Ch 7. The Sex Trade in Canada

Question 1

Global Sex Industry

Answer 1

The Sex Industry is an estimated $7-12 billion/4 million people industry worldwide

Includes: Stripping, Porn, Erotic Massages, Sugar Babies, Phone/Virtual Sex, Escorts, OnlyFans

Question 2

Human trafficking

Answer 2

Involves recruiting, transporting, or holding victims to exploit them or to help someone else exploit them, generally for sexual purposes or work. Get victims to comply through different forms of coercion. (Public Safety Canada)

Question 3

Sex trafficking vs. labour trafficking

Answer 3

Two different things, however, often there is a blurring of the lines between these two things. Ex. Someone is trafficked for sex services but also used for labor.

Question 4

Human trafficking vs. Human smuggling

Answer 4

Human trafficking is exploitative and involuntary. Human smuggling on the other hand tends to be voluntary.

Question 5

Why don’t victims come forward? (5)

Answer 5

Fear
Lack of understanding
Distrustful
Shame
Foreign victims

Question 6

Those at Risk (5)

Answer 6

Socially economically disadvantaged
Aboriginal
Newcomers
Teenage runaways
Children in protection services

Question 7

Prostitution

Answer 7

the sale of sexual services (of oneself or another) for money or goods and without emotional attachment

Question 8

Systems of Prostitution

Answer 8

any industry in which women’s and/or children’s—and sometimes men’s—bodies are bought, sold, or traded for sexual use

Question 9

Understanding prostitution (5)

Answer 9

1. It is quasi-legal so activity is hidden
2. Difficult to know the extent of the industry because many involved are transient
3. Little consistency in legal responses
4. People move in and out of sex work (e.g., temporary work between jobs or part-time while doing other work)
5. Stigmatized based on moral/political grounds

Question 10

Why Enter Prostitution? (6)

Answer 10

1. The majority are 17-24 years of age, though some may begin earlier
2. Usually a big difference between the ages of the worker and client
3. Some are runaways and others are throwaways (thrown out of their homes)
4. Usually from lower-income groups
5. Indigenous women and girls are over-represented
6. Black Canadian women are also exploited

Question 11

Customers’ attitudes include (2)

Answer 11

1. Most don’t usually enjoy sex and think prostitutes don’t enjoy work
2. Don’t want daughter to become one

Question 12

A Closer Look at “Johns”

Answer 12

Age: mid-20s to mid-40s
White, married, gainfully employed

Question 13

Sexual Addicts Anonymous Study of Johns

Answer 13

1. Experienced sexual abuse as a child
2. Believe addicted to sex
3. Seek risk
4. Seek treatment; punishment will not change behaviour

Question 14

Characteristics of Prostitution in Canada (5 Hierarchy)

Answer 14

1. Escorts or call girls and call boys
2. Hustlers, strippers, and table dancers (bar girls or boys) work out of clubs, bars, and strip joints
3. House girls work in brothels, massage parlours, or other businesses
4. Streetwalkers publicly solicit customers and charge by the “trick”
5. Women struggling with addictions

Question 15

Why this back and forth on legalizing prostitution? (4)

Answer 15

• Prostitution is often considered a victimless crime
• Legal structures make victimization one’s own responsibility; they deserve what they get
• Convergence with other illicit markets
• Canadians still think it is immoral (women more than men)

Question 16

Arguments in favour of decriminalization
(in favour and against)

Answer 16

In Favour: Moral reasons, protection of workers, labor laws, regulation of work, and redistribution of resources.

Against: Promotes sex crimes, would protect the Johns more than the women, most women don’t want it legalized, and it would create a more hidden industry.

Question 17

Structural Functionalist

Answer 17

Focus is on how deviance, including prostitution, serves important functions in society

Question 18

Social control (Functionalist)

Answer 18

punishment is for the purpose of social control

the systematic practices developed by social groups to encourage conformity and discourage deviance

People are punished for prostitution to reaffirm their commitment to sexual norms

Question 19

Symbolic Interactionalist (3)

Answer 19

1. Prostitution, like other forms of deviance, is socially constructed
2. A deviant career is similar to other occupations
3. Public labelling of people in such a career as deviant—and the person’s acceptance or rejection of that label—determines whether he or she stays in that career

Question 20

Liberal feminists

Answer 20

It’s a victimless crime that should be decriminalized

Question 21

Marxist feminists

Answer 21

Linked to the capitalist economy that fosters economic inequality

Question 22

Radical feminists

Answer 22

Trace the roots of prostitution to patriarchy in society

Question 23

Feminist Theorists

Answer 23

focus on the intersection of racialization/ethnicity/class/and gender and believe that criminalization of prostitution is a form of discrimination against poor women, particularly women of colour/Indigenous women.

Question 24

Law in Canada: End Demand Model 2015 (6)
Bill C-36: The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act

Answer 24

1. Prohibits purchasing sexual services
2. Prohibits receiving material benefit from commission of offence
3. Prohibits advertising of sexual services
4. Prohibits procurement of persons for prostitution
5. Prohibits communicating for the purposes of sexual services in public places
6. Prohibits the use of weapons or binding/tying by force

Question 25

Bedford vs Canada (2010) challenging existing laws and arguing for decriminalization (3)

Answer 25

1. Violates freedom of expression and rights to life, liberty, and security
2. Undermines ability to work in safe conditions (e.g., the disappearance of sex workers in BC – Robert Pickton case)
3. Re-victimizes prostitutes – many enter prostitution due to poverty, homelessness, or addictions, and are further marginalized as prosecuted “victims”

Question 26

End Demand Model

Answer 26

Aim to target the market and not the sex workers themselves. The logic prevailing here is that ending demand for sex work inevitably reduces the supply of sex work and any human rights violations sex workers may experience. (some argue its more harmful than helpful)

Question 27

obscenity

Answer 27

the legal term for pornographic materials that are offensive by generally accepted standards of deceny

Question 28

erotica

Answer 28

materials that depict consensual sexual activities that are sought by and pleasurable to all parties involved

Question 29

the porn industry is estimated to gross approximately…

Answer 29

… $100 billion globally, and $15 billion USD per year in the US

Question 30

Anti-pornography feminists

Answer 30

believe that porn is a primary source of male oppression of, and violence against women/Viewing porn as a form of sexual discrimination that dehumanizes women and diminishes women’s opportunities in all areas of life.

Question 31

Anti-Censorship Feminists

Answer 31

do not believe that any single factor, like porn, causes women’s subordination. They believe porn shouldn’t be censored because open discussions about sexuality/sexual practices promote women’s sexual freedom and their rights to express themselves.

Question 31

Anti-Censorship Feminists

Answer 31

do not believe that any single factor, like porn, causes women’s subordination. They believe porn shouldn’t be censored because open discussions about sexuality/sexual practices promote women’s sexual freedom and their rights to express themselves.

Question 32

Prostitution continues because it provides people with… (functionalist)

Answer 32

1. Quick, impersonal sexual gratification without emotional attachment
2. A sexual outlet for those who have no ongoing sexual relationships
3. The opportunity to engage in non-traditional sexual practices
4. Protection for the family as a social institution
5. Jobs for people with few traditional job skills

Question 33

Third World/Transnational Feminist

Answer 33

views sex work/trafficking as one possibility emerging from the intersections of many relations of dominance that conditions women’s lives.