Screwing the System: Sexwork, Race, and the Law
Anne McClintock
A prostitutetells me that a magistratewho pays her to beat him
confessed that he gets an erectioneverytime he sentences a prostitute
in court.This essay is aboutthe magistrate'ssentence, the magistrate's
erection,and the prostitutewho spilledthe beans.
In 1760, a Frenchphilosophecoinedthe termfetichismefor "primitive"religion.Marxtookthe termcommodityfetishand the idea of "primiecontive"magic to expressthe centralsocialformof the modernindustrial
In
Freud
transferred
fetishism
to
the
realm
of
and
to
omy. 1887,
sexuality
the domainof eroticperversions.'Religion(the orderingof time and the
transcendent),sexuality(the orderingof the body),and money(the ordering of the economy)took shape aroundthe idea of fetishism,displacing
1. I am gratefully indebted to William Pietz's three excellent essays on fetishism: "The
Problem of the Fetish I,"Res 9 (Spring 1985): 5-17; "The Problem of the Fetish II,"Res
13 (Spring 1987): 23-46; "The Problem of the Fetish III,"Res (Autumn 1988): 105-24.
boundary 2 19:2, 1992. Copyright? 1992 by Duke UniversityPress. CCC0190-3659/92/$1.50.
/ Screwing
theSystem 71
McClintock
ontothe domain
whatthe Enlightenment
couldnotincorporate
imagination
of the "primitive,"
the zone of racialandsexual"degeneration."
Imperialism
returnedto inhabitthe liberalenterpriseas its concealed,butcentral,logic.
"Theeroticdeviantis not the onlyfetishistfamiliarto us. Thinkof
the primitive,"
says WilliamPietz.2Yet,this couldbe said in anotherway.
the idea of erotic
By thinkingof the "primitive"
(inventingthe "primitive"),
deviancewas constitutedin Europeto serve a specificallymodernformof
social dominance.By the latterhalfof the nineteenthcentury,the analogy
betweeneroticdevianceand racialdevianceemergedas a necessary element in the formationof the modernEuropeanimagination.
The invention
of racialfetishismbecame centralto the regimeof sexual surveillance,
whilethe policingof "degeneratesexuality"becamecentralto the policing
of the "dangerousclasses":the workingclass, the colonized,prostitutes,
the Irish,Jews, gays and lesbians,criminals,alcoholics,and the insane.
Erotic"deviants"
werefiguredas racial"deviants,"
atavisticthrowbacksto a
momentin humanprehistory,
racially"primitive"
survivingominouslyin the
heartof the imperialmetropolis.Atthe same time,colonizedpeoples were
erotic
figuredas sexual deviants,the livingembodimentsof a primordial
promiscuityand excess.3
ForFreud,the eroticfetishis akin"tothe fetishes in whichsavages
believethattheirgods areembodied."4
Yet,Freudis the firstto definefetishism as a questionof male sexualityalone. As NaomiSchor has pointed
out, "Itis an articleof faithwithFreudand Freudiansthatfetishismis the
male perversion par excellence. The traditionalpsychoanalytical literature
on the subjectstates overandoveragainthatthereareno femalefetishists;
femalefetishismis, inthe rhetoricof psychoanalysis,anoxymoron."
5 Lacan,
after
"the
in
absence
women
of
fetishism."6
too, notes,
Freud,
By reducing
2. Pietz, "Fetish1,"3.
3. See SanderL.Gilman,Differenceand Pathology:Stereotypesof Sexuality,Race, and
Madness (Ithaca:CornellUniversityPress, 1985). See also NancyStepan, The Idea of
Race in Science (London:Macmillan,1982).
4. SigmundFreud,ThreeEssays on the Theoryof Sexuality,vol. 7 of TheStandardEdition of the Complete Psychological Worksof Sigmund Freud, trans. James Strachey
(London:Hogarth,1953-1966).
5. NaomiSchor, "FemaleFetishism:The Case of George Sand,"in TheFemale Body in
WesternCulture,ed. Susan R. Suleiman(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress, 1986),
365.
6. Jacques Lacan, "GuidingRemarksfor a Congress on FeminineSexuality,"in Feminine Sexuality:Jacques Lacanand Ecole Freudienne,ed. JulietMitchelland Jacqueline
Rose, trans.JacquelineRose (New York:W.W. Norton,1982), 96.
72 boundary
2 / Summer
1992
fetishism,however,to a single, male poeticsof the flesh and a privileged,
Westernnarrativeof origins,the traditional
psychoanalytic
theoryof fetishism does not admiteitherrace or class as formativecategoriescrucialto
the etiologyof fetishism.
Foucaultargues, in a differentvein,thatthe historicalnotionof sex
"madeit possible to grouptogether,in an artificialunity,anatomicalelements, biologicalfunctions,conducts,sensations and pleasures, and it
enabled one to make use of this fictitiousunityas a causal principle,an
omnipresentmeaning,a secretto be discoveredeverywhere:sex was thus
able to functionas a universalsignifierand as a universalsignified."7By
privilegingsex as the inventedprincipleof social unity,however,Foucault
conceals the degree to which,in the nineteenthcentury,a racialfetishism
in analogywithsexual fetishismbecamethe organizingprototypeforother
social "deviations."
Farfrombeinga purelysexualicon,fetishismis a memorialto contradictionsin social value that can take a numberof historicalguises. The
fetishstands at the crossroadsof a crisisinhistorical
value,as the symbolic
codes insocial
displacementandembodimentinone objectof incompatible
which
the
individual
cannot
resolve
a
at
level.
Thefetish
personal
meaning,
is thus destinedto recurwithritualistic
repetition.
Thefetishis hauntedby historicalmemory.As a compositesymbolic
object,the fetishor fetishizedpersonembodiesthe traumaticcoincidence
of historicalmemoriesheld in contradiction.In this article,I explorethe
racialand sexual fetishizingof prostitutesand arguethatthe problemof
social value embodiedin the whorestigmais the historicalcontradiction
betweenwomen'spaidand unpaidwork.
The momentof payinga female prostituteis structuredarounda
paradox.The clienttouches the prostitute'shandin a fleetingmomentof
physicalintimacyin the exchangeof cash, a ritualexchangethatconfirms
and guaranteeseach timethe man'sapparenteconomicmasteryoverthe
woman'ssexuality,work,andtime.Atthe same time,however,the moment
of payingconfirmspreciselythe opposite:the man'sdependenceon the
woman'ssexual powerand skill.
Prostitutesstand at the flashpointsof marriageand market,taking
sex intothe streets and moneyintothe bedroom.Flagrantlyand publicly
demandingmoneyforsexual servicesthatmen expectforfree, prostitutes
insist on exhibitingtheirsexworkas havingeconomicvalue. The whore
7. Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality; Volume 1: An Introduction (New York:Vintage,
1980), 154.
/ Screwing
McClintock
theSystem 73
stigma reflects deeply felt anxieties about women trespassingthe dandisplaytheir
gerous boundariesbetweenprivateand public.Streetwalkers
sexual andeconomicvaluesinthe crowd-that socialelementpermanently
on the edge of breakdown-andtherebygive the lie to the rationalcontrol
of "deviance"and disorder.Hencethe fetishisticinvestmentof the law in
violentlypolicingthe prostitute'sbody.
The Law and the Whore
In 1981, in Britain,PeterSutcliffe(or,the YorkshireRipper,as the
tabloidpress dubbedhim)was broughtto trialforthe mutilationand murder over a six-yearperiodof at least thirteenwomen,some of whomwere
prostitutes.Sutcliffefirstclaimedthathe had killedbecause he wantedto
"killa woman,any woman.""Later,he claimedthat God had graced him
witha "divinemission"9
"scumwhocannot
to purgethe earthof prostitutes:
Sutcliffe'sdefense restedon the constructionof
justifytheirexistence."10
prostitutesas inherentlyunlikeall otherwomenand as culpablycomplicit
in theirown murder.He claimedhe was able to tell that his victimswere
prostitutes"bythe way they walked.He knewthey were not innocent."11
ForSutcliffe,the prostitutes'guiltcouldbe readofftheirbodiesas a stigma
of the flesh, theirculpabilityrevealedunambiguously
in the lineamentsof
theirlimbs,an anatomicalallegorysignifyingsin.
