(There is lots of activism happening behind the scenes around prostitution. I suspect this may be the first step toward demands for legalization. I have to admit legalization confuses me. Thus I recorded two articles; this and another titled Legalization? Yes, please, as a two-part series in that podcast, I keep talking about but which is not available yet….)
These days there are quite many people coming to the streets asking our opinions about prostitution related issues. Some of them talk about rehabilitation, legalization, and rights. It all sounds fine, but legalization disturbs me. Legalization means us joining the system. It means structure and monitoring. It means returns and taxes. But also, as the activists put it, legalization means freedom in capital letters, it means the end to police and city council askari harassment. To them, it also means better sexual health because of the openness that comes with recognition. At the face of it, legalization seems like the best thing that can happen to our industry. What with us being treated with dignity and all. However in my opinion the obvious advantages of legalization are insignificant as compared to the disadvantages.
I am not against paying tax or a license fee, but the monitoring that comes with it. My privacy would be gone, what with me joining the government records as a taxpayer whose source of income is prostitution. With the push towards open governance, you never know who may smoke me out. Anonymity is key to me and many of us here. If it’s gone then we may be forced to go too.
Legalization will also come with a code of conduct. A code of conduct arrived after a long debate between the moralists and rights activists. Such a code may set rules for instance on how we dress. I imagine something like No tight clothes or any that show cleavage. Dresses and skirts must reach below knee length. Pants must be worn and not shown in public. No stealing from clients. No sleeping with married men. All these will hurt our business. There is a large part of our clients who are men of weaker will tempted to embrace us by our kinky clothes and display of flesh. And what would we do without the married men? I see this as the easy part; the tough part would be handling the enthusiasm of the appointed enforcers of the code of conduct. I can bet anything that the city council askari would look like angels compared to such.
Knowing the way things are done here, and with the new constitution which tends to stress on vetting everyone, with legalization there would be a bureau for the registration of prostitutes. This would be the place girls go to apply and be vetted before being officially allowed to join the profession of prostitution. The interview questions oral or written would be awkward; What makes you suitable to join prostitution? (“I am a girl and I possess something men are willing to pay for.”) Other than being a girl what other qualities do you possess to make you best suited for this? What’s your education level? – (“University degree”) – With your qualifications why not join other professions – ( I am passionate about sex.”). Are you aware of the dangers of prostitution? All these kinds of questions would ignore many factors some not easy to explain that make one leap to prostitution. And what would happen when I quit the profession? Would they put a public notice in the papers: The above-named person no longer works as a prostitute. You are warned against transacting with her…etc
Back to the matter of taxes. I pay indirect tax and would love to pay income tax. But with tax, a need might arise to regulate prices. And how would the authorities fix the price of a session? They would certainly get it wrong for the price a prostitute charges is a function of many things some not quantifiable. Like how pretty or good a girl thinks she is. Like the extras a girl offers and her assessment of the client. The relationship between a client and a girl is so flexible and unpredictable as to make nonsense any fixed price, high or low. Other than fixing the price a need may arise to provide some accountability in terms of payment. Receipts! That, more than anything else, would put our customers at risk. You never know who may see the receipt.
Legalization is also likely to curtail the freedom of movement of prostitutes. We would be forced to operate only within certain areas. This would interfere with economies that come with location. Prostitutes in various locations in town cater to different clientele. If we are forced to one place it would mean the differentiation based on location would be lost. There is no way the downtown, middle town, and uptown girls can be mixed. For instance, men who go downtown are looking for some roughness there, while those targeting the uptown, are looking for the escapist kind of feel provided by the ‘decency ‘ of the upscale girls.
But all said and done legalization is not all evil. It would lead to the kind of recognition that would make our reports to the police valid and not to be dismissed based on the unwritten rule: A prostitute is always wrong.
