Prostitution.

dru is dead.:

^
I wasn't saying it was. But you made it sound like the reason it was a "product" was because it was devoid of emotion and I felt the need to comment on that.

I apologize then, it was not my intent to imply that. I only sought to draw parallel between regular sex and sold sex.
Sex, even when it is casual and uninvolved emotionally is a lovely thing. In my opinion at least. When you sell sex, it becomes a commodity, that was all I really meant.

It should be legal and controlled. Then pimps, traffickers and their ilk would have a harder time forcing women to work, because it's all in the open. If a woman wants to earn money by having loads of sex, who's right is it to stop her? As for morals, morals are individual opinions, not binding. I could say throwing a live lobster into boiling water is immoral but being a chef sure isn't stigmatized...

Shtrudel:

It should be legal and controlled. Then pimps, traffickers and their ilk would have a harder time forcing women to work, because it's all in the open. If a woman wants to earn money by having loads of sex, who's right is it to stop her? As for morals, morals are individual opinions, not binding. I could say throwing a live lobster into boiling water is immoral but being a chef sure isn't stigmatized...

Pimps, traffickers and the like already break the law, how would writing new laws they wouldn't care about change anything?

Not everyone who is a prostitute wants to be a prostitute and wants to have "loads of sex", in fact I'd say aside from perhaps self sufficient call girls, most don't. Legalizing prostitution does nothing to help those girls.

Kurtni:

Pimps, traffickers and the like already break the law, how would writing new laws they wouldn't care about change anything?

Not everyone who is a prostitute wants to be a prostitute and wants to have "loads of sex", in fact I'd say aside from perhaps self sufficient call girls, most don't. Legalizing prostitution does nothing to help those girls.

Yes it would. Because if legal, no working girl would have to be afraid to report an incident, and pimps etc. are only breaking the law because nobody is watching them, and because they're paranoid about being found out. Pimping and the like could be fought better if women who are forced, could dare and come forward, which they can't as long as they're (inexplicably) being demonized for what they do.

Strong evidence of this is provided by Belgium and the Netherlands. In Belgium, there is a high security brothel where the girls/she-males identify themselves with codes and finger prints. It's run by the municipality. If they do not ID themselves and confirm ongoing activity ever other hour, the power goes off in their room and someone comes to check on them. They also have several alarm buttons installed that are directly linked to the brothel's very own police station.
Pimps hardly have a chance there. In a Brussels red light district with no such security measures, I have seen lots of abuse by pimps and clients, and countless illegal women. In Antwerp's aforementioned brothel, these things hardly ever happen. Police regularly check on new faces to make sure no illegal, junkie or forced women are involved.

In the Netherlands, prostitution can be registered like any other proffession and handled the same by the fiscal system, and a lot of organizations, even training programs, exist to help prostitutes - providing a reliable and safe alternative to pimps.

The reason pimps manage so well is because despite how abusive some may be, their women need them for some reason or another (driving, protection, solicitation, drugs, shelter). By legalizing prostitution and in doing so, allowing alternative organizations to operate on the women's (or mens') behalf, pimps become redundant and prostitutes will feel less forced to work with them. Pimps are often employed to keep the secrecy, but imagine if hotel managers, taxi drivers, social services etc. could finally be trusted? No more need for secrecy, no more need for criminals who attach great importance to staying under cover. No pimp in his right mind would approach a prostitute who is self-sufficient and protected by legal means.

You're assuming most women don't work by choice, but in my practical experience, that's not the case. Call-girls but also women working in the shabbiest of brothels, made the deliberate decision, usually because of the fact that they can charge $300/hour, which normal people earn in 3 days. Whether it's because they're saving up for a sports car and a rich retirement, or trying to pay off a mortgage or their child's education - or their own - from my experience the quick buck for their own goals, is a far more frequent reason than drugs, crime or forced labor. And actually, there are those who, aside from the money, do it for the fun.
The media are overdramatizing a minority, as they always do. Animal hoarders are suddenly everyone's neighbor, and every prostitute's sob story needs to be accompanied by Requiem for a Dream music. Reality is much less dramatic.

