Joyce Glaspy of St. Louis, Missouri said that brothels would give the women security and safety. She also said, "These are human beings, and you can do something to help them." She brought this point up in a ward meeting and was upset because no one took her seriously. They brushed off this important claim as if it meant nothing because no one wants to face or admit that there is a huge problem of prostitution and/or trafficking going on in their city.
But there are two sides to every story. Brothels can also be used to further exploit these women. In chapter three of Survivors of Slavery by Laura Murphy, the reader learns that Lena, a forced sex worker, has never seen her money, was threatened when she told her pimp she wanted it, and can only buy necessities like toiletries through her pimp. This idea of a brothel displays how dangerous it can still be for a sex worker. Brothel or not, it is not always the safest place as many people like to argue.
A new documentary about a brothel in New Orleans, Louisiana recently appeared on Netflix. It is called the Canal Street Madam and tells the story about Jeanette Maier and her family run brothel. Jeanette and her mother were the bosses while Jeanette employed her own daughter as an escort. Jeanette claims her girls were very safe in her brothel and that she took very good care of them. She did not exploit them or traffick them but she still hounded them for money and and sold them over the phone to clients. These women were their own people doing what they wanted and were under the impression that they were safe. Jeanette was their pimp who sold them and made profit off of them.
Women who are sex workers are never safe. Not in a brothel, not in the streets, and not with a pimp. The music group Three 6 Mafia has a song titled, "Hard Out Here for a Pimp." That is one of the most backwards songs because it most certainly is not hard out in the world for a pimp. It is hard on the women they are selling and exploiting. There is no guaranteed safety anywhere for a woman as a sex worker. Who can they trust or turn to? They have no one but themselves at any and every bad situation. It is a dangerous world we live in and sex workers play a dangerous game that always teeters on the edge.
Many supporters of brothels believe that they are a solution to the problem of sex trafficking and exploitation of sex workers. But how can brothels be regulated properly? There is no regulated system that protects the sex workers against customers. As brothels are beginning to be questioned and closed down more sex workers are going underground, where it is more dangerous. Is there any form of basic universal protection for the sex workers in brothels in place now? With an example such as the Bunny Ranch in Nevada, discretion, sexual safety and consent can create a positive sex working environment. Others that do not support brothels believe that they are institutions of corruption and moral sin, but what other problems would arise if brothels became legal?
ReplyDeleteWith your example about the Netflix movie it is hard to understand what your stance on the issue really is. You begin by stating brothels aren't safe but with this example it appears as if their brothel was safe since it was in the family. It would be helpful if you could clarify how that documentary relates to your view on the issue that brothels are in fact dangerous.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that a brothel is not a safe place at all is understood. When it comes down to it, can you really argue that a brothel is not the safest? The brothel in this picture seems very "classy". The brothel I seen in the documentary "Whores Glory" did not look that bad (considering how the country looks as a whole). Now if we compare these two brothels to the little apartment we read about in the book, we can see that it is a better place. The girls in the book were sleeping 20 to a room on the floor. While in the brothels they have their own rooms with privacy.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there is the possibility of brothel owners abusing their power, it is still a safer route as they have some protection. It would be even safer if the government accepted prostitution as a legal occupation and established laws and assistance to make sure that prostitution is safe for both the worker and the consumer by offering health and social services for both parties. If we want to prevent bad things from happening in these brothels, we need to assist in making sure it is safe for their business to go on.
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