Prostitution

In my opinion, the fact that prostitution is illegal in this country (with the exception of Nevada) is idiotic.

Is prostitution immoral? Yes, but so are many things that aren't illegal.

If a woman is willing to give a service and a man is willing to pay for that service, who are they hurting? So many people give access to their bodies for money. Athletes use their bodies for money, so do models. We can sell our blood, our platelets, even our eggs or sperm. Why is sex the only avenue that exchanging our bodies for sex is against the law. I can kill an unborn human inside me in the name of my body, my right; but I can't trade sexual favors for money? Tell me how that makes sense?

Think about how much better everything would be if we legalized it. We could require prostitutes to undergo monthly health examinations to receive their work card. Anyone found working without a work card could be arrested. We could tax their income. They could form a union. There is only good that could be gained from legalizing this occupation.

Plus let's discuss the cost on our society as taxpayers. The following is an exerpt from an essay I found expounding on the reasons we should legalize prostitution:

Currently most everywhere in the United States, our legal system penalizes prostitutes and their customers for what they do as consenting adults. Money is still spent on law enforcement efforts to catch prostitutes and their customers. Once caught, justice departments have to process these people through very expensive systems.

What are the end results? Police personnel and courtrooms are overburdened with these cases, having little or no impact on prostitution. The prostitutes and their customers pay their fines and are back to the streets in no time in a revolving door process. Catch and release may work for recreational fishing but it has no deterring affect on prostitution.

Another good point:

It is estimated that 100,000 to 3 million teens are nearly invisibly prostituted per year in the United States (Walker, 2002). If we allow prostitution to remain hidden from view and basically invisible to the law as it is today, we allow a number of teens to be swept up into prostitution every year. When adult women decide to exchange money for sex, it is a personal choice open to them under the philosophy of a free, democratic society. When troubled minors who do not yet have the social survival skills decide to prostitute, they are often manipulated by opportunists who exploit these teens, typically leading to horrific ends. Legalizing prostitution will help prevent these instances through regulation.

Even Ann Landers was in favor of legalizing prostitution

If you would like to read an excellent book on the subject, I highly recommend "The Mayflower Madam" by Sydney Biddle Barrows. It's a true story of a woman with a degree in business management, that lost her job in the fashion buying industry in New York City in the early 80's. To make ends meet, she took a job working the phones at a call girl outservice. When she realized how badly most call girl services were run, she opened her own business and applied all of the principles that she had learned in business school to this industry.

The book isn't titillating and doesn't focus on the sex aspect. It shows how the business of prostitution could be run like a business. She treated her employees decently and fairly. She treated her customers with respect. Everyone was happy.

Except, of course, the NYC Police Department, who for some reason chose to target this clean and well run organization rather than the dozen of sleazy ones who cheated their customers and their working girls.

An excellent read. Two thumbs up from Wendy. I guarantee it will make you look at prostitution in a whole new light.


::::stepping down off my soapbox for now::::