Feminism and the Legalization of Prostitution: How far down the river?

One of the most telling issues on the state of the women\u27s movement today is that of the legalization of prostitution. It would be inappropriate to say that the issue has caused a breach in the ranks: the term is inapplicable to a movement which has never claimed coherency and which has, in fact, consistently demonstrated an inability to reconcile the views of its various factions. The prostitution issue is important, rather, precisely because it underscores these differences of analysis and tactics which have appeared in other areas and the splits between white middle class liberal women, radical feminists, marxist socialists and working class and minority women which have characterized the movement since its inception. It is a cutting edge issue because its resolution will signal either the reassertion of a new model of equality for all women or the acceptance of second-class citizenship for one group of them. The swing vote lies with the middle class liberals because their forte has been legislative and legal action and because they are now developing the capacity to resolve the issue in these terms. To the end that women avoid selling their own down the river, the writer presents the following paper

Feminism and the Legalization of Prostitution: How far down the river?

One of the most telling issues on the state of the women\u27s movement today is that of the legalization of prostitution. It would be inappropriate to say that the issue has caused a breach in the ranks: the term is inapplicable to a movement which has never claimed coherency and which has, in fact, consistently demonstrated an inability to reconcile the views of its various factions. The prostitution issue is important, rather, precisely because it underscores these differences of analysis and tactics which have appeared in other areas and the splits between white middle class liberal women, radical feminists, marxist socialists and working class and minority women which have characterized the movement since its inception. It is a cutting edge issue because its resolution will signal either the reassertion of a new model of equality for all women or the acceptance of second-class citizenship for one group of them. The swing vote lies with the middle class liberals because their forte has been legislative and legal action and because they are now developing the capacity to resolve the issue in these terms. To the end that women avoid selling their own down the river, the writer presents the following paper

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Editor and author comments on articles from this issue

Rip-off Professionalism

In the February 1972 issue of PRO SE (National Law Women\u27s Newsletter) an article entitled Professional Rip-off criticized the Women\u27s Liberation Movement for producing what the authors call grasping opportunists, pleasant, reasonable, charming, and eternally submissive sell-out[s] (page 4). They are referring to professional women and posit that because, in a capitalist society, professional status is a privilege enjoyed by few, the claim that all women will benefit from an improvement in the status of professional women could not be farther from the truth (page 4): Instead of making women more \u27equal,\u27 the new female professionals make themselves more special and other women more powerless than ever (page 4). The implicit conclusion of the authors is that the women\u27s movement must adopt socialist goals. Socialist change is necessary because rip-off professionalism originates in the capitalist education structure and because it is perpetuated by liberal consciousness. My purpose is to examine both the origin and perpetuation of rip-off professionalism and to propose admittedly reformist, but non-rip-off, methods of dealing with the problem

Responses

Editor and author comments on articles from this issue