We're All Selling Something
The notion that sex work should be illegal is antithetical to individual rights.
If you think sex workers "sell their bodies," but coal miners do not, your view of labor is clouded by your moralistic view of sexuality.
— Eric Sprankle, PsyD (@DrSprankle) April 19, 2016
An anti-prostitution activist tweets up -- and the reply (which is what I was thinking about the coal work):
@ProstitutionRes @DrSprankle No but they are filled with coal dust causing black lung among other things.
— Anika Snow❄️ (@AnikaSnow) April 9, 2017
I choose not to be a sex worker but it's not my right (or anyone's) to stop other adults who wish to earn a living that way -- like, for example, @Maggie_McNeill.
via @YeyoZa
Prostitution was legal in the US until quite recently. It is often women who are against it because perhaps it offers unfair competition to them. One could argue that legal prostitution might offer an outlet to desperate men who then might not rape.
The current war on "sex trafficking" which implies slavery and underage girls is a data-free propaganda attempt to revive opposition to prostitution.
cc at April 20, 2017 7:35 AM
"I choose not to be a sex worker..."
Myself, I am less free. Other people make that choice for me.
Lastango at April 20, 2017 7:39 AM
Who is the boss in a consensual encounter ?
tmitsss at April 20, 2017 8:36 AM
> it's not my right (or anyone's)
> to stop other adults who wish
> to earn a living
I reserve the right to pummel & torment whores, and johns, who execute transactions at or near my real estate. Fuck those assholes. They're socially (and financially)incompetent, and it's not my problem.
Here's a secret: Anyone in contemporary America using the word "wish" is bullshitting.
Crid at April 20, 2017 8:44 AM
"The current war on "sex trafficking" which implies slavery and underage girls is a data-free propaganda attempt to revive opposition to prostitution."
Hmm. So, I guess arrests recently in Augusta, GA are "data-free".
No one wants to say that slavery still occurs, much less occurs in the USA, because it would interfere with the "reparations" narrative - but it's still out there.
Radwaste at April 20, 2017 9:54 AM
Yes it exists Rad. But it is not a large part of the prostitution market. And yes the propaganda over sex trafficking and underage girls is mostly fake. Just like how 20 year olds who get killed with a gun are suddenly 'kids' many of the 'underage' are anything but and often are not enslaved either.
Ben at April 20, 2017 9:59 AM
"One could argue that legal prostitution might offer an outlet to desperate men who then might not rape."
One could argue huh. Are you actually arguing that? Cause I've got an anecdotal data point* for you.
We have an experimental venue to test this 'hypothesis'. Nevada. I live there, boots on the ground wading through the agar of this petri dish. My travels tomorrow will take me right past the famed Mustang ranch - fittingly on my way to the dump. You know what it looks like from the street? Minimum security prison. Chain-link, razor wire fence surrounding public school-esque portables full of sexually empowered women. Sexay!
Unlike the mildly objectionable odor of now-legal weed wafting up from the back of the crowd, this adult activity actually is morally repugnant to a wide swath of society, 100% unacceptable around kids, and as crid pointed out, is intolerable to those of us with no moral objection what-so-ever.** This isn't like your uncles sneaking out to the garage for a toke, this is hardcore. Any legalization scheme will require regulating the hell out of and sequestering the activity from society. You'll end up right where we are right now in Nevada: for $750 and a DUI you can drive two counties away to legally vent that need to rape.
I have never been propositioned by 'independent contractors' so frequently as I have in this town (and I've lived in the Fashion District). Legalization has done nothing to get it off the streets, nothing. I'm not against legalization, or decriminalization at least but just know that it will not solve the problems you think it will.
*at least I'm honest with my weaselly use of language.
**Not implying you have no moral objection Crid. It was unfortunate sentence framing.
smurfy at April 20, 2017 10:42 AM
"The current war on 'sex trafficking' which implies slavery and underage girls is a data-free propaganda attempt to revive opposition to prostitution."
Related to that, sort of.
Cousin Dave at April 20, 2017 10:49 AM
One could argue that, but one would be foolish to do so. Rape is about power, about the victim not being able to say no.
And prostitutes are available now, albeit illegally, to offer an outlet to desperate men, yet there is still rape. And prostitutes cost money, legal or not. Desperate men who will rape otherwise are not always gainfully employed with enough disposable income to afford prostitutes.
I've said it before when we've had this topic on the blog, legalized prostitution will not magically clean up everything. There will still be sexual slavery, violence, and desperate women being used when (if?) prostitution is legalized. It's a dirty business and legalizing it will not make it clean.
Conan the Grammarian at April 20, 2017 11:34 AM
> It was unfortunate sentence
> framing.
I get it. It's, like, inconceivable that someone wouldn't jump at the chance to strike a posture of the variety 'I'm more erotically nuanced than other people! I'm more tolerant!'
But I think I really am more nuanced and tolerant, so the posturing is unnecessary. I wanna know that the behaviors we accept from each other in these matters are harmless to the participating individuals as well as those nearby, meaning (ahem) me.
Having whores working your neighborhood is a pain in the ass.
