When it comes to prostitution, we prefer a strange fantasy

I wrote about this for an editorial in early December 2012 that wasn't, for space reasons only, published in its entirety. In particular the bit towards the end about the men, the customers, was left out. This is a subject that annoys the hell out of me, not least because it involves such a avoidance of reality.

The critical faculties of many members of society appear to depart them when they consider the issue of prostitution.

There is the quiet, but strongly held view that quite a good percentage of the women who work as prostitutes in every town in Kildare are doing so of their own volition, that they are simply businesswomen who have chosen this activity as a way of making a living.

The Leinster Leader views that train of thought with its most jaundiced and sceptical eye.

It is known that a large number of these women are controlled by a pimp and that they are trafficked into this country in order to service a booming market. The evidence is undeniable.

It is alleged that some are not controlled by a third party, that they are “just doing it to pay the bills”.

But even if we are to take the broadest view of the matter, it is surely not relevant whether a woman is trapped, coerced or forced into prostitution by a pimp, a trafficker or by economic circumstances.

Prostitution is and remains an offence to the human dignity of any woman who finds herself performing sexual favours on strangers for money.

Also, are we to believe that a woman with very little english who flies into the country on a holiday visa can, with no assistance whatsoever, find herself in a matter of weeks, with an advertisement on an escort website that is both well written and in english, have a lease in an apartment in some suburb of the greater Dublin area, numerous, Irish registered mobile phones, and a steady flow of clientele?

Another quiet but strongly held view is that the men who avail of the services of prostitutes are innocent of all blame, and that society would somehow break down, come to a grinding halt, if men were to stop using prostitutes.

This leads to resistance to the idea of tackling prostitution by targeting and prosecuting the users rather than the providers of the services.

We are asked: “What would that do to his marriage or his children?”

Clearly, it is a widely held view that the sexual urges of the male side of the population must be managed - as if prostitution were to be considered a handy pressure release valve.

It is devastatingly depressing and disappointing to consider the inherent inference that a man can be so beholden to his sexual urges that he can banish any pause for concern from his mind about whether the frightened naked woman with very little English, whom he knows for all of 10 minutes and who is now performing sexual favours on him, is there by choice or not.

If we are to tackle prostitution in this country, it must be from a humanitarian point of view with the well-being of the women involved as the guiding principle of our actions.

Unlike the men who use their services, they are the vulnerable ones.