Edit to add my opinion so I’m not just replying “I agree” to 90% of comments. I think it should be legal, properly regulated, taxed and viewed as a profession. I haven’t personally engaged in it but I have no moral objection to it. I do hate the common sentiment that it was the individual’s “only option” though.
I’m in Australia where it is legal and regulated. Each state has slightly different laws, but generally I understand they are about the same. I haven’t studied the law around it, but things like pimping is illegal because it is exploitative, as is anything that resembles sex trafficking. Brothels are much safer than the streets and have to be registered with stringent health checks. They are not allowed to directly sell sex services, rather the sex workers work out of them and the brothel charges room rent, which amount to 50% of the fee. The girls are in charge of what happens in the room, which by law includes a health checks. There are also massage parlours and spas, which provide erotic massage with a happy ending. I occasionally attend a nearby spa place which is really nice, you have the traditional one by one introduction to the girls, then the manager comes over to ask who you are interested in, you pay them, and the girl comes over when ready and takes you downstairs to the private spa rooms. Besides the spa, there is a massage table for the happy ending if you choose. They can offer “extras” which you pay them directly for, it never involves the house. There are also escorts, the same as anywhere in the world, they come to you, good for the travelling businessman in a hotel.
In my opinion, there are two key could issues with it: societal attitudes and desperation.
Society clearly discriminates sex workers, especially women, as sex work is associated with promiscuity and little limits. Ex-sexual workers are more likely to be harassed and face unwanted sexualized interactions. They have issues finding a long-term partner and may have to hide their past from everyone.
Another issue is that many people choose sexual careers not because they want it, but because it’s one of the few ways to make money quickly. This experience can be heavily traumatic, not only because of the aforementioned societal attitudes, but because of violation of intimacy and losing agency over own body.
So, legalization of prostitution is, at best, harm reduction at this stage.
Important nuance: there absolutely are people who enjoy working in the sex industry. Ideally, healthy incentives and shift in social attitudes would allow them to work in this sphere and others not to. But as things stand, we’re very much not there yet.
It would be a fine profession if it weren’t for capitalism
Never had anything to do with it personally, but just like with drugs it should be legal and regulated because it’s impossible to prohibit it.
Hard agree.
Regulate it, tax it, protect the workers and users. Prevent the spread of diseases and use the money to ensure their futures.
Minimize harm, maximize happiness.
Failure to do so is a failure of society.
After all, we already have so many people making money on onlyfans and through doing pornography, which is legalized prostitution anyway, so the people that do that in a non-video scenario should have at least the same protections.
It was such a generic comment … lol. I agree with you,
yes, sex work is not going away, it’s too damn popular
sex workers need to be protected and legalised and helped if in situations like addiction
As a former prostitute its work and legitamite work but it needs more protection
Username checks out bless
It should be legal, safe, and taxed
Same as belief. Churches have to pay the same as everyone. They are a corporation.
Same as belief.
how do you know someone is an edgelord atheist?
Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. They’ll crowbar it in wherever
how do you know someone is an edgelord atheist?
why, the same with defensive religious people. They’ll see a criticism on churches and they will take it as a personal attack
Please let me know how relevant belief is to regulating and taxing prostitution. Like, he had that shit waiting to go and found any place to cram it.
he said that churches are taxed and regulated and whatnot, as prostitution should be too.
Maybe saying “same as belief” wasn’t good, but the rest of the comment makes it clear they’re talking about churches. Not to mention the demonisation of prostitution that comes from those churches, so i find it relevant.
Or maybe there’s other parallels you can draw between belief and prostitution, like being roped into one against your will, or maybe it being “the only option”, or being the only thing some desperate people look to for help, etc.
Well, belief used in the sense of how most “churches” use belief, as a way to indoctrinate, kind of like the modern church.
You can draw many dots and see it can be relevant to the discussion as a comparison, but it’s easier to offload the mental work to others, no?
he said that churches are taxed and regulated and whatnot, as prostitution should be too.
but that’s the thing, they are not, so he just picked his spot to throw shade.
Yep
no tax on just the tip
Knowing how small businesses are taxed more, just the tip would be 2x tax
if you pull out the big beautiful bill, you get the tip tax free
Sex work is just work, as long as it is all between consenting adults.
For sure. Anything can be abused
Absolutely should be legal and taxed, with rules and regulations in place to protect clients and workers.
I pretty much do have moral objections to it, its fundamentally gross to me, but its not going to stop and id rather these prostitutes work in a safe place and pay their taxes like the rest of us than get their passports taken by a guy named The Scorpion with a spider Web tattooed on his neck.
Based ❤️ Great take IMO
Should’ve called himself the Spidion
Looking at the pros and the cons, it must be the opposite of CONstitution.
…I’ll see myself out.
Honey, go back in the other room and play Twister with the other kids.
So long as everyone is able to legally and safely consent I don’t see an issue.
If the individual selling their services is doing so freely and isn’t being exploited in any sort of way then I don’t have a problem with it.
We never used it but I did look into it when we lived in Nevada for a friend who had been celibate for over a decade at that point. Nice dude, but extremely quiet and just has zero confidence/game.
I loved that the ladies were independent contractors who set their OWN rates, and they advertised what THEY were comfortable doing/ their explicit “no-go” list. There was also a strict consent banner on the site I used that said any of the ladies could kick anyone out at any time and there were panic buttons in the rooms.
Never actually did end up contacting them because we ended up being too poor at the time. Wasn’t mad though, those ladies were setting prices that they deemed fair for their bodies and I have mad respect for that. Whether people agree with prostitution as a concept or not, its not going away and its referred to as the “world’s oldest occupation” for a reason. The best thing to do is protect the people who are choosing to engage in it/ensure they’re getting paid extremely well for their time.
