NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED: Berlin — Feminists across Western Europe are sounding the alarm. Prostitution, they claim, has become today’s “white slavery,” with ever more women from Bulgaria and Romania, Africa and Asia being forced, tricked or seduced into selling their bodies.
But in doing so, these activists are creating a schism in the movement, between those who see prostitution as another form of male oppression and those who see it as a possible means of female empowerment…
What this debate obscures is the crucial difference between prostitution in general, which can certainly be about consenting adults doing what they want with their bodies, and human trafficking, which no one should tolerate or provide excuses for. Unfortunately, state feminism, in its desire to make a stand for women, ends up punishing those who are most open about their willingness to pay or be paid for sex, while pushing the evils of human trafficking and forced sex work further underground… (more)