Mosttroubling,however,was the systematiccontinuity
betweenSutcliffe'smissionto exterminateprostitutesand the publicsentimentvoiced
by the tabloids,the policestatements,andthe judiciaryitselfthatthe prostituteswere, indeed,somehownot innocent.Duringthe extraordinary
trial
thatfollowed,a legal discourse,a psychiatricdiscourse,and a journalistic
discoursetookshape aroundthe preordained
verdictof the murderedprostitutes'guiltin the eyes of the law.Throughout
the trial,distinctionswere
victims(nonprostitutes)
and "disreprepeatedlymade between"innocent"
victims(prostitutes).12
utable,"or "blemished,"
Indeed,the policeinvestigationintothe murdersbegan in earnestonlywhenthe fifthvictimwas killed,
8. See WendyHolloway,"'IJust WantedTo Killa Woman.'Why?The Ripperand Male
Sexuality,"FeministReview 9 (October1981):33-40.
9. The Guardian(London),19 May 1981. Quotedin Holloway,"'IJust WantedTo Killa
Woman.'Why?"36.
10. Quotedin Holloway,"'IJust WantedTo Killa Woman.'Why?"38.
11. The Guardian(London),7 May1981. Quotedin Holloway,"'IJust WantedTo Killa
Woman.'Why?"39.
12. Holloway,"'IJust WantedTo Killa Woman.'Why?"39. See also AndrewRoss, "Dem-
74 boundary
2 / Summer
1992
and she turnedout not to be a prostitute.A policeposterread:"Thenext
victimmaybe innocent."13
Thejudge,moreover,offeredthe jurythe followadvice.IfSutcliffewas deludedintobelievingthathe had
ingextraordinary
killedonly prostitutes,"thenthe correctverdictwas probablymanslaughThedistinctionbetweenprostitutesandotherwomenwas
ter,"notmurder.14
summed
up inAttorneyGeneralSirMichaelHavers'snotoriouscomfinally
ment:"Somewere prostitutes,butperhapsthe saddest partof this case is
thatsome were not."'5
On28 January1987,at the heightof the celebratedtrialof Madame
Cyn Payne (chargedwithexercisingcontrolover prostitutesfor the purpose of gain), SergeantDavidBroadwelldraggedintocourta large,clear,
the tabooparaphernalia
plasticbag and exposed to the titillatedcourtroom
of S/M:whips,belts, chains,a dog collar,and assortedsticks and leather
items.16Fordays, police and witnesses had been describingthe "naughtinesses" at Payne's party:spankings;lesbianshows; elderlygentlemen
cross-dressedinwomen'seveningclothes;policemenindrag;and lawyers,
businessmen,andeven a Peerof the Realmwaitinginqueues on the stairs
forsex.
The prostitution
trial,conductedin a blaze of publicity,exposes its
own structuringparadox,staging in public,as a vicariousspectacle, that
which it renderscriminallydeviantoutsidethe juridicaldomain.Through
in the distribution
of
the mechanismof the prostitution
trial,contradictions
and
are
then
and
are
isolated
as
crimes
performed
money,pleasure, power
againinthe theatricalceremonyof the trialas confession.Thejudiciaryis a
of "truth"
(facts,verdicts,
system of orderedproceduresforthe production
the rationalsentence).Thejudge'swig (likethe prostitute's
wig)signifiesa
separationbetweensubjectiveidentityand body,and therebyguarantees
of the trial.
the impartiality
inMenin Feminism,ed. AliceJardineand PaulSmith(New
onstratingSexual Difference,"
York:Methuen,1987), 49.
49.
Sexual Difference,"
13. Quotedin Ross, "Demonstrating
14. The Guardian(London),21 May1981. Quotedin Holloway,"'IJust WantedTo Killa
Woman.'Why?"34.
15. WestIndianWorld,6 June 1981.QuotedinHolloway,"'IJustWantedToKilla Woman.'
Why?"39. As Ross notes, Sutcliffe'smission"tokillallprostituteswas recognized, notorifromthatof the popularpress to thatof the professional
ously,at all levels of interpretation,
lawyer,as a moralmission,and was thereforeless culpablethanthe asocial desire to kill
Sexual Difference,"
all women"(see "Demonstrating
48).
16. See GloriaWalkerand LynnDaly,SexplicitlyYours:TheTrialof CynthiaPayne (London: Penguin,1987).
/ Screwing
theSystem 75
McClintock
alternativediscourses:the
The lawis also a regimefordisqualifying
disenfranchised,feminists,and prostituteswho mightspillthe beans.'7The
moreprostitutesareobligedto speakoftheiractionsinpublic,the morethey
incriminate
themselves.By orderingthe unspeakableto be spoken in public, however,and by obsessivelydisplayingdirtypictures,filmedevidence,
trialrevealsitselfas structured
confessions, and exhibits,the prostitution
aroundthe veryfetishismitsets itselfto isolateandpunish.Underhisscarlet
robe,the judgehas an erection.
The prostitution
trialis notonlya regimeof truthfordemonstrating
the propercirculationof moneyand propertybutalso a technologyof violence, settingin motionthe violentconstraintof women'sbodies:floggings,
of the fine serves the purpose
dunkings,jailings,and exile. The institution
of restoringthe economicexchangesubvertedbythe prostitute.Ifthe prostitutemakesthe judgepayforsexualservicesthatshe shouldofferforfree,
then by finingthe prostitutethe judgereturnsillicitfemalemoneybackinto
male circulation.
Atthe outset,the "sciencesof man"-philosophy,Marxism,psychoanalysis,anthropology-soughtto containthe "primitive"
possibilityof the
a
in
backward
time
to
the
of racial
"perversions"
by projection
"prehistory"
CommercialS/M (the collaborative
"degeneration."
organizationof fetishism)does the opposite:Itinsistson playingthe roleof the "primitive"
(slave,
female, baby)as a characterinthe historicaltimeof modernity.Ifthe prostitutiontrialisolatesandorganizesdeviantsexualpleasureforpunishment,
commercialS/M is the dialecticaloppositeof the trial,organizingthe punishmentof sexual devianceforpleasure.'8 S/M performsthe social idea of
the primitiveirrational
as a dramaticscript,a theatrical,publicperformance
in the heartof Westernreason.The paraphernalia
of S/M (boots, whips,
are
the
state
of
chains, uniforms)
paraphernalia
power,publicpunishment
convertedto privatepleasure.S/M playsimperialism
backward,visiblyand
outrageouslystagingracialand genderdifferences,ecstasy, the irrational,
and the alienationof the body as at the centerof Westernindividualism.
CommercialS/M revealsthe logicof liberalindividualism
and refuses it as
17. See Susan Edwards,Female Sexualityand the Law (Oxford:MartinRobertson,
1981), and CarolSmart,Feminismand the Powerof the Law(London:Routledge,1989).
18. Let me emphasize that I referhere to the specific phenomenonof ritualized,commercialS/M, whereinthe exchange of cash takes place in the contextof a consensual
agreement. Itis crucialto distinguishbetween consensual S/M and nonconsensualviolence and sexual sadism. These marka continuumratherthan two exclusive poles, and
there are relationshipsthatwaverperilouslyacross the twilightmiddle.
76 boundary2 / Summer 1992
fate but does so withoutsteppingoutsidethe enchantmentof its magic
circle.
Ifthe prostitution
trialredistributes
illicitfemalemoneybackintolicit
male circulation,commercialS/M performedby a womanenacts the reverse: stagingthe contradictions
of women'sunpaidsexual and domestic
workas unnatural-as theater-and insisting(strictly)on payment.The
paradoxand scandalof S/M is its flagrantexposurein the formof a spectacle of the conceptualand politicallimitsof the liberalidealof the autonoThe outrageof S/M is its provocativeconfessionthatthe
mous individual.
of
dynamics powerare reversible.
The act of payinga female prostituteflagrantlyannouncesthe unnaturalnessand fictiveinventivenessof the ancestraledictthatwomendo
notownpropertyintheirownpersons.Historically,
malelawhas attempted,
withgreat vigilanceand inclemency,to policethe contradictionbetween
male dependenceon femalesexual powerand malejuridicaldefinitionsof
the propertyof men.
womenas naturallyand universally
In 1855, in New York,the TrinityChurchvestryman,George TempletonStrong,confidedto his diarythat "whatthe Mayorseeks to abolish
... butsimplythe scandal
and abate is not the terribleevilof prostitution
and the offense of the peripateticwhorearchy."19
Indeed,states have seldomsoughtto abolishprostitution
rather,they havesoughtto curb
outright;
sexworkers'controlof the trade.
Of whatsin are prostitutesguilty?What,precisely,is the scandalof
the whorearchy?
