The psychological and social effects of prostitution

A friend confessed to me that years ago she had considered the possibility of prostitution for a while while she was studying. Those were the times of uncovering and the longed for sexual freedom in Spain and The practice of sex, even for payment, seemed a liberating option. "Luckily I didn't get to do it," she told me, scared after investigating the reality of prostitution.

This is the glamor of hell into which some fall and to which the vast majority are pushed and forced. In our days of social media, millions of websites of sexual and pornographic content are increasingly occurring sexual exchanges of all kinds including the sexting, the sending of images of sexual content or nudity and the flirtation by many adolescents with the exposure of their body in digital media, some reaching financial benefits for it, easily entering the pornography, possible gateway into prostitution.

And is that the merit of prostitution has been, in many cases, to camouflage its psychosocial effects with the packaging of a marketing associated with glamor.

The psychological and social effects of prostitution

The data that I present come from serious research and scientific work. Let's see the reality of that false glamor of prostitution.

1. Exposure to situations of abuse

86% of women who end up in prostitution are physically, mentally and verbally abused and / or were sexually abused in his infancy

2. Violence, abuse and sexual degradation

Some studies have found that prostituted women are up to 200 times more likely to suffer a violent death than in the normal population.

3. Presence of child trafficking

The average age of initiation into prostitution is between 13 and 14 years (US data). The general and majority panorama are women and girls who have been sexually abused and exploited since childhood and who are deterred through a mixture of violence and the use of apparent glamor.

4. Vulnerability of women

90% of prostituted women in Spain They are imported as goods from countries in the East, Africa, East or South America. Most are victims of poverty, some are illiterate. This condition is not only the cause of their victimization but also a consequence of being trapped and unable to escape. Many do not speak our language after several years here.

• You may be interested: "Femicide (murders of women): definition, types and causes"

5. Sexually transmitted diseases

Logical in an activity where an average of 20 to 30 sexual relations are performed a day, where many clients ask for unprotected sex and where the exchange of bodily fluids is unavoidable, including saliva, urine, semen and feces.

6. Harmful health effects

Gynecological disorders, chronic pelvic pain, and forced abortions They are common among women who have up to 30 sexual relations a day and we can get an idea of ​​the delicacy of sex buyers. In Germany, sex with pregnant women is highly standardized, legal and advertised as one more service. up to 6 months, even in a group, with serious consequences not only for the woman but obviously for the fetus.

7. Eating Disorders

People who fall into prostitution live without hours, they can "work" all night and get up at noon or when a client arrives, which leads them to snack between services and consume caffeine or other stimulants without having regular time for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

8. Alcohol and other drug addiction

These addictions allow them to survive the “anesthetized” situation in addition to allowing greater control by the mafias.

9. 75% are raped

Extreme physical abuse is suffered by the majority. 95% are attacked and physical assaults or forced abortions are inherent in their activity, something normalized and banalized by many: "if they are there it will be because they like it."

10. Psychological abuse

Insults and humiliations are part of this world where men pay to use and humiliate a woman. The self-esteem of a woman abused and insulted on a daily basis is completely destroyed.

• Related article: "The 30 signs of psychological abuse in a relationship"

11. Depression, anxiety, irritability, and insomnia are common

Anxiety and depression are a logical consequence of the situation of vulnerability, abuse and violence and are usually the basis from which other symptoms and disorders develop.

12. Pathological relationships

Due to the stigma and reality of prostitution, there is a distancing from families that is usually surrounded by lies and a tendency to isolation. Over time they end up only interacting with partners, pimps and clients until they develop a pathological relationship with the men they see through the prism of their relationship with clients.

Most have already learned how to treat men from their childhood, time of their initiation into prostitution or their sexual abuse.

13. Tendency to isolation and lack of expectations

The continued exercise of prostitution becomes a pit of destruction and degradation, since people who work offering their body feel that they are useless for something else. Most of them are transferred from clubs every few weeks, which makes their social relationships and roots difficult.

14. Possibility of developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Up to 68% of them suffer it. It is a very serious disorder, with a rate of suffering greater than that suffered by veterans of the war and greater in those that are in the clubs than those that are in the street

15. Possibility of developing dissociative disorders

Dissociative disorders such as Depersonalization Disorder they cause persistent periods of detachment from oneself, or of feeling like an outside observer. These serious disorders, as well as the drug addiction, are a way to mitigate pain and anxiety, as well as torture and even slow death.

Suicide also becomes a door of escapeAlthough the mafias are in charge of maintaining the threats to them and their families, and also the hope of escaping, paying off the debt or leaving that world to fulfill the dream of a normal life.

Is not always that way?

Some will say: But this will only happen to some, there are many prostitutes and escorts who live very well, as it appears in some television programs and other media.

The reality is that prostitution is linked to violence, abuse, the position of superiority of men over women, a situation of gender abuse since more than 99% of clients are men.

It must be taken into account that the data presented are obtained from the average of women who practice prostitution. It could be that someone says they are at another level, one in which all that does not affect them, but over time, the first violation will come, as well as the psychological or physical abuse; The separation from the family can also be gradual, when not the direct rejection or the difficulty to maintain a relationship as a couple or family.

It may be that some woman says that she chose that kind of life, but that does not dignify the fact of being used by many men, of risking life and health. It may be that some young and strong woman or some man too, believes that she is above all that, and is curious about that world. For them especially is this article and to show data that many hide, taking into account the power of the sex industry.

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