Hello, Amy,

I have a point to make.

I think prostitution is illegal because women are threatened by prostitutes on many levels, but the core is the economical one. Prostitution is relatively cheap compared to dating and marriage, and it violates the ancient contract between man and women - sex for providing for the female and the offspring. Nowadays, of course, this contract is obsolete but it seems to be wired pretty extensively into our brains - picking up the dinner bill is still a manly thing to do for most men even if his date is earning more.

It's not cultural, but anthropological. Human females have a very rare property in the animal world - readiness and desire for sexual intercourse throughout the year. Some argue this has evolved to keep the male in order to take care of the offspring.

I think if prostitution was legal without _any_ limitations whatsoever, it would hurt women tremendously, but not the prostitutes as the proponents claim.

Artem.

"Human females have a very rare property in the animal world - readiness and desire for sexual intercourse throughout the year."

You haven't met my ex-wife.

/rimshot for Steamer

Yeah Artem, that idea sometimes called the "pussy cartel". Namely, women might have to compete with actual affection, interest and caring beyond the mere physical when prostitutes are available to take care of the physical needs. The only reason the "ancient" (aka marriage) contract is obsolete today would be due to the lopsided modern laws governing that contract. Namely, men have most of the responsibilities, women have most of the choices and little penalties.

I just hope libertarianism comes to America in my lifetime. Then I can establish a nationwide chain of economical, well-run brothel-casino-nightclubs, heavily staffed by gorgeous Third Worlders.
True, men won't want to get married anymore (or maybe they will, knowing a respite is always nearby).
Imagine how men would crowd into such establishments. It would be like minting money.
Look, women can sell their bodies already, and usually they rent their bodies out long- and short-term term (long-term being marriage or LTR). Deregulation and legalization will just radically lower the price, as it would with pot and coke, what-have-you.
That is why I say there are no true women libertarians. They just don't exist.

Your comments would be 1000% more provocative if they were 10% more (i.e., appreciably) fun.

Nice try. Prostitution was made illegal long before women were writing legislation, serving on courts, or even voting.

I'm not threatened by prostitutes as competition, because any guy that would habitually visit prostitutes instead of engaging in consensual sex with interested women isn't someone I'd want to date anyway.

I worry about the exploitation of people that would feel driven to sell their bodies for money. Don't the majority of prostitutes have a history of drug abuse, sexual abuse, broken homes, etc? It's kind of like your kidney example-what kind of horrible life circumstances would compel someone to sell their kidney?

For the guys (and girls) who are pro-prostitution, I'm curious-would you date a prostitute? Encourage your daughter to sell her body for sex? Your son?

Nice try. Prostitution was made illegal long before women were writing legislation, serving on courts, or even voting.

Yes but was it made illegal before women were fucking legislators, judges or voters?

And lets not forget a lot of "moral vice" laws were passed in a time that low rent cops would never dream of raiding the whore house in the nice past of town that everone the law makers, judges, and celrgy visited.

I have dated the daughter of a prostitute and she (the daughter) was probably the most well adjusted person I have met. I only met her mother once and nothing stood out to me.

Oddly I was just reading this same topic on another board.

By ancient contract I didn't mean marriage. I meant the time when females evolved their year-round availability for sex and the offspring started taking too much effort and resources to be taken care of by mothers only.

Marriage is just a cultural reflection of that.

To Shannon: even if you are not threatened by prostitutes now, you surely would be if there'd be no social stigma attached to a man visiting a prostitute. Still, it's not something to brag about at a social event.

I do have to make a correction to my original post - _both_ men and women are consciously or subconciously threatened by "sex for money" idea since historically it did not serve our offspring well. Laws just reflect our psyche, and our psyche was formed by the evolutionary pressure which greatly favored men that "sticked around" for their babies.

I guess my bigger point was that in the modern western society lots of such ancient baggage is obsolete, but both men and women have a hard time detaching from their emotions, preferring to rationalize them instead.

"Sexual exploitation" is a joke. Why aren't you worried for all those pretty girls dating/marrying for money to people they don't love and even sometimes resent having sex with? Should we make this illegal as well?

The reason Smith/Marshall type of couples are frowned upon is _the same reason_ prostitution is. Think about it. Why are we so angry about it? Because they're not gonna have children, that's why.

For the guys (and girls) who are pro-prostitution, I'm curious-would you date a prostitute? Encourage your daughter to sell her body for sex? Your son?

What does that have to do with it, Shannon? Just because someone doesn't want to date a prostitute or doesn't want their children to be one doesn't mean it should be illegal. What does it matter what I personally think of it, if the people doing it are adults and consenting it's none of my damn business if money is changing hands.

Shannon writes: "Nice try. Prostitution was made illegal long before women were writing legislation, serving on courts, or even voting."

True, but... prior to WWII, prostitution services were widely available in N. America at least, laws be damned. I think our last half-century society might be the first one in human history that has actually succeeded in constraining the availability of prostitution; not eliminating it certainly, but constraining it. Further, that same society has succeeded in attaching a stigma to the patronizing of prostitutes that didn't exist previously, at least not in U.S. history. Prior to the 20th century, in some parts of the U.S., it was rare to find a man of age 25 or over who had not been with a prostitute at least once.

I'm not saying that I agree with Artem's thesis. But I do want to point out that there's been a change with regard to prostitution in America, and the change is in fact recent.