The Scandal of the Whorearchy:Prostitutionand Property
In1986, PasadenaSuperiorCourtJudgeGilbertC. Alstonpresided
overthe trialof DanielZabuski,whowas chargedwiththe violentrapeand
sodomy of RhodaDacosta,a prostitute.Alstondismissedthe charges on
the groundsthat a whorecannotbe raped.He based his judgmentnot on
standardproceduralgroundsof legallyrelevantevidence,noron the consoundcase, buton the groundsthat,as he
structionof a credible,juridically
whore
is
a
whore."20
ForAlston,all prostitutesshare a
put it, "awhoreis a
commonidentitythatmakesthemessentiallyand universallyunrapeable.
19. Quoted in ArleneCarmenand HowardMoody,WorkingWomen:The Subterranean
Worldof Street Prostitution(New York:Harperand Row,1985), 6.
20. "JudgeRules ProstitutesCan'tBe Raped,"Whisper1, no. 2 (Spring1986): 1. See
also Sex Work:Writingsby Womenin the Sex Industry,ed. FrederiqueDelacoste and
Cleis Press, 1987), 185.
PriscillaAlexander(Pittsburgh:
/ Screwing
McClintock
theSystem 77
InSan Franciscorecently,the Oaklandpolicechiefadmittedto closing rape cases of prostituteswithoutproperinvestigationsimplybecause
the victimswere prostitutes.DavidP. Lambkin,a detectivewiththe Los
Angeles police,admittedthatrapeof prostitutesis on the increase,buthe
added: "It'shardenoughto make a rapecase witha legitimatevictim."21
"Sure,"said LieutenantVitoSpano, head of the sex crimesunitin Brooklyn, "surethey get victimized,but they are theirown worst enemies."22
Whatdoes the malejudiciarysee in prostitutesthatputsthemoutsidethe
protectionof the law?
Untilvery recently,two categoriesof women have been deemed
unrapeableby law:wivesandprostitutes.Indeed,Friedrich
Engelsfirstsugandmarriagefindtheirsocialmeaningindialectical
gested thatprostitution
relationto each other.23Rape is not illegal,it is regulated.Judge Alston's
notionthat a whorecannotbe rapedfindsits logic in an ancienttradition
thatdefines rapenotas an affrontto womenbutas an affrontto malepropfemalechastityhas had propertyvalue formen. In
erty rights.Historically,
law
the
codes
of
surviving
Mesopotamian
valley,forexample,womenwere
as
the
of
legislated
property fathers,husbands,brothers,or sons, so that
of male
rapewas figurednotas the violationof womenbutas the ruination
propertyvalue.24Untillate in the nineteenthcentury,underthe commonlaw doctrineof coverture,a woman'ssexual propertypassed intoa man's
handsat marriage;so didherlabor,herinheritance,
andherchildren.Under
a
like
a
was
In
dead.
the
coverture, wife,
slave,
civilly
eighteenthcentury,
in Britain,Sir M. Hale'snotoriousinjunction
gave a husbandde juresanctionto rapehis wifeby the legalcategoryof conjugalrights.25UntilOctober
21. Jane Gross, "Prostitutesand Addicts:Special Victimsof Rape,"New YorkTimes,
12 Oct. 1990, 14.
22. Gross, "Prostitutesand Addicts,"14.
23. FriedrichEngels, TheOriginof the Family,PrivateProperty,and the State (NewYork:
International
Publishers,1972), 129-30, 138-39.
24. VernBulloughand BonnieBullough,Womenand Prostitution:
A Social History(Buffalo: Prometheus,1987), 16. InmedievalEurope,likewise,customarylaw gave the husband the rightto execute his wife if she committedadultery,and rape was seen as the
tarnishingof male propertyvalue (115).See also GerdaLerner,"TheOriginof Prostitution
in AncientMesopotamia,"Signs 1, no. 2 (1986):236-54.
25. Hale laid down that "the husbandcannot be guiltyof a rape committedby himself
consent and contractthe wife hath
upon his lawfulwife, for by theirmutualmatrimonial
given up herself in this kindunto her husband,whichshe cannot retract"(Sir M. Hale,
The Historyof the Pleas of the Crown[London:Sollom Emlyn,1778], vol. 1, chap. 58,
628). Until1884, in Britain,a wife could be forciblyincarceratedin a state prisonfor re-
78 boundary2 / Summer1992
1991, it was legal for a man to rape his wife in Britain,except in Scotland.
It is still legal in many states in the United States and in most countries
around the world.
The rape trial serves to police contradictions inherent in the judiciary's own laws, isolating points of conflictin the distributionof male property rights over the bodies of women. Central to the idea of the modern,
universal citizen is John Locke's famous formulation:"Every Man has a
Property in his own Person."26 Yet, the principlethat individualsown property in theirown persons is immediatelycontradictedby the fact that women
do not, whereupon a fissure opens in the ideology of individualism.The
rape trial serves to isolate and close the fissure, which is identified as a
crime: a rape, a theft, adultery,prostitution.
"Awoman,"Judge Alston explains, "whogoes out on the street and
makes a whore out of herself opens herself up to anybody.""27
The logic of
law
as
is
a
is
follows:
Since
crime
a
rape
rape
against man's property in
the woman, a wife cannot be raped by her husband, for a man cannot rob
himself of his own property.Similarly,since rape is a crime against a man's
property,and since the prostituteis a common prostitute, the prostituteno
longer has private propertyvalue for men. By "opening herself up" to any
man, the prostituteruins her potentialvalue as privatepropertyfor a single
man and becomes, by definition,unrapeable.
A prostitute who removes her body from the stock of male propand
claims it for her own, removes her body from the sphere of male
erty,
which
exists to negotiate the distributionand circulationbetween men
law,
of property and power. Historically,most regimes have legislated that a
woman's relationto the rightsand resources of the state are indirect,mediated through a social relationto a man (father, husband, or nearest male
kin). By publiclyselling sexual services that men expect for free, prostitutes
transgress the fundamental structureof the male trafficin women. Therefore, as Judge Alston put it, a prostitute"steps outside the protectionof the
law."28As a result, she is also disqualifiedfrom speaking for herself before
the law. Alston adds: "Whothe hell would believe a prostitutein the witness
fusing conjugalrights(see CarolePateman,TheSexual Contract[Oxford:PolityPress,
1988], 123).
26. John Locke, Two Treatisesof Government,ed. P. Laslett(Cambridge:Cambridge
UniversityPress, 1967), vol. 2, 183, 81-82.
27. "JudgeRules ProstitutesCan'tBe Raped,"1.
28. "JudgeRules ProstitutesCan'tBe Raped,"1.
/ Screwingthe System 79
McClintock
stand anyway?"29 Marx'sinjunctioncould hardlybe more apposite: "They
cannot represent themselves; they must be represented."30
A standard Latin term for prostitute, meretrix means "she who
earns."31Since prostitution,in European history, is theft by a woman of
sexual propertythat rightfullybelongs to a man, some of the earliest laws
against prostitution were laws to curb the kind of money and property
women could accumulate.32 Hence the analogy between the terms common land and common prostitute. Untilvery recently,maritallaw enclosed
a woman's "privateparts"and transferredthem fromthe father to the husband. The wife, by law,did not possess the titledeeds to her sexual property
but served only as custodian and gatekeeper to ensure that the grounds
remained private. Inthe sexual commonage of the prostitute,however, the
body fluids and liquidassets of men from differentclasses and races mix
promiscuously.
It is, therefore, not surprisingthat prostitutes are traditionallyassociated with challenges to rule, with figures of rebellion,revolt, insurrection,
and the criminalappropriationof property.The scandal of the whorearchy
amounts to flagrantfemale interferencein male contests over propertyand
power. Not for nothing did Parisian public health officialParent-Duchatelet
call prostitutes "the most dangerous people in society."33
29. "JudgeRules ProstitutesCan'tBe Raped,"1.
30. KarlMarx,"TheEighteenthBrumaireof LouisBonaparte,"in Selected Works(New
York:International
Publishers,1973), 417.
48.
31. Bulloughand Bullough,Womenand Prostitution,
32. Atthe end of the firstcenturyA.D., EmperorDomitiantriedto ruleagainstprostitutes
receivinginheritancesand legacies. In Romanlaw, a prostitutewas canonicallybarred
fromaccusing others of crime,was forbiddento inheritproperty,and couldnot represent
herself in court.MedievalByzantinechurchlegislationforbadea prostitutefromowning
property.In the Visigothickingdomin Spain, prostituteswho persistedin theirtrade received three hundredlashes. In 1254, Louis IXdecreed that all prostitutesbe placed
beyond the protectionof the king'slaw and that all theirpersonalgoods, clothing,furs,
tunics, and linenchemises be seized (Bulloughand Bullough,Womenand Prostitution,
48, 55, 116, 120, 122).
