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

Feminists and the global sex industry 31others in their worksites (Pesar and Mahler, 2003). Laura Agustin,for instance, argues that prostitution is economically valuable in apiece entitled ‘Contributing to “Development”: Money Made SellingSex’. It is valuable, she says, because, ‘recent studies reveal howmoney sent home by migrants finances important social and structuralprojects known as “development” ... This goes for moneymade picking strawberries ... and selling sex ... the amounts meanthe same no matter how they were earned, and they are usedto finance construction projects, small businesses and cooperativeagriculture for families, communities and whole regions’ (Agustin,2006b, p. 10). She says that ‘most cultures do have their own visionsof developing, and migrants who send money home contributed tothe realisation of those visions, including the millions who sell sex’(ibid., p. 10).Jyoti Sanghera makes the same argument. She says prostitutedwomen contribute to the development of their ‘larger cultural communitiesby financing the construction of schools, religious shrines,post offices and other public service facilities. Remittances of theirearnings from abroad help their governments service the nationaldebt of the country’ (Sanghera, 1997, p. 10). Moreover, Sangheraargues, encouraging governments to assess the value of prostitutionto their economies would be helpful: ‘Societies that allow sex businessesto flourish and proliferate could include them in governmentaccounting’ (ibid.). This positive approach does not factor in theharms of prostitution to the life-courses and economic possibilitiesof those who are prostituted. It does not consider the expenses thatstates may have to enter into in order to support the girls and womenwho have been harmed when through age or physical and mentalhealth problems they are no longer valuable to the industry, theexpenses of policing and the operation of the legal system involvedin combating trafficking and other problems integral to the industry.There is no question that the prostitution of women has playeda significant role in the development of many national economiesand continues to do so. What is in question is whether this shouldbe celebrated or condemned. The role of black slavery in the constructionof British economic supremacy in the 19th century, forinstance, is considered a cause for shame rather than celebration(Fryer, 1989). It is not obvious that the contribution of prostitutedwomen in debt bondage should receive a much more positive treatment.There is evidence of the way in which the prostitution of girlsand women has contributed to the historical economic development