Northern Eye: Who needs protection: punters or prostitutes?

Bob Kimmins

Sweden was one of the world's leading promoters of "free love" during the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Teenagers were free to sleep with their partners, people expressed themselves sexually in public and sex clubs, and pornography and prostitution became legalised.

But by 1999, the Swedish attitude towards prostitution had turned full circle, when new laws to "protect prostitutes" prohibited the purchase of sex, while ladies are still able to sell it - a bizarre situation in which someone can legally sell something that no one's allowed to buy.

What's more, when prostitution is rarely considered a leading career choice, and in many cases regarded as a last resort, it seems illogical that barring the sole source of these ladies' income can in any way help them.

"If you don't have customers who want to buy other human beings' bodies you won't have the supply," said Jenny Sonesson, secretary of the Liberal Party's women's movement, as she proudly presented a reduction of street prostitution by 33 per cent in Stockholm and nearly 70 per cent in Malmo.

Sonesson supports the notion that the definition of prostitution is men's violence against women and she is disappointed that fewer than 500 males have been convicted of buying sex over the past nine years.

"What we need is a law with teeth," she says.

It must be said that violence against women has increased in Sweden over recent years - though most was perpetrated by boyfriends or husbands - and human trafficking has been reduced since the new law was introduced.

Nevertheless, it's hard to find any Swedish prostitutes supporting their protection. Many are forced to take dangerous clients they would have otherwise refused, free condom distribution is almost non-existent now and others are working underground or on the Internet.

Try telling Kristen

Twenty-two-year-old "Kirsten" was born Ashley Youmans, but is better known today as Ashley Alexandra Dupre - the prostitute whose services New York Governor Eliot Spitzer employed a few weeks ago. Jobless and broken, with a distraught but supportive wife by his side, Spitzer was left to grovel in disgrace to the American people, while Ashley made off to the bank with her cut from the US$4,000 (Bt124,000) an hour Eliot had paid for her services.

On the back of Spitzer's demise, Youmans used her new-found notoriety to relaunch a previously failed singing career with a little number entitled "Can You Handle Me, Boy?" and Penthouse magazine said they would make it worth her while if she sat for a few snaps.

In the broader sense, there must be Swedish prostitutes working at home and abroad who, just like Youmans, live a highlife that's way beyond reach of the streetwalkers on Stockholm's Malmskillnadsgatan.

Meanwhile, Eliot Spitzer looked short of friends when he declared his remorse at not living up to expectations - a lost soul who Jenny Sonesson would describe as a criminal violator of women.

Spitzer looked in need of help, but given the choice would Sonesson's hand stretch towards Youmans? And if it did, Youmans would possibly tell Sonesson to bully off and mind her own business.

The balance

Thai prostitution was first recorded in 1680, when 600 sex workers were employed in a state-run brothel in Ayutthaya. Despite being a government revenue earner, the oldest profession was made illegal in 1960, but legal or not, the sex trade continued to flourish in the Land of Smiles.

In April 1989, visiting American soldiers from the US Seventh Fleet spent $8 million on sex alone. A Social Order Policy in 2001 achieved nothing more than unemployment and lost revenues as the restrictions imposed soon melted away.

By 2003, the Thai entertainment industry had an estimated worth of about $4.3 billion per year, and while no one is sure how many prostitutes are involved, it must be a lot.

With an inadequate education system and a shortage of alternative job opportunities, the Empower Foundation set out to improve Thai sex workers' quality of life, without judgement or discrimination. To operate in the firmly established sex industry in Thailand, Empower has adopted a finely tuned balance that can help prostitutes to leave the business while assisting those still in it. 

Empower opened its first office in 1985 and started by teaching English to sex workers. And as Aids reared its ugly head, the organisation reacted with imaginative awareness campaigns that promoted safer sex.

Since then, Empower has helped over 30,000 sex workers to help themselves and grow in confidence. It has linked with many international organisations, sent representatives to seminars and conferences around the world and has been named best Human Rights Organisation by the National Human Rights Committee.

Empower is doing all it can to de-stigmatise the prostitute, not drive her or him underground, and maybe Jenny Sonesson and the Swedish government could learn a thing or two from that.