Chapter 6 Perpetuating the Oldest Profession: Discourses of Conformity in the Israeli Press
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Abstract
During the 1990s, Feminist Coalition of Israeli Women’s Movements focused its attention on the institutionalisation and regulation of prostitution. Since the 2000s, it has radicalised its position and has begun advancing the abolitionist perspective which considers clients’ use of sex services to be a crime. This study examines the role of the press in the debate between advocates and opponents of the sex industry, exploring the press’ stance on the sex industry in Israel between 1981 and 2008. The study uses critical discourse analysis employing feminist theories that contributed to the public debate, as different branches of feminism hold differing views on prostitution. The findings demonstrate the main strategies with which the press constructed and presented prostitution: stigmatising discourses, portraying prostitutes as Other and dangerous; contradictory discourses, presenting them as employees like any others, happy in their profession, having free choice; disregarding discourses, ignoring male clients’ responsibility for their own safety and health, and for prostitutes’ status; and ignoring and muting radical feminists by opposing their legislative proposals. Arguably, these discourses point to the conformity of the press, which continue stigmatising prostitution, hampering activists’ political work, and impeding the criminalisation of clients. By stigmatising sex workers but not clients, the press continue supporting the legal system and the status quo, and thus perpetuate the institution of prostitution.