Stephann
Posts: 4214
Joined: 12/27/2006
From: Portland, OR
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I subscribe to the whole leagalization rather than demonization argument when it comes to copyright and drug law so I see where your coming from, however I'm not willing to embrace a Stephenson style anarcho-capitalism, so I disagree with you about this working for prostitution amoung other things.
While I agree with you about coal miner's and room attendants needing less exploitative working conditions (economies have been exploiting large segments of our populations for economic gain probably as far back as their have been prostitutes), I disagree with you that simply leagallizing prostitution would make any impact in improving the conditions of most prostitutes. There will always be a market for high-class whores in Washington D.C. or Amsterdam, but leagalizing this isnt going to make life better for hookers in the ghetto where poor people want to pay for sex and other poor people are willing to sell it very cheaply.
Statistics where the profession is both legal and regulated suggest otherwise; including the places in the United States where it is, in fact, legal. That the profession is not legal, makes quality of working conditions much more difficult. This is like saying the quality of work for Mexicans improves dramatically, by making it a misdemeanor for them to work in the US. In reality, it enables those who employ Mexicans to abuse them far more; a raped prostitute, under our current system, has zero standing. It's seen as 'a slut who got what she deserves.' Neither the illegal immigrant, nor the prostitute, has any sort of legal protection.
Simply saying "sure, working conditions should be better" doesn't make it so. A capitalist economy works on the principal, that the work we do supports itself. Doctors and Lawyers are seen as protecting and saving what is most precious to us; our health and freedom. (Sniggering? Get slapped with a felony you didn't commit, and we'll see how much you are willing to pay for a lawyer) In contrast, a teacher is seens as providing a vague sevice that we do not see, and often do not feel we will ever directly benefit from; support for better teaching wages is seen almost as a charity, than the investment in our future. So wishing for better conditions and pay for any sort of worker simply doesn't mean anything.
http://www.csun.edu/~psy453/prosti_y.htm
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/12/22/185323/82
The links may have a decidedly aggressive view, but their statics are cleary and easy enough to verify.
You could mandate that coal miners have better air filters, more shifts per day/less hours, and better pay. You could finance this through an increase in the cost of coal. Indeed, the law has been used in this case to make the world of American coal miners much better than the forced labor of South African diamond minors, for instance.
leagalizing prostitution isn't going to make conditions better for all prostitutes because there will continue to be a market for cheap prostitutes wherein people will circumvent the law. It's just going to decrease peoples motivation to crack down on prostitute abuses. Just because handguns are leagle, for instance, doesn't mean there isn't handgun abuse-it means there's more oppertunity for more handguns to be abused as compaired to other countries.
On the contrary, as I suggested, it allows abuse of legitimate sex workers to seek protection under the law that they are currently not afforded. And why shouldn't it? They would also be expected to pay taxes on their activities. In fact, a system where worker is required to give a receipt (or some other document) to the client that clearly illustrates that she is regularly tested for STDs, could serve the double purpose of serving as evidence to the state that she is paying her taxes for her services. A client who isn't given such a receipt up front, would be encouraged not to pay for her service in the first place.
Add into this that the age of consent has nothing to do with the age of reason and Americans love easy money, and you're going to have an awful lot of 16 or 17 year old girls prepairing for a future as a prostitute rather than prepairing for college or doing less entertaining work. Like students stripping on the side but more emotionally intense and potentially detrimental than dancing. You'd also get a whole generation of men who would put even less effort into learning what woman are about and how to live with them and even more effort into simply buying sex
How many young people do you know look forward to a lifetime of stripping at 17, as their primary means of supporting themselves? Or working in pornography? I'm sorry, this doesn't fly for me.
While you're right that
quote:
Adults are just that. They have an obligation to protect themselves.
You also have to consider the fact that adults are victims too sometimes and society has a responsibility to protect itself from its adults. There's nothing like having young prostitutes staring with hard PTSD/convict-like eyes at your Madame/girlfriend/daughter/whatever attractive female your associated with in public as you walk to a restuarnt in the nice part of a nice town to convince you theres something not right about the whole profession.
Under our current model, I can only imagine the circumstances of a woman forced to have sex for money. The beatings, rapes, and degredation such women are forced to endure alone would be enough to break a strong man. The fact that you see such faces today and now, tell me that what we're doing right now simply doesn't work
Stephan
< Message edited by Stephann -- 8/6/2007 4:15:45 PM >
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RE: Sex workers in the BDSM and D/s lifestyles - 
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