Prostitution

[cantata]

In South Korea prostitution is de facto legal.

South Korea's prostitution laws hardly constitute a prime example of well-regulated prostitution. Apart from anything else, human trafficking is largely ignored, and little is done to protect prostitutes.

The notion of protecting prostitutes is kind of funny to me.

In my experience, if you protect them from disease and violent attackers you are still missing something...

In a nation with legalized prostitution the quickest thing in the world that strips a woman of her dignity is putting her in a position where being a prostitute is a viable option.

If you had less of a negative attitude towards sex, you might see prostitution differently. I agree that it is very sad when a woman or a man feels that they have to prostitute themselves because of dire economic need, but the fact is that they will prostitute themselves whether it is legal for them to do so or not. However, it is also a fact that there are many prostitutes who've tried other careers and actually find they make a better living as sex workers. In places where it is not legal, they don't have to pay any income tax. Many develop affectionate and friendly relationships with clients. A lot of prostitutes are shrewd businessmen and women.

Prostitution is wrong for the simple reason that it is people monetizing their animal urges and profiting off of human lust. In the end, both parties are indefinitely harmed.

Why are they harmed? Why shouldn't sex be a commodity? If someone wants to buy it, and someone else wants to sell it, where's the problem?

Prostitution destroys marriages; prostitution destroys dignity; prostitution lessens the worth of love. Prostitution becomes a disease to men and to women.

If there were no prostitutes, do you think that marriages would not be destroyed? Do you think that people wouldn't cheat on their spouses if there were no prostitutes? Why is it undignified to be paid for offering sexual services? Why does prostitution lessen the worth of love? I don't have a problem with the fact that sex and love are two different things. If you have sex and love confused, that's a bit worrying. They are not in any way the same.

Of course, I do not believe in legislating morality in the United States. I do not legislate my personal morality.

I'm delighted to hear it!

However, in south Korea it should be categorically outlawed.

When selling your body becomes a viable option for a woman laid off from work and in a desperate monetary bind we've set our society up for failure. I dislike welfare but I like it more than prostitution.

I like it more than young, unmarried women from poor families with little further education being forced by economic destitution into this terrible lifestyle.

The idea is that with prostitution legalised, it is less of a terrible lifestyle - both men and women will end up prostituting themselves whether it is legal or not. Those men and women should be protected.

 

[Apollo Celestio]

No way, is this really how it's supposed to be? Marketed?
I don't want it legalized..but whatever, let the world do what it wants. I won't support it. It's weird seeing...women not object to this, is this really supposed to be an option for a girl?

 

[cantata]

No way, is this really how it's supposed to be? Marketed?
I don't want it legalized..but whatever, let the world do what it wants. I won't support it. It's weird seeing...women not object to this, is this really supposed to be an option for a girl?

Women support its legalisation because they know that when it's illegal women are at far more risk of abuse and exploitation than if they are allowed by law to take control of their work and their bodies.

Not many people here want prostitution to happen, but they know that it is far worse for the men and women involved if it is illegal. Legalisation means health checks, the ability to press rape charges, the ability to form unions, receiving a pay cheque &c. What are porn stars but high-class prostitutes? And what benefit would there be for pornography to be criminalised? What would happen is that pornography would continue to be made, but there would be more of the really damaging stuff, such as rape porn, and there would not be the systematic health checks that occur in the adult industry at the moment. Don't like porn? Don't watch it. Don't like prostitutes? Don't pay for sex. It's very simple.

Others would add that actually, if people want to sell sex, let them. Some people make a good living out of it, and all power to them. I'm inclined to feel this way. I hate exploitation of the poor, and I think we should do all we can to help women and men who are forced through economic need to sell their bodies for sex to break the cycle of poverty. However, some people actually see it as a career that they're happy with. Great! They're happy, their clients are happy - where's the problem? You don't have to join in.

 

[Apollo Celestio]

Women support its legalisation because they know that when it's illegal women are at far more risk of abuse and exploitation than if they are allowed by law to take control of their work and their bodies.

