Blind Eye to Prostitution - what say you? (Adult Subject Matter)

[KristenNC]

I've got an issue on my mind.

Prostitution is illegal (except for Nevada) in the US, right? So why is there so damn much of it in Raleigh (and every where else I've ever been)?

Open your phone book to escort services. Or massage parlors. Search on the web (no, don't - you'll crash your browser with the plethora of results) for escorts.

Now, I'm not saying that all escort services and massage parlors are really houses of prostitution - I'm just saying that 90%or more of them are. In fact, in larger cities (like LA, Chicago, New York) - sex worker activist groups (like COYOTE, the Cyprian Guild and PEN...) estimate that only 10-20% of prostitutes work "off the street" - while the rest are set up in businesses. The National Task force on Prostitution estimates that 1% of the female population has worked as a prostitute at one time or another.

That said - arrests for prostitution tend to be off the street (which are usually more desperate and poor women and men) - and the arrest records break down like this. 70% of the arrests are of female prostitutes. 20% are of male prostitutes. 10% are of male customers.

Since the average prostitute has many customers per day - where is the fairness in that arrest record?

And since prostitution is supposedly illegal, why can I call a number in the phone book and ask for 1 hour of around the world?

Should we just give up and legalize prostitution like Nevada (where there has never been a report of an HIV+ prostitute - and the women are kept moderately safe from physical harm - and taxed and lisenced)?

Is there are reason that cops go after the crack whores while leaving the multitude of white-collar escorts alone?

Is prostitution even wrong?

[poseidon]

Yes I think that prostitution is wrong. I also think it's wrong to legalize it and make money off of it as a society (i.e. taxation). Granted, there are some positive things that would come out of it, considering that you'd cut down on the HIV transmissions -- but I'm guessing that even legal, you'd still have a black market for prostitution. Why?

HIV-infected prostitutes would still need to "work" and they'd not be allowed to if we followed Nevada's model.

Frankly, I like what some of the suburbs in Denver does -- they arrest the Johns and publish their photo and name in the newspaper. In the largest suburb (Aurora) I read in the paper a couple of years ago that since they started doing this, the amount of arrests are actually down. People (unless you're Hugh Grant) apparently are embarrassed when they're caught with a prostitute.

I do have to agree with you on one thing... and I've chuckled every time I've seen it myself. Scour the newspaper classifieds and you can find lingerie modeling -- private sessions -- full-body "special" massages, etc. that are obviously prostittution ads (hell why else would it say 21+ at the end?).

Jeff

[drmomentum[$]]

I don't know if it is wrong or not. I don't think it is right for a lot of the people who are practicing it. i personally don't approve of it.

Of course, there are also the "unpaid sex workers" to consider. That would be another term for "wives." I will extend that to "spouse," but what I mean is that there are probably women out there who are married unhappily and whose husbands demand sex as a part of the marriage but continue to stay married for financial reasons. Heck, there are probably women who are fairly happily married who have lost their desire for sex but participate in the act solely for the benefit of the husband. "Unpaid sex worker" is one way to look at that situation. Perfectly legal, of course. You don't see any unpaid sex worker raids. B.I.D.

Making it illegal is not stopping it, just as outlawing guns would not stop gun violence. Legalize it, tax it and regulate it to make it safer. I don't see a moral problem with taxing it. We tax cigarette sales, cigarette company earnings, cigarett stock capital income, gambling and other "vices."

Funny you should mention a blind eye. In a slightly different take on the phrase, I think one form of evil is turning a blind eye toward an act for ideological reasons (there will always be prostitution, so we should simply keep it illegal and unsafe so that it will remain an undesirable activity) rather than at least trying to do something that might make the situation better. Imagine putting unsafe prostitution out of business as clients flock to to safer sources of paid sex? Imagine reducing the risk of bodily harm, infection child exploitation, etc, because of regulation. I didn't say eliminating, I said reducing. If you can't eliminate a problem, I say working toward an improvement is worth a try, and better than ignoring it.

