Originally Posted by firegod
This is true when prostitution is illegal, not very often when it is legal. Go to Nevada and let me know how poor the average prostitute is.
Or you go to Nevada and tell me how rich they were before they became prostitutes. And you mean that the prostitute business in Nevada, thanks to the fact that it's legal, attracts a higher number of well-educated upper middle- and upper class women than in states where it is not legal? Show me one Nevada prostitute that wouldn't take a conventional job for the same money if she could. Making prostitution legal doesn't end the fact that it's mainly a last way out for people in deserate need of cash.
This already happens without prostitution being legal, and not just illegal prostitution, but with plenty of people spending tons of cash on someone to keep them. Happens all the time, and I don't see how this human ownership thing can get worse just by legalizing prostitution. Even if it were true though, something having bad effects is not a good enough reason to illegalize it. Smoking is harmful, eating tacos is harmful; let's make them illegal?
No, I know that you can't see why those things will be worse by legalizing prostitution but that is because you don't see any bad things with prostitution period. I don't know exactly what you mean with "keep them".... Men are keeping women?
And I've always thought that bad effects were in fact the reason why we illegalize things. And smoking is actually being banned more and more in public places. As for tacos.. well... what can I say...
So one of the ways that people express this objectification is what should be banned, and not the cause? So what about how men buy women fancy jewelry or an expensive dinner with the hope of keeping her or having sex with her? Write that down on the books as a misdemeanor? And prostitution not helping the de-objectification of anyone has nothing to do with whether it should be legal or not. You have to show me the incredible harm legalizing prostitution would have. And how about some examples? In what country or state or whatever has this harm taken place?
You mean instead of going through all the trouble of buying jewlery and dinners you would prefer to pay them up front for sex? I can in a way understand that. If jewlery and dinners worth a fortune is their defintion of fore-play they damn well belong at home in the kitchen as well.
However, it's hard for me to demonstrate any contemporary examples where legalization has harmed the society since not that many societies allows it. In Sweden, for instance, we had some very confusing laws up until a few years ago. I think selling sex was not illegal but buyin sex was, or something like that. It might have been legal in some form, but I doubt it. Now it's not legal at all but the conditions for the prostitutes have not, to my knowledge, become better. My point is that prostitution, legal or not, is something that is mainly a bad thing. And historically, this I know, the "village whore" was not exactly a member of high society. Instead she was an outcast not included in the village community, her bastards banned from school and herself doomed by the priest to burn in hell (even though he probably paid her a visit or two). I seriously doubt that, even if it had been legal for a hundred years, you would be cool with taking your prostitute fiancé home to meet your folks for the first time. Or to have a mom or a daughter who worked as a prostitute. You say you view it as any other service but I think if you a) put yourself in that position, or b) put a female family member in that position, you would realize that it is not so.
I'm sure I could find someone who gladly would sell me his liver or one of his kidneys. There's a big black market for this (inner organs), but it's not legal for obvious reasons. You think that would be ok too?
Yes, but I believe that any law that is based on a religion should be REMOVED. that WOULD be separataion of church and state. And by the way, prostitution is not mentioned in the Ten Commandments, yet coveting your neighbor's wife is. So, one of the ways that women are objectified in society (a way I'm sure you wouldn't like to make illegal) is one of the top no-nos in the bible, but prostitution isn't. Kind of interesting to me.
I'm not a biblical expert but didn't Jesus tell Maria Magdalena something like "Stand up, and sin no more"?
I am not talking about actual laws, like the Ten Commandments, I am talking about more complex set of values and moral and ethics. Don't you think there is a difference in people's values between protestant, catholic, jewish and muslim
secular states?
Originally Posted by firegod
I have to add something. What about a stripper? What about a door person, or a chauffeur, or a butler? Should all of these professions, and many more, be banned because it is like buying something? And no, paying for a prostitute is NOT like buying a person. It is like buying a SERVICE, and the only reason that service is considered bad, is because that service is sex, which I find completely silly.
A stripper dances without clothes, a door person opens doors, a chauffeur drives cars and a butler drives cars and open doors. A prostitute takes a penis in the mouth, in the vagina or up the ass every day, and probably several times a day. I am not only surprised, but also worried, that you don't realize the difference between these services in terms of personal intimacy and integrity boundaries being challenged.
Which of the jobs above would you prefer to do for a year? The rest of your life?