Should prostitution be legalized?

What are the main dynamics of this issue?

Feminism?

Sleaziness?

Capitalism?

Freedom?

:smoke:

If women could be prostitutes on THEIR OWN TERMS in a safe environment it would be better for all parties involved.

:thumbsup:

People are going to do it anyway.

:shrug:

:shrug:

?

Would they not have the protection of the police?

They would be compensated by higher wages. Wages that they get to control if they aren't ruled by a pimp.

It seems like a better working situation than what most prostitutes have now.

or on the streets looking for work. Legalize prostitution and the work comes to them...it's the difference between a restaurant and a hot dog stand.

if it is THEIR choice and safe, I see no problems. If a woman wants to do that, I honestly have no say in the matter.

Yes, I am a feminist.

I never really thought of it that way. I guess it wouldn't make sense just to make it illegal, like it is anyway, and leave women to a pimp's mercy. It would be safer for sure.

There are a couple of very good books on the subjet if you are interested:

"Prostitution, Power and Freedom" by O'Connell/Davidson is the standard.

Personally, I think it's a moot point; it will continue as is demanded, regardless of lawfullness.

And sex is the only thing I know of that is only illegal if you pay for it, but not if it's free. It makes no sense to me. Why is it anybody's business if money changes hands in the course of an otherwise legal activity?

Prohibiting it is just a token gesture anyway.

IMHO.

The women are given regular medical exams, and make their own money.

?

So Nevada is a pimp. I wonder if Nevada beats the women?

I didn't partake of the services myself, but was helping a dear friend put an end to 28 years of virginity.

Here's how it was explained to me: In Nevada, you can only be a prostitute if you operate inside a legally licensed brothel. To eliminate pimping, the brothels don't take a percentage, but instead charge a flat "rent" for the use of their facilities. The brothel might charge the prostitute anywhere from $10 to $50 an hour and for that money provide them with a clean room, a steady stream of clientel, and advertising (the price varies based on the location, fame, and client traffic in the various brothels). The prostitute is free to charge anything she wants or can negotiate, and acts as as a self-employed lessee in both a legal and liability sense. The prostitute hired by my friend ended up costing him $160 for about an hours worth of service, so the profits are pretty good.

Of course, since the average professional prostitute only lasts a few years in that job, it's a good thing that they make good money...they'll usually need it when they decide to take on another career.

Watch the documentary American Pimp and you'll find that you really can't have much respect for the profession of pimping. It's basically being a slaveowner; the women get nothing that the pimps don't allow them to have, and don't make any sort of commision.

you earn goes in your pocket when you work for a company? And I don't just mean your salary, I mean the amount your labour is actually worth.

If it's legal for me to make a living with my mind (as I did as a journalist) or with my hands and my mind (as I do now as a painter), why should it be illegal for me to use other body parts to make a living? But prostitution mustn't be legalized in US culture until there's true economic equality for all of us; that is to say, until we're just as free to _not_ choose prostitution as a way of earning a living as we are _to_ choose it. :shrug:

That's a tough proposition. You presuppose that some individuals have no choice but to become prostitutes. Is that really true?

and your family in Bosnia or Mexico has sold you into sex trafficking in the US or Switzerland, what choice do you really have?

Of course.

What about adults?

:)

If an adult enters the sex trade of his or her own volition, what's the problem? But it's my opinion that it would be unwise to legalize a trade without providing a support system for those who _didn't_ enter the trade of their own volition and those who want _out_. Hey, I feel the same way about the meatpacking industry. :shrug:

SORRY! I COULDN'T RESIST.

Please forgive me.

:smoke:

But there really _are_ many similarities between the sex industry and the meatpacking industry.

Thanks for the insight, Heidi. :)

I don't know much about the kinds of sentences you would get for pimping, but I almost never hear of anyone getting in trouble for it, though you hear about things like massage parlors and escort services getting busted, and our police department here in Chicago has now taken to posting pictures of customers on the web.

Prostitution is legal in Canada, but public solicitation, running a "common bawdy house" (a brothel or an in-call agency), and living off the avails of prostitution (pimping) is not.

Whether hookers are arrested is a matter of municipal policy; generally they are allowed to work "behind closed doors" and advertise with a certain amount of discretion... most overt "streetwalkers" are not welcome in most communities, but in the larger cities, particularly Vancouver, they are also allowed to operate pretty much without harassment. It generally takes a formal complaint from an organised group of neighbours/businesses to get the police to act against streetwalkers; and generally the police break up a "stroll" (hooker area) by harassing the johns to the point that there's not enough business for the girls.