-JP

[poseidon]

JP,

I would rather see that term as "some wives" instead of "wives." I'm sure that there are plenty of wives out there who not only are happy but actually enjoy sex with their husbands.

Jeff

[KristenNC]

Actually, JP - I'm grudgingly agreeing with that argument.

I just read a FABULOUS book (Brothel: Mustang Ranch and its Women by Alexa Albert) that was very eye opening. As I've mentioned, my only real life experience with prostitution before I was married was working with addicted street kids who sold their body for dope. VERY different than Nevada's brothels - and Raleigh's escort services. Before this, I had no idea that prostitution was so terribly common all over.

And since finding out how common it is - I actually think that legalizing it is the best solution. That saddens me, because I find it absolutely appalling personally. But facts is facts, right.

Either way, I think the fact that cops bust poor crack whores and street kids and leave Madame X from www.whoresrus-notreally.com alone is a travesty of justice. Really. Even Hugh Grant was busted after picking up an addicted street prostitute (who didn't charge much by the prices I have been seeing.)

[KateTPZ]

I completely agree with JP!

[drmomentum[$]]

Originally posted by poseidon
I would rather see that term as "some wives" instead of "wives." I'm sure that there are plenty of wives out there who not only are happy but actually enjoy sex with their husbands.

See it however you want. I'm not your ophthalmologist.

There are times I really enjoy being a software developer, but that doesn't mean it isn't my job during those times. I have certainly heard of women who considered themselves sex addicts and then decided to become prostitutes (though I'm not trying to imply that this situation applies to a significant number of prostitutes - I have no idea about that.) They were still prostitutes.

And I'll concede that it is possible for a wife to enjoy sex with her husband, but only because I have confirming evidence. But that doesn't change anything. It's simply a different way to look at the situation. People trade sex for many things in this world: money, emotional comfort, security, food, shelter, drugs, their children's future, a name... only some of those people do we call "prostitute."

-JP

[drmomentum[$]]

Originally posted by KristenNC
Actually, JP - I'm grudgingly agreeing with that argument.

I'm grudgingly offering it.

-JP

[amykhar]

I spent a good deal of my childhood in Germany, where it was legal and regulated. It just seems more sensible that way.

Any grounds against selling sex (it would seem to me) would be religious ones. In my opinion, prostitution is no different than marketing any other skill. It should be regulated, taxed, and controlled.

Amy

OHHHHH! I saw the topic on the list (the topic lists) and was intrigued but I thought it was going to be PROSTHETICS (all I could see was the Pros at the end). I thought that might be an interesting play on words (glass eyes or something?).

I think that it is kinda interesting that you see hookers openly hooking (or whatever) and they rarely get arrested.

Ander

[frazzledspice]

If a wife has sex with her husband when she's not in the mood to please him (or vice versa), couldn't love be the motivating factor?

I would hope that love would be the prime motivating factor.

In any relationship, people make compromises on all sorts of decisions--where they go on vacation, which house they purchase, when to have a child, or whether to have children, etc.

And while love shouldn't be purely an act of self-sacrifice, I think that self-sacrifice is always a component of love, and that maybe, in a marriage, both parties will sometimes sacrifice their individual desires for the one they love and for their union.

I dislike prostitution because it places the act of sex outside a relationship, and I think that sex is best in a committed relationship, but since prostitution does exist, it is probably better for it to be legal---both for the women who can be exploited by their pimps and for the Johns who can feel reassured about disease, etc.

I'm reading Steve Allen's last book and wondering how prostitution can be illegal but all this porn and garbage and filth and crap being sold as television, movies, and music can not be clamped down upon.

Maybe it's because the corporate pimps can lobby Congress?

[systemdwn]

The sad part of prostitution are the minors/drug addicts having sex to survive...that must be stopped and the government must get involved in preventing this autrocity.