Chapter Six. The Protection Of Sex Consumers

Abstract

[ The 'sex industry', in a not too metaphorical a sense, sells human bodies: its services are of necessity provided personally. As we have seen there are many cases in which the service is organised in a way that implies an employer-employee type of relationship. This chapter explores the legal rules apply to the 'sex workers' required to carry out these activities. It is assumed for this part of the discussion that the end contract (purchase of a pornographic video, or a ticket to a strip- or lap dancing show, etc.) is legally valid. Does this necessarily imply that the labour relation entailed in the production is equally recognised as valid? It is here that the first problems arise. From this overview it is clear that the human dignity principle or the illegality of contracts of employment for sex workers leads to the most laissez faire result. Keywords:human dignity principle; profession; sex industry; sex workers; sexual services , This chapter offers some extra-legal elements drawn from other social studies – mainly economics and sociology – and shows how the reality of sex markets is perceived by other scholars. This obviously does not automatically mean that things are how they are described, but at any rate presents a different perspective which should be taken into account. Sociological research has had an extremely important role in keeping together market and non-market sex, which previously were kept far apart and unrelated. The latter fell under the shroud of the sanctity of marriage which could not be investigated without infringing the deepest secrets of a family. Keywords:behavioural economics; sex markets; social studies ]