Nina,

I don’t mean to butt in with MY “2 cents,” but I just have to. Your comment, “Prostitution is, and always will be, a degrading and very bad idea,” is just PLAIN wrong.

Historically, prostitutes have often times had quite a lot of economic and political power, many marrying into noble and royal familes.
Often they accumulated much wealth. Now, the choice for many was to remain ignorant, poor, helpless, perhaps losing their beauty birthing children annually, working and slaving for an IGNORANT farmer husband, for exsample.

So many made choices. The Oracle of Deplphi, for example waws a prostitute.
Sometimes it was considered an “honored profession.”

So, I think you should really do some reading on the subject.

As far as recent history is concerned, Yes, much of the prostitution and exploitation is the result of organized criminals, sex-trafficing, pimps, drug and poverty issues, etc. etc.

These are the negatives. Along with violemnce, STDs, you understand what I mean of course.

Now, the issue here I think is DECRIMINALIZATION. As you know, “men-will-be-men,” and many older men, men with limited status, antisocial types, etc, have limited means of meeting “qualified” females.

So, the “business” of selling sex becomes an issue of “supply-and-demand.”

Some would argue that in order to cut down on the violence, exploitation, diseases, and repressed sexuality, it MIGHT be wiser to have a more “mature” approach to sex.

I welcome your perspective,. but I must say, prostitution will always be around, whether you qagree with it or not. THIS is a fact.

So the REAL concern is “how to regu;ate or CLEAN the industry up,” you know make it safe, for all those folks “over 18 (or the age of consent) who elect to barter for sex.

End of story.

If anything, the US should get off the “selling of sex,” through various outlets (tv, movies, music, games, computers, etc. etc.) and ON THE OTHER HAND, condemning sex as an industry,particularly amongst consenting adults.

I agree with you that the stories I hear about the ABUSE of women, is NOT a good thing, but one of the ways to actually FIX the problem is NOT prohibition (we have tried that with alcohol and drugs now), but bt TAXING< REGULATING< POLICING, etc.

Might actually reduce some of the repressed acts of violencce as well.

Is this really news?  Seriously.  How about prioritizing all resources to hunt down and prosecute child pornographers instead?  Stop “targeting” grown “Johns” and go after real perps.

Janice Raymond can hardly be considered an objective observer. She is a well-known radical feminist ideologue and activist against prostitution. Her enthusiastic, uncritical parading of the Swedish report should come as no surprise, as it so neatly fits her ideological agenda.

Sadly for Raymond, the Swedish report turns out to be a sloppy and superficial piece of work, one lacking any scientific validity. You are invited to read Laura Agustin’s critique of it in http://www.lauraagustin.com/smoke-gets-in-your-eyes-evaluation-of-swedish-anti-prostitution-law-offers-ideology-not-methodology.

Raymond doesn’t seem interested in the opinions of those directly affected by the law. Her world is one where the authoritative knowledge of prostitution is monopolized by middle class academics, government bureaucrats, politicians and NGO experts. Sex workers may be consulted pro forma, but the decision making power is firmly held by the Janice Raymonds, who also produce the reports celebrating their own brainchild’s success.

Anarcissie, your words, “In the age of the Internet and the cell phone, most prostitution is not street prostitution..,” I applaud your optimism. Having traveled a good deal, I promise you prostition is the world’s largest business. Streetwalkers have a terrible go but most of the ladies are actually working in bars and making themselves available for lonely dopes who need companionship. Guys who drive around cities leeching after street people are merely scum. But men who enjoy the company of women who willingly make their tax-free living from these activities are just regular guys. Old bastards on a fixed income, for example (not me, of course) cannot hope for the attentions of attractive American women who, for the most part, want financial comfort and social status. Overseas, whether Eastern Europe or all of Asia, American men can find loyal reliable wives who have more old-world values. Don’t read this as “demeaning.” The women I met overseas were just the most lovely and gentle on the planet. As for killing prostition in Sweden, a well-to-do country, think of the hardship these thousands of women will now face with the loss of their livlihoods. I love Patrick Henry’s comment above. Marriage in America is a death-sentence for the aspirations of the American male. Find a nice Ukrainian with six years of govt-sponsored university and enjoy a proper man’s life.

