DemonKia
Posts: 5521
Joined: 10/13/2007 From: Chico, Nor-Cali Status: offline
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See, I'm really skeptical at the notion that prostitution is eliminatable, & I think the belief that it can be eradicated, & that that is a desirable social goal, are both intrinsic to the philosophies of illegality. I would argue that prostitution fulfills important social functions & that society would be better off respecting direct sales of sexuality every bit as much as benefits are sanctioned from indirect usage of sexuality. (Marketing & porn both legitimately make use of sexual impulses while dodging the stigma of direct prostitution) . . . . . . It seems to me that prostitution is basically a scapegoat, suppressed rather arbitrarily as penance for all of humanity's issues with sexuality rather than out of some reasoned argument that it is intrinsically 'bad' . . . . . Using sexuality to sell everything from toothpaste to life insurance, that's okay, it's fine to use sexual impulses to manipulate people to sell virtually anything. Except sex itself, that's verboten. Must not sell sex. & it's really weird for me cuz I live in the Mecca of Capitalism, the US, where selling stuff is almost a state religion. But not sex. Use sex all you want to sell stuff (you can even sell sex-simulacra & near-sex), but just don't sell actual, real, in-the-flesh sex. It's easy to derive the idea that maybe the selling of in-person sex must be some kinda bogeyman, an evil devil lurking to grab the unwary innocents . . . . & yet. The Aussies seem to be doing okay, & it sounds like they're moving in the direction of more legality rather than less . . . & I believe the New Zealanders are also in the legality space . . . . .. Yep. I'm gonna stick with my firmly held position that legalizing prostitution is a sign of civilization & progress, & making it illicit is a sign of barbarism . . . . . Even if the Swedes are rendered less-than-perfect in their relative progressivism in the process, that's okay. I tend to belong to that beam-me-up-Scotty-there's-no-civilized-life-down-here school . . . . . . Maybe in another century or so . . . . .. quote:
ORIGINAL: ElaineSubmits That's the great thing about the Swedish model. It protects women from sexual exploitation without punishing the victims. Polls show that this change in legal approach has broad public support in Sweden, and other polls show Sweden as being at or near the bottom in levels of prostitution. England and Scotland have been actively studying reform of prostitution laws, and chances are good of their adapting something along the lines of Swedish laws. Here in the United States, there doesn't seem to be a lot of public concern about the issue. One exception is the state of Rhode Island, which recently moved to tighten up loopholes in its laws on prostitution.
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