each for exotic purposes, but the ethnic discrimination that abounds in the rest of society abounds in the prostitution business, too. Certainly the vast majority of prostitutes who end up in jail are black, way out of proportion to their numbers of the business.' Whether it be represented by the pimp, the owner of a studio, parlor, or brothel, the police officer, or the judge, the male establishment uses selective discrimination against prostitutes as a divisive tactic. (Complicity such as this strongly resembles the divide-and-conquer strategy of corporate powers. over their employees. While the little people fight one another and compete for the crumbs, the real enemy sits back and shrewdly grins.)

Most prostitutes face innumerable problems which make it difficult to think straight, straight enough to see their situation clearly. A prostitute may be ad dicted to drugs. Or if she does try to leave The Life, she faces the obstacle of finding “straight" employment without having previous job references. Her customers. do not always play fair. "Men do not respect prostitutes," says Margo. "They make appointments that they fail to keep, write bad checks or stop payment on them, as well as rape, beat, and

fund and sisterly support in court, she adds, would help the prostitute face her situation with courage. The pimp will search furiously for the prostitute who has liberated herself. Then he will probably assault her. Margo compares the plight of the prostitute to the dilemma of the battered wife: "Where the relationship is exploitative, destructive, violent, etc., the victim should be helped to leave the situation as her sisters, the battered wives, are helped to do. However, the brutality of pimps will continue so long as the prostitute, like the wife, has no recourse through the courts.'

Spurred on by the endorsements from national NOW, Wages for Housework, and the National Women's Political Caucus, Margo lobbies constantly and speaks at many conferences. She raises money for her cause by sponsoring the annual Hookers' Bali. Her fifth extravaganza happened last October a the Cow Palace in San Francisco where 17,000 people showed their support. A documentary film Hard Work also presents Margo and friends such as Flo Kennedy mixing with prostitutes at events where no one can tell who is the real....?

Margo's next goal involves the "legitimization" of

"Where the relationship is exploitative, the victim should be helped to leave the situation as her sisters, the battered wives, are helped to do."

sometimes kill the women they have agreed to hire." If a prostitute reports an assault or a rape by her customer, police do not often take her word seriously. Sometimes, however, she's lucky enough to meet an officer who does; he might even understand that rape is a much more serious offense than prostitution. In this situation the officer may agree not to arrest the victim for prostitution so that the charge of rape will appear more convincing in court.

Although prostitutes quickly establish camaraderie when they reveal their mutual identities, they eventually lose trust in everyone because of their isolation in society. Naming this process "the pathology of the oppressed," Margo understands how difficult breaking out of prostitution can become: "The prostitute doesn't think in terms of the future, but only in the immediate present. And only when a crisis hits her can she see that what she's doing is wrong for her." Margo estimates that 90 percent of ali prostitutes remain in The Life out of some form of necessity, whereas the remaining percentage would stay in prostitution out of choice. When I contacted a prostitute in Akron, Ohio this spring, she expressed both frustration and perseverence: "I've run up against a stone wall in my attempt to organize my sisters in the fight to protect themselves. They don't seem to see the need for the buddy system until they are in trouble. But I will keep at it."

•

Militant organizing of prostitutes began when one victim was killed in France. Hundreds of French prostitutes staged a sit-in in an urban cathedral until they won the right to unionize. Prostitutes have also organized a considerable number of groups in the U.S. and Europe. Margo founded the San Francisco group COYOTE (Cast Off Your Old Tired Ethics) and Coyote Howls, a quarterly newspaper with a circulation of 15,000 (not all of whom are prostitutes, e.g., WSW exchanges with Coyote Howls).

Margo described, to my chagrin, that this year a group of "feminist lesbians” in Ann Arbor opened a parlor, but police closed it down when the women refused to service them in return for illegal protection. After they were busted, the prostitutes organized a militant group. New York City boasts a political group, PONY, and another called SCAPEGOAT geared to juveniles. Many other groups exist in cities such as Los Angeles, New Orleans, Kansas City, Miami, Seattle, Jackson, and Detroit.

