Not a Choice, Not a Job: Exposing the Myths about Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade

by Janice G. Raymond

A generation ago, most people did not know how ubiquitous and grave human trafficking was. Now many people agree that the $35.7 billion business is an appalling violation of human rights. But when confronted with prostitution, many people experience an odd disconnect because prostitution is shrouded in myths, among them the claims that “prostitution is inevitable,” and “prostitution is a job or service like any other.” In Not a Choice, Not a Job , Janice Raymond challenges both the myths and their perpetrators. Raymond demonstrates that prostitution is not sex but sexual exploitation, and that legalizing and decriminalizing the system of prostitution—as opposed to the prostituted women—promotes sex trafficking, expands the sex industry, and invites organized crime. Specifically, Raymond exposes how legalized prostitution in the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, and Nevada worsens crime and endangers women. In contrast, she reveals, when governments work to prevent the demand for prostitution by prosecuting pimps, brothels, and prostitution users—as in Norway, Sweden, and Iceland—trafficking does not increase, women are better protected, and fewer men buy sex. Raymond expands the boundaries of scholarship in women’s studies, making this book indispensable to human rights advocates around the world.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Politics, Sexuality, Feminist Theory, Womens, Gender

296 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2013

About the author

Janice G. Raymond is a longtime radical feminist activist who works to end violence against women and sexual exploitation, as well as the medical abuse of women. She is the author of five books, one edited volume, and multiple articles translated into several languages on issues ranging from violence against women, women’s health, feminist theory, lesbian feminism, and bio-medicine.

Reviews

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent introduction to sex trafficking and the ramifications behind "harm-reduction" tactics of decriminalization/legalization.
The important take away message from this is that there is no acceptable way to justify the purchasing and renting of the bodies of women and children (particularly those who are the most vulnerable among us). And it's no surprise that the most pivotal line was "Where are all the feminists?"
Feminism has to be about the liberation of women as a social class. It is time to put the focus back on the exploitation and abuse that occurs which extends far beyond shallow arguments around so called "free choice." Likewise, it is time to hold men accountable for fueling the exploitation by being buyers.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource to anyone interested in the abolitionist stance towards the sex industry, Not a Choice, Not a Job offers a thorough, well-cited, and even-handed discussion of what prostitution looks like in the world today, and how governments, feminists, human rights activists, and the sex industry have responded. The book covers a lot of ground; although full chapters are devoted to Sweden and the Netherlands, Raymond discusses laws and campaigns in dozens of other countries in detail, including Hungary, Iceland, and India, and she evaluates the reality of prostitution from legal, sociological, feminist, human rights, and linguistic perspectives. Despite its scope and depth, the text is surprisingly readable, and I would recommend it to anyone researching or looking to learn more about the subject.

[Cara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like the number of times an author uses air quotes to indicate their disdain for someone else's position can be a pretty good indicator of how rigorous their arguments will be.

The main thesis of the book is that 'sex work' is 'not a job' in so far as most women in the trade are exploited. I really hoped she'd explain that position, but instead, she seems to believe that using extensive air quotes around first person testimonials by women who say they aren't being exploited will be sufficient to demonstrate the point.

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really struck by the parallels between prostitution and abused wives in this one. The victim shaming, the PTSD, and the secondary wounding are all the same. There was a particular flyer -- written and distributed by a "pro sex-worker" group -- that really brings it home, in the way they both blame the prostitute for the johns who abuse her, and also expect her to fix the problem. It's very much the same mentality many abusers hold. I have long known that many of the pro-prostitution organizations (COYOTE, etc.) are run by women who, unlike most prostitutes, are very empowered, but it hadn't really clicked for me what a high percentage of pimps and other people making money off of other women's prostitution were in those groups.

Women selling their bodies need to be de-criminalized. But buying a woman's body, or making money off of selling someone else's body, be it as a pimp or a madame or as the guy over-charging her for renting a room (prostitutes have paid many times the going rate for business space or hotel rooms going back at least to the nineteenth century), needs to be crime. Making johns the criminals seems to be the only way to minimize trafficking. Nothing else that's been tried has been half so effective.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sex work apologists romanticize “empowerment” for women in the sex industry and locate female power in the very behaviors that feminism has rejected—sexual objectification, acceptance of the use of women’s bodies as commodities for male pleasure and for profit, and misrepresentation of this as rebellion.

This book is a pretty brutal read as a woman, particularly if you’re a women operating under any kind of belief that men care about women. Let’s get political for a second; men care about men. Men will only ever care about men. Men, when confronted that buying sex is violence against women, will twist it around. They are empowering women! They are helping women who would starve without their benevolence! Prostitution is a choice!

Men hate women. And water is wet, I know. The more difficult thing to swallow is the piggybacking liberal feminism has done on these very same narratives. Not a Choice, Not a Job, then, provides a very decent primer in why pro ‘sex work’ discourse cannot and should not have a place in feminism. It is untenable that there are strands of feminism that argue men should be able to buy women’s bodies.

My main critique is that large swathes of the book make for quite dry reading. There are a substantial number of governmental and legal case studies covered as well as accounts of the actions of various activist groups. These things are important, but rooted inevitably in the time when the book was written, and they hinder the book having a compelling thrust.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very well researched. Which makes sense, considering early on Raymond says it is the product of over 20 years of work and research. It's also incredibly frustrating, which also makes sense, because the book's focus is debunking myths about prostitution, and being forced to hear the baffling and harmful nonsense people spout about it made my blood boil and my brains spill out of my ears.

Otherwise, it got a bit dull at times, just because a lot of it is spent talking about what this non-governmental organization did, and what this other one did, and what this other other one did...A bit more of a focus on survivors and their stories would have made it more engaging, but I understand that wasn't the point of this book.

Definitely recommend this if you want to be more knowledgable on the topic. Raymond's an expert, and you'll come out of reading this shocked you could ever endorse the legalization or "decriminalization" (which is basically also legalization) of prostitution, when you know the harm that does, and when you know what a spectacular failure that was in the Netherlands. Criminalize the buying of women and children (prosecute the johns and pimps, I mean), and make outreach and escape-programs for the survivors (who are the victims, not the perpetrators, and most of which are doing it for economic necessity/lack of other opportunity, or were coerced, manipulated, or trafficked into it)!

Shocking how entwined trafficking is with "normal" prostitution...You can hardly separate them. There are a lot of topics like that in here that are new information to me.