Ai Summary Dworkin’s central argument is that prostitution is not primarily an issue of individual sexual choices or morality; she sees it as an institution produced by male power and economic inequality. Her argument can be broken down into several points: Prostitution represents extreme inequality between men and women. She argues that when a man pays for sexual access to a woman, the money gives him power to use her body while society treats her dignity and autonomy as less valuable. “Choice” is complicated by poverty and vulnerability. Dworkin emphasizes that many women enter prostitution in circumstances involving poverty, homelessness, childhood sexual abuse, or other forms of coercion. Therefore, she rejects the idea that simply calling prostitution a “choice” adequately describes the circumstances surrounding it. She views prostitution as the “bottom” of male domination. Her broader feminist argument is that prostitution creates an especially visible example of a social hierarchy in which men have power over women. She argues that even men who never personally buy sex benefit indirectly from a society in which women occupy this subordinate position. She connects prostitution to broader attitudes toward women. In her view, prostitution doesn't exist in isolation. It is connected to pornography, sexual violence, poverty, homelessness, discrimination, and cultural ideas that women exist for men's sexual use. She rejects the idea that the solution is simply to make prostitution “nicer.” Dworkin argues that the underlying problem is the unequal distribution of power between men and women. Her proposed solution is therefore political and structural: reduce men's ability to economically, socially, and sexually dominate women. She particularly wants society to listen to prostituted women. A major theme is that academics, lawyers, politicians, and other outsiders can discuss prostitution abstractly while overlooking the actual experiences of women who have lived through it. The core idea in one sentence Dworkin argues that prostitution is a manifestation of male supremacy: a system in which economic and social power allows men to obtain sexual access to women, particularly women made vulnerable by poverty and abuse, and that eliminating the problem therefore requires challenging the larger structures of male dominance.
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