The trivialization of prostitution: The engine driving sex trafficking and a brake on feminist struggle for equality

The phenomenon of women trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is developing within the context of a new patriarchal order which, by trivializing the commodification of the body and of sexuality, normalizes prostitution. This process appears as acceptable by virtue of an assumed “right to sex” on the part of males and the injunction of the sexual liberation of women, even their “right” to practice prostitution. In order to impose its normative model upon all women, this reconstructed patriarchal regime, building on the economic liberalization of our societies, refuses any interference in the development of these markets. Thus, the patriarchal-neoliberalist alliance goes hand-in-hand with ideologies of individualism and free choice in order to prevent the struggle against women trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and even to favor such exploitation. Finally, the authors expose their theory of patriarchy’s double dynamic, which they illustrate through an analysis of the contemporary trivialization paid sex and the pornographization of public space.