Not many people here want prostitution to happen, but they know that it is far worse for the men and women involved if it is illegal. Legalisation means health checks, the ability to press rape charges, the ability to form unions, receiving a pay cheque &c. What are porn stars but high-class prostitutes? And what benefit would there be for pornography to be criminalised? What would happen is that pornography would continue to be made, but there would be more of the really damaging stuff, such as rape porn, and there would not be the systematic health checks that occur in the adult industry at the moment. Don't like porn? Don't watch it. Don't like prostitutes? Don't pay for sex. It's very simple.

Others would add that actually, if people want to sell sex, let them. Some people make a good living out of it, and all power to them. I'm inclined to feel this way. I hate exploitation of the poor, and I think we should do all we can to help women and men who are forced through economic need to sell their bodies for sex to break the cycle of poverty. However, some people actually see it as a career that they're happy with. Great! They're happy, their clients are happy - where's the problem? You don't have to join in.

Do what they will, but I will never like it or support it.

 

[cantata]

Do what they will, but I will never like it or support it.

But you can support legalisation without saying that you think prostitution is a good idea. That's the whole point. Sometimes legalising something the best way to deal with the problem.

 

[stan1980]

No way, is this really how it's supposed to be? Marketed?
I don't want it legalized..but whatever, let the world do what it wants. I won't support it. It's weird seeing...women not object to this, is this really supposed to be an option for a girl?

I dont like it any more than you do, but you have to get your head around the fact that regulating the industry is for the greater good, as at the moment there are god knows how many eastern european girls in th UK right now who are forced into it and kept captive. If brothels are registered, it should do a lot to kill the human trafficing industry that currently operates in our country.

In this day and age, it's disgraceful to think that this slavery still goes on, possibly even yards from your own home even, and its our ineffective laws that make it all possible for the traffickers.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Do what they will, but I will never like it or support it.

If prostitution were legalized, I doubt very much that I would ever seek the services of a prostitute. (I have never done so.) I can understand people who see prostitution as degrading and undesirable. But just because some activity is undesirable or immoral, that doesn't mean that the most prudent and moral course of action is to make it, or keep it, illegal. That is not a judgment that can be made so quickly.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Athene]

It should be decriminalised, a criminal conviction can be a barrier to gaining employment making it harder for a woman (or a man) to leave prostitution. Decriminalising prostitution would also remove the barrier of not being able to seek help from the police, if they are being abused or exploited, out of fear that they themselves will be arrested and charged with a crime.

Legalised brothels would provide clean safe sex for those who can afford it, and maybe the better looking, healthy women (and men) could find employment there, but it won't stop sex trafficking and - I can't imagine it would help those women who turn to prostitution as a way of funding a drug habit, or those women who are forced into prostitution through abusive boyfriends.

 

[PassionFruit]

In South Korea prostitution is de facto legal.

The notion of protecting prostitutes is kind of funny to me.

In my experience, if you protect them from disease and violent attackers you are still missing something...

In a nation with legalized prostitution the quickest thing in the world that strips a woman of her dignity is putting her in a position where being a prostitute is a viable option.

Impoverished girls who do not do well in school, to get a better life, selling their body is probably one of the saddest things in the world.

Prostitution is wrong for the simple reason that it is people monetizing their animal urges and profiting off of human lust. In the end, both parties are indefinitely harmed.

Prostitution destroys marriages; prostitution destroys dignity; prostitution lessens the worth of love. Prostitution becomes a disease to men and to women.

Of course, I do not believe in legislating morality in the United States. I do not legislate my personal morality.

However, in south Korea it should be categorically outlawed.

When selling your body becomes a viable option for a woman laid off from work and in a desperate monetary bind we've set our society up for failure. I dislike welfare but I like it more than prostitution.

I like it more than young, unmarried women from poor families with little further education being forced by economic destitution into this terrible lifestyle.

