'when You See Men Like They Do, It's Enough to Put You Off!'

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-igntback

IN TESCOs the next day at the checkout a homehelp was discussing this film:

"It's funny, but you didn't really feel like laughing watching it. When you see men like they do, it's enough to completely put you off."

Prostitute 1am, Common I'm not was probably the most talked about programme this month apart trom (ironically enough) the Royal Wedding - which is the other side of the same coin in our society.

Both are complementary symbols of the relationship between men and women; marriage and prostitution both have their own costumes and rituals; and both have the same basic feature - the use of women to serve the needs of men.

As Kollontai says in her speech of 1921 on Prostitution - the ways of fighting it':

•The black shadow of prostitution stalks the legal marriage of bourgeois society.

History has never before witnessed such a growth of prostitution as occurred the last part of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

In this present post-war period every woman faces the possibility of unemployment. Unemployment hits women in particular and causes an enormous increase in the army of "street women"

The trade in women's flesh is conducted quite openly which is not surprising when you consider that the whole bourgeois way of life is based on buying and selling.

There is an undeniable element of material and economic consideration in even the most legal of marriages."

Every woman have THE NEXT time you come across one of those fine fellows who snorts "Women's rights? But women are equal now. We've even got a woman The other side of the coin talked to who saw the film by Judy Lever has said how it disturbed them despite the obvious bizarre and funny anecdotes which came as desperately needed relief. For a moment you could laugh, with the prostitutes at their clients instead of sharing their constant fear and revulsion.

The point that emerges from the film is that prostitution and rape are a reflection of the sexual relations encouraged throughout bourgeois society. They echo many so-called "hidden fantasies" that are pumped out of most pornography, sex shops, blue films, etc.

the women point out the men all look normal, but:

"once in a room all changes... And then they go back to work in the courts. Most are travelling salesmen."

The fantasies and desires are for the most part about violence and humiliation, designed to dehumanise women, to reduce the female to an object of sexual access, the private property of men. The prostitute's story tells it all:

"In 8 years I've been doing it I've been taken into hospital about 100 times "The first time I did it, he told me to take my clothes off and then hit me across the face. Nobody told me about that side of it -a straight fist in the face."

"I never let their hands near my throat. They might strangle me. Never turn your back on them."

"Yes, as a prostitute 1 : was raped. He cut my The director of the orphanage complains that Kamla ""acts irrationally" and uses obscene language, insisting that she wants to leave.

But until some socially acceptable way can be found of disposing of Her, Kamla remains in effect a prisoner, breast with a penknife then robbed me."

Like pornography the sex described in the programme is not about freeing sensuality from moralistic and parental inhibition. It is detached and mech nica perpetuating roles coercion, power and repression.

Most of the reviews written in the papers have been by men. Many, not surprisingly, concentrated on Lindi - the prostitute who can make £2,000 a week "effortlessly"

Exploiters

Lindi, they stress, shows who the real exploiters are -these hard headed businesswomen taking men for a ride.

But in the film Liz was much more of a reflection of the mass of prostitutes working class women driven into it because, as she says, "I want my kids to have a good life."

For Liz the reviewers reserved contempt and derision, calling her "fat Liz", "gormless Liz", lacking in glamour and panache.

The film did not attempt to draw any conclusions. The dialogue concentrated on what it was actually like to be with a "punter". It emphatically showed that it was nothing to do with pleasure and had put the women well and truly off sex..

Sheila, a prostitute for 20 years, even believes that her work is a social service, Meanwhile there is talk that the police and officials in the town where the sale took place may prosecute Savin - for conducting a trade in women!

*For more on the sale of women in Bangkok, see Women's Fightback, July/ August issue, available from rhaps saving women : horrors of rape.

Monetary right Susan Brownmiller's book Against Our Will answers this view:

"Operating from the old and discredited lust drive and reliet theory, men have occasionally put forward the notion that the way to control criminal rape is to ensure the ready accessibility of female bodies at a reasonable price through the legalisation of prostitution, so that the male impulse might be satisfied with ease, efficiency and a minimim of bother...

To my, mind the experience of the American military in Vietnam, where brothels for Gls were officially sanctioned, even incorporated into the base camp recreation areas, should prove conclusively that the availability of sex for a small price is no deterrent to the decision to rape, anymore than the availability of a base camp shooting range is a deterrent to the killing of unarmed civilians and children. But my horror at the idea of legalised prostitution is not that it doesn't work as a rape deterrent, but that it institutionalises the concept that it is a man's AGV MARY-ANN TODD reviews 'Prostitute | Al Common I'm l (ITV, Tuesday August 18)

monetary right, if not his divine right to gain access to the female body."

Not are bourgeois men even consistent in their rationalisation of prostitution, as shown by statements from the bench in the Ripper trial that unfortunately some of the victims were "innocent", while the rest, as prostitutes, were seen as fair game.

After all, it is argued, they "choose" to become prostitutes.

The film showed what material pressures were exerted on a woman at a given moment that resulted in that 'choice' As Trotskyists it is not for us to moralise about the evils of prostitution but to fight for a society where women and men will have no need for it. As Kollontai wrote:

"Under communism all dependence of women upon men and all the elements of material calculation found in modern marriage and prostitution will be absent. Prostitution is terrible because it is an act of violence ... where passion and attraction begins, prostitution ends. Under communism prostitution and the contemporary family will disappear. Healthy, joyful and free relationships between the sexes will develop."