Alcohol is another great example. When was illegal trafficking and crime related to the acquisition of alcohol, at its worst? During prohibition!

I think it should be legal. Right now, if a woman is a prostitute and a pimp forces them to work for them, that woman or man can't get the help they need to get away from said pimp because they're afraid of going to jail for being a prostitute in the first place. I also think that if it did become legal, prostitutes should be required to get medical health check ups monthly simply because if they don't it's dangerous to the public, because you just never know. I don't see why it's illegal anyway because it's their body. As long as they get health checks, I don't see why it matters.

As for it being immoral, personally, yes, I think it is, but that doesn't really matter. It's not my body.

Its really weird..I think its fine for a man to hire a prostitute, it might prevent him from raping someone or killing himself because he's so horny, but I don't think its a mentally or physically healthy profession for women.

raroman:

Its really weird..I think its fine for a man to hire a prostitute, it might prevent him from raping someone or killing himself because he's so horny, but I don't think its a mentally or physically healthy profession for women.

Men don't rape women because they're horny; they rape women because they want power and control. Prostitutes get raped all the time because they're easy targets and less likely to go to the police. I don't think encouraging potential rapists to target prostitutes is a smart solution.

@ Kurtni
No, I meant, using their money to satisfy themselves, and I do think they rape women because they're horny, and because they want power and control. Both are good reasons.

@ raroman
Rape isn't a crime about sex, it's a crime about power. Rapists are sexual sadists who cannot be satisfied unless they force a woman to have sex with them. A prostitute doesn't serve the same purpose.

Okay fine. You're right, I'm wrong. All these replies are starting to make me want to pull my hair out.

@ raroman
No one is trying to attack you, but I know too many women who have been raped and to hear that people still believe men rape women because they're 'horny' makes me want to pull my hair out.

If you want to sell your body, it is completely up to you. If you don't have a problem with it, then all power to you. As for diseases and things, that is your own risk. People are always going to have a lot of sex. Some more than others..might as well ge paid for it!

I think it's naive to say NO rapes happen just because a man is horny. Like raroman said, it could be both, or just one. Maybe they don't really care about the power but they're so horny they want to have sex with consent or not.

If rape were only about power, then why does it have to be a sexual act and not mere violence? I don't believe horniness has nothing to do with it, much less since in certain cultures, rape is considered a legitimate form of intercourse (since women have no rights).
You can assert power by beating someone up, tying them, locking them up, let them watch you wreck their house or kill their dog, etc. More than enough rapes are committed because the rapist wanted to have sex and didn't get any, so he took it. And if it were only about power, rapists would rape anything, but they only rape what sexually arouses them. This does not make sense if it's a power play. A male rapist would feel most powerful by overpowering and raping another male his own size. If he is a coward in search for a feeling of power, he would rape a toddler, which would make his power seem absolute for the utter helplessness of the victim. But the average rapist is a heterosexual male and rapes "sexually identifiable" females.
Also, rape is even rape when the victim does not resist. Sometimes resistance is foolish, even deadly. So many a husband of a not-so-willingly married wife will not be regarded as a rapist neither by himself nor anyone else, for forcing himself on her, because as a husband, it's his right to have sex with his wife. Even she will think it's legit marital intercourse and her duty to put out. However, since she would have chosen not to be with that man if society had let her, it's rape, because if she's honest, she's hating it.
Then, many rapes happen slowly and start harmlessly. He wants it, she doesn't. He keeps pushing the "nice" way by asking, begging, being gentle etc. - yes, some men are that pathetic. She keeps resisting (I know there's also the he-victim, but that's irrelevant now). At some point he is so turned on that he forgets the boundaries of acceptable flirting, totally misses her signs of "do not want", and gets carried away.

Since rapists rape because they take without feeling like giving, I don't believe prostitutes do much to prevent rape, as the rapist would have to pay them and rape doesn't cost you anything if you don't get busted. Proof of this is the fact that prostitutes get raped all the time.

I think it's like theft. Sure, some steal to test boundaries and show off their superiority by getting away with it. But most people steal because they want free stuff.

