The Idea of Prostitution

Name: The Idea of Prostitution
Rating: 3.72 (6 reviews)

Sheila Jeffreys

There are (at least) two competing views on prostitution: first, that prostitution is a legitimate and acceptable form of employment, freely chosen by women, and second, that prostitution is a coercive form of degradation and the cause of harm. In The Idea of Prostitution Sheila Jeffreys explores these sharply contrasting views. She examines the changing concept of prostitution, from the "white slave traffic" of the nineteenth century to its present legal status. The book includes discussion of the varieties of prostitution, including the experience of male prostitutes, the uses of women in pornography, and the role of military brothels, as compared with slavery and marital rape. Sheila Jeffreys explodes the distinction between "forced" and "free" prostitution, and documents the expanding international traffic in women. The author examines the claims of the prostitutes' rights movement and the sex industry, while supporting prostituted women themselves.

GenresFeminismNonfictionPoliticsSexualitySociologySex WorkHistory

412 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Sheila Jeffreys

23 books268 followers

Sheila Jeffreys writes and teaches in the areas of sexual politics, international gender politics, and lesbian and gay politics. She has written six books on the history and politics of sexuality. Originally from the UK, Sheila moved to Melbourne in 1991 to take up a position at the University of Melbourne. She has been actively involved in feminist and lesbian feminist politics, particularly around the issue of sexual violence, since 1973. She is involved with the international non-government organization, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, in international organising.

She is the author of The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality, 1880-1930 (1985/1997) Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution (1990), The Lesbian Heresy: A Feminist Perspective on the Lesbian Sexual Revolution (1993), The Idea of Prostitution (1997), Unpacking Queer Politics: a lesbian feminist perspective (2003) and Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West (2005).

What do you think?