on the functions of prostitution
- Categories
- Article/Artikel
- Magazine Title
- International Journal of Women Studies
- Magazine Year
- 1984
- Magazine Number
- 1
- Creator
- Hawkesworth, Mary E.
- Shelfmark
- D 130/167
- Thesaurus
- prostitutie, seksindustrie, films, Verenigde Staten
- Description
- Prostitution has been the subject of great mystification. Analyses by historicans, doctors, social scientists and philosophers tend to conceptualize the institution in terms of its social functions, that is, they both explain and justify prostitution in terms of its benefits for society. Author discusses and identifies several religious, economic, political, psychological and ideologicial functions which have figured in the analysis of prostitution. She examines a feminist analysis of prostitution developed in Kei Kumai's award-winning film 'Sandakan 8'. She argues that this exploration of the life-long social and psychological consequences of prostitution upon the individual prostitute questions the legitimacy of any utilitarian justification of the institution.