LEGITIMATING PROSTITUTION AS SEX WORK:
UN LABOR ORGANIZATION (ILO) CALLS FOR RECOGNITION OF THE SEX INDUSTRY
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/catw/legit.htm
Janice Raymond
December 1998
Introduction
In a controversial 1998 report, the International Labor Organization
(ILO),
the official labor agency of the United Nations, calls for economic
recognition of the sex industry. Citing the expanding reach of the
industry
and its unrecognized contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) of
four countries in Southeast Asia, the ILO urges official recognition of
what it terms "the sex sector." Recognition includes extending "labor
rights and benefits to sex workers," improving "working conditions" (Lim,
p. 212, hereafter referred to simply by page) in the industry, and
"extending the taxation net to cover many of the lucrative activities
connected with it" (p. 213). Although the ILO report claims to stop short
of advocating legalization of prostitution, the economic recognition of
the
sex sector that it promotes could not occur without legal acceptance of
the
industry.
For many years, the sex industry has lobbied for economic recognition of
prostitution and related forms of sexual entertainment as sex work. Now
the
ILO has become the latest and most questionable group urging acceptance of
the sex industry. Effectively the ILO is calling for governments to cash
in
on the booming profits of the industry by taxing and regulating it as a
legitimate job. Entitled The Sex Sector: the Economic and Social Bases of
Prostitution in Southeast Asia, the ILO report echoes the economic
determinism of the February 14, 1998 cover story of The Economist aptly
termed "Giving the Customer What He Wants." The report professes to be a
survey of the "sex sector" in four countries authored by country-specific
writers in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. But the
framework, summaries, and conclusions of the report were edited by
economist Lin Lean Lim, longtime advocate for governmental acceptance of
the "sex sector."
Southeast Asia is facing its most serious economic crisis in decades.
Together with the political uncertainty and instability in many parts of
Asia, the economic crisis has exacerbated the recruitment of women into
the
sex industry. Governments which follow the ILO recommendations to
recognize
prostitution as legitimate women's work will thus have a huge economic
stake in the sex industry. Consequently, this will foster their increased
dependence on the sex sector. The ILO report will be used as a
justification for increasing the entry of women into "sex work" to lower
the unemployment rate and then for taxing women's earnings to raise
desperately needed capital. As in Latin America, the impact of
macro-economic policies in certain countries of Asia will provide these
governments with the rationale to expand the sex industry. The government
of Belize, for example, has "Recognized prostitution...[as] a
gender-specific form of migrant labor that serves the same economic
functions for women as agricultural work offers to men, and often for
better pay." (WEDO, 1998, p. 32)
Rather than economic opportunity, the most glaring evidence of women's
economic marginalization and social inequality in almost all Asian
countries is the rampant commodification of women in prostitution, sex
trafficking, sex tourism and mail order bride industries. In this context
of severe economic decline, it seems the height of economic opportunism to
argue for the recognition of the sex industry based on transforming
women's
sexual and economic exploitation into legitimate work.
see for full article:
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/catw/legit.htm
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