Prohibited Sexual Behavior and Sexual Violence

Prostitution

The word “prostitution” (from Lat. prostitutio = display, offer) is a traditional, learned term for what is nowadays often simply called “sex work”. This blunt and direct language may be honest, but people who use it should understand that they are talking about work of a very special kind. Indeed, it is work unlike any other.
The basic facts are simple enough: Some females and males habitually accept material rewards (money, presents) in exchange for satisfying the sexual wishes of their customers. Traditionally, this involves some direct physical contact, but the present electronic revolution also makes new forms of prostitution possible, from “telephone sex” to interactive visual contact per internet and mobile picture phone: Females or males, alone or with partners, allow paying customers to listen to them or watch them during sexual activity and even let individual viewers determine and guide the kind of activity they pay for.
This recent development raises new questions about the nature of the exchange. For example, it has often been argued – with considerable justification – that a prostitute is always exploited by her customers, but today’s electronic “distance prostitution” seems to reverse the roles: Individuals receive money for their sexual services from anonymous viewers whom they never meet in person. Indeed, sex workers can now service a great number of customers simultaneously and thus multiply their income from each sexual act. A neutral observer may therefore very well ask: “If there is exploitation involved, then who is exploiting whom?”
The answer is by no means obvious. Indeed, the longer one contemplates this puzzle, the more one realizes how complex the entire subject of prostitution is. The new technology merely reveals some of its aspects that have always been present, but have not always been noticed.