When you read a popular science journal, particularly for issues related to the human and social sciences, you expect at least a presentation of the results of ALL research.
Why this demand for rigor? Quite simply to inform the reader of the results arising from different theoretical trends and paradigms, without falling into propaganda.
In case you don’t know, researchers are also humans who carry causes through the research they put forward. Neutrality does not exist in the social sciences. Recognizing this allows us to see our limits and our biases.
This does not mean that researchers should not be involved in causes (I am!), but they have a duty of transparency.
Do you then understand the importance of the diversity of studies when we want to enlighten the reader on a social problem?
Let’s take for example this Quebec “scientific” journal (I’m not naming it so as not to give it publicity), whose objective is to popularize complex scientific concepts and issues to readers in Quebec.
When I read one of these articles on prostitution, I was speechless. Not because of the banality of the text, but above all because of the lack of scientific rigor and the stereotypes conveyed by the illustrations.
It was a kind of pro-prostitution pamphlet, whose thread-bare argument ignored the numerous Quebec and international studies on violence and the harmful effects of the sex industry.
The biggest intellectual hoax of this article is to lead the reader to believe that there would be a scientific consensus for decriminalization. But of what? What consensus? There are not any!
That this kind of propagandistic content is found in the leaflets of pro-prostitution groups, sure, but in a magazine that calls itself scientific, there I go!
Impacts of this type of review
When a so-called scientific journal makes this type of propaganda for prostitution, it contributes to and reinforces its trivialization in our society, especially since it is found in Quebec libraries and in schools.
An uninformed reader does not see it as propaganda, since the text is in a scientific journal. It will be taken for granted that the text was written by a rigorous scientific journalist or verified by a scientific editorial committee, unlike the brochure of a pressure group or a beauty magazine.
In other words, it’s not just certain rappers or gang members who promote prostitution. At least they don’t hide it!
Impact of commoditization
The damage of trivialization is numerous: maintenance of a system of violence, abstraction of minor and adult victims, normalization of an exploitative practice, reinforcement of unequal relationships, etc.
The most distressing thing is the negation and lack of respect for the survivors, whose violence and suffering are summarized in these few clichés from another era, about which I dream of never hearing again: “It’s the most old profession in the world.
By the way, the oldest profession in the world is agriculture.
And if seniority is a reason for stagnation, we should go back to the Stone Age.