What Sex Workers Want

Oh, your health and safety are at risk? You poor things. How about this, don't be a prostitute. It's illegal. That's like complaining that you were injured during the commission of a robbery. But if it were legal... yeah, well, if everything were legal then we wouldn't ever have to arrest anyone. Society would break down, but we wouldn't have anyone feeling bad because they did something wrong. Idiots. Honestly, the only sex workers that deserve any sympathy are those that were trafficked into it (and yes I realize there are many other types of trafficking). If you went into the profession by choice, then you decided to degrade yourself - to turn yourself into an object instead of a person, and I just don't see why anyone should care. Of course, I say the same thing about strippers and porn stars too (that by objectifying themselves they have become just that, objects instead of people). To repeat: If you are a prostitute or a john, I really don't care about your safety (once again, the exception being those trafficked). In fact, the worse it is, the less likely others will follow your choices.

Backwards indeed, to speak of reducing the evils of a practice by increasing the practice. It's regrettable yet very obvious that in moral matters, supply creates demand. If we really want to be growing society's demand for prostitution like many commenters seem to be saying (thank you, atheism, pop culture, and Internet porn, for giving us people of such upright character), then let's be prepared to deal with the consequences, right? At the very least, let's be honest about what we're doing. This sort of thing damages the institution of marriage worse than even a redefinition of marriage does. The major dissausions from cheating on a spouses with a prostitute are: We're loyal to our spouse. It's illegal. It's a health risk. It's hard to find.

If we make prostitution Clean! Fun! Legal! Safe! and Available!, let's be prepared for more of our children's spouses to go buy intimacy from the strangers we decriminalized -- if they can stay married at all. Let's be ready for married love to go more out of fashion. Let's be ready for more one-parent families, and for more of our grandchildren to be raised in homes of addiction.

Worse, all of us who are here so graciously imagining our daughters "unfortunately entering" prostitution, as if we were good parents but prostitution was as random as catching a cold, should be prepared to see those daughters enslaved to it -- if not physically (as many are), then mentally. Not many shells are harder to crack than the obstinant self-justifying of sex workers who, even when the "necessity" has passed, insist that they have no other choice. All along, they had a choice -- even poverty is a better choice than selling your own soul, and breaking the souls of your many clients. But the sex industry, while it might be an easier option, is never the only industry to find work in, no matter what the economy.

So let's be prepared, us advocates of prostitution. It's not a slippery slope -- it's a very gradual change that even Dutch traditionalism and Nevadan values are still pushing against, and it's intentionally chosen -- but it's a slope nevertheless, and we're walking downhill instead of up, back into the depths of the animalism we should be trying to "evolve" out of. Anyway, devolution happens. That's our choice to make, and by these comments, it seems like many of us are making it. Let's just be prepared to live in a very, very different world in the future. It's coming, if we choose it, and no guilt-driven ridicule or thoughtless dismissal of the cautions of moralists can avert it.

With dating and marriage being the "farce" that it is these days, I would welcome legalized prostitution. Unfortunately, women have known for centuries the value of what they have. They use it to marry the right man, to get money and gifts, to trap guys for 18+ years under a antiquated child support system that favors them, among others. At least this way, it would take deceit out of the equation, provide protection for those who choose to enter this profession, and help the economy at the same time.

"agkcrbs" the law should not be abused and used against prostitution to protect the institute of marriage and prevent husbands from straying. Many Americans, like you, are so close minded to the obvious fact that sex is very important in a humans life. The more sex acts are criminalized, the more sex crimes are committed. We need to stop abusing our freedom, and stop criminalizing everything, especially consensual behavior...

Before too long we will be living in a communist country where everything is illegal, so we don't offend the purported morals of all of the uptight liars who pretend that they are an example of perfection, and that no one elses views, beliefs, or morals matter.

Sex is a great physical activity, and should not be treated as something dirty and to be ignored.

