Ah, there but for a few letters

The world’s oldest profession, and the worlds second oldest profession…together again!

At the Naval Base at Subic Bay, the pros were required to have blood tests every week, and had to carry cards to ensure customers that they were up to date (tests and cards provided by the the US Navy, BTW). STDs (and later AIDs) were still a very dangerous problem and the Docs always said the tests and licensing did little to reduce disease.

The Dutch situation is not much better. They get tested regularly, but those houses are full of girls who have been lured west and north from Eastern Europe and Africa by traffickers who tell them they will be movie stars and legitimate dancers. When they arrive they find themselves beholden to their pimps, and they their lives are wrecked.

For everyone who lives in the west and casually says that prostitution is a personal choice… I’d remind them that the vast majority of these girls are either tricked into prostitution, are drug addicts, or have serious emotional issues usually related to sexual abuse. I find it kind of pathetic that liberals and libertarians consider prostitution a victimless crime. I’d challenge any of them to describe how they would feel if their daughter was turning tricks to satisfy a $100 a day heroin diet. In a society where Michelle Obama considers herself victimized, I would think an abused hooker turning tricks for abusive sex addicts would qualify one for victim’s status.

There is really only one way to get rid of prostitution, and that is to reduce demand for it. And the only way to do that is to come down hard on the Johns. So as far as I’m concerned, anyone who thinks it’s OK to wink at guys who lure desperate women with money is (on some level) complicit in the John’s crime.

Frankly, I’d like to see Spitzer do a couple of years, just to send the kind of “message” he’s so famous for.

I wasn’t trying to suggest legal porn-making was a loophole around illegal prositution. I was merely posing a legal and philosophical question.

As for the embarrassment factor, when I was in college, I had two friends in the theatre department (one male and one female) who acted once or twice in adult films in Montreal.

The female could make almost $10,000 for a week’s work. That went a long way toward blunting any embarrassment she felt.

BTW, the male made less than half that. This is one industry in which women do far better financially. The men are just props in these movies. Sounds like sex discrimination to me.

Geoff,

That is LOL funny. In Spitzer’s case, he may be true to Democratic form. One of the suspicions the feds have is that the governor spent campaign funds on his trysts.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4c3765e48c

I found it on the thoroughly respectable, if left-of-center, History News Networks Cliopatra Blog.

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/48073.html

Fair statement?

Nice try, Anonymous. Hookers need to organize! Actually, I think you have stumbled onto a good argument for legalization.

If prostitution were legit, then the government would be able to regulate it, tax it and license the people who run the brothels. Then worker safety would improve, right?

If you’re concerned about locus of control and worker safety, legalization is the way to go. I wonder if there is a hookers’ union in Nevada (as there apparently is in Holland) and … gasp … whom they would endorse for president.

As for “why”, I don’t know (nor care). An awful lot of (maybe most?) rules and laws are pretty darn arbitrary when one examines the details and edge-cases closely.

And Jake, I don’t fault women politicians who don’t actively crusade against prostitution and pornography. The problem won’t be solved by applying more rules, or attempting to impose standards of behavior. Only education (of both men and women) and more open and frank talk about sex (by everyone) will have a chance of making a difference.

What I don’t understand is why woman in leadership roles don’t work more diligently to reduce prostitution and pornography in our society. One would think that would be on the top of their lists.

At 11:40 a.m. you blogged about Spitzer. Shame on you!

Seriously, I know how it is. This story keeps wrapping itself around my leg like a dog I can’t shake off. And the question is a good one re porn and what Kristen does for a living. Maybe one of your faithful readers will let us all know what the deal is.