International Women's Day, starting on March 8, is a great opportunity to ask ourselves how we can advance struggles for women's rights, and what will make our world a safer place for us.
One of the missions is to dispel the myths surrounding the sex industry and prostitution, which go hand in hand with sexual violence.
And the greatest myth of all is what we are all familiar with the definition of "the oldest profession in the world."
This is, of course, one of the most prevalent claims against the struggle in the sex industry, and not by chance.
When using this claim, what is said between the lines is that feeds are inherent in us as human beings, or almost inherent.
Hence the attempts to eradicate the phenomenon will not succeed and will even do damage along the way.
It is important to clarify: sexual rituals in ancient cultures are not considered prostitution.
After all, these existed before the barter trade was invented.
That is, it is not prostitution as long as there is no payment in the equation.
Now that we have defined prostitution as a species for a fee, I want to dismantle the myth that has caught on terribly strongly and whoever repeats it does not necessarily know what its origin is and who is behind it.
And there is a specific person behind this commonplace hit.
His name is Rudyard Kipling, and his connection to another type of oppression is not accidental at all.
Kipling was an English writer who lived in India during its days as a British colony and became famous as the glory of the empire and its soldiers.
In his 1909 book On the City Wall he coined the term "the oldest profession in the world" because he noticed that as a result of the social caste system, prostitution in India was passed down from generation to generation in the family.
He used it to justify British colonialism in India and to prove the "inability of the people of the East to run their own affairs," he said.
The attempt to prove that feeds, like the "primitive culture of the natives" is part of the nature of the place, is what caused him to spread the misconception that this is an inexhaustible phenomenon - it will have no end because it has no beginning.
In addition, Kipling encouraged American imperialism in the Philippines in his infamous book and dripping with racism in the "White Man's Burden" of 1899, in which he described the Filipino as "half a child, half a devil."
More than 35 million people have been murdered under the British colonial regime in India, the one that Kipling as a cultural hero demonstratively supported.
In any case, along with colonialism also came the notion that the body of women is a resource just as the earth is a resource.
To gain ownership of the land, colonialists knew they must also take ownership of women's bodies.
This model has been replicated all over the world.
Imperialism, colonialism and the sex industry are closely linked.
In contrast, historian Gerda Lerner argued in her 1986 book The Creation of Patriarchy that "selling women's bodies is not the oldest profession in the world, but the oldest oppression in the world. Trafficking in women was the first form of trafficking, thus making them human." Women by men. "
According to her, the oldest female professions were midwifery, agriculture, craft (ceramics, weaving), gathering, medicine and pharmacy, and psychotherapy.
"Before inventing ownership of patriarchal lands and social systems," she argued, "women held equal status to men and took part in coexistence as caregivers, artisans, herbalists, and more. The use of sexuality in barter began with barter, not before." .
Therefore, the recitation of the statement "Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world" is nothing but a repetition of the words of one of the greatest racists.
Strengthening and justifying colonial and repressive systems like the sex industry lead to more exploitation, not liberation.
In recent years, one can notice on social media women surviving prostitution, who have become activists fighting the normalization of the sex industry.
Among other things, the use of hashtags challenging the rise of the statement that it is the "oldest profession in the world" such as #WorldsOldestOPPRESSION.
This is interesting because it underscores the fact that just because something has been around for a long time, does not mean it cannot be eradicated.
Every social system is created by humans, and therefore can also come to an end by humans.
A close friend, a feminist activist, recently asked me, "But why do you think we will be able to eradicate prostitution? It is one of the oldest social phenomena."
I replied, "Do you know what else is one of the most ancient social phenomena? Patriarchy."
And it's no coincidence that they go hand in hand.
So it's true that prostitution turns out not to be the oldest profession in history, but it's definitely old enough for us to understand that by 2022 it's illegitimate.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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