quote:

  People are paid poorly to make hamburgers, pick beans, and cut grass.  That won't change, if you make these activities illegal either.  In Latin America, there are work slaves who aren't expected to give sex; they're exploited in another way.  The issue isn't that sex workers in the US are exploited, the issue is that they are exploited because their activities are currently considered criminal.

quote:



Compairing your middle class, highly educated IT life to taking up the ass in an alley from a stranger while your already ruptured rectum is becomming infected with herpies and your seven year old's school lunch has been cut back to cheese on bread so he's considering being a coke mule makes you sound clueless no matter how much you write here. the analogy has worn thin.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aswad

Chains,

Quite happy to lay it to rest, really.

As for playing devil's advocate, I sometimes do that. Not because I inherently think there's any need to do it in the sense people often take it, but because convictions (of any nature) need to be challenged from time to time, and because the opposing view can help define one's own view. Either one changes one's opinion based on the exchange, or one comes out of it with a renewed conviction that one has a better sense of why one subscribes to.

As for the scene, it is not nearly as "enlightened" and tolerant as you think. Stop to think about the word "tolerant" itself. It essentially means "putting up with". Not accepting, or respecting, but simply putting up with. There is plenty of condescension, and subgroups in the community are ostracized and shunned by the rest, with plenty of people drawing their own line in the sand and thinking it more universally correct than the one the majority has already drawn. Just have a look at LatexBaby, or the "Shit" thread, or whatever.

As Faramir has pointed out elsewhere, this is part of what you would call "othering": making another group the out-group, exempt from the normal considerations afforded the in-group, much as with jews a few decades ago.

As to the societal problem, I agree that society will not change, with the caveat that it I mean it will not change on its own. That is why I advocate that people who do not have too much to lose from going public with their lifestyle should do so. Women had to fight for the right to vote and be something other than their husbands' property. Gay and lesbian people are still fighting for equal rights with heterosexuals. Intersex people are fighting to stop intersex genital mutilation. And so forth.

We should be fighting for our rights. And we should have the "enlightenment" to stand up for others, as well. We all know what it is like to be in a distinct minority, and should fight for other minorities for this very reason, even minorities in our own community. That includes fighting to have prostitution legalized, because that is a necessary first step in fighting on the prostitutes' side. Yes, it is only a first step, but that is how one walks: one foot in front of the other, one step at a time, until the journey ends.

Stephan,

We should be running for office. Or, you should be, as I'm not a US citizen, and don't intend to become one, at least not unless the death penalty is removed at a constitutional level. Feel free to pull that one off for me.

LatexBaby,

Do you have anything to contribute to this thread?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aswad

I'm not from the US, LatexBaby. I know how this stuff can work, because it does where I live. There's some cool stuff over there on the other side of the Atlantic, sure. But how you handle prostitution is not one of those things. You may have your prejudices, but to deny reality is delusional, and prostitution can most certainly work without causing instabilities. Quit messing with the prostitutes' right to life, and messing up your kids by propagating prejudices about a profession that has been around longer than the notion of a country has.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aswad

I'm not from the US, LatexBaby. I know how this stuff can work, because it does where I live. There's some cool stuff over there on the other side of the Atlantic, sure. But how you handle prostitution is not one of those things. You may have your prejudices, but to deny reality is delusional, and prostitution can most certainly work without causing instabilities. Quit messing with the prostitutes' right to life, and messing up your kids by propagating prejudices about a profession that has been around longer than the notion of a country has.

quote:

Chains,

Quite happy to lay it to rest, really.

As for playing devil's advocate, I sometimes do that. Not because I inherently think there's any need to do it in the sense people often take it, but because convictions (of any nature) need to be challenged from time to time, and because the opposing view can help define one's own view. Either one changes one's opinion based on the exchange, or one comes out of it with a renewed conviction that one has a better sense of why one subscribes to.

As for the scene, it is not nearly as "enlightened" and tolerant as you think. Stop to think about the word "tolerant" itself. It essentially means "putting up with". Not accepting, or respecting, but simply putting up with. There is plenty of condescension, and subgroups in the community are ostracized and shunned by the rest, with plenty of people drawing their own line in the sand and thinking it more universally correct than the one the majority has already drawn. Just have a look at LatexBaby, or the "Shit" thread, or whatever.

As Faramir has pointed out elsewhere, this is part of what you would call "othering": making another group the out-group, exempt from the normal considerations afforded the in-group, much as with jews a few decades ago.

As to the societal problem, I agree that society will not change, with the caveat that it I mean it will not change on its own. That is why I advocate that people who do not have too much to lose from going public with their lifestyle should do so. Women had to fight for the right to vote and be something other than their husbands' property. Gay and lesbian people are still fighting for equal rights with heterosexuals. Intersex people are fighting to stop intersex genital mutilation. And so forth.

We should be fighting for our rights. And we should have the "enlightenment" to stand up for others, as well. We all know what it is like to be in a distinct minority, and should fight for other minorities for this very reason, even minorities in our own community. That includes fighting to have prostitution legalized, because that is a necessary first step in fighting on the prostitutes' side. Yes, it is only a first step, but that is how one walks: one foot in front of the other, one step at a time, until the journey ends.

quote:

ORIGINAL: LATEXBABY64

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aswad

I'm not from the US, LatexBaby. I know how this stuff can work, because it does where I live. There's some cool stuff over there on the other side of the Atlantic, sure. But how you handle prostitution is not one of those things. You may have your prejudices, but to deny reality is delusional, and prostitution can most certainly work without causing instabilities. Quit messing with the prostitutes' right to life, and messing up your kids by propagating prejudices about a profession that has been around longer than the notion of a country has.

sure it can work just add the bill to all the mental health professionals works for me...