I don’t have a problem with prostitution, I have a problem when socioeconomic conditions lead people to feeling like they have to sell their bodies to survive. If prostitution is completely voluntary, then it’s fine.
I have friends and love ones who have done survival sex work, there is nothing wrong doing sex work and I’m happy to fight people who say othrrwise
Considering “survival sex work” as something positive is quite strange.
I guess a worker under capitalism, all work is “survival work”.
Would nobody have to work under other forms of governmental organization?
*economic organization
But the idea is that, under capitalism you have to work in order to survive. Under a different system you work to benefit society, by your survival is otherwise assured.
Really depends on how it’s organized of course. Hard to say now since there is such a death grip on keeping capitalism for some reason.
Humans have a natural drive to work for the betterment of their community. Capitalism suppresses that drive by teaching them to sell their bodies and time. Give them a choice, and enough will choose to work that society can survive. Those who don’t want to work are often sick in some way and need society’s support. There’s no such thing as laziness.
I promise I’ve worked with horrifically lazy people, proud of their lack of work ethic and their ability so skirt tasks or dump them on others. I’m glad you have that much faith in the populace. In my experience, I think a large chunk of people would abuse a trust based system.
Have You ever wondered why they act that way? It may not just be as you assume, that they’re terrible people, but instead that all empathy and sense of community has been ground out of them by a system that punishes you for thinking of others.
Thats a pretty idealistic thought, not one realistically based though. You’re lucky to have never met a lazy person or been forced to pick up their slack.
Let’s normalize sweatshops then, exploitation is exploitation isn’t it?
People have to do what they have to do to survive. If anything, I admire the strength of the people who fight that hard for survival. But the fact that they have to do that to survive is fucked up.
I agree with this sentiment, but I’m a socialist. I don’t think anyone should find themselves coerced into work they don’t want. Ideally, everyone is fed and cared for, and those who are fulfilled by sex work can pursue it without exploitation or stigma, and those who enjoy the end product can enjoy it without fearing the situation that produced it
Positive isn’t necessarily what I was going for. Mixed reviews from the creator side, I’ll say, but there is nothing wrong with exchanging sex or sexual services for other goods or money. Its just as vulnerable to exploitation and abuse as other industries, but the major difference is that the people working in the industry are looked down on and abused socially and legally by third parties.
The stigma around sex work keeps sex workers in dangerous situations where it is difficult to manage their clients safely, and allows bad actors to abuse their power over them (ask any sex worker about police interactions), putting them in more danger than is already inherent to the industry. Whorephobia sucks, and it feels like people just don’t want things to be better with people who choose sex work, or who find no other avenues open to them.
Is it though? Because it sounds like you have to bang celebrities in the jungle …
The only thing more certain to exist till the end of time than prostitution is people complaining about it. I like it because it makes something explicit that is implicit in so many apparently non transactional relationships. There are so many people who say prostitution should be banned, who are also in relationships/marriages where they expect sex for shelter, food, safety or whatever. Prostitution makes the transaction clear. People point to the exploitative nature of it, but then reveal their real agenda by also rejecting the idea of making it safer for the people selling access to their bodies. The whole thing is a massively hypocritical pile of double standards. Mix into that cultures with backwards patriarchal religious doctrines and that’s where you get the really angry people who talk about dishonor and stoning and all that jazz. Prostitution has been around since there were people and will always be around. When the puritans are in charge it just hides for a bit. This has been my TED talk, thanks lol
“Kyle, every boy pays for kisses. Do you know what I am saying? If you got a girl and she kisses you, sooner or later you’re paying for it. You gotta take her out to lunch, take her to a movie, and then spend time listening to all her stupid problems. Look, look at Stan right there. He’s got to sit there and listen to all her stupid motherf___ing problems 'cause she kisses him. If you ask me, that’s a lot more than the $5 my company charges.”
As long as all parties involved are consenting adults it’s none of my business what they are up to. Except that prostitution should be legalized in a way in which they get equal rights and protections to other professions. The only reason it’s illegal in many countries in the first place is likely based on religious Puritanism, which I do not think laws should ever be based on.
Even Calvinists in the Netherlands legalised prostitution.
suspect it’s not in spite of their faith, but… in recognition of their humanity and lack of hypocrisy when it comes to humans.
unlike other places where they’ll decry prostitution then rape the alterboys.
Wasn’t a core philosophy of Calvinists basically “god loves capitalism” (before the word was really established)?
this is a fascinating question I don’t have time to delve deeper into atm but a little googling:
“Calvin increasingly conceived of a state where the rulers were limited in order to ensure protection of religion.”
“Calvin argued for moderation in business ethics. Lending and profit-making should be permitted only insofar as they were useful, never simply to build personal wealth.”
but Calvin himself is entwined with capitalism
https://daily.jstor.org/john-calvin-religious-reformer-influenced-capitalism/
“Calvin’s theological beliefs, based upon his study of the Bible, captured adherents from around the Christian world as Geneva became a center of Protestant thought. He became known as a proponent of predestination, the belief that God’s rewards for humans have already been selected. It was later frequently invoked by wealthy Christians to justify their opulence as part of God’s plan that should not be disturbed by revolutions or high taxes. But Bouwsma argues that is a misinterpretation of what is a subtle theological doctrine about God’s mercy for believers.”
I suspect this is more capitalists embracing calvinism because the think it fits their desires but like most of religion, it’s people using a higher power to justify their wealth lol.