@Chad
It's rent, not sale

I'm kind of torn on this. In one way I think it should be illegal in another I believe it should be legal. Like people said I think prostitution should be legal without the pimps.

I think there should be an organization, that monitors the prostitutes.
This is kind of weird but keep an open mind please. :D
I'm reading this manga called Ai to Yokubou wa Gakuen de, (Note: If you want to read that its yaoi therefore it is boy x boy) where there are students who basically learn how to be prostitutes at a special school but the director keeps track and makes sure that they don't get injured or killed and pay their hospital bills etc.

I'm aware that the manga is purely fantasy, but it would help if prostitutes had that kind of facility/organization. Then there would be a lot less of a problem, right?

I saw we legalize it. You know, there are some women who want to do it. There are high-paid escorts in our country today who make thousands of dollars, and much of what they do is just talking to the men. I think, like what's been discussed here, that we should implement brothels with high security, make customers check in and check out, make it a very clean and organized business because it can be. We're just not trying hard enough in this country because of the stigma associated with it. And we really need to stop with the various stigmas, it's getting ridiculous and irrelevant at this point in our country's history. The U.S. government should not have a right to make anything legal or illegal based on morality when this country has made its name stomping on the rights of others, forcing people to do what we think is right, and blindly blundering into situations where we are not needed because we think we can. That being said...

We legalize it. We tax it. I think it would be good for our nation's economy if we did. Everyone complains about it, and I think prostitution would be a good way to help pay for it. Prostitutes should get full benefits, same as every other person, and I think they should have to go through regular tests for diseases and such. And everyone should have to use a condom just in case. The female workers should probably be on birth control. If they want children, that's their business, but their customers shouldn't have a part in that unless they want to.

Sex can just be sex. I'm seventeen, I'm in high school, and there are kids having sex all throughout my school building, and I don't honestly think legalizing prostitution would be all that bad. Parents can teach their kids sex is supposed to be saved for the marriage bed, but I go to a building where some girls who are younger than me are already pregnant, and at my old high school, one girl was married. So, no, I don't attach special significance to it, and to me, legalizing prostitution would do more help than harm for both customers and prostitutes.

@ TeamTonyVincent
You spoke my mind.

@ TeamTonyVincent
I agree with everything you and said and it is still my opinion, but I do think legalizing it would make human trafficking easier, possibly, so that is one possible downside. I'm not sure if it would make it more prevalent, as, if you were trafficked and told someone what was going on and prostitution was legal, then you wouldn't have the fear of going to prison for your job. Also, if it were legal maybe there would be less need to trafficking. But it is a possible downside.

With the number of women forced into prostitution and trafficked, I think there should be a stigma regarding prostitution. It reeks of privilege to talk about the one to ten percent who choose prostitution, and silences and dismisses the vast, vast majority. Those ads in Ireland that people liked so much, about women choosing sex work because it's good for their lives? Produced and funded by pimps. I am all for the protection of women and their choices but it wouldn't hurt to cast a critical eye on the matter. And if the choice is protecting a minority of women in regulated, high-class positions and their 'right' to sex work or the rights of the abused, exploited majority I am with the latter. In an ideal world, maybe the commodification of sex and literal objectification of women's bodies wouldn't be problematic (tbh, doubtful) but we don't live in an ideal world. The reality of prostitution is something to be disturbed and disgusted by. And the more expensive and regulated it is, the more demand there will be for cheaper and anonymous (and probably forced) prostitution.

It also makes me wonder if prostitution was legal, how many young women would view it as an easy way out of poverty or a way to pay for their education or just make money to spend on whatever they want.
Here in Portugal, where 16,5% of the active population is unemployed, many women could force it upon themselves to work in brothels against their own minds, mostly because there are no other jobs and (unfortunately) we need money to survive.
Also, there was a case in Germany of a girl who was sent to work in a brothel by the Employment Center (not sure how that would called in other countries).

So, although the benefits do seem tempting on an economic level and even in the public health department, this issue raises other questions that I honestly can't answer.