I was watching the news last night, and the new laws regarding prostitution was on, where it will be made a criminal offence to have sex with prostitutes who are controlled by pimps. The legislation is an attempt to protect women who are forced into the trade. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7988834.stm
I think this is a good idea in theory, but doubt that it will have much success in practice, as the article suggests it will be very hard to get enough evidence.
I can see both sides to prostitution. I think that illegal prostitution is bad, because of the diseases that are transmitted, the sex slaves, and the violence, that comes with it. Legal prostitution is OK, as long as there are enough legal regulations in place (such as in Amsterdam) to keep the prostitutes disease free. They are there of their own free will, and it is violence free, I don’t see what the problem is. I also think it might stop rape, as surely people would prefer to pay rather than end up in prison. It could give thousands of people on benefits jobs, only if they wanted to do this job.
All in all, it’s one of the oldest ways of earning money, and I don’t think your going to get people to stop. So rather it been seen as seedy, it should be cleaned up, because in black and white it’s just like any other job, you provide something that people want, and get paid for it. It just needs to be safely legalised with monitored brothels etc.
Despite saying all this I personally would never be able to do this for a living, because to me you loose your dignity, and self respect. I just can understand that for some people, they either have no other choice, or enjoy it for a job, and for these people i think it needs to be made safe.
It does involve all sorts of being bad:
- Taking risks (danger and health)
- Lying to others about your job
- physical, mental and emotional violence
This article about real life prostitution http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3840977.stm put things into perspective, and just re literates the need for changes.
I have read this post and article regarding prostitution and a law being brought in to prevent people having sex with prostitutes controlled by pimps, and feel there are some good points made in this entry.
ReplyDeleteIf some people want to sell themselves for sex and some people want to pay for sex then, as Tara points out, it can work as proved in Amsterdam.
I would personally never pay for sex. For one, without sounding cocky, I don't feel I would ever be that desperate that I would have to pay for sex. Also, as Tara points out, there is a big risk in the fact that the person you are paying to have sex with could have any sort of disease or infection. Plus, the vast majority of girls that are in this line of work tend to be very unattractive. Whilst I'm sure there are many exceptions to this, these tend to be in the minority.
Tara is right in saying that much of the money that prostitutes make must be valuable to them as I'm sure they would not be doing something so degrading and socially unacceptable, if they could avoid it. This poses the question, would people who sell themselves for sex, benefit from being prevented from being prostitutes? Or would they instead suffer new mental and emotional stresses caused by the financial loss? Sadly though, there are many occasions when money gained from prostitution is used to buy bad things, ie drugs, booze etc, rather than food for the family. I feel the physical and mental risks associated with prostitution, and its role in spreading STIs and filling the pockets of pimps and drug dealers, make prostitution to much of a danger to freely allow in our world.