The Industrial Vagina: The Political Economy of the Global Sex Trade

10 IntroductionThis book employs a radical feminist framework which understandsprostitution to be a harmful cultural practice originatingin the subordination of women (Jeffreys, 2004) and constitutinga form of violence against women (Jeffreys, 1997). It is inspiredby the work of other radical feminist theorists on prostitution suchas Kathleen Barry (1979, 1995) and Andrea Dworkin (1983), andseeks to extend their analyses to the global industry in a variety ofits forms. Since this book takes the perspective that prostitution isharmful to women it does not take a normalizing approach. Thusthe book ends with a consideration of ways in which the globalindustry of prostitution may best be wound back, so that the traditionalfeminist hopefulness of ending prostitution may once morebecome imaginable and a reasonable goal for feminists to pursue inpublic policy.The Industrial Vagina starts from the understanding that prostitutionis a harmful cultural practice. It is overwhelmingly a practicethat is carried out through and in the bodies of women and for thebenefit of men. Since the 1970s there has been considerable developmentin the recognition of what are called in United Nationsdocuments ‘Harmful traditional/cultural practices’ (Jeffreys, 2005).The words traditional and cultural are used interchangeably in UNliterature on this subject. This development is the result of feministcampaigning and was kickstarted by concerns about female genitalmutilation, which can be considered the paradigmatic ‘harmfulcultural practice’. This concern was written into the 1979 UnitedNations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of DiscriminationAgainst Women (CEDAW). Article 2(f) of CEDAW statesthat parties to the Convention will ‘take all appropriate measures,including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations,customs and practices which constitute discrimination againstwomen’ (my italics). Article 5(a) similarly states that ‘all appropriatemeasures’ will be taken to ‘modify the social and culturalpatterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achievingthe elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practiceswhich are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiorityof either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women’(my italics). Prostitution fits these criteria particularly well. It stemsfrom the understanding that women have the stereotyped role ofproviding their bodies for men’s pleasure with no concern for theirfeelings or personhood. In the case of the prostitutors it encompassesthe stereotyped role of men acting out their patriarchal