Okay, you say that prostitution destroys marriages? It's easy to blame something this on why marriages can fail. It's like blaming porn for why marriages fail, but no one takes into account that there was probably something wrong within the marriage in the first place, that leads people to go to prostitutes.

A disease? You know that it's the oldest profession in the world, right? You said in your experience "even if you protect them from attackers and and disease you're still missing something?" What exactly are you missing?

And why does the idea of protection for prostitutes funny to you? You don't believe prostitutes have the right to work in a safe environment? Yes, it concerns when women are in a circumstance in which they have no choice but to enter prostitution. Because of this, they are more vulnerable to exploitation, which is why I feel they need protection. And I wouldn't jump up and say that it strips the dignity of women. There are women who work as prostitutes and they enjoy their work very much.

 

[Steezie]

In South Korea prostitution is de facto legal.

As was already pointed out by Cantana, thats not a great demonstration of what really needs to be good.

In a nation with legalized prostitution the quickest thing in the world that strips a woman of her dignity is putting her in a position where being a prostitute is a viable option.

Really? See I would have thought it was being arrested for trying to put food on the table or begging in the streets but hey, thats just me, one of those crazy people that doesn't just throw things at poor people.

Impoverished girls who do not do well in school, to get a better life, selling their body is probably one of the saddest things in the world.

Sadder than rich girls who went to the best schools selling their bodies to advertising?

Prostitution is wrong for the simple reason that it is people monetizing their animal urges and profiting off of human lust. In the end, both parties are indefinitely harmed.

Can you demonstrate that this happens in a system where prostitutes are protected?

Prostitution destroys marriages

If a husband or wife is visiting a prostitute, its a pretty sure bet that that marriage was pretty weak to begin with. If you dont want a prostitute, it'd be a mistress, take your pick.

prostitution destroys dignity

You've obviously never worked in the retail industry. I've spoken to a young woman who worked as a stripper in Las Vegas for several years. She told me that of all the jobs she had worked, that the most degrading job she'd ever had was a waitress at Denny's.

prostitution lessens the worth of love

How so, love is not involved in the prostitution's business

Prostitution becomes a disease to men and to women.

If its treated as such, then yeah it does.

I like it more than young, unmarried women from poor families with little further education being forced by economic destitution into this terrible lifestyle.

The reason the lifestyle is so terrible is BECAUSE its illegal.

 

[sidhe]

Legalize, regulate, and tax it. Prostitution will exist anyway, it could at least be above-board and safer than it is now.

As a side note, this one sees nothing immoral about selling sex. If that's one's will, more power to them.

 

[Domenico]

In South Korea prostitution is de facto legal.

And here in New Zealand it is completely legal, and it is a situation that works much better. There are less women out on the streets, there are less underage girls in brothels, there is higher rates of condom use - all good things.

I know a couple of girls who work as prostitutes. They do so, not because they are poorly educated and destitute, but because university tuition fees are high and they dont want to be lumped with a large student loan. They are confident, pretty and very good students. They ahve fortunately managed to stay off the drugs that apparently run rife in the industry, and they look forward to graduating, debt free, and going off and doing whatever they want.

 

[Velo Princesse]

This is correct, but it would be easier for prostitutes to press rape charges if their activities were above the law. It would also be easier to protect them from dangerous clients if they could form unions, have shares in their own brothels &c.

I agree and disagree. First of all, prostitution would still carry a heavy stigma so while a prostitute would technically be legally protected, a rapist could simply call into question her sexual history as a defense. This is done all the time w/ women who aren't prostitutes... I think it would be harder for prostitutes.

Of course, their being able to contact the authorities MIGHT make them less attractive targets. Ultimately, though, I think that a rapist will rape people no matter what the law. Much like a murderer will murder people no matter what the law.

 

[cantata]

I agree and disagree. First of all, prostitution would still carry a heavy stigma so while a prostitute would technically be legally protected, a rapist could simply call into question her sexual history as a defense. This is done all the time w/ women who aren't prostitutes... I think it would be harder for prostitutes.

