John Harris; Engraver of frontispiece/Wikimedia Commons.
Prostitution is currently being reconceived as a form of ‘modern slavery’ by certain feminist groups, religious organisations, and politicians. This conceptualisation rests on the belief that prostitution is inherently exploitative and harmful to women. As such, a woman cannot ‘choose’ to sell sex, nor can she experience it as a viable alternative to other forms of exploited or poorly paid labour. This vision of all prostitution as ‘sex slavery’ has led to its inclusion in proposed and existing legislation that ostensibly targets ‘modern slavery’. For example, earlier versions of the UK’s ‘modern slavery bill’, which was passed earlier this year, included a clause that criminalised the purchase of sex (this clause was not included in the final legislation). If prostitutes are all slaves, then the men who bought sex are positioned in this model of criminalisation as the slave holders.
While proposals to criminalise the purchase of sex have never before been so seriously entertained, the conceptualisation of prostitution as fundamentally harmful and immoral has a long history. By the mid-nineteenth century, and spurred on by mounting fear of venereal diseases, most European countries had introduced controls on prostitution within their own countries and throughout their empires. These systems, which usually required the regular medical inspection of women labelled as prostitutes and often stipulated where and how brothels were run, were seen as ways to protect the health of the military and civilian populations while also controlling and surveilling ‘unrespectable’ women.
