Further Adventures in Framing

Let's see if this stirs you up. It's a stretch, and a pretty volatile subject. But maybe, just maybe, I'm trying to stir us all up.

We're all familiar with what they refer to as "the oldest profession". And we've all got our ideas and fears on the evils that arise from such a profession. In our society, prostitution is illegal. It's connected to drugs, violence, disease, abuse, and other problems. That's the frame. We can all agree on that, right? How about looking through someone else's frame? A former student and acquaintance of mine sent me an e-mail recently with a link and all it said was, 'Check out this frame.' The link was to the International Committee for Prostitute's Rights. http://www.walnet.org/csis/groups/icpr_charter.html

Intriguing, I thought. I did further research and found that this isn't the only organization of it's kind. There's one called C.O.Y.O.T.E., call off your old tired ethics. It's a sex worker's rights organization based in San Francisco. Notice the frames. Old one: prostitutes. New and improved: sex workers.

There's a pretty strong movement in the U.S. and all over Europe, to decriminalize prostitution and ensure rights and protection to the people working in the industry. To me, that's a new frame. I had never heard of such a thing and it really struck me as interesting.

Differentiating between prostitution where people are being victimized and sex workers who believe they're involved in a victimless crime, is only the surface of the debate. And as with any argument involving sexuality and politics, things can get pretty emotional and complex.

One of their arguments is that this kind of work is an important part of the economy and that just looking to the legalized prostitution in Nevada and in other countries, points to how some of the dangers can be taken out of the industry by way of regulation. Get rid of the pimps, the violence is cut down. Mandatory monthly medical treatment and safe practices, nearly eliminate the medical and health dangers.

Advocates for decriminalizing have taken the argument out of the frame of morality and put it in the frame of being an important part of the economy. Advocates for legalizing drugs use the same argument.

The idea of 'victimless crimes' is an appealing frame to me in that the amount of money spent each year on imprisoning pot growers/users and sex workers, is staggering. I am not advocating to 'legalize it' though I am intrigued to know that there are intelligent opponents to the cultural norm.

Again, this is just an exercise in framing and when you can reframe a very strong argument with another strong argument, whoever has the better frame, wins.

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Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent prospects using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.

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