Should brothels be legalised?

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

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.

Exactly.

Socking though how quickly things become desensitized and normalised!

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

Yes, in Canada, I think.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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

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

I'm sorry but the casual, often inadvertent touch in the workplace or in public by a man is not imo a threat or hold any sexual connotation. By your comment, would the touch of a hand handing over change or a ticket or book, document etc be banned?

I think the question of disabled people and sex is interesting. Our views on prostitution and sex are so linked to our history and culture. Are there disabled or other women who would pay for sex if they could? I really don't know. There are certainly men who will. And although some of the men shown in the programme might have wanted a beaten and bruised woman, one shown wanted "the girl friend experience". Difficult to understand how he reconciled that with the girl and her circumstances. I do think that if it were illegal to pay for sex except in a licensed place there might be less exploitation (although I accept it would still go on).

You can legally work as a prostitute and register with HMRC as one. But they are called ‘Escorts’. More than one person working from a premises defines it as a ‘brothel’ and then technically becomes illegal. I have noticed Premier Inn has card entry only to the lifts and doors to their bedrooms now. A favourite budget hotel of many sex workers. I watched Filipino girls constantly walking in and out with their flight bags. The same girl would walk in and out six times a day. Whilst she was out, her friend went in. Sex trafficking should be stamped out. It has increased vastly in the U.K. So has escorting- mainly the. Eastern Europeans who are on poverty wages and paying high rents. Done for survival. You will never stop the sex industry. Better for a man to go and get his five minutes of pleasure than threaten his marriage with an affair. (I didn’t watch the programme).

In everyday non private interactions eg at work, in the street, on a train men should not make personal comments gestures or whistle to woman regarding their personal appearance or sexual attractiveness. They should not physically touch them. What’s so hard about that?

Maryeliza, what do you suggest is the answer to all the everyday interaction between the sexes? Something which is unacceptable to you or I could be totally ok with someone else. Surely it comes down to respect and common sense, which has to begin in the home and taught in schools ( it is covered in our Borough under HPSE)

It’s believing lines are blurred that helps feed the problem - there is absolutely no excuse for men wolf whistling at women. Full stop. What’s blurred about that? Sorry but a few more absolutes wouldn’t go amiss

Iam and maryeliza, I was not condoning wolf whistles, hand on back etc. I just wanted to point out that as in all things the lines are blurred.

Men have not and never should have entitlement to a women's body without her consent.

I am a lifelong feminist.

I couldn’t agree less GG. Firstly, wolf whistling is sometimes aimed at young schoolgirls walking home - it isn’t invited by them or appreciated and the men should just button it. As for hand on the back when going through a door? Really ? Come on - completely unnecessary - is that something we all do or is it men( consciously or not) demonstrating a sense of entitlement towards women’s bodies - which takes us back to prostitution