33. Alexandre-Jean-BaptisteParent-Duchatelet,De la prostitutionde la ville de Paris
(Paris:J. B. Bailliere,1836), quotedin LouiseWhite,TheComfortsof Home:Prostitution
in ColonialNairobi(Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress, 1990), 2.
80 boundary2 / Summer1992
Black Markets:Prostitutionand Race
In late VictorianBritain,the imagery for representing sexuality was
drawnfromthe sphere of economic activity.34
Sexual problems were figured
as fiscal problems and were imaged by metaphorsof accumulation,production, and excessive expenditure.35 As Foucault has suggested, the middle
class lacked the means, and therefore had to inventthe means, for defining
itself as a class. Sexual reproductionand economic production became
deeply symbolicallylinked.Sexuality (one's relationto one's body and to the
bodies of others) became the language forexpressing one's relationto class
(one's relationto labor and to the laborof others). The middle class figured
itself as differentfromboth the aristocracyand the workingclass by virtue of
its sexual restraint(its monogamy) and its economic moderation(its thrift).
The bank, as the economic institutionfor managing the accumulation and
distributionof capital,found its accomplice in monogamous marriageas the
social institutionfor managing the accumulation and distributionof reproductive power and property.A contradictionin the formof gender, however,
opened in the formation of class identity,for monogamy was monogamy
for women only, and saving and accumulatingpropertywere for men only.
In order to foreclose the contradiction,nature was reinventedto guarantee
gender difference withinclass identity.The primarysymbolic means for the
reinventionof nature was the idea of race, and the primaryarena was empire. The invention of imperial nature, moreover,would guarantee that the
"universal"quintessence of Enlightenmentindividualismwould belong only
to propertiedmen of European descent.
The relationbetween the "normal"male controlof reproductionand
sexual pleasure in marriage, and the "normal"bourgeois control of capital
was legitimized and made naturalby reference to a thirdterm: the "abnormal" zone of racial "degeneration."Illicitmoney and illicitsexuality were
seen to relate to each other by negative analogy to race. The internal,
historicalcontradictionwithinthe modern social formationwas thereby displaced and represented as a naturaldifference across the time and space
A Studyof Sexualityand Pornographyin
34. See Steven Marcus,TheOtherVictorians:
Mid-NineteenthCenturyEngland(NewYork:New AmericanLibrary,1974),xiii.
35. Women "saved"themselves for marriage,or "cheapened"themselves in promisor homosexuality.See Sander
cuity;men "wasted"or "spent"themselvesin masturbation
Gilman,Differenceand Pathology:Stereotypes of Sexuality,Race, and Madness. See
also Gilmanin TheAnatomyof Racism, ed. DavidGoldberg(Minneapolis:Universityof
MinnesotaPress, 1990).
/ Screwing
theSystem 81
McClintock
of empire:the differencebetweenthe "enlightened"
presentandthe "primiThe
movement
the
of
across
tive"past.
space empirewas thus figuredas
a movementbackwardintime.
Prostitutesbecame associated with black and colonizedpeoples
withina discourseon racialdegenerationthatfiguredthemas transgressof money,sexual power,and property,and as
ing the naturaldistributions
therebyfatallythreateningthe fiscaland libidinaleconomyof the imperial
state. Prostitutes,whosteppedbeyondthe edictsof heterosexualmarriage
and the doctrinethat womendid not workfor profit,were figuredas atavisticthrowbacksto a primordial
phase of racialdevelopment,their"racial
deviance"writtenvisiblyon the bodyinthe stigmataof femalesexual deviance: exaggeratedposteriors,mutantgenitalsand ears, excessive sexual
appetites,disheveledhair,andothersundry"racial"
stigmata.
Gambling,likewise,as SanderGilmanpointsout, took its place in
a vocabularythat metaphorically
intertwinedmoney,sexuality,and race.
If commercialS/M was the dialecticaltwinof the sex trial,the gambling
hall was the dialecticaltwinof the bank.Gamblingwas the institutional
display of organizedcommodityfetishism:the flagrantexhibitionof the
without
capitalistsuperstitionthatmoneycan breeditselfautochthonously
labor.The organizeddreamof gamblingwas the orgasmicexcess of pure
masturbaexchange valuefromwhichall laborhas been voided.Similarly,
tion (autoeroticand outsidethe heterosexualreproductive
economy)was
in
condemned
sexual
treatisesas interfering
witha man'sabilityto
widely
workandaccumulatecapital.Homosexuality
andclitoraleroticism,similarly,
stood outsidethe reproductive
economyandoutsidethe narrative
teleology
of racialevolution,and were bothfiguredas precipitating
a steady decline
into"racial"
degeneration,visiblyexpressedinthe stigmataof hairyhands,
shamblinggait, mentaldeficiency,and irrationality.
Inthe symbolictriangleof deviantmoney,deviantsexuality,anddeviantrace, the so-calleddegenerateclasses-the militantworkingclass,
the colonized,prostitutes,gays and lesbians,gamblers,the Irish,and the
Jews (particularly
those who livedinthe East Endof London,on the cusp
of empire)-were metaphorically
boundin a regimeof surveillancefigured
by images of sexual pathologyand racialaberration.
InVictorianiconography,
the fetishemblemof dirtwas compulsively
drawnon to police the boundariesbetween"normal"
sexualityand "normal"marketrelations."Dirty"
lesbianand
sex-masturbation,prostitution,
the
gay sexuality,and the host of Victorian"perversions"-transgressed
libidinal economy of heterosexual reproductionwithin the monogamous
82 boundary2 / Summer1992
maritalrelation ("clean"sex, which has value). Likewise, "dirty"moneyassociated withprostitutes,Jews, gamblers, and thieves-transgressed the
fiscal economy of the male-dominated, marketexchange ("clean"money,
which has value). The bodily relationto dirtexpressed a social relation to
labor. Because it was the surplus evidence of human work, dirtwas a Victorian scandal. Dirtwas the visible residue that stubbornlyremained after
the process of industrialrationalityhad done its work.Smeared on clothes,
hands, and faces, dirtwas the memory trace of human labor,the evidence
that the production of industrialwealth, and the creation of liberal rationality, lay in the hands and bodies of the workingclass and the colonized.
For this reason, Victoriandirtentered the symbolic realm of fetishism with
great force, and the body of the prostitute,standing on the street corner of
marriage and market, became subject to vigilantand violent policing.
In late Victorian Britain,the infamous Contagious Diseases Acts
British
police the right to forcibly impose physical examinations on
gave
women suspected of workingas prostitutes in designated garrison towns
in Britainand its colonies. The initialimpetus for the Acts came from blows
to male self-esteem in the arena of empire, in resurgent militancyin India,
South Africa, Ireland,and elsewhere. The argument ran that the real threat
to the potency of the imperialarmy lay in the sexual bodies of transgressive
women. If working women could be cordoned off, the purityof the army
and the imperialbody politiccould be assured. Withthe Acts, the policing
of female sexuality became both metaphor and means for policing unruly
working-class and colonized peoples at large.
If the Western discourse on degeneration sees the white prostitute
as a racialdeviant, and colonized people as inherentlysexually degenerate,
the prostitute in the colonies brings the discourse on deviance to its conceptual limit. If all colonized people are the embodiment of degeneration,
there is no way to represent the special case of the prostitute.How can she
be defined as sexually abnormalif all colonized people are already quintessentially abnormal? In the colonies, the relation between prostitutionand
female property,between paid and unpaidfemale work, comes criticallyto
the fore.
In colonial Kenya, for example, prostitutionemerged from the collision of naturalcatastrophe and colonialism,fromthe disruptionsof African
agricultureand African resistance to colonial wage labor.36Yet, as Louise
36. See LouiseWhite,TheComfortsof Home.Iam gratefullyindebtedto White'sgroundbreakingbook. For a fullerdiscussion of White'sbook, see my review"TheScandal of
52 (1991):92-99.
the Whorearchy,"
Transition
/ Screwing
theSystem 83
McClintock
was nota litanyof victims.
