By: Bernadette Green

Recently, I’ve noticed quite a bit of pro-prostitution articles, movies and TV shows circulating. There’s the upcoming US series starring Jennifer Love Hewitt who plays a Texan mum living a double life, The Client List. Then there are the movies Careless Love and The Girlfriend Experience, to name but two. All something to look forward to I’m sure but an article that really lit a fire under me was Hannah Bett’s interview with Dr Brooke Magnanti, author of the bestsellers, The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl and The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl, adapted into a TV series, Secret Diary of a Call Girl. The article did the rounds overseas and was published here in The Age. Hannah reports that Dr Magnanti, while completing her doctorate in informantics, epidemiology and forensic science, worked as a London call girl for fourteen months, in order to fund her London lifestyle. The article made for fascinating reading but what really inspired me, was Dr Magnanti asked Hannah to ‘be an ally,’ comparing the way prostitutes are treated by law and society today, to how gays were treated twenty years ago. Dr Magnanti tells Hannah that what they need are people like her to say, ‘I myself am not a prostitute but I do not object to their existence’. Hannah finishes off her piece with these wise words, ‘Magnanti’s book will have me – and legions of others – ready to join the cause’.

I’m with Hannah. I’m putting up my hand to join the cause and I urge others to do the same. But before we get too excited we need to understand that the road will not be easy. The prostitution industry has a pretty bad track record, sexual abuse, human trafficking, drug dependency, and exploitation of the poor and underprivileged, you get my drift. But let’s not condemn it, many industries with dirty pasts have been able to clean themselves up and the prostitution industry should be no different. However, it will take a complete overhaul, new policies and practices will need to adopted. The best way to achieve this is to aim for those lofty pinnacles of goodness and transparency, Organic and Fairtrade certification. I’m not kidding, once the industry has those stamps of approval we can all feel proud to say, ‘I myself am not a prostitute but I do not object to their existence’. So let’s put our heads and hearts together and get certified.

According to the Australian Certified Organic website, organic systems work in harmony with nature, keeping harmful chemicals out of our land, water and air, creating a healthy environment rich in wildlife, woodlands and nutrients.

I have tweaked it a little bit to fit our purposes. Organic prostitution works in harmony with nature, keeping harmful chemicals out of our women, creating a healthy environment, thereby ensuring their woodlands are rich with wildlife and nutrients.

Five Step Plan to Organic Certified Hookers

1. Firstly I propose bringing back the bush. We need to be sure we are attracting the kind of customers who want women, not the ones who are dreaming of little girls. And, according to Dr Emily Gibson, pubic hair removal increases the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. As reported on ninemsm, ‘Waxing pubic hair increases STI risk, doctor warns.’




2. No anal bleaching, we don’t want everyone thinking the back door is the front door. It’s special entry only, and always at the discretion of the owner.




3. No snatch snipping. We want the diversity our hookers were born with.




4. No cosmetic surgery of any kind. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.




5. No drug addictions. The stuff that’s being popped, sniffed or shot-up is most likely not organic. Secondly we can’t be accused of having dependent girls, that might indicate they’d chosen this profession out of desperation rather than answering a true calling.

According to the Fairtrade Australia New Zealand website.

Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices, fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.

Again a bit of tweaking. Better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for women in the prostitution industry, now that would be fairtrade. By requiring customers to pay sustainable prices, fairtrade addresses the injustices of current practices, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest women and girls. It enables prostitutes to improve their position and have more control over their lives.

Eleven Step Plan to Fairtrade Certified Hookers

1. Prostitution should always be a free choice, therefore we need to level the playing field. To achieve this we need to fix the pay gap between boys and girls and encourage non-traditional trades for girls. You wouldn’t believe the difference in the pay packet of a qualified electrician and a qualified beauty technician.

2. A happy hooker is a safe hooker. All customers need to be vetoed before their money is accepted. Not all men who visit prostitutes are fans of the female sex.

3. Customers to pay sustainable prices. In Hannah Betts article, Dr Magnanti declared that she was paid three hundred pound an hour, which is roughly four hundred and fifty Australian dollars, that seems a reasonable place to start. Dr Maganti did also say that a third of this went to her Madame. That’s fair. The boss is going to need some serious money to fund the state of the art facilities necessary to guarantee the comfort and safety of these women.

4. The industry needs to be transparent; after all it does have a nasty reputation for being linked to crime syndicates. Know where your dollars are going.

5. Fairtrade addresses the injustices of current practices, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest women and girls. Trafficking. LET’S STOP IT NOW. Boys before handing over your bucks, make sure the girl didn’t enter the country thinking she’d committed to a nannying job and instead found herself the exotic fantasy of men who cared nothing for her humanity. Don’t be a part of the problem be a part of the solution.

 

6. If a university student is really that keen for copious amounts of sex then good for her, let her have the job. But let’s first ask how her male equivalents are paying their way through university?  Are they turning to prostitution as well? Is this a class war? A sex war? Are only working class and middle class girls turning tricks for their degrees or are the rich girls and boys joining them and it’s all for a bit of fun? Let’s have universities asking these questions.

7. Now while you won’t find this sentiment shared by prostitutes across the world, there is the phenomenon of the woman who finds power in prostitution. Which is great, we should all have the good fortune of finding power in our work. But let’s make sure that turning tricks isn’t her only access to power. Whatever happened to Super Girl and why wasn’t there a Super Woman? Let’s create a culture where little girls are brought up with a sense of their power, not a belief that they are less powerful than boys. Then and only then, can we truly appreciate that the power a prostitute is feeling is real solid gold power.

8. Authors, movie companies, advertisers, clothes designers, teachers and parents, please stop your ceaseless campaign of pushing the idea to girls that their looks are more important than the rest of their being. That way, if they choose to become a hooker later in life, then we know it’s a calling, not an attempt at self-sabotage.

9. All prostitutes should have the right to refuse a client.

10.  Any sexual act that could be considered harmful to ones physical or mental health should be refused or limited by these special women at their own discretion.

11.  I’m really keen for this campaign to work and the only way to do that it to keep the fair in fairtrade. Let’s show our girls that they’re as important as the boys. Let them see that our community respects both its female and male sports heroes. Let them grow up as witnesses to strong female role models in a culture that takes them seriously. That way, in whatever choice they make, in whatever direction they go, we can say it was a fair choice.

Well there you have it. Let’s roll up our sleeves and make our culture one of opportunity and equality for all humans. Only then, can you be guaranteed that when you ask for an organic and fairtrade certified prostitute that you’ll receive the happy hooker you paid for.

And for some reading on the harmful practices of the current system, please check out Not for Sale edited by Christine Stark and Rebecca Whisnant, The Idea of Prostitution by Sheila Jeffreys, Making Sex Work by Mary Lucille Sullivan and highly commended in the 2012 Australian Educational Publishing Awards Secondary Reference resource section, Big Porn Inc edited by Melinda Tankard Reist and Abigail Bray.