And if you're going to convince me there's an element of modern feminist dignity & wealth creation in it for the working woman, you've got a lot of work ahead of you, and you've (Amy, others) not even begun. Torpid films from Julia Roberts do not affirm your glib rhetoric.
But when it's time to get serious, I'll affirm that the practicalities and the morality are enduringly intimate with each other.
(See what I did there?)
Crid at April 20, 2017 1:41 PM
I dont want divorce to be illegal either, but I think no fault divorce and child support collection practices by the government have had a horrible impact on our culture, and on men's rights.
The same goes for prostitution, I dont like the look of towns that have legalized gambling. They look trashy. I dont want to live next to a Casino, and I sure as heck don't want to live close to a brothel, or in a neigborhood frequented by drug dealers and hookers.
There was legalized prostitution in Germany. Didn't stop one of my soldiers from raping a cab driver, and going to Manheim.
There was a gas station close to one of the areas where hookers were allowed to operate. Nice people stayed out of that area, and crime didnt go away with legalized prostitution. Over a period of years, more than one of the prostitutes was found murdered in the woods near that gas station.
Legal or not, prostitution, drugs and gambling act as *scum magnets*
Isab at April 20, 2017 5:00 PM
Just to be clear I agree 100% with what Isab wrote. Prostitution is an inherently dirty business. But I also don't like the blatant lying by those with a vested self interest in keeping things illegal. Over the last few years here in Houston we've had billboards and news pieces about all the sex trafficking and such. But then you find out that many of the 'children' are in their 30s and the 'sex slaves' are enslaved by themselves.
The whole thing feels like Reefer Madness. Drugs are also an inherently bad thing. But lying about them, and lying really really poorly is even worse. The same with prostitution.
Ben at April 21, 2017 2:35 AM
100 Countries and Their Prostitution Policies
http://prostitution.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000772
Bob in Texas at April 21, 2017 5:26 AM
"I wanna know that the behaviors we accept from each other in these matters are harmless to the participating individuals as well as those nearby, meaning (ahem) me."
Well, it's like a Gallagher show: If you don't want to get splattered, you need to sit in the back. Seriously: People do all sorts of things that are undignified in order to put food on the table. Some people collect garbage, or pick up dead animals from the road. Some people spend their adult lives hunched over in coal mines. Some people are humanities professors... ahem.
I do recognize that prostitution is an activity that often draws an undesirable element, and that there is a lot of sleazy behavior in the business. But making it illegal hasn't succeeded in getting rid of all that, has it? It's kind of like alcohol: that draws an undesirable element too. But having it legalized, with a few reasonable restrictions, has pretty well succeeded in minimizing the impact of that element, while more responsible people who wish to partake can do so without fear of the law. It caused a lot more trouble when it was illegal. Legalizing prostitution won't eliminate the impact, but it can reduce it if it's done right.
And my other point, which I tried to make with my post above. There is currently a moral panic regarding sex in general, and male sexual activity in particular, with all kinds of people pledging to "crack down" on sexual practices that they find reprehensible -- whether said practices actually exist or not. Once those witch trials get started, they take on a life of their own. Innocent people get hurt and society, and the rule of law, loses some of its credibility. In the story I linked to above, note that the father in question had to get a notarized letter from his wife, stating that he had permission to have the girl with him. And even that almost didn't save him. What if, when the police tried to call his wife, she didn't have her phone on her, or the battery was dead, or she was some place where she couldn't take the call? That guy would still be in jail now, and CPS would have the child hidden in a foster home somewhere. This is the sort of thing that happens under a moral panic.
This is the second sex moral panic we've had in the last quarter century. The last one put some innocent people in jail for decades, slandered others, altered social standards of child care and child rearing for the worse, established government authority to arbitrarily insert itself into family matters, and gave us Janet Reno as Attorney General. What is this next one going to do?
Cousin Dave at April 21, 2017 7:36 AM
This is the second sex moral panic we've had in the last quarter century. The last one put some innocent people in jail for decades, slandered others, altered social standards of child care and child rearing for the worse, established government authority to arbitrarily insert itself into family matters, and gave us Janet Reno as Attorney General. What is this next one going to do?
Cousin Dave at April 21, 2017 7:36 AM
If you think this sort of policing is bad now, just wait until the traffic revenue dries up with autonomous vehicles.
So much of law enforcement now is rent seeking to feed an ever expanding bureaucracy, you cant tell me that economic collapse in the blue states won't have an up side.
Isab at April 21, 2017 2:34 PM
Just how is this sex trafficking suppose to work? Supposedly evil men kidnap a young woman, arrange to have her raped many times, and send her out to meet the public. How do those men not wind up in prison?
1. It's before 1865 (if in the USA), the woman has some percentage of African ancestry and is the property of the brothel, and if she runs away the cops will bring her back.
2. The cops are quite corrupt.
3. The cops follow laws and policies such that if the women or the customers called them, the women and customers would be jailed.
There isn't much real sex trafficking (as opposed to people working _for_ women who choose to be prostitutes), but when there is, it's enabled by laws against prostitution.
markm at April 24, 2017 8:05 AM
Pretty sure every other industry has strict regulations in regards to dealinbg with body fluids
Nicolek at April 26, 2017 2:43 PM
Leave a comment