Mark is married to Jo and is a 23 year old youth and schools worker based in South Cave (near Hull). Mark spent 4 years as a youth worker in Peterborough whilst studying for a degree in youth work & ministry with Oasis.
I’ve been following John Sentamu (the Archbishop of York) on Twitter for quite some time now and today he alerted followers to his article in ‘The Sunday Times’ on prostitution which you can read here
In the article Sentamu discusses the problem of prostitution mentioning that 75% of those in prostitution become involved before they are 18 (this is in Europe) and that 90% of prostitutes have been forced to take part in sex or a sexual act. From these statistics Sentamu suggests that the government should take action against those who use prostitutes.
Sentamu also challenges the glamorisation of prostitution through shows such as ‘Secret Diary of a Call Girl’ and suggests that prostitution is actually the opposite stating:
We are meant to believe that these sex workers are independent women, empowered by the hold they have over men, who sell their bodies for money but who treat it like any other job. They can walk away at any time, remain emotionally detached and, in short, nobody is hurt by this simple business transaction.
Another Time article (here) mentions that in Sweden criminalisation of coercion caused prostitution to plummet.
So what should be done? Britain does have a prostitution problem and often it involves illegally trafficked girls who are subjected to terror and violence. I think the idea of taking those who use prostitutes to court could work to help lower the number of prostitutes, however it does also have the potential to force prostitution underground to a place where it becomes even more difficult to track down and potentially putting the girls in more danger.
Sentamu starts an interesting discussion in his article which is continued by Ruth Gledhill in the second article I linked and it’s great that he is coming out and standing up for morals and I hope he’ll be listened to. It’ll be interesting to see what else develops in this discussion
Dear Sir
You are missing something.
What it is to be human. Being human is ignored in all these discussions. The nature of a human being is to breed – pass on your genes to the next generation – your child. Being human is to want and attain power over other human beings. The achieving of power means wealth. Once these things are achieved anything is possible. Being human means that the compassionate aspect of the psyche can be turned on in our genes but not usually at the expense of the former mentioned.
If you want to “defeat” prostitution then make it legal – give the girls somewhere safe to go, monitor their health, protect them from the bad men out there and keep them safe.
Stopping prostitution by prosecuting men who just want the normal act of sex will drive it more underground exposing the girls to more danger.
Hello Annon,
Firstly feel free to call me Mark,
I completely understand your comments and as I mentioned making it illegal could force it underground and be completely counter-productive and put girls in more danger.
However my issue with making it legal is that in making it legal on some level we accept that it’s right which I cannot go with. I agree that the benefits would be great in the sense of protecting the girls though and see both positive and negatives for making it legal.
To be perfectly honest I don’t think there is a solution to it and it’s not that prostitution is an new thing perhaps it’s a case of standing up for what’s right…which of course is a matter of opinion
Hello Mark
It’s more than standing up for what’s right.
If selling ones body wasn’t an issue then illegality simply wouldn’t be an issue – It would just be.
Who decides what to do with their own body? – the owner does. Whether it’s drink, drugs, fattening food, dangerous sports, healthy activities, vegan-ism, etc, etc and what about mental issues such as anorexia, bulimia, self harm etc. I digress.
Making something illegal doesn’t stop human nature from pursuing it. Think prohibition, think narcotics.
There is another issue – if prostitution is driven underground – even more than it is at present – then I think there will be a huge increase in rape crime.
In this scenario your “right” will be far worse for society than a simple monetary/physical transaction.