If women spent more time learning how to truly please a man, and encouraging their partner to learn how to truly please them, there would be far fewer divorces in America, and the desire for prostitution would dwindle.

confusing prostitution with human trafficking is like saying that shoes are the reason for sweat shops. there are alot more things happening to these people being trafficked in human slavery then prostitution many are forced to work in legal industrys like sporting goods manufacturing ,computer hardware manufacturing all which are legal but get their workforce outside the united states thru human trafficking .the question here is not about human trafficking but about legalizing prostitution the oldest business in the world and wether women like it or not it will continue to be a business wether it is legal or illegal.the only difference is if it was legalized then it could be regulated and controlled(age limits observed,health check ups)is it better for the men to go out and find a prostitute on the streets and possible take a disease back to his wife(and yes 7 out of 10 married men do use prostitutes even when they swear they dont)or would it be better for the men to go to a legal business where the women get a physical and tested every week so that they are gauranteed not to pass on diseases like herpes,aids, syphlis

It is the oldest job in mankind history and it is prosecuted by man.
It should be legalized and licensed and medically certified to avoid a lot of sex diseases and to avoid all kind of violent crimes and also to avoid criminal activities associated with illegal prostitution.
By legalising it, it will generate all kind of income taxes to the federal and states and counties and cities, and it will generate all kind of jobes and related services.

Normally I'm not that much into platitudes, but this one is absolutely brilliant.....

There's sex for money, and there's sex for free, sex for money - is cheaper!!!

Cashw, I'm glad that we both have the goal of reducing divorce and the desire for prostitution. This shows that we both can recognize negative effects coming from those things.

You bring up the question of the province of law, and you say it would be "abusing" the law to outlaw any consensual behavior. That's the fundamental question, I think, applying to most issues in our country: should we have the freedom to harm ourselves, or destroy ourselves? Some of us think that, as a member of the human family, we have a responsibility towards that family. Some of us do not want that connection or that responsibility, and would rather all things were legalized, as long as the only victim was the criminal themself.

Well, it's a question of the heart. It's not a question of "uptight liars" who are anti-sex -- first of all, you can't blame an ex-smoker for telling people not to smoke. If anything, it shows his intelligence and ability to recognize his mistake, not hypocrisy. But even pro-sex Wiccans have updated their emphasis from "harm none" to "harm none, including myself". All of us need other people's interference sooner or later, beginning with our entrance into the world. It's as if we were designed to be social beings rather than individual beings. We personally don't always do what's best for ourselves, because our eyes, you know, point outward. We can't always see ourselves clearly. So I think most of us fall on the "connected", "responsible" side of law. Most of us, I hope, if we saw a dude about to jump off a bridge or something, would try to help him somehow because we see that he's past the point of helping himself -- his consent has gotten seriously confused by some trauma. We're not going to sit there smugly and rejoice in his freedom, and watch him jump... and still call ourselves good people. And most of us are not in a wild rush to legalize all things, even very negative things, if we can just show that they are "consensual". Consent and freedom are crucial, but they should not be the absolute determinants of law.

agoodbadhabit it is legal in the netherlands and in Germany please do me a favor GET EDUCATED!!!:)

Men are programed internally to reproduce. They have to have sex. For some reason we ve made sex dirty, well at least dirty for women to have. Thats why we have so many filthy names for women who participate in sex and none for the men who instigate it. They re the ones who buy it and usuall y there s a man behind every prostitute taking the money she earns. Legalize it make it safe for women to cut out those who profit on her and make sure she s healthy. Its not like we re ever going to stop it. This way we all win, its up to the women if they want to be out there, we keep diseases down and best of all we can tax it. By the way legalize marijuanna while we re at it, probaly pay off the national debt between the both of them.

why is it ok for a woman to be a stripper and let strange men touch her, tip her, etc. but a hooker is bad or low class??
If you want to sell your body, and someone wants to buy it, it is a transaction between 2 consenting adults...
Legalize the sex industry, tax the workers like any other job..