Chapter 37 Summary

Martha Nussbaum examines the case against legal sex work, arguing that the stigma attached to it is rooted not in feminist critique but instead in patriarchal moral standards and social norms that feminists have strong reason to reject in the name of gender equality. She then considers seven prevailing arguments for criminalizing prostitution, finding them all unpersuasive. She argues that sex work is at worst no riskier, and offers no less autonomy to women, than many other risky undertakings or constrained forms of work whose legality and moral permissibility we rightly accept. She rejects the notion that legally available sex work endangers other types of relationship, such as those based on intimacy and commitment, and argues that prostitution does not alienate a woman from her own sexuality in the way suggested by opponents of commodified sex. Moreover, according to Nussbaum, prostitution does not entrench male domination any more than a variety of other institutions and practices, such as marriage, whose legal prohibition we rightly reject.

Nussbaum concludes by arguing that proponents of gender equality and justice should abandon their efforts to criminalize and stigmatize sex workers and instead devote their efforts to ensuring equal legal protection and expanded economic opportunities for women.