Well, then, it’s pretty difficult to take you seriously.
On the SDMB? Is this a joke?
Hey, if I posted that I once lived in a land where there was no racism, no sexism, and amazingly reliable public transportation–but wouldn’t identify it because that would introduce all sorts of other discussion–would you take me seriously?
Okay, it’s Cameroon and China. Lived in both for two years.
Now we’re going to see a pile of people coming and saying that China is actually a magic wonderland and that Africa is like that because Africans have low IQs. Happens every time.
Actually, that’s really very enlightening. Women from Cameroon take “time out” from marriage to work as prostitutes? Interesting. Open displays of sexuality like strip clubs and softcore porn are banned in communist China but underground, sleazy, unsafe brothels are really very ubiquitous? Also very interesting–though not all that surprising, given what’s widely known about underground economies in communist countries and the general effects of prohibition.
Thanks, Sven. Seriously, that’s really very a good insight to have.
Mnotreally. We are talking about sex, it seems reasonable to me that we talk about why someone might want to have sex with someone else versus masturbating.
The relevance is that we are talking about sex. I don’t think it can be any clearer. I am totally behind the idea of “trying to decrease the number of cases of women being raped, forcefully addicted to drugs, and beaten”. You are trying to do it by saying that masturbating is exactly the same as having sex with someone else. It’s not. I’m not sure where you got your figure of 90% of prostitutes being in some way illegal or coerced to practice but that leaves 10% that are in it voluntarily. The problem I see is that, much like prohibition, making it completely illegal and prosecuting it the way it is that we are ceding the administration almost completely to the underworld. I’m not saying we should ignore that 90% you are talking about I’m saying we need to find a way to control it to get rid of that 90%.
Ahah, you haven’t read the thread.
As I pointed out on page 1, the problem is that when prostitution is illegal, there is less illegal prostitution occurring. When prostitution is legal, there is more illegal prostitution occurring. The amount is, on average, a doubling. The premise that legalizing and hence putting guidelines in place over the sex market can improve the situation for prostitutes has been disproven by the multitude of nations that have tried it.
It’s like communism. The idea works just fine on paper. But in the end, what happens in reality is all that matters. And the reality is that legalizing it just expands the issue, it doesn’t control it.
“I don’t pay women for sex, I pay them to leave when we are done!” Charlie Sheen
I like [del]Milhouse[/del] Malacandra!
I’m not as familiar with the history of the wedding dress thing, but something being about tradition doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not divorced of a deeper meaning.
You could say that asking a woman for her father’s permission is just “tradition.” If it’s not about sexism or about a time when women were handed over as chattel, why don’t we have a tradition of asking a man’s family for permission before a woman asks a man to marry her?
blushes
I want one Julia Roberts type gubbermint approved prostitute please, and a check or voucher. I’ve just become unemployed, and fucking a ho seems like a good way to pass the time between job interviews. This won’t be deducted from my unemployment check, will it?
Also, it would be nice if the state offered blowjobs during those long waits at the unemployment office. Oh yeah, and the DMV too.
No, it hasn’t. It’s been shown to be effective at making all of this less visible, but that’s not the same thing.
There are a lot of posts here assuming that the large majority of sex workers were forced or coerced into it. Here is an interesting study from New Zealand (although reviewing the international research) which paints a somewhat different picture.