Sex for bread

An Immoral, uncultured, low life sinner dishing out sex in the darkest hour to hungry men and women who are overcome by an ecstasy to live out their fantasy or the thrill of convenient intercourse is how most people view the lifestyle and actions of a prostitute; some are open minded enough to give this career choice the benefit of the doubt and analyse it as  an ordinary woman on the corner in heat who is tired of waiting in the unemployment line only to be turned back and forced to go home with the echoes of hunger, failure and uncertainty ringing in her head. The prostitute? She thinks of it as an ordinary job where a service is exchanged for an income, arguing that she is fully aware of what she’s doing and just wants to be left alone to do her business and make a living facing the ultimate insult.

Trading morals and values for bread and milk or an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay?

Only a tiny percentage of women in prostitution are there because they choose it. For most, prostitution is not a freely-made choice because the conditions that would permit genuine choice are not present: physical safety, equal power with buyers, and real alternatives.

These girls oftentimes, or so they have said, do not like their line of work. Some of these girls have said that they are drug users. The ‘high’ they achieve from using these substances takes them away from the harsh realities of their day to day, or rather night to night lives.

Personality and soul, individuality and character are worth nothing; shape, and size of their bodies – everything. Women who prostitute have described it as “paid rape” and “voluntary slavery”, and although it unfortunately drags along with it such harsh tags, it seems like it has become the only easiest and quickest option for many women, but discrimination and prosecution are the only ‘solutions’ thrown at this poverty fuelled occupation.

What is often disregarded by the frequenters and owners of these establishments, and of people on the whole, is the devastating psychological effect which this line of work has on the girls. Due to poverty, and lack of opportunity, these women and girls become commodities on the street, to be rented, leased, haggled over and oftentimes battered.

“Renting an organ for ten minutes” and “I use them like I might use any other facility, a restaurant, or a public convenience” are some of the things said by “john”(as these men are known) who partake in this trade; provoking human rights rationale to why prostitution remains illegal in so many places and generally boiling down to two arguments: It sets the wrong tone for society, and it degrades the people who peddle the favors.

Prostitution is often referred to as the “oldest profession.” Indeed, it has always been a common way for women to make money, even in Bible times. The Bible tells us that prostitution is immoral.

“For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell” (Proverbs 5:3-5 NKJV).

With all due respect, do the morals and values birthed by the bible pay the bills when the rising cost of living, coupled with an often limited formal education and obtaining a permissible source of income that pays a similar amount does not always prove to be an easy task?

Basically, in the eyes of the conservatives, people who barter sex for money are corrupters of society’s morals and are the
definition of social evil.; in the eyes of the liberals, prostitutes  who assert the right to exercise their trade are too ignorant to realize that they’re being abused and betraying their gender. Granted, but is that really the case when the people offering the service do it at their own free will and the legal route generates an annual amount of $100 billion= R10 527 750 000.00 globally?

The following are pros and cons of the lifestyle of a sex worker:

1)      People in everyday life judge you because what you do for a living as some communities or rather the moral standards set by the society deem this practice as one of a high moral decay.

2) Your health and physical wellbeing are at risk, seeing that having multiple sex partners can lead to diseases such as STI’s and HIV.

3) It has both the power to either break or fix relationships in the sense that in some marriages obviously   it’s cheating and putting your partner at risk as diseases are brought back home. In another sense when the sex life at home is not so great and tensions are on the rise, but if a partner gets sex somewhere else, situations tend to be lighter at home.
4) Exposure to drugs and thereafter are likely to become dependent on them as mentioned above, these drugs become homage to them as they help them to deal with psychological and emotional effects; thus leading to the demise of many lives.
5) They are more likely to be raped. They are basically seen as sex vessels.
6) Most can’t find a boyfriend that doesn’t judge or use them once they find out what they do.
7) We get ripped off sometimes with our money by pimps and customers
8) They don’t enjoy sex with clients as it becomes less about pleasure and more about work.
9) We get emotionally and physically abused every day at work by clients, bosses, and other working girls.
10) No one understands how tiring and challenging this job can be. Work at odd hours, sometimes in the cold, with difficult clients and often have to live a double life hiding this part of their lives from family and friends.

The Pros:
1) Money is great

2) You get to decide your own working hours… if you’re an entrepreneur of course (not working under a pimp or a group)

Weighing out the pros and cons and having put a magnifying glass on the lives and times of our “ladies of the night” fact dawns that this topic being the product of high unemployment will forever be tangled in fishnet stockings and confusion as it will forever be trapped in the debate being:  Would you leave your kids to starve to death or throw away society’s perception of morals and exchange sex for bread?