Why Do People think Lowly Of Hookers?

[irin]

There are plenty of things I would not want my kid to do but I realize making them illegal would be pointless. It is a matter of choosing whether you want government regulated entities controlling these vices or if you want organized crime controlling them. I thought we learned something from prohibition.

 

prostitution is legal in the uk, and there many laws that are placed to ensure that prostitutes arent being exploited, but unfortunately they are, theyr still victims of violence, rape, we continuously hear stories in the news of them being murdered, trafficking is still an issue, there are gangs of pimps grooming young girls for prostitution, i personally dont believe it will ever be an honest trade, practiced safely.

Edited June 7, 2012 by irin

[d'Arthez]

Let's put it this way--what they are doing is bad. What they are doing is destructive, both to themselves and the marriages/families involved. I am expressing my hatred for a profession that is destructive--that devalues women, and destroys marriages and families.

Let's say for the sake of argument that I think your position is a bad one, and that people who hold such views are actually harming women who are prostitutes. Would the logical conclusion, that you are a bad person be warranted?

[Scottdmw]

Let's leave aside for the moment the question of legality and just talk about the moral issue.

 

I think the real problem with prostitution is that it is harmful to both parties. The harm is easier to see for the woman. My impression from reading articles is that the clear majority of prostitutes are trafficked/forced. As others have pointed out, legalization doesn't fix this. Anybody patronizing prostitutes is thus supporting what is essentially modern-day slavery under sometimes horrific conditions. If you think this isn't so, I would suggest you spend a few hours of your time on the Internet researching human trafficking. Read some of the articles, and then see if you can still convince yourself. In particular read some stories of victims of human trafficking.

 

Then there are the problems with the women who are doing it willingly. Can we surely agree that even if something is freely chosen it's not always a healthy thing? There may be some cases out there of women who use prostitution to legitimately pay for college or something and then get out of it. I suspect those cases are rare. Prostitution is very easy money in a sense once a woman has started. It can be very addicting in that sense, why would one want to work hard on a college degree and then work even harder at a job when she can continue to make easy money, at least until such time as her looks are gone? Then too, college degrees aren't what they once were. What if a woman sells herself to get one then can't get a degree-requiring job after? She's back to prostitution.

 

Even in today's economy there are other jobs, they are simply difficult and low-paying. It's not a choice between prostitution or no job, it's a choice between making more and easier money in prostitution or making less in a different job. Very few people are truly starving or homeless, so what this often comes down to is the choice of having money for a lavish lifestyle and drugs or not.

 

Then there is the question of what a prostitute does for her own love life. Have you ever met a guy who would really be happy having a prostitute as a serious girlfriend? How about a wife? How would most men feel about having a prostitute as the mother of their children (presumably after careful paternity tests)? It's difficult for me to imagine most prostitutes having a very satisfying personal life.

 

Let's not forget the constant risk of STDs and unintended pregnancy, even with contraception.

 

Then we get to the men. The problem with prostitution for men is that it's like a drug. It's an easy sexual release with very little effort required. Once a man gets used to that, why would he want to put in the effort to deal with a real woman and the difficulties that go along with that? Why bother to try to fix his relationship with his wife when he has an easy answer? Why bother to make something better of himself so that real women will want to be with him? It's not exactly great for man's self-esteem either is it, knowing in his heart that he has to pay for sex because he's not man enough to get it on his own?

 

The justifications brought up for the men are weak. If a man's wife is withholding sex, the answer is not to seek it out from someone else. The man has choices here. He can attempt to do the difficult work of fixing the relationship with his wife. Maybe he feels like it's her fault, but usually it takes two people to contribute to a situation like this. If he really feels the situation is impossible to fix no matter what he does, why is it not clear that he should simply honestly leave his wife rather than resort to prostitution?

 

As far as “needing” sex with a beautiful woman, that's totally a rationalization. What a man needs is sex with a woman who loves him that he can trust. That's what's going to make him happy. Sex with a gorgeous stranger for money is the equivalent of doing a shot of cocaine, it feels good in the moment, maybe better than anything else, but the addiction and consequences afterwards are not so good.

 

I'm not going to say that prostitutes are bad people, I agree with M. Chaucer that we shouldn't judge people. However, we can most definitely judge the act of prostitution itself. It is wrong because it is seriously harmful, it harms some and ruins the lives of others, and should be recognized as such.

 

Scott

[KathyM]

Let's say for the sake of argument that I think your position is a bad one' date=' and that people who hold such views are actually harming women who are prostitutes. Would the logical conclusion, that you are a bad person be warranted?[/quote']

What harms women who are prostitutes is a profession that puts them at risk, turns them into objects to be bought and sold, where they have to mentally escape from the situation in order to be able to physically tolerate it. If you think enabling them to stay in that profession is doing them a good