Would legalising prostitution reduce the stigma attached to women who sell sex?
Legalising prostitution only reduces the stigma attached to the sex industry, not women who sell sex. This is partly because the stigmatisation of women who sell sex is rooted in how society thinks about womens sexual behaviour. Think of the language that is used to be negative about women in prostitution how many times do you hear the same words about women who have lots of sexual partners? We have no similar words for the men who use women in prostitution. Even pimping has been re-worked in popular culture to mean something cool and desirable. That women in the Netherlands and Germany choose not to register tells us everything we need to know. Legalisation does not erase the stigma of prostitution and could even make women more vulnerable because they must lose anonymity (Bindel & Kelly, 2003). Legalisation improves the position and status of those who buy sex.