In San Francisco Margo has been instrumental in starting a hotline, weekly rap sessions moderated by peers, and a shelter for prostitutes. A legal defense

prostitution as a necessary step toward creating choices in prostitutes' lives. This can be achieved only through decriminalization. In her book, The Politics of Prostitution, Jennifer James explains the distinctions among legalization, licensure, and decriminalization:

The traditional law-legal prohibition of prostitution is clearly an intolerable alternative to feminists because women alone are punished for prostitution. Legalization, which suggests that society give prostitutes health cards and control the women, has never worked successfully. And, like prohibition, legalization places the onus on prostitutes. Licensing houses of prostitution, which is done in some rural counties of Nevada, may be as oppressive an alternative as prohibition. Brothel licensing under Nevada law accommodates the clients and legitimizes the houseowners, but it does not protect the women. Prostitutes' working hours are not guaranteed, nor is the house cut of their wages limited. No benefits are available to the women. Decriminalization would remove all criminal statutes and penalties associated with prostitution; regulation would be determined by civil code, as it is for other businesses. This solution least oppresses prostitutes. It also recognizes that prostitution is the private sexual business of its participants.

Margo explains that decriminalization on a local level should involve licensure with a guarantee of confidentiality. Since about half of working prostitutes revolve out of the business within a year's time, the protection of either confidentiality or anonymity would prevent the court from using her past against the prostitute in possible child custody suits. According to Margo, decriminalization would change the misconception that prostitution constitutes "sex for sale" or that the prostitute sells her body: "In reality, a prostitute is being paid for her time and skill....To make a great distinction between being paid for an hour's sexual services, or an hour's typing, or an hour's acting on stage, is to make a distinction that is not there. There are many jobs that are considered loathsome by some people and worthwhile by others, jobs like manufacturing guns, processing garbage, writing for American Opinion, or administering shock therapy."

Space does not allow for extensive analysis of legislative action on this issue, such as the bills. recently introduced in the California Assembly. Clearly, prostitutes who work legally will depend less on middle persons who often take 65 percent or more of their fee. Most importantly, the decriminalization of prostitution will help to eliminate the devaluation

of a woman's time in all areas of work. Essential to this change is ratification of the ERA, which will provide a "legal foothold" in Margo's fight.

Commentary

In 1949, the United Nations called for universal decriminalization of prostitution. By 1958, most member nations ratified the policy declarations on human rights drawn up at the Convention of December 2. The United States has stood in bold isolation on this issue. I have to wonder about the real motivations of a government, be it federal or local, which sanctimoniously censures prostitution in theory and yet, tight-lipped, allows it to persist in its currently degraded state.

Feminists also have difficulty coming to grips with the realities of prostitution. Many wonien, myself included, have minimal contact with prostitutes and consequently have given them little consideration. Others may have already decided that decriminalization does not offer liberation. The exploitative relationship between prostitute and customer, they would say, provides the clearest example of sexism that exists in subtler forms in all female/male relationships. By serving men, prostitutes deny their own needs in allowing men to objectify them. Socialist feminists generally criticize decriminalization because they see prostitution as just one more corrupt effect of capitalism at work. Both views have something important to say: payment for sexual activity distorts human relationships. Margo herself says she couldn't turn a trick today if she tried; the Thought repulses her.

Paying someone to have sex with you raises the complex, emotionally deep issues of the purpose of sex and our need to feel wanted and worthwhile. Two different attitudes appear to dominate people's discussion of this subject. Many people believe that one should not have to purchase a sexual exchange. Babies, for example, should be touched and held because they are lovable. People should be touched because of inherent lovable qualities. Sex should be shared out of compassion and love-at the bottom line, desire. If someone cannot find a free source of sexual gratification, then something must be wrong

C. Sile

Drawing by Carol Siler

with that person. If a man reaches the point at which he pays a woman, then this encounter reflects a distorted relationship as well as a sad and humiliating commentary on his behavior. Such a view has romantic and sometimes puritanical overtones. It also

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