Quote:
Originally Posted by MRM
In all seriousness, making prostitution legal would not alter its fundamental dynamics and would not prevent any of the adverse effects that currently goes with illegal prostitution. Legalization would give the imprimatur of societal approval, which I do not think is a good thing.
But the people who become prostitutes, legal or illegal, are the same people - woman who were abused when young, addicted to drugs, and taken advantage of by older men. The pimps will become "managers" who enjoy legal status and will continue to coerce their stable under the color of law. Organized crime will still traffic runaways, illegal immigrants, and other vulnerable populations. Johns will pay extra to circumvent the safety regulations.
Healthy women do not make their living by exchanging money for sex with high volumes of strangers. Women who have the choice do not choose that lifestyle. That means that there is an element of compulsion in prostitution, whether it's legal or not. The prostitute is not making a free decision to charge extra to not use a condom, or to let him tie her up, or beat her, or make her eat scat - she does it because that's how she makes her living - by charging whatever she can for whatever weird kink the john wants satisfied. The porn industry is legal. But it's still controlled by organized crime. Legal prostitution is like that on steroids.
In Western European countries where prostitution is legal, the girls are not locals. They come from Russia, the Czech Republic, etc. That's not a coincidence. They're trafficked there by organized crime because the relatively wealthy Western European women who are citizens of that country have the luxury of choosing whether to be in that lifestyle or not. The women working as prostitutes don't have the luxury of that choice.
Think about legalizing prostitution to its logical extreme. So all of a sudden it becomes legal. Young single mothers on welfare with no education now have a profession open to them that will support their families in style. Are we as a society going to demand that they become prostitutes since they are now able to support themselves with legal work? There's a fine line between saying that it's acceptable and society encouraging the behavior.
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Highly paid courtesans would differ with your stereotyping MRM. Prostitution as a choice is not always to be laid at the door of childhood abuse. That is actually very demeaning to women in general. Women are complex, diverse and individual. Some women survive childhood abuse and become stronger and more independent, some women have never experienced childhood abuse, and see sex for money as a mere commodity. You are doing two injustices here - not only demeaning women as unable to survive abuse as well as unable to differentiate sex as a commodity as compared to sex as 'closeness'. Apparently, in your discourse, you feel that men are able to understand sex as commodity, they purchase the services of a prostitute, and leave, able to function as they did before. However, it appears that women are not able to do the same.
There have been plenty of women who have
chosen prostitution as a means to an end, selling sex. It can be a lot of money in a relative short amount of time. They may enjoy sex with a variety of partners, and the addition of payment is a monetary bonus. It may be a way to make a few extra dollars on the weekend, and enjoy a trip to Cabo. You say you are this 'feminist' however, you are extremely judgmental and quite narrow-minded when it comes to women and sex. Believe me, there are plenty of 'wealthy European women' who did it on their backs. Good for them, set the price, make the money, and maybe enjoy your work. Your ideas are at best puritan in nature (how about emblazoning them with a large letter "A"), and at the worse extremely chauvinistic. That woman is free to say no, if prostitution is legalized, and if she says yes, she sets the price.
You paint what you think are horrific scenarios, however, those scenarios happen right now, with the woman being forced to comply, not getting paid, getting beaten and abused. Yes, sometimes sex isn't pretty, but it is far better those scenes you paint happen between consenting adults, with all the money on the table going to the provider. She is making a free decision - she can say no. Some strippers stay topless, some go full nude - they choose, just like with actresses who decide to go topless in movies or not, or any one who works for a living. If you don't feel comfortable doing it - you don't. Free choice. However, with illegal prostitution, all that choice is pretty much gone.
If she wants a manager she can have one, if not, that is an option as well. Add to that, managers will now have to compete for the best product. They will make their services better so they acquire better women. If they want to keep them, they will make sure they get a larger amount of the money, that their working conditions are good and safe. Her choice, she can walk out and leave, without fear of being beaten. And, if she is, she has retribution available. If prostitution is legalized, she can go to the police, and report the abuse, because she will not be arrested for prostitution. Just like with prohibition, the criminal element will soon move on - the large profits just won't be there any longer, legalization has proven over and over to do just that - remove the criminal element.
And you too are going down some odd slippery slope - suddenly we will be 'requiring' single moms to become prostitutes, really - that is a logical step here? We don't make them sweep sidewalks, where in the world do you get the leap to society forcing prostitution? That isn't a fine line - that is an insane brush stroke.
You are hung up on sex as a commodity, it certainly can be, and has been one forever. It isn't wrong to view sex as something special and wondrous between two people, but it isn't wrong to view it as a commodity either. There isn't any sin in consensual adult sex, for money or for love....