Prostitution is often portrayed as a completely normal thing, something that has always existed. This usually involves very little thought of the women in prostitution. Who wants to take on the role of a person who sanctions or judges? Prostitution has become a perfectly normal source of income: the question whether it is a job like any other has been seriously discussed by politicians and unionists in the past years.
In my many years of experience as a psychotherapist, I have supported many prostitutes and become familiar with the backgrounds that led them into prostitution. It became clear in all cases that prostitution was a continuation of experiences of violence in their lives.
Either the women themselves were exposed to sexualized violence or they grew up in an environment in which women are systematically degraded. I want to illustrate this using three typical case examples:. Her mother was beaten by her father and subsequently raped again and again. Sexuality was tied to violence in her self-image. These scenes repeated themselves over and over. I became exactly what you wanted me to become. For another client of mine, entry into prostitution had coincided with a combination of other, pre-existing disorders: anorexia and anxiety.
She managed to exit prostitution after one year and declared 20 years later that prostitution had been a part of her self-destructive behavior.
They are often women who were put through very painful experiences in their past. Studies in trauma treatment have found that the traumatized person may feel a compulsion to control the traumatizing events to which they were helplessly exposed.
