Should brothels be legalised?

Oh come on * Mabel* surely you can do better than such an abductio ad absurdum argument. Since when was the word inadvertent mentioned above? It does serve as a useful excuse though for the office creep

Or reductio even - my Latin just isn’t up to it ?

Maryeliza, you made a blanket statement - they should not touch them. Just where would your imperative end? Just a thought.

And I stand by that statement - it’s obvious that physical touching occurs in some transactions and it’s usually quite clear what type it is. A well known office creep scenario is leaning over to show you something on the computer and ‘inadvertently’ brushing against your breasts - yeh right.

Thank you for the link to the Independent article MOnica. Interesting and informative. Singapore also has a system of licensed brothels in the red light district in Chinatown. The licences prostitutes are regularly checked for STI’s, HIV and general health (a condition of maintaining their licences) However, my informant did admit that many of them are drug addicts. It’s now acknowledged that women are twice as likely as men to suffer from PTSD. I wonder how many sex workers do?

Have you all heard of the Incel (INvoluntary celibates) movement? The level of entitlement and hatred towards women is terrifying.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incel

Sue, yes, didn't one kill a lot of people with a gun or bomb?

One hates to think how men like that would treat a prostitute, whether in a brothel or not. As the Independent article shows licensing brothels does not end the criminal end of the market using trafficked women. Just helps the men justify what they are doing.

Yes, in Canada, I think.

trisher, yes, some women pay for sex. Recently, Lily Allen (pop singer) has spoken about paying for lesbian sex when she was on tour. She readily acknowledged she was in a bad place, living with anxiety/ depression/alcohol/drug abuse alongside a failing marriage and two small children. Needless to say, currently, she says she wouldn't want to repeat that behaviour.
SaraC, I mentioned up thread my contact with adults and children who were identified as sex workers. All had experienced abuse, neglect and trauma. All who had been assessed by psychiatrists or psychologists as having PTSD. Not much informed choice in them becoming sex workers. The notion of the happy hooker is nonsense imo.

If you want to know about it read UK Punting, a site dedicated to men and their reviews of the girls they’ve seen with recommendations and warnings. Quite vile but a real eye opener. You’d be amazed how normal using ‘working girls’ is for the vast majority of men.

I have wondered who these men are. I don't think, at least I hope, that none of the men in my family do or have done this. But it seems that many of the users may be married men, presumably their wives don't know. Has anyone any experience of this or what would you do if you found out a man in your family was paying for sex?

I don't usually cross reference the OTHER SITE but contributors to this thread should read this:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3423802-Harassment-of-children-in-legal-red-light-zone-in-Holbeck

Thanks for the link to the other site notanan2. It's reassuring for me, that so many younger women feel as strongly as they do about the negatives associated with attempts to de -criminalise/legalise sex work.

Socking though how quickly things become desensitized and normalised!

Exactly.

It's interesting but some of the problems seem to be because although the red light area is decriminalised there is no certain way of identfying a prostitute. If it was illegal to ask women on the street for sex and it was only legal to use a licensed brothel where women were registered and checked then it would be posssible to prosecute any men who attempted to pick up any woman or made any suggestion to any woman that sex might be possible in the street or a public place. The present system places no responsibility on them or means there are any consequences for men.

I suspect we have laws that could be used to
Prosecute men who harass women and children, even )!) in red light areas. Behaviour likely to cause alarm or distress for example