Prostitution: Should it be legal?

"How is 'I want to have sex with you because you're hot' any more consensual than 'I want to have sex because you're offering me money'?" - Iaculus

It's simple. Ugly people with money are Acceptable Targets, whereas hot people without it are not.

That's not entirely true.

No one ever starved because they didn't get laid enough, or needed a fix badly enough they shagged someone for free.

Legalize it; that way we can open up some brothels, I'm pretty sure they get cold in the winter.

In Nevada, for some reason, they use the term ranches rather than brothels.

edited 21st Oct '10 9:20:10 AM by secretist

Isn't that kind of demeaning?

I doubt they care.

As far as it being rape it depends on the context. I think there's too many blanket statements being made here. You've one guy depicting a high class escort in it for money and giving full consent and another guy tlaking about a common street prostitute who would get the beat down or killed for refusing money because her life is not her own. They both exist.

Legalisation of prostitution reduces the amount of people who get the beat-down, so im for it.

I'm in two minds. Certainly, the lowest end of the prostitution scale would benefit from legal oversight, guaranteed working conditions, security, etc. The problem is what a large business might do if it were legal. Think of the kind of company that exploits its workers, pays as little as possible and competes on price. If they were running brothels too then that would not be a good thing.

I'd legalise it and then heavily regulate it to prevent exploitation.

The sex industry has always been a difficult one, even in its legal areas. But some regulation is better than none.

Who would you trust to regulate it?

You'd need to get a regulatory body in to do it. Somewhere that can send people in and ensure that things are hygenic, that working conditions are safe, that abuse isn't going on and that wages are sufficient. Some level of unionisation would probably be helpful. (A prostitutes union, anyone?)

That means licensing, health and safety, codes of practice... the works, basically. You need the same level of oversight that you would use for any industry.

They already exist in some counties. Here in australia there is the scarlet alliance. They are good people who support workers rights.

edited 2nd Nov '10 6:23:58 PM by joeyjojo