Madam, – The launch of the so-called Sex Workers Alliance Ireland last November was undoubtedly one of the saddest days in our country’s history. The solution to the injustices to women and men involved in prostitution is not the development of such an alliance.
To pretend that prostitution is a service requiring regulation like any other industry, as Dr Teresa Whitaker of the Alliance suggests (May 24th), is to ignore the reality of the central “transaction” which takes place between prostitute and “client”. It is a dehumanising business, largely undertaken by our most vulnerable women and young men. The strong links between parental loss and other traumas in early childhood, including sexual abuse, are well documented and transcend socio-economic status and background.
Add in poverty and drug addiction and a murky and troubling picture emerges in relation to the choice between consenting adults which this new Alliance urges us to recognise and legalise. On the other side we are told by Irish Timesjournalists and others that men of all ages and backgrounds are willing to pay significant sums of money to use prostitutes. We should be asking ourselves fundamental questions about why men desire such services.
There should be no broad acceptance by society of an appetite to exploit another human being in such an intimate way. Those who have left prostitution, either due to old age, ill-health or because they have been assisted by organisations such as Ruhama never wish to return to such a life. Not only because of the dangers of being involved with pimps or gangs which Dr Whitaker cites, but because of the daily indignity and humiliation involved in such “work”.
I would suggest to your readers that they take note of the policy proposals of Ruhama and those organisations involved in the Immigrant Council of Ireland’s excellent anti-trafficking project, which have a track record and credibility on this complex issue. In short, we need more just and more permanent solutions. Decriminalisation would send a harmful message to our young people, boys and girls alike. It cannot be the answer in any humane not to say equal society.
– Yours, etc,