I volunteer with an agency which helps hookers retrain for the "legitimate" workplace, and, in my educated opinion, it's not a victimless crime even when there are no pimps involved. Selling intimacy on a regular basis takes its toll on even the strongest psyches, and everyone I have ever known with prolonged exposure to prostitution (either as a sex worker or a customer) has been negatively affected by it.

There are whole "contact" magazines devoted to sex workers' advertising their specialties. I have no problem with it.

I have to add that there are many, many ways of making a living that can take a cumulative toll on one's psyche (the meatpacking industry, for example), and I'd like to see us strike a balance between protecting workforces under widely accepted regulatory programs and protecting individuals right out of business. That's not very articulate, but it's early here and I've only had one cup of coffee.

I have to say that one of the reasons I have found prostitution to be psychologically damaging is because it is generally practiced in the "grey area" of the law.

Ironically most of the prostitutes I know, particularly the "high-end" ones, are militantly opposed to legalisastion, because the legallity will entice more women to practice it, and it will become more of a "buyer's market". Every city which has completely legalised prostitution has seen prostitutes' income drop severely as a result, and has resulted in added costs for sex workers such as licensing fees, mandatory health inspections, and so-forth.

But, as I say, I really don't have an opinion for or against legalisation... there are pros and cons (if you'll pardon the espression) and extremly complex issues in both scenarios.

a lot of the problems of prostitution are indicative of larger issues, and possibly worsened by the selling/buying of sex, but not caused by it. I know a couple of girls who worked as prostitutes for years and years who were just fine with it, but I also know you can run in to a lot of bad.

Whoever thinks that a law can make sex between consenting adults illegal simply because money changes hands they're kidding themselves. Those hooker sweeps they show on COPS make me laugh. It's PR and nothing more.

Newsflash! People have sex. All the laws and pious lectures on morality will not change that fact one bit. Legalize it, tax it and regulate it. We're only pacifying the puritans by keeping it illegal.

And tax the shit out of it....

That would take the deficit away over night...

Seriously, if men can use their bodies to play games and make obscene amounts of money, why can't a woman do the same thing....

It's all about servicing and controlling basic animal needs.....

Isn't it????????

that their life's career. Its a nice idea until its your own.

Is there something more noble about making a living with one's hands or brain than making a living with one's genitals?

genitals......


:bounce: :evilgrin: :bounce:

doesn't it? :evilgrin:

And as you can see from my post up above yours, I feel the same way....

Not that I would ever go to see a prostitute, even on a professional basis,,,,

Although when I first started out in business, I had a few strippers for clients.. I would meet them at the bar between "show" ad do their tax returns..... Let me tell you, pasties and a g string are really distracting when you are looking over tax tables....

edit:
that is the most overused and crap argument when it comes to prostitution. I wouldn't want my daugther working at McDonalds, or in a nuclear power plant. Should I outlaw those jobs? Not that I would have a problem with it should I have a child that chose to do that. But, I'm just sayin'.

If we had an economic system where _all_ workers are equally protected and every worker entered into a trade truly of his/her own volition, then the only thing separating me as a painter from my friend who's a prostitute would be heavy-handed moralizing. I find nothing unethical about prostitution as a way of making a living, but then again, I see a huge gulf between morals and ethics. :shrug:

(In short, I agree with you GirlinContempt. :hi: )

I agree with you too... but I'm a red... watch out

:rofl:

:hug:

There are LOTS of profession that I wouldn't care to see a loved one involved in. That doesn't mean that said professions should be unlawful.

I wouldn't want my daughter to be a soldier, a police officer, or a coal-miner. It doesn't mean those professions should be outlawed.

Appealing to personal fears and worries is not a good argument.

geographically, as well as by social (women need to be offered counseling and alternate job training opportunities if they choose) and health department.

Then we'll take care of the rest........

it should be legal for a woman to make all of the choices about her own body

prostitution is a victimless crime so why should it be a crime at all

:)

so ~ the answer is a resounding YES I'm a libertarian!

The "personal freedom" part. ;)

I guess you haven't seen the CAFTA vote. :sarcasm:

Is it any worse for a man or woman to make a living with their genitals than by using their body in some other fashion? Is prostitution any more demeaning than flipping burgers, picking up trash, cleaning hotel rooms, cashiering, waiting tables, etc.? :shrug:

or or or or . . .

Right on, Buffy!

You own your own body, and decide what you get to do with it as an adult. Period.

out of the equation but there should be extremely severe penalties for intimidation, violence or coercion in that business relationship.

And perhaps with prostitution legalized, sex workers could form their own institutions and organizations which could get the pimps out of the mix.

I suspect that with prostitution, like the drug trade, the truly bad people are mostly parasites who flourish off the fact that it's illegal.

And that's all I have to say about that.

O8) O8)

It is probably the oldest profession on the face of the earth.