Of course, their being able to contact the authorities MIGHT make them less attractive targets. Ultimately, though, I think that a rapist will rape people no matter what the law. Much like a murderer will murder people no matter what the law.

That is a fair point, but I think that it certainly wouldn't make the problem worse, and if brothels were regulated properly it would be in madams' best interests to look after the safety of their girls.

 

[quatona]

In South Korea prostitution is de facto legal.

The notion of protecting prostitutes is kind of funny to me.

In my experience, if you protect them from disease and violent attackers you are still missing something...

In a nation with legalized prostitution the quickest thing in the world that strips a woman of her dignity is putting her in a position where being a prostitute is a viable option.

Impoverished girls who do not do well in school, to get a better life, selling their body is probably one of the saddest things in the world.

Prostitution is wrong for the simple reason that it is people monetizing their animal urges and profiting off of human lust. In the end, both parties are indefinitely harmed.

Prostitution destroys marriages; prostitution destroys dignity; prostitution lessens the worth of love. Prostitution becomes a disease to men and to women.

Of course, I do not believe in legislating morality in the United States. I do not legislate my personal morality.

However, in south Korea it should be categorically outlawed.

When selling your body becomes a viable option for a woman laid off from work and in a desperate monetary bind we've set our society up for failure. I dislike welfare but I like it more than prostitution.

I like it more than young, unmarried women from poor families with little further education being forced by economic destitution into this terrible lifestyle.

They are not selling their body, they are not selling their person - they merely sell sex work.
If by all means you want to introduce the category "sellling one´s body" you would have to include a lot of other highly respected professions.

I´m all for a society taking care that people can do a job that they like.
However, prostitutes are not all women who have been forced by circumstances into this job and didn´t have any other option. Some sure are (just like some didn´t have another option but getting us rid of our garbage or doing incredibly boring jobs on the assembly line or even jobs that put their health to serious risks), but there are also women who simply find it a good way of making good money.

From my perspective it´s great social work, and these women have my utmost respect.

 

[Velo Princesse]

I've spoken to a young woman who worked as a stripper in Las Vegas for several years. She told me that of all the jobs she had worked, that the most degrading job she'd ever had was a waitress at Denny's.

I find this extremely amusing.

 

[quatona]

Prostitution destroys marriages;

If anyone, the clients of a prostitute put their marriage to risk. If anything, this is an argument against hiring a prostitute, and not against offering this service.
Besides, not everyone is married.

prostitution destroys dignity;

Only in the eyes of those who think that selling sex takes away from your dignity.
Dignity is within.

prostitution lessens the worth of love.

Since prostitution has absolutely nothing to do with love it can not lessen its worth.
The worth of my love for someone isn´t lessened by the fact that prostitution exists any more than it is lessened by anything else out there: not at all.

Prostitution becomes a disease to men and to women.

Empty claim.

 

[Velo Princesse]

ISince prostitution has absolutely nothing to do with love it can not lessen its worth.

I don't know, quatona... the fact that prostitution is legal in Nevada does lessen the worth of my love for my husband. In fact, it is ruining my marriage... and I live in NY! Imagine if I lived closer... like California or Arizona. I don't know a single person in either of those states who are happily married. It must be because they are so close to legal prostitution.

 

[Belk]

Prostitution is wrong for the simple reason that it is people monetizing their animal urges and profiting off of human lust. In the end, both parties are indefinitely harmed.
[\quote]

Much like the fast food industry.

 

[quatona]

I don't know, quatona... the fact that prostitution is legal in Nevada does lessen the worth of my love for my husband. In fact, it is ruining my marriage... and I live in NY! Imagine if I lived closer... like California or Arizona. I don't know a single person in either of those states who are happily married. It must be because they are so close to legal prostitution.

You have a point there. I live just a few hundred kilometers from Amsterdam (where prostitution is almost omnipresent), and I have always found that having this stuff so close to me made it practically impossible for me love someone.