Why is this so difficult?  ... because America is morally bankrupt, yet incredibly prudish. 

There will always be sex workers… a la ‘the oldest profession’.  Why not make it safer and more profitable for both the workers and the country? 

Legalized brothels seem to work well in Nevada.  The women are safe, not beaten by pimps, given regular health checks and get to keep most of the money.  The state benefits by taxing the income.  It is not like Amsterdam, where the women are in the windows.  It is all away from children’s eyes.

It just fusterates me that we cannot get over our right-wing prudish behavior long enough to legalize prostitution and soft drugs… AND THEN TAX IT… thus allowing for more tax income, safer experiences (both prostitution and drugs), better product (both prostitution and drugs) and smaller prison and jail populations.

If you don’t like it… you don’t have to use it.  If you don’t like guns, no one says you have to own or use one.  Why is this so dissimilar?

And Nina, NO ONE is asking you to become a prostitute.  Go find your hunky guys at your gym.

Dear Nina,

When it comes to the issue of abortion, Feminists argue that a woman should be allowed to have control over her body.  So why should it be any different when it comes to using her body as a way to make money?

Feminists love to say"Against abortion? Don’t have one!”
That’s exactly how I feel about prostitution: Don’t like it? DONT BUY IT.

If I want to visit a brothel in Nevada or Amsterdam, and if the woman accepts my offer, then what business is it of yours? How would you like it if I interfered in your life?

As far as the “I am for sale” comment, it’s the same message that you send when you apply for jobs in a capitalist society.

Nina, newsflash, everyone is for sale. If you’ve got a job, you are selling your body, mind, expertise to whoever wishes to buy. You are literally selling yourself. Why should it be different when it comes to prostitution?

Moral indignation as a weapon is dangerous ground, the
use of the crowd sourced control of behaviour for one
aspect of behaviour opens the space to the use of the
same kind of censorship of other kinds of behaviour by
the crowd , I don’t believe that this is a road to
freedom.

Sorry about your miserable existence PH. Maybe you should look for women who like to have sex.

Prostitution is, and always will be, a degrading and very bad idea. It underscores and legitimizes the barrage of the “I am for sale” message. Something girls, especially in the media drenched “Eye ball nation” known as the US, learn very early. A better choice is to educate the women so they can earn their own money, and plenty of it, so they can decide how and when they want sex, and take the money equation out of it.  If men “have"to have sex…...well make yourself more attractive, in terms of behavior, and watch what happens. Being a hooker and being a john is just lazy people taking the easy way out.

I agree with Night-Gaunt and PatrickHenry. The only way you control something is to tax it,provide counseling and health screening, and take the criminalization out of it. Whats wrong with consenting adults engaging in intimacy on the business level. The customers was sex and we need their money-thats capitalism isn’t it. What makes this business illegal is it operates without protection for sex workers and it forces it under ground where unscrupulous people exploit children and vulnerable immigrants. Legalizing prostitution will reduce/ delay teen girls from sexual peer pressure(boys can get it from the workers instead), teen pregnancy, thwart marriages by deception (tricks women play to trap a husband-sex), child molestation(freaks act it out with workers instead), boost revenue for the economy, put drug addict whores(reducing spread HIV infection) out of business, with a small portion of the taxed revenue rehabing those low income women who want to educate themselves, also to provide an advocacy base for reporting illegal trade or abuse. Hypocrites don’t agree with a commonsense approach to taking exploitation out of prostitution. The illegal sex industry hurt vulnerable people, and lines the pockets of thugs with untaxed incomes.

I agree with Night-Gaunt.  If it were legalized then it run Cleanly, Safely and in the Open. 

If Sweden is anything like the US then the only real barrier is How to Tax it.  Once the Government figures out how to Get Their Cut, then all the moral questions go out the window.

If Person X wants to Sell It… and Person Y wants to Buy It then make it a simple, safe transaction.  Pull “Society’s” Morality out of the equation.  If both people are willing, consenting adults, then let them get on with their business transaction.

To Patrick Henry: HEAR HEAR!!