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(http://www.maguzz.com/amsterdam-red-light-district.html)

Look at the image above. Do you recognize this place? This is the ‘Red Light District’ in Amsterdam. In this area, the trade or sexual services for money, goods, or exchanges of services is perfectly normal and well accepted. People from all over the world come to the red light to participate in the services offered which are typically considered taboo or illegal in their country of origin.

Red-Light-District.-Amsterdam-6

(http://vanillaskydreaming.com/inside-amsterdams-red-light-district/)

Women stand in windows parading their bodies around for viewers to see on display. Users of this sector of the sex industry are given the opportunity to walk down the streets and essentially window shop for their good time that night. The use of women for sex and leaving women without free choice is becoming such a normal aspect to most of society. We see it in Amsterdam’s Red Light district with the legal sale and encouragement of women to join the sex industry. Again we see it in places such as India that women are used for sex without consent and nothing is done. Women are being viewed plainly as sexual objects throughout the world. By turning women into sexual objects we are abandoning their humanistic aspects and turning them into an object, ready for anyone’s use.

We see this normalization of prostitution and the sex industry in the United States as well. For instance, the State of Nevada is the only state in the United States that has allowed for the use of brothels and has legalized prostitution within certain district limits. I personally feel like a large portion of citizens in the U.S. did not even know Nevada has prostitution laws making the act legal. That was until recently, when earlier in 2015, celebrity basketball player for the Lakers and ex-husband to Khloe Kardashian, Lamar Odom, had an incident at one of the brothels available in Nevada.

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(http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article6635846.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Lamar-Odom.jpg)

As some may know, Lamar Odom was reported at ‘Love Ranch’ in Nevada earlier in 2015 where he reportedly overdose and spent ridiculous amounts of money for female companionship (e.g.: sexual services). Odom was found by two of the females onsite who had been servicing him during his week long stay. Medical teams quickly responded and brought Odom to a hospital where he has been in recovery.

What most people do not see wrong with this story is how normal it was for Odom to be reported at a brothel. Nor was his drug use out of character, because I mean he was in a brothel and drugs and prostitutes kind of go hand in hand. The use of women for sex has become such a normal part of our society. Women fulfilling the sexual needs for males is essentially saying males have the upper hand while women are just things. This is similar to the ‘sexual contract’, which states men have control and access over a woman’s body. Good bye social contract, hello sexual contract.

The women who choose to partake in the sex industry set precedent for how all women are seen or viewed in society. This will set a norm for a patriarchal state.

 

Question(s):

  1. Is the normalization of the sex industry leading to a more patriarchal state?
  2. Does celebrity use of prostitutes and brothels normalize the sex industry?