Whiteshows, the historyof colonialprostitution
Workingprostituteswere Kenya's"urbanpioneers,"some of the firstresidents to liveyear-roundin Nairobi.Kenyanprostitutesthemselvesdefined
sexworkas a defiantformof labor.Dodgingcolonialwage labor,manyof the
women used the cash they earnedfrom"diggingwiththeirbacks"to buy
notion"that
cattleand buildhouses and to foundthe "nearlyrevolutionary
womencan controltheirown moneyand propertyas independentheads of
households.37
mimickedmarriage,the radical
As Whiteshows, malayaprostitution
differencebeingthatwomenexchangedformoneythedomestic,emotional,
and sexual services that wives performedunpaid.38Fosteringvalues of
femaleand communityloyalty,the prostituteshelpedmaintainAfricancommunitiesand struggledto shape the colonialurbanscene to meet African
women'sneeds.
Inprecolonialsociety,the daughter'smarriagewas the sourceof the
father'saccumulationof propertyand power.Since womendidthe bulkof
of lifeandlabor,theirworkwas the
the workandwerethe chiefreproducers
single most valuableresourceapartfromthe landitself.Incattle-marriage
societies, livestockwere the symboliccoinage of women's laborpower.
Morewives meantgreaterwealthand morecattleformen, and cattlemarby whichwomen'slaborpowerwas
riage was the fundamentalinstitution
metamorphosedintomale politicalpower.Throughmalecontrolof female
sexualityand marriage,cattle and cash were redistributed
throughmale
familialnetworks.
however,womenbeganto buytheirown propThroughprostitution,
erty.Manyof the malayaprostituteswere runawaywiveswho came to the
cityto escape forcedmarriages.Insteadof sendingtheirmoneybackto the
male-headedhomestead,womenboughtlivestockandhouses andbecame
independentheads of households,movinga whole cycle of new, female
familyformationintothe new urbancenters. If marriagewas a source of
fathers'accumulation,prostitution
becamethe sourceof daughters'accumulation.As KayayaThababuputit:"Athome,whatcouldIdo? Growcrops
for my husbandor my father.In NairobiI can earn my own money,for
myself."39By the early 1930s, halfof the landlordsin Pumwani,Nairobi's
blacktownship,werewomen.40
37. White,TheComfortsof Home,34.
38. Unlikethe watambezi,or streetwalkingprostitutes,malaya prostitutesworkedfrom
theirhomes, exchangingbothdomesticand sexual services forcash.
39. White,TheComfortsof Home,51.
40. White,TheComfortsof Home,64.
2 / Summer
84 boundary
1992
Manyof the women, moreover,consciouslyrefusedto pass their
fathersand brothers
propertybackthroughthe male system, disinheriting
and keepingtheirmoneyand theirbodies forthemselves.Malayaprostitutionexpressed a clear rejectionof traditional
malefamilyties. Windfalls
went intohelpingwomenfriends,and the womendesignatedfemale heirs
to ensurethattheirpropertydidnotpass backintothe patrilineage,thereby
many men took
creatingnew, explicitlyfemale lineages. Not surprisingly,
at
the
women's
and
the
had
to
umbrage
temerity,
prostitutes
negotiateconstantlyto keep theirpropertyout of the hands of iratefathers,brothers,
ex-husbands,and the state.
was riven
Indeed,the colonialstate'sresponseto Nairobiprostitution
withparadox.On the one hand,prostitution
was essential to the smooth
runningof a migrantlaboreconomy,savingthe state the cost of servicing
Africanmen,as wellas forestalling
the perilsof settledAfricancommunities
takingrootinthe urbanareas. Onthe otherhand,the earningsof the prostitutesalso allowedwomenand men to elude the depredationsof colonial
wage labor.Settlersconstantlycarpedat Africanscoundrelsand slothful
layaboutswho livedoffwomen'searningsandweretherebyable to refuse
to workforwhites.
In colonialKenya,as elsewhere,the state objectedless to prostitutionitselfthan to the women'sscandalousaccumulationof money and
Ina worldwherecolonialssoughtconstantlyto controlthe livesof
property.41
Africansthroughhousing,marriage,and migrantlabor,prostitutesowning
self-respect,andgender
propertyand passingon the valuesof community,
a
affront
to
white
were
constant
the
male
managementof power.
loyalty
Inmanypartsof Africa,the state'sambiguousrelationto prostitution
has enduredafterindependence.Inthe 1970s and 1980s, in Zimbabwe,
Gabon,Zambia,Tanzania,Mozambique,and BurkinaFaso, for example,
workingwomen
policelaunchedmassiveassaultson single,independently
the
inputativeattemptsto "clean"the citiesof prostitution.
Yet, realthreatto
butthe generalspecterof economicallyindethe state was notprostitution
pendentwomen,who werefetishizedand demonizedby the whorestigma
of women
inorderto licensestate violence.As PaolaTabetputsit,"Control
in marriageand exploitationof theirlaboris based on male monopolyof
resources and means of production.Whenwomenhave access to other
forms of income, marriageand directmale controlare threatened."42
In
41. White,TheComfortsof Home,219.
42. See Paola Tabet, "I'mthe Meat, I'mthe Knife.Sexual Service, Migration,and Re-
/ Screwing
theSystem 85
McClintock
1983, inZimbabwe,forexample,the Mugabegovernmentorderedmassive
roundupsof womenwho couldnotdemonstratean immediaterelationto a
man. Womenwalkingalone on the streets, livingalone in flats in Harare,
or raisingchildrenindependently
as single motherswerearrestedas prostitutesand sent to camps, wherethey were subjectedto appallingabuse.
The roundupswere repeatedduringthe recentCommonwealth
Summit.
Prostitutionis a realmof contradiction.
Inthe colonies, prostitution
may very well have confirmedcolonialfantasiesaboutwhitemen's privialso confused
leged access to the bodiesof blackwomen,butprostitution
racialsegregationandthe racialandgendereddistributions
of money.The
fact thatmen had access to prostitution
didnotmeanthatthey hadcontrol
over prostitutes.Prostitutesobligedwhitemento payfarbetterthan usual
for Africanwomen'sworkand, at least temporarily,
subjectedwhite men
to Africanwomen'scontrol.Prostitutesdictatedthe times and termsof the
exchange,whatservicestheyoffered,and howmuchthey charged.43
In contemporaryBritain,Europe,and the UnitedStates, the policof
ing prostitutesas racialdegenerates persists in at least three ways.
Prostitutescontinueto be figuredas atavisticthrowbacksto racial"degeneracy."In 1969, a Britishpamphlet,forexample,widelyreadby probation
as "a primitiveand regressivemanifesofficers,condemnedprostitution
and migrantprostitutesare subjectedto
tation."44
Poor,black,immigrant,
systematic,and especiallyviolent,harassment.The police,moreover,use
the controlof prostitutesas a coverforpolicingblack,minority,
immigrant,
and working-classcommunities,bothmale and female. Definingzones of
the cityas sexuallydeviant,the policeattemptto penetrateandsubduethe
blackbodypolitic.As a statementfromthe EnglishCollectiveof Prostitutes
protested,"Womenare pushedfromarea to area, and even fromcity to
city,butthe policeremaininthe area afterthe womenhave left."45
andentersthe realm
laws,space is criminalized
Throughprostitution
of law. In Britain,the recent,notoriousKerbCrawlingBillis no exception.
In 1985, underthe guise of protectingwomen,it became a crimefor men
to engage in "persistentkerbcrawling"
(solicitingwomenforsex). In1990,
pression in Some AfricanSocieties,"in TheVindicationof the Rightsof Whores,ed. Gail
Pheterson, Preface by MargoSt. James (Seattle:Seal Press, 1989), 204-23.
43. As Whitepoints out, women controlledthe price,the type, the time, and the length
and intensityof the services they preferredto exchange.
