Should prostitution be legalised

It's an age old profession which will never go away so legalise the whole structure of it and make it a safer world for those who both work it and use it. End of. .. as Germany and The Netherlands do. .

Yes there is obviously still a need for it as there always has been in written history.

maybe if there were fewer Lysistratas prostitution would not be neededy

Not worthy of a response.

Now that's an interesting neologism

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/09/listen-to-sex-workers-but-which-ones

I have always thought so.

As long as the Girls want to work in a brothel and they are not sex slaves... It keeps the brothels in an particular area, it makes sure the girls are clean and healthy. Let's face it, some women like being call girls, sugar daddy girls or whatever they call it.

DH can't understand why, if the men are married or in a relationships, they need to use them in the first place. I think men are intrinsically needy of sex and if they don't get it at home, at least they should have clean, sanitary situations in which to indulge, and especially, for the girls to be safe and clean.

ALso, think of how much tax could be collected!!!

here endeth lesson...

In 30 plus years of contact with large numbers of women and young teenagers who were "sex workers", I only met one young woman who said she worked in a 'massage parlour' by choice. She had a lifestyle that included an expensive clothes, apartment etc. I only met her because her infant child was injured, possibly by her 'boyfriend'. All the other women involved in sex work had abuse histories, drug/emotional/mental health problems. Women who'd managed to get out of sex work had no desire to return.

I understand the arguments about making women safer but are we really saying that men (and it seems to be mainly men who pay for sex) are so desperate they can't live life either by being faithful to their partners, or without paying for sex.

I had to look up Lysistratas. Please take into account that not all of us had a classical education.

What's the difference between having a sugar daddy and going to work? Both require you to be available at certain times but being kept by a sugar daddy will be for far less hours and more lucrative. An escort being kept by a sugar daddy will earn far more than she ever could have in a 'real' job.

Donald Trump's current wife was asked if she would have married him had he not been rich. She replied, "Would he have married me if I didn't look like this?"

What's the difference between being a trophy wife or a kept woman other than a piece of paper? At least the kept woman can walk away without the hassle of a messy divorce.

She can't walk away with much of his assets either!!

If she's sensible she will have saved just like you try to do when you have a 'real' job that pays far less.

Joan I'm sure the woman you speak about "caused no bother*. My own concerns are not that a prostitute's activities may adversely affect me or wider society but whether it adversely affects the woman herself.

Roger Matthews wrote a book entitled "Prostitution Politics and Policy". Having researched the subject of prostitution for some twenty years, he is against the liberal view that it is just a form of work, essentially no different from any other paid employment.

An estimated two-thirds of prostitutes have experienced violence from their clients, sometimes because they refuse certain practices, such as anal sex, or because their client is unwilling to pay. Street prostitution is the most dangerous occupation a person can be involved in, carrying 18 x greater risk of being murdered.

Matthews found that most of the women he met were "extremely desperate, damaged and disorganised". He had interviewed women who had carried on selling sex immediately after being stabbed, raped, beaten and in one case hours after giving birth. He found that women in the sex industry often had a history of physical and sexual abuse, parental neglect, local authority care and addiction issues.

Matthews came to the view that women should not be criminalised for selling sex but given every assistance to leave the sex industry, and men should be deterred, by law if necessary, from buying sexual services. Women who have convictions for soliciting are apparently categorised as sex offenders and this adds to the difficulty of finding a job outside the sex industry.

grandmatie When you say "think how much tax can be collected" (if prostitution were to be treated like any other form of self-employment), has it occurred to you that this may have unforeseen consequences? In The Telegraph in 2005 there was a report that a 25 year old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services" at a brothel in Berlin faced possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced that year. I don't know the outcome of that case but it certainly demonstrates the risks of legitimising work in the sex industry.

I really don't see why the mostly highly vulnerable women and men should be further damaged simply because it is deemed by some that "men need sex" and that it is acceptable for such need to be fulfilled at the expense of another person's wellbeing.

While the mythology of the "happy hooker" is perpetuated in films like Pretty Woman and the book/series Belle de Jour/Diary of a Call Girl, the reality for most people is very different. Those women who call themselves "prostitution survivors" - who have had direct experience of the sex trade - believe prostitution is intrinsically demeaning and harmful and that a civilised and humane society would not facilitate it.

Eloethan, thanks for your post, total agreement from me. Something that hasn't been mentioned so far as I've seen on this thread, is the impact on the children of prostitutes. They are more likely to end up in foster/other forms of alternative care because of their mother's dependence on drugs/alcohol and chaotic lifestyles. They are at higher risk of csa, especially if mother's work from home.

I know it is a far from ideal way to earn a living, but I believe in harm minimisation, and leaving the law out of it all seems like the best thing for the women.

Yes, I agree prostitutes are often damaged and suffering people, and it is extremely bad for their kids, but I reckon illegality makes it all worse.

At the very least, it should be decriminalised.

And the bigger picture should be a fair and safe society where everyone has the right to a decent income to cover food, housing, health care, and education. Not impossible.

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake

The oldest profession-"Prisons are built of bricks of law; brothels with walls of religion" (or words to that effect) :William Blake