Prostitution & Pusat Refleksologi

Thai-themed massage shops in Ipoh are often fronts for prostitution

The so-called “Thai Reflexology” massage shops that pepper Ipoh are in fact fronts for prostitution. Prostitution is often called the oldest profession in the world, yet is among the least acceptable to society. The stigmas attached to sex workers in conservative countries especially rival those of murderers and pedophiles. Poll the people around you on their gut reaction to prostitution, and rarely will a positive description make it to the top ten by popularity. 

Structural Functionalism and Social Conflict approaches to sociology, as you can imagine, diverge wildly in how they rationalize prostitution. Functionalism believes prostitution exists because it fulfills at least two roles in societies. One, it is an avenue of income for impoverished women who would otherwise be pushed on to the streets and be at the mercy of criminal gangs and inclement weather. Think single mothers who are struggling to raise multiple children after their breadwinner father abandons the family. 

Two, it is an outlet for the sexual frustration of single men who would otherwise be compelled to rape women to satisfy their urges. The booming sex trade in China is in fact a direct consequence of the near 30 million surplus men that naturally seek gratification. Consequently, the totalitarian state turns a blind eye to human trafficking of women from neighboring countries like Vietnam and Thailand. 

Moreover, a controversial thesis advanced by sociologist Kingsley Davis in the early 20th century contended that prostitution helped save marriages and accordingly stabilized divorce rates. He argued that married men being biologically procreational were compelled to seek affairs with other women if their sex life at home was unsatisfactory, or if domestic arguments were irreversibly damaging their ego. As prostitution provided an impersonal sexual experience, and stress release as medical studies have proven, they were more likely to remain married.

Social Conflict theorists take the opposite tack. They believe prostitution is the very essence of wealth disparity between the haves and have-nots. As evidence, they cite the disproportionate number of poor or low-income status women that turn to prostitution to make ends meet. The feminists strain in conflict theory, meanwhile, is far more scathing in its indictment of prostitution.

Feminist conflict theorists allege prostitution is the fruit of long-standing societal patriarchy. Meaning men not only run the world and religiously scheme to keep women from climbing up the food chain, they also perpetuate the fallacy of male heterosexual dominance by reducing women to “sex objects.” This status quo helps them “mansplain” the transactional nature of prostitution. Additionally, such feminists reinforce the patriarchy argument by highlighting the sliver-like percentage of male prostitutes in the sex-for-sale trade.

Reference:

Barkan, S. (n.d.). Social Problems: Continuity and Change, v. 1.0. Retrieved January 20, 2018, from https://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/3064?e=barkansoc_1.0-ch09_s04