Legalize Prostitution?

[Hema]

I guess my point is that when we legalize the exploitation of the human body for profit, that's exactly what we'll get: the exploitation of human bodies. And in those human bodies will be human beings.

I agree. Legalizing it to me, is justifying that exploitation.

 

[Valjean]

But a bricklayer, model, or accountant is offering his body &/or mind for exploitation on the open market. That's what work is -- offering your mind or body as a tool for hire.

Ignore the artificial, social opprobrium about prostitution, and what's the difference?

 

[BucephalusBB]

I agree. Legalizing it to me, is justifying that exploitation.

To me it's justifying free will. Not everybody sees their body like a temple like you do. (if you do). For some it's work like any other work, only easier and it pays more.

 

[Wandered Off]

But a bricklayer, model, or accountant is offering his body &/or mind for exploitation on the open market.

I offer my brain every day. It's disgusting what some folks try to stick in there...

 

[MysticSang'ha]

Prostitution is legal in Nevada. Prostitutes are licensed, they're tested every week, and the use of condoms is required. No prostitute in Nevada has ever tested positive for HIV.

Edit: No licensed prostitute, that is.

Oh my Buddha........you took the words right out of my mouth, Bill. :bow:

My answer, obviously, is yes - prostitution should be legalized and regulated.




Peace,
Mystic

 

[Fluffy]

Pure X,
You claim there is a correlation between legalised prostitution and sexual slavery. Do you have a study to back that claim up?

 

[Darkness]

We not only need to keep prostitution illegal, we need to wake up and begin fighting against it as an illegal business, instead of simply arresting the prostitutes themselves, and letting the real criminals go free.

I am all for arresting the F***ing gangsters who abuse the prostitutes. Hell! I think people who keep sex slaves should be crucified and castrated.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

Pure X,
You claim there is a correlation between legalised prostitution and sexual slavery. Do you have a study to back that claim up?

I would think that legalizing, instutionalizing, and regulating prostitution would deter gang-bang sex-slave people. They wouldn't blend in with the general group as much any more. It should make it easier to bust them.

 

[PureX]

It goes without saying that were it legalized a system of testing, monitoring and safety regulations would go with it.
I think legalization would both cut out much of the criminal element and reduce the spread of STDs.

Beside the desire to force your own ideas of propriety on others, what are the arguments against legalization?

Exploitation is still exploitation, even if the victims agree to be exploited. This is something we in the U.S. have a very difficult time grasping because we have been taught that exploitation and commerce are one and the same, and that freedom means being free to exploit those who are stupid enough, weak enough, or unlucky enough to let us. But this is not commerce, and it never was. It's exploitation. It's taking advantage of one person to the advantage of another.

Anyone who sells their body to someone else, to be used for whatever selfish purpose, is allowing themselves to be exploited. That they are economically compensated for it may mitigate their feeling of humiliation, but it does not change the facts. We should not legalize such exploitation for the same reasons that we would not allow the exploitation of children, or the exploitation of the mentally or physically challenged. And the reason is that they are unable to properly defend themselves due to specific conditions and circumstances.

People who fall into prostitution are already victims, whether they know it or not, and they need to be protected from the abuse and exploitation of others just as anyone else who is not able to protect themselves needs to be protected by laws. We don't allow adults to have sex with children just because the child agrees to it, nor do we allow adults to sexually exploit the mentally or physically challenged, even though they may agree to it, as well. And the reason we don't allow it is that we understand that the agreement is the result of exploitation, and is therefor unfairly obtained.

Same goes with prostitution.

 

[PureX]

I would think that legalizing, instutionalizing, and regulating prostitution would deter gang-bang sex-slave people. They wouldn't blend in with the general group as much any more. It should make it easier to bust them.

And yet in countries where prostitution is legal, sexual slavery is thriving. They simply bribe the officials assigned to oversee their brothels with money and sex. This will ALWAYS occur where the elemental business going on is exploitive. Many psychological studies have been done over the years showing that when people are placed in charge of other people, physically, physical abuse soon becomes rampant. This is especially true if men are placed in charge of women, but it occurs with any combination of ages and sexes.

Physical/sexual exploitation is physical/sexual exploitation, it attracts the very people who most want to abuse it. And then it escalates.

 

[Wandered Off]

It's taking advantage of one person to the advantage of another.

In the exchange of this particular service for money, why does the "buyer" have an advantage? And what is this advantage?

Anyone who sells their body to someone else, to be used for whatever selfish purpose, is allowing themselves to be exploited.

Do you see this particular purpose as more selfish than, say, paying someone to cook?

And the reason we don't allow it is that we understand that the agreement is the result of exploitation, and is therefor unfairly obtained.

Put another way, the reason we don't is that those classes of people lack the capacity of consent. I'm missing why you think otherwise capable adults are incapable of consent in the case of prostitution. What is the unique aspect that suddenly changes one's otherwise intact consent abilities?

 

[McBell]

And yet in countries where prostitution is legal, sexual slavery is thriving. They simply bribe the officials assigned to oversee their brothels with money and sex. This will ALWAYS occur where the elemental business going on is exploitive. Many psychological studies have been done over the years showing that when people are placed in charge of other people, physically, physical abuse soon becomes rampant. This is especially true if men are placed in charge of women, but it occurs with any combination of ages and sexes.