44. Quotedin Pateman,TheSexual Contract,194.
45. EnglishCollectiveof Prostitutes'Statement,KingsCross, London,10 July 1987.
86 boundary2 / Summer1992
under the Sexual Offenses Bill,Sir WilliamShelton proposed the removal of
the termpersistent, in orderto make it possible for a single officerwithouta
witness to charge any man simplysuspected of talkingto a prostitute(hence
the term sus law). Prostitutes argue that the new bill, far from protecting
women from violent clients, only deepens the dangers. Nervous johns do
not have time to dawdle, so women do not have time to check them out
or negotiate for safe sex. As a result, some women have been badly battered and murdered.As a Kings Cross prostitutecomplained:"Ifthe law can
nick them straight away, everything will be done so fast you won't have a
chance, especially at night. Withsome of the nuts you get around here, it's
a frightening prospect."46 At the same time, the bill has been widely used
as a "sus" law to arrest and harass black, immigrant,and minoritymen for
unrelated reasons. In London, many black and immigrantmen have been
stopped, arrested, charged with stealing their own bicycles, or harassed
and beaten up simply for talkingto a woman who is "suspected" of being a
prostitute.White, middle-class men, like Prosecutor Allan Green, however,
are let off with a fraternalslap on the wrist.47
Prostitutes who are poor and black bear the most vicious bruntof the
law. In 1982, in London,police abuse of black, immigrant,and minorityprostitutes became so widespread that women occupied the Churchof the Holy
Cross to draw publicattentionto theirplight.Inthe UnitedStates, while only
40 percent of streetwalkers are women of color, they make up 55 percent
of those sentenced to jail.48In New York,police hold "tricktournaments,"
lining black and white prostituteson either side of a road and forcing them
to run races against each other. Those who lose go to jail.49
Generally speaking, in Britain,Europe, and the United States, black
and white prostitutes experience the metropolis in differentways. A racial
geography of sex maps the city and divides the sex industry. In the exchange of commercial sex, the private(white)spaces of escort services and
46. See Jo Grant,"StreetsApart,"TheGuardian(London),3 July 1990, 14.
47. Chief ProsecutorAllanGreen was arrestedfor kerbcrawlingnear the KingsCross
Stationin 1991. In 1985, the Campaignagainst KerbCrawlingLegislationwas launched
by a coalitionof sexworkers,anti-rape,black,and civilrightsgroupsto lobbymembersof
Parliamentand maketheirobjectionsknownto the press. On Friday,11 May1990, aftera
rowdyand acrimoniousdebate, Memberof ParliamentKenLivingstontalkedthe Sexual
Offenses Billdown.The bill,however,comes up every Friday,and willbe passed unless
one MPopposes it.
48. Delacoste and Alexander,Sex Work,197.
49. Arlene Carmenand HowardMoody,WorkingWomen:The SubterraneanWorldof
Street Prostitution(New York:Harperand Row,1985), 146.
/ Screwingthe System 87
McClintock
clubs are tacitlycondoned, while the public(black) spaces of streetwalking
and car sex are more violent, more heavily policed, and more profoundly
stigmatized. In the 1970s, in New York,massage parlorson the East Side
were run by white men who overwhelminglyemployed white women and
were comparativelysafer and more comfortablethan the less opulent black
parlors on the West Side. Black and Asian women in the United States
find it harder to get work as go-go dancers and escort women than white
and Latina women do. In Nevada, until the 1960s, black women could
not enter casinos. Today, many bar owners, hotel keepers, and landlords
either do not allow black prostitutes to use their premises or they charge
them punitivelyinflatedrents. Police are far more tolerantof less overt sexwork, largely because the customers are drawnfromthe white, middle, and
professional classes. By licensing indoorwork, and harassing street work,
police isolate the poorest women, who cannot affordto pay high rents and
who have the least access to health care, social resources, and legal aid.
The police thereby ensure that poor, black women pay the heaviest price
for the criminalizationof sexwork.
The whore stigma polices the racial divide, stigmatizing and endangering the lives of women of color, as well as perpetuatingracism within
the sex industry and among some white prostitutes. At the same time, in
Britain, Europe, and the United States, clients are overwhelminglywhite,
married,and middleclass, while most of the men arrested are men of color,
are gay, or are transvestite.
"It'sa Business Doing Pleasure with You":
ProstitutionIs Work
Prostitutes around the world are now becoming their own media
advocates and politicalactivists, radicallychallenging the stigma of sexual
and racial deviance.50 Since the 1970s, hundreds of prostitutionorganizations have burgeoned worldwide,from Hawaiito Austria, from Canada to
the Philippines, from Zimbabwe to the Netherlands. In 1986, prostitutes
from around the world met in Brussels at an extraordinarysession of the
European Parliament, where they launched the Second World Whores'
Congress. Drawnfrom over sixteen countries and representing millionsof
50. See Delacoste and Alexander,Sex Work.See also DoloresFrench,Working:MyLife
as a Prostitute(New York:E. P. Dutton,1988), and Good Girls/BadGirls:Feministsand
Sex TradeWorkersFace to Face, ed. LaurieBell(Toronto:Seal Press, 1987).
2 / Summer
88 boundary
1992
sexworkersworldwide,the prostitutesdrewup a Whores'Charter,calling
of sexworkandan endto allviolationsof sexworker
forthe decriminalization
rights.51
InOctober1991,sexworkersfromsixteencountriesmetin Frankfurt
at the FirstEuropeanProstitutes'Congressto call for the recognitionof
as a professionin the EuropeanCharterand for full
voluntaryprostitution
Tothe consternationof many
rightsas workersunderEuropeanlaborlaw.52
some
callednotforthe abolitionof
and
feminists,
prostitutes
governments,
but
for
the
redistribution
of
sexual
pleasure,power,and profit;
prostitution
of landandpropertyrights;forthe removalof foreign
forthe transformation
in the sex
armies;and forthe rightof womenand men to workvoluntarily
tradeundersafe, unregulated,and respectedconditions.53
Manymen, however,preferto findwhoresin theirbeds thanin their
parliaments,and attemptsby sexworkersto organizehave met with unswervingviolence. An Irishorganizerwas burntto death, and Thaiorganizers have been murdered.Ecuadoranbrothelowners rotateprostitutes
regularlyto preventthem fromorganizing.54Yetby and large,the international Lefthas been largelyindifferent
to the issue, whilethe abolitionist
feminists
has been nothingshortof calamitousfor
tendencyamongsome
workingprostitutes.
Mostprostitutesinsistthatthe firsttargetof theirinternational
orgathe
law.
Prostitutes
that
the
laws
rather
is
the
state
and
punish,
argue
nizing
thanprotect,women,especiallywomenof color.Wheresexworkis a crime,
Murderers
knowthe
clientscan rape,rob,and batterwomenwithimpunity.
weightof a prostitute'slife in the scales of the law.As DallasJudge Jack
Hamptonadmitted,"I'dbe hardputto give somebodylifeforkillinga prostimoreprostitutesare murderedinthe UnitedStates,
tute."
55Notsurprisingly,
is stilla crime,thananywhereelse in the world.
where prostitution
Prostitutesdenouncethe lawsthatshuntthemintodangerous,desolatedocklands,meatpacking
districts,andrailwayyards,unableto organize
is a crime,
for decent conditionsor againstcoercion.Whereprostitution
womencannotdemandpoliceprotectionorclaimlegalrecourseforrobbery
of the Rightsof Whores.
51. Fora fullaccountof the congress, see Pheterson,Vindication
52. See Anne McClintock,"Downby Law,"TheGuardian(London),23 Oct. 1991, 20.
53. See Anne McClintock,
"MeanwhileBackat the ChickenRanch,"The Guardian(London), 12 May1992, 36.
54. Pheterson,Vindicationof the Rightsof Whores,7.
55. Lisa Belkin,"ReportClears Judge of Bias in Remarksabout Homosexuals,"New
YorkTimes,2 Nov. 1989, A25.
/ Screwing
theSystem 89
McClintock
or coercion,forthey therebyexpose themselvesas implicatedin a criminalizedtrade.Wheresexworkis a crime,prostitutesareforcedby landlords
to pay exorbitantrentsor are drivento workthe freezingand dangerous
streets. Prostitutescannotclaimsocialwelfareor lifeinsurance,healthcare
or maternitybenefits,childcareor pensions.Whereprostitution
is a crime,
migrantwomenare evictedfromtheirhomes,are deniedworkpapers,and
are detainedand deported.Everycent of a prostitute'searningsis criminallycontaminated.The propertyand possessions of prostitutesare often
forfeited,and mothers,brothers,friends,andloverscan be flungintoprison
for livingoff immoralearnings.Mostcruelly,a prostitutecannotkeep her
children.Mostprostitutesare mothers,and most are in the game fortheir
children.In many countries,however,social workershave the powerto
take a prostitute'schildrenoutof "moraldanger"into"care."Inthese ways,
the state curtailswomen'spower,divertingillicitfemale money back into
the coffersof malecirculation
andcurtailing
the emergenceof independent
female heads of family.
