US-Prostitutionspolitik und philippinische Migrantinnen in Japan

Auszug des neuen Buches von Rhacel Parrenas, Soziologieprofessorin mit Erfahrung als migrantische Sexarbeiterin. Ein weiteres Beispiel für die negativen Auswirkungen, welche die Prostitutionspolitik der USA auf Sexarbeiterinnen Weltweit hat.

"...Yet the U.S. State Department cites the “dohan” (Anm: Compensated date of hostesses with their customers outside of the club) as an indication that Filipina hostesses are sexually trafficked in Japan. Such false assumptions led to a U.S. policy that prompted Japan, in 2006, to reduce the number of visas for Filipina hostesses by 90 percent. Anti-trafficking and anti-prostitution crusaders counted this a triumph. But no trafficking and very little prostitution was stopped, and 81,000 Filipinas lost their livelihoods.

Unsubstantiated claims of the forced prostitution of Filipina hostesses are morally charged, and divert attention from the need for regulation and protection of sex workers.

For Filipina hostesses, the goal should be job improvement, not job elimination. What’s needed are laws to prevent abusive behavior by middleman brokers. Club owners should be required to pay hostesses directly, rather than brokers. And labor standards should be enacted to ensure that the hostesses have regular days off and an eight-hour-per-evening work limit.

Hostesses don’t need to be rescued. They need the empowerment that comes from being independent labor migrants. Only then can they remain gainfully employed, free of migrant brokers, and have full control of their own lives..."

Prostitution und Missbrauch

In Diskussionen über Sexarbeit kommt von Gegnern oft das "Argument", das alle Prostituierte in ihrer Kindheit missbraucht worden seien. Als angeblicher Beweis werden Studien herangezogen, welche von Prostituionsgegnern wie Melissa Farley unter wissenschaftlich-ethisch höchst fraglichen Bedingungen durchgeführt wurden, wo Objektivität schon in den Fragestellungen verunmöglicht wird. Hinzu kommt, dass es keine Vergleichsgruppe in der Gesamtbevölkerung gibt(ein Grundlegendes Konzept wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens ist das "peer group reviewing"). Dies liegt unter anderem wohl daran, dass andere Berufsgruppen nicht den gleichen Vorurteilen unterliegen.

Wenn man gewissen Statistiken glaubt (deren Richtigkeit ich hier jetzt nicht diskutieren werde, da ich die Quelle dieser oftmals genannten Zahlen nicht kenne)vwird jede 3. bis 4. Frau in der Kindheit sexuell Missbraucht. Das ist schonmal eine sehr hohe Zahl, bei der es keineswegs verwunderlich wäre, dass sich auch unter Prostituierten viele Missbrauchsüberlebende befinden. Doch was ist mit der Anzahl der Missbrauchsopfer bei Serviceangestellten, Goldschmiedinnen, Hausfrauen? Diese dürfte ebenfalls sehr hoch sein...

Näher betrachtet wird schleierhaft, was überhaupt der Zweck der Aussage über Missbrauch sein soll. Selbst wenn tatsächlich überproportional viele Sexarbeiterinnen in der Vergangenheit solche negativen Erfahrungen gehabt hätten, so sagt dies nichts über die Legitimität von Prostitution aus. Einmal könnte es sein, dass Missbrauchsopfer wegen Traumatisierung Konzentrationsschwierigkeiten entwickeln und so schlechtere Schulleistungen erbringen, weshalb sie eher in Berufen tätig sind deren Ausbildungsschwelle tief ist- wozu zweifellos Sexarbeit in seiner Kernleistung gehört. Auch könnte es sein, dass die Tätigkeit als Prostituierte einen Verarbeitungsprozess darstellt. Sexarbeiterinnen setzen Grenzen, lernen umso deutlicher nein zu sagen. Was vom Konsens erfasst wird ist viel klarer als bei "zivilem" Sex, da die eigenen Grenzen im Regelfall vorher besprochen werden. Ich bin zwar keine Psychologin, kann mir aber vorstellen dass dies für einige Missbrauchsüberlebende ein Zurückholen der Selbstbestimmung darstellt. Auch kann man unter den richtigen Bedingungen sehr positive Erlebnisse haben, was die negativen in der Kindheit vielleicht ein Stück weit kompensiert.

Hier ein weiterer Artikel, der die Problematik von solchen Missbrauchsvorwürfen beleuchtet

"Can you imagine how infuriating it is to have strangers regularly make salacious assumptions about your past? To have someone you’ve never met make themselves an expert on your life? If you’re a sex worker, chances are you don’t have to imagine, because you come up against this shiz all the time, and from complete strangers no less. And denying it only makes it worse(...)
Not all sex workers were molested or beaten or criminally mistreated while growing up. Some of them were, just like some doctors and some teachers and some plumbers were. But it doesn’t matter because—here’s a radical thought—whether or not any given sex worker has a tragic past is profoundly none of your business. And your speculation is profoundly unfunny."

Forced and voluntary prostitution

Question posed on Quora, to which I answer here since the access to commenting is restricted:

"Why is it so common to include voluntary prostitution in the category of sex trafficking?"

Some people simply can't imagine that any women would choose to do this. Because what they can't imagine cannot allowed to be, they defame and slander us as mentally ill or victimize us otherwise. Through this, our consent is rendered irrelevant, valued less and our choices can be lumped together with slavery. I don't claim that sex work is all glamorous and nice- the stigmatization which leads to a double-life or discrimination can be hard, and of course not all clients are nice (although the majority is, and with experience the idiots can largely be avoided). But I alone know so many women (myself included) who do this job and really, really like it. I don't claim that all prostitutes are like this- not by far! But even regarding those for whom it's just a way to make money and not a personal preference, consent still matters and has to be respected. In the end, it all boils down to RESPECT or DISRESPECT about the autonomy of women to decide what they can or cannot do with their bodies.

Many people also conflate the issue of generally bad situations for women in certain cultures with sex work in general. People who claim all or most prostitutes are victims often refer to the situation in third-world countries to prove that most prostitutes are exploited- after all, those countries make up the majority of the world population. Here, the bad situation for sex workers is not a problem of prostitution per se, but just a symptom of the poverty, misogyny and other social problems that pierce the majority of said society. These problems also apply to other kinds of work and not seldom to marriage. One may just as well say that most people are exploited.

An example that is currently much-discussed in Switzerland is the exploitation of street prostitutes from the Roma- minority. Roma face various forms of discrimination in their home countries (mainly Hungary): Restricted access to education and jobs lead to poverty, and landlords refuse to hire to them. This leads to resentment among the Roma, which gives rise to the infamous self- fulfilling prophecy and in turn leads to more discrimination. Furthermore, Roma culture has strong patriarchal values, which doubles the discrimination towards Roma- women. The money earned is transferred to the male heads of the family. It's the brothers, husbands and other relatives who are the pimps. Some of these women don't identify as victims, because for them it's normal to be controlled by the males in their surroundings- it's not specifically prostitution-related. If anyone has an plan that can magically fix all causes for exploitation, he or she is a genius deserving of the nobel price - but certainly attacking sex work in general and devaluing the choices of sex workers is not the solution.