Physical/sexual exploitation is physical/sexual exploitation, it attracts the very people who most want to abuse it. And then it escalates.

Yet being illegal has done nothing more than drain already inadequate resources.
It should be legalized, regulated, taxed, etc.
Just like any other business, well, except religion.

 

[McBell]

Exploitation is still exploitation, even if the victims agree to be exploited. This is something we in the U.S. have a very difficult time grasping because we have been taught that exploitation and commerce are one and the same, and that freedom means being free to exploit those who are stupid enough, weak enough, or unlucky enough to let us. But this is not commerce, and it never was. It's exploitation. It's taking advantage of one person to the advantage of another.

Anyone who sells their body to someone else, to be used for whatever selfish purpose, is allowing themselves to be exploited. That they are economically compensated for it may mitigate their feeling of humiliation, but it does not change the facts. We should not legalize such exploitation for the same reasons that we would not allow the exploitation of children, or the exploitation of the mentally or physically challenged. And the reason is that they are unable to properly defend themselves due to specific conditions and circumstances.

People who fall into prostitution are already victims, whether they know it or not, and they need to be protected from the abuse and exploitation of others just as anyone else who is not able to protect themselves needs to be protected by laws. We don't allow adults to have sex with children just because the child agrees to it, nor do we allow adults to sexually exploit the mentally or physically challenged, even though they may agree to it, as well. And the reason we don't allow it is that we understand that the agreement is the result of exploitation, and is therefor unfairly obtained.

Same goes with prostitution.

Wow.
You present an excellent case against religion.

 

[McBell]

Put another way, the reason we don't is that those classes of people lack the capacity of consent. I'm missing why you think otherwise capable adults are incapable of consent in the case of prostitution. What is the unique aspect that suddenly changes one's otherwise intact consent abilities?

There is money changing hands?
When you stop and look at it that is the only real difference between prostituting and just sleeping around.

 

[PureX]

In the exchange of this particular service for money, why does the "buyer" have an advantage? And what is this advantage?

His advantage is that he has something someone else needs, but does not have, and he's using that need to get the other person to agree to allow themselves to be exploited.

Let's say I offer you ten dollars to urinate all over yourself for me. Would you do it? Of course not. Not until you were either starving to death, or I offered a huge pile of money. But why won't you do it for $10? The answer is because doing such a thing will cost you something that is far more dear to you than $10.

Think about what that thing is, and then think about what happens to people who have lost it.

Do you see this particular purpose as more selfish than, say, paying someone to cook?

I see it as far more exploitive, violent, and damaging than asking someone to cook me a meal.

Put another way, the reason we don't is that those classes of people lack the capacity of consent. I'm missing why you think otherwise capable adults are incapable of consent in the case of prostitution. What is the unique aspect that suddenly changes one's otherwise intact consent abilities?

Well, when you lose that thing that's stopping you from urinating all over yourself for $10 for me right now, you also lose all concept of what is appropriate consent. That's what prostitutes have lost. And without it they are as easily exploited as children.

 

[Fluffy]

And yet in countries where prostitution is legal, sexual slavery is thriving.

But that seems contrary to the reasonable outcome. Do you have any evidence to back that up? I have no idea what sort of correlation there is but it seems reasonable to suggest that black market prostitution will find it harder to thrive when it is closely regulated and legal rather than banned outright.

 

[kadzbiz]

When women are getting free drinks off a guy that they are petting all night in a niteclub and walk off at the end of the nite without that guy, are they exploiting that guy?

 

[PureX]

But that seems contrary to the reasonable outcome. Do you have any evidence to back that up? I have no idea what sort of correlation there is but it seems reasonable to suggest that black market prostitution will find it harder to thrive when it is closely regulated and legal rather than banned outright.

A lot of things that we human beings do is contrary to logic and reason. Why do you think the bizarre stuff that happened at Abu Graib happened? Sadly, the answer is that it happened because it could. Many human beings have an automatic inclination to abuse other human beings, and when the opportunity arises, they will do so. Those who are more inclined to do so will gravitate toward situations in which the possibility is most likely to arise. This is what happens when countries legalize sexual exploitation. Those who most wish to exploit others sexually gravitate to positions in which they may do so. Soon they are not content with just exploiting women, they want to exploit children as well. Once we open the door to sexual exploitation, that's exactly what we'll get.

The laws we have now do not stop sexual exploitation. Even stronger laws will not stop it. No law will stop it. But they do help to keep it to a minimum by forcing the exploiters to hide what they do, and by creating a system of law enforcement people to seek them out and punish them for it. Making sexual exploitation legal under certain conditions will only increase it's occurrence under all conditions by allowing it to happen in plain sight, and by telling the public that it is acceptable behavior.

 

[PureX]

When women are getting free drinks off a guy that they are petting all night in a niteclub and walk off at the end of the nite without that guy, are they exploiting that guy?

Of course they are. But there are degrees of exploitation, and this would be very modest. And if this guy was expecting to gain a woman's sexual favors for the cost of a couple of drinks, he was looking to exploit her unnatural craving for alcohol, or her poor judgment regarding sexual partners, just as she was exploiting his desire to exploit her. The fact that exploitation is sometimes mutual does not change what it is. Nor does it justify it.

 

[Hema]

To me it's justifying free will. Not everybody sees their body like a temple like you do. (if you do). For some it's work like any other work, only easier and it pays more.

Just like when people exercise their free will to do drugs.