Sexworkthat benefitsthe malestate, however,is toleratedand administeredby a system of international
euphemisms:massage parlors,
escort agencies, bars, rest and recreationresorts,and so on, whichare
runnot by hookersbutby male"entertainment
managers."InThailand,for
inhabitsa twilightrealmof legal ambiguity.The law
example, prostitution
makes prostitution
a crime,butthe green lightis givento male"touroperators"and "entertainment
managers,"whose operationsare sanctionedand
definedas the "personalservicesector."
Most prostitutesregardlegalizedprostitution
as legalizedabuse.
undercriminallaw
Despite its benignring,legalizationplaces prostitution
insteadof commerciallaw,whereit is tightlycurbedby the state and administeredby the police. Instead,prostituteswantthe law off theirbodies
and are callingforthe decriminalization
of the professionand the repealof
all legislationnotordinarily
applicableto a businessor trade.
Legalizationputswomen'sbodiesfirmlyin men'shands.Inthe aptly
namedChickenRanch,a legalizedbrothelinNevada,prostitutesareforced
to workthreeweeks at a stretch,servicingany manwho picksthem,at any
timeof the dayornight,a dizzyinganddispiriting
carouselof faceless tricks.
In manyof the legalizedbrothelsand clubs in Europe,Lisbet,a German
prostitute,toldme, "Womenhave no rightto refusemen andoftenno right
to use a condom."
Underlegalization,the profitsof women'sworkclatterinto men's
pockets. The state becomes a licit pimp, penning prostitutes in brothels
2 / Summer
90 boundary
1992
and levyingpunitivetaxes at rateshigherthanotherworkers.InGermany,
legalizedprostitutespay 56 percentof theirearningsin taxes, but, unlike
other taxpayers,they are not eligiblefor any social benefitswhatsoever.
Underlegalization,the state controlsprostitutes'
workand leisure,preventit
and
often
themto leave the tradeif
hard
for
ingorganization
making very
wish.
Most
to
work
they
prostitutesprefer
illegallyratherthansubmitto the
abusiveand humiliating
ordealsof state-controlled
brothels.
Frenchprostitutescannotlivewitha husband,wife,lover,orchild,as
Italianprostianyone undertheirroofcan be chargedwith"cohabitation."
tutes cannothelptheirhusbandsorwivespaythe rentorgive theirparents
money,as they can be chargedwithlivingoff "immoral
earnings."In Britain, engaging in prostitutionis not a crime (whichlets the johns off the
workis criminalized.
Two
hook),butvirtuallyeveryaspect of a prostitute's
womenworkingtogetherforsafetycan be chargedwithkeepinga brothel.
InSwitzerland,if a womandecides to leavethe tradeandseek otherwork,
she firsthas to get a "goodgirl"letterfromthe policeto proveher good
conduct.To get the letter,she has to waitthreeyears withoutworkingas
a prostituteto proveher good conduct.Untilthen, she cannotlegallyfind
otherwork.InFrankfurt,
zoninglawsforcewomento workthe desertedharborarea,wheretheycan be torturedanddumpedinthe waterwithouta stir.
InCanada,prostitution
is nota crime,but"communicating
forthe purposes
is. Prostitutescan be penalizedfororganizingand informing
of prostitution"
each otherof dangeroustricksor corruptpolice.Austrianprostituteshave
to reportto the policesimplyto go on holiday.Some of the most appalling
conditionsprevailin India.Between1980 and 1984, not a single landlord
was arrestedfor illegallypanderingto prostitutes,but 44,633 prostitutes
were arrestedforsolicitingin Bombayalone.
As DoloresFrench,author,activist,and prostitute,toldme in a prisees women as a controlledsubvate interview,"Legalizingprostitution
men."
The
international
stance-controlled by
prostitutes'movementthus
calls for the decriminalization,not the legalization, of theirwork. Prostitutes
demandthattheirworkbe respectedas a social serviceforbothmen and
womenand thatit be broughtundercommerciallawlikeotherprofessions.
Why,they ask, can masseurscommandrespectandgratitudeforservicing
naked clients in comfortablerooms,whileprostitutesare criminalized?If
theirworkweredecriminalized,
prostitutescouldplytheirtradeinsafetyand
respect,payingnormalrentandtaxes, in houses as clean and comfortable
as those of the averagetherapistor chiropractor.
Prostitutesinsistitis notthe exchangeof moneythatdemeansthem
but the conditions under which the exchange is made. They demand, as
/ Screwing
McClintock
theSystem 91
a priority,
the rightto choose and refusetheirclients,rejectingmenwhoare
inanywaydisrespectfuloroffensive,drunk,orsimplyunsavory.No respect,
they say, no sex. Prostitutesalso wantthe rightto stipulatewhatservices
they offer.Some preferto give handshandies,others prefervanillasex.
Some preferto workwiththeirmouths,otherswitha whip.Some refuseto
undress.Mostrefuse anal sex. Manyrefuseto kiss. Alldemandthatthey
be free to negotiatethese preferencessafely and professionallywiththeir
clientsand thatthe prostituteshavethe finalsay on the terms.
Some clientsare expertsat anger,ventingon whorestheirmisogyny
and sexual despair.Ifsexworkweredecriminalized,
prostitutescouldwork
inconjunctionwithtrainedtherapists,offeringcounselingreferralforclients
in need. Prostitutescouldalso organizecollectively,educatingeach other,
theirclients,and the publicaboutsexualpleasureand sexual health.
Prostitutesscoffat the notionthatthe criminallawsare thereto protect them. Why,they ask, are men arrestedfor payingprostitutesbut not
arrestedforrapingthem?Prostitution
catchesthe lawwithitspantsdown.In
the eyes of the prostitute,the emperorhas no clothes:Thosewho makethe
laws areoftenthe ones whobreakthe laws.Policeare ambiguprostitution
ous exterminating
angels, curbingand harassinga tradethey don'treally
wantto destroy.Prostitutesinsistthatthe policearetheirgreatestscourge,
demandingfreebies,rapingthem in vans and in precincts,and interfering
withsafe sex practicesby puncturingholes in condomsand confiscating
bleach. Inthe states of Washingtonand Arizona,cops are legallyallowed
to have sex withprostitutesinorderto entrapthem.InNewYork,policeare
on recordforconfiscatingwomen'sshoes inthe winterandforcingthemto
walkhome barefootthroughthe icy streets.
Prostitutesare callinginternationally
forthe end to allpoliceharassmentandto the forcedtestingof prostitutesforHIV.56
Inthe currentclimate
of sexualparanoia,prostitutesarebeingdemonizedas deadlynightshades,
fatallyinfectinggood familymen. A hue and cry has gone up aroundthe
world,with publicofficialsclamoringfor prostitutesto be force-testedfor
HIVand corralledintoquarantine.Officials,however,have been far less
gung ho aboutthrowinga cordonsanitaireof arrests,tests, andquarantine
aroundjohns,perhapsbecause so manyof these good publicservantsare
johnsthemselves.
Since mostjohnsarehusbands,the currentcallforlegalizationstems
56. See Delacoste and Alexander,"ProstitutesAreBeingScapegoatedfor Heterosexual
AIDS,"in Sex Work,248-63. See also Anne McClintock,"Safe Sluts,"Village Voice,
20 Aug. 1991.
2 / Summer
92 boundary
1992
less fromrecognitionof prostitutes'rightsthanfromthe illusionthat herdingprostitutesintobrothelsandforce-testingthemforHIVwillprotectgood
familymen frominfection.Force-testingprostitutes,however,onlyfosters
the illusionthateitherpartneris then safe withouta condom.
As prostitutestirelesslypointout, it is notthe exchangeof cash but
high-riskbehaviorsthattransmitdisease. Moreover,safe sex, not testing,
preventsHIV.As Jasmin,a Germanprostitute,told me in a privateinterview, "Testingis always too late."Mostsexworkers,except, perhaps,for
the veryyoung,the verydesperate,andthose deniedaccess to condoms,
insistthat men use condomsforall services, includinghandshandiesand
oralsex. As a result,studiesshowthat,contraryto popularstigma,cases of
HIVforprostituteswho are notalso IVdrugusers remainconsistentlylow.
Of greaterconcernthan a safe sex slut is a clientwho refuses a
condom. For prostitutes,the onus is on the womanto get the rubberon
the man.As Jasmintoldme, "Somemen ask me: 'Iwantit withouta condom.' I say: 'Youcan't pay me what my life is worth.Get out of here.'"
Thus, the EuropeanCongress reporton AIDSdemandedthat managers
of clubs, brothels,and ErosCenterswho forciblypreventprostitutesfrom
usingcondomsshouldbe punishedbycriminallawforattemptedhomicide.
