote>