Prostitution and the Prostitute: Demonization or Sanctification, Vixen or victim? The Belgian Experience

That prostitution is a phenomenon of all times and is a necessary evil, is a commonplace in need of proper evaluation. May it be that prostitution exists since time immemorial; it is, however, not widely accepted as an unavoidable fact of life. Globally we can distinguish very different policies on prostitution: abolitionism, prohibition and legalization. The various policies arise from moral attitudes of the public and legislators. Those attitudes are variable, since morality undergoes many changes -as stated by e.g. Weber, Foucault and Bouttelier-, substantially influencing the acceptation of prostitution and the role that is contributed to the prostitute herself: is she a vixen, who is dangerous to the societal value system or is she a victim of the patriarchal society? Should the prostitute be pitied or punished? The role of the prostitute in Belgian society is ambivalent: the present Belgian legal framework and policy on prostitution is characterized by a tolerance in which prostitution is not criminalized, but the exploitation of prostitution is illegal. Selling one’s body is not considered a criminal act, but due to the fragmentation of public morality the legal tolerance does not imply an unequivocal consensus on the role of prostitution and the prostitute within society. A historical analysis of sequential legal acts reveals the fragmentation of public morality, resulting in an unstable situation for the prostitute, as well as for the community. This paper will consider the different global policies on prostitution, which are the legal translations of the general morality. Belgium will be presented as a case study in which the shift of the moral is illustrated by an analysis of the successive legal acts and frameworks leading to a precarious situation which exemplifies the fragmentation of the public morality and thus constitutes an indistinct reality for the prostitutestatus: publishe