Speakersat the EuropeanCongressvoicedgreatestconcernforthe
plightof migrantworkersin the new Europe.In 1992, borderswithinthe
"EuropeanFortress"willbe opened to all workersbut not to prostitutes.
Unless prostitutesare recognizedas workerslikeeveryoneelse, migrant
willsufferthe increasingindignitiesof arrests,deprostitutes,in particular,
portation,and racistassaults.Prostitutesare moreawarethananyoneelse
volunof the ordealsof forcedprostitution.
Theyinsistthatdecriminalizing
will
forced
make
it
far
easier
to
detect
and
sexwork
prostitution.
destroy
tary
The UnitedNationshas estimatedthatby the year2000 tourismwill
The international
the
most importanteconomicactivityin the world.57
be
pursuitof commercialsex
politicsof ThirdWorlddebtandthe international
have become deeply entwined,turningsex tourisminto a surefire,coinspinningventure-with mostof the profitsclatteringintothe coffersof the
Sex tourismis creatingbotha new kindof economicdepenmultinationals.
refusal.In manycountries,tourism
dence and a new kindof international
has replacedproducts,such as bauxiteand sugar,as the leadingearner
57. See Thanh-DamTruong,Sex, Money, and Morality:Prostitutionand Tourismin
SoutheastAsia (London:Zed, 1990). Fora moredetaileddiscussionof this book,see my
reviewin the TimesLiterarySupplement,16 Aug. 1991, 10.
/ Screwing
McClintock
theSystem 93
of sexualityandthe sexualizationof
of foreignexchange.The militarization
as well.Millionsof women
the militaryhave deep international
implications,
and menworkincountriesofficially
designatedas R andR sites forthe U.S.
military,in the burgeoningcruiseship industry,and in touristhotels,clubs,
and resorts.Sex tourismdepends on powerfulconstructionsof race and
of masculinity,
on foreignbusinessmenwilling
gender:on the militarization
to investin sexual travel,and on a racialgeographyof sex thatpersuades
privilegedmenthatwomenineconomicallydisempoweredcountrieswillbe
more sexuallyavailableand pliant.58
As LifeTravelassured male adventurersinThailand,"Taking
a womanhereis as easy as buyinga packageof
59Sex tourismdependson womenandmenavailableto selltheir
cigarettes."
services and on a networkof international
companieswillingto fosterlocal
bureaucraticstructures,to organizesex tours,and to preventsexworkers
fromorganizing.
The boy's-ownadventureof sex travelis as muchaboutempireas
it is about sun, sex, and souvenirs.Foreignsunseekers fly to Southeast
Asiawithairlinesthatpromiseto embodythefemininequintessenceof their
nation:"Singaporegirl,you'rea greatwayto fly."As ThaiAirlineadvertised,
"Somesay it'sourbeautifulwide-bodiedDC-10sthatcause so manyheads
to turn. . . . We think our beautifulslim-bodied hostesses have a lot to do
withit."60Multinationals,
the R and R ideafromthe U.S. military,
borrowing
regularlysend male employeeson packagetoursto be sexuallyserviced
61As yet, there
by womenbilledas "littleslaves whogive realThaiwarmth."
are no packagetoursforfemaleexecutivesfromTokyo,Dallas,and Ryad;
and companywives chafingunderthe sexualennuiof marriagedo notlight
out in drovesfora "taste"of the Orient.
The currentsocial contextof most prostitution-pleasurefor men
and workfor women-well-nigh guaranteesits sexism. Men enjoy privinotto mention
leged access to sexualpleasure,to porn,andto prostitution,
that hardyperennial,the doublestandard.Women'sdesire, by contrast,
has been crimpedand confinedto history'ssad museumof corsets, chastity belts, and the virginitycult.Contexts,however,can be changed, and
empoweringprostitutesempowersall women. DeloresFrenchsuggested
58. CynthiaEnloe, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: MakingFeministSense of InternationalPolitics (Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1990).
59. Quotedin Thanh-DamTruong,Sex, Money,and Morality,178.
60. Quoted in Thanh-DamTruong,Sex, Money,and Morality,179.
61. Quoted in Thanh-DamTruong,Sex, Money,and Morality,178.
94 boundary
2 / Summer
1992
to me ina privateinterviewthatmanywomenfearprostitutesbecause they
makewomenfeel tricked.Prostitutescall men'sbluff,challengingthe genof powerand profitby flagrantlydemandingmoneyfor
dered distribution
sex
that
nonreciprocal
manywomengive forfree.
Historychanges the meaningof the sexual body.There is no one
nor is there any one politicallycorrect
privilegednarrativeof prostitution,
Some sexworkersplytheirtradein opulenthotels,
politicsof prostitution.
some in parkedcars, some in bars and caf6s, some in agricultural
plantationsand migrantworkerhostels, some on cruiseliners,some at R and
R sites for the U.S. military.Sexworkersdo not share the same reasons
for enteringthe trade,nordo they experiencethe workin the same way.
Not all sexworkersare women;not all customersare men. The enormous
trade in gay commercialsex complicatesthe notionthatprostitution
is no
morethanthe embodimentof femalebondage.By some men'saccounts,
commercialsex forwomen-arguablyone of the deepest taboos of allis on the increase.Whatis crucial,however,is thatprostitutesthemselves
definethe conditionsfororganizingtheirworkto suittheirown localneeds
and contexts.
Perpetuatingthe image of prostitutesas eitherbrokenbaby dolls
serves only to heightenthe climateof violence
or fatal Frankenhookers
and hypocrisyunderwhichso manywomenlive. Indeed,the feministcritiqueof prostitutesis to mymindtheoretically
misbegottenandstrategically
sexworkers'efforts(manyof whomare feminists
unsound,short-circuiting
the tradeto meettheirownneeds. Whateverelse it
themselves)to transform
is
the
female
erasureof a woman'ssexualdesireinexchange
is,
prostitution
for cash. Itis, however,no differentin that respectfrommost otherforms
of women'swork.Prostitution
that is not tightlycontrolledby men differs
frommost women'sworkin that it is far betterpaid,has flexibleworking
hours,and gives womenconsiderableeconomicindependencefrommen.
As a result,working-classwomenandwomenof colorare able to educate
and raisetheirchildrenin the comfortand
themselves,findsocial mobility,
securityusuallygivento onlygood whitegirls.
Itseems crucial,therefore,to remainalertto the nuancesand pararatherthanto patronizeprostitutesas embodimentsof
doxes of prostitution
female sexual degradationor to glamorizethemas unambiguousheroines
of female revolt.Sexworkis a genderedformof workthattakes its myriad
meaningsfromthe differentsocieties inwhichit emerges.
Wouldfeministswho condemnprostitutesforbecomingcomplicitin
commodityfetishism,forexample,makethe same criticismof blackSouth
/ Screwing
theSystem 95
McClintock
Africanmineworkerswho dragfromthe earththe verystuffof commodity
fetishism?Doesn'tthe argumentthat prostitutessell themselves bear an
uncannyand perilousresemblanceto the sanctionedmale view that a
woman'sidentityis equivalentto hersexuality?Prostitutesdo notsell themselves; rather,likeallworkers(including
feminists),they exchangespecific
services for cash and carefullynegotiatewiththeirclients what services
they provide,at whatrate,andforhowlong.
The whorestigmadisciplinesall women.As one prostitutetold me
in a privateconversation,"It'sthe stigmathathurts,not the sex. The sex
is easy. Facingthe world'shate is whatbreaksme down."The license to
despise a prostituteis a license to despise any womanwho takes sex,
money,and mobilityintoherhands.Iftricksare at libertyto abuse whores,
chances are they willabuse otherwomen.Empowering
whoresempowers
all women,and educatingmen to respectprostituteseducates men to respect allwomen.
Society demonizessexworkersbecause they demandmoremoney
thanwomenshouldforservices men expectforfree. Prostitutesscrewthe
inthe maledistribution
of property,power,
system, dangerouslyinterfering
and profit.As MargoSt. James putsit,"Inprivatethe whorehas power.The
greatfear for men, who are runningthings,is that if whoreshave a voice,
suddenlygood womenare goingto findout how muchtheirtime is worth,
62Byorganizingfordecriminalization,
and howto ask formoney."
prostitutes
are organizingto putcontrolof womens'workbackinwomens'hands.
62. "TheReclamationof Whores,"in Bell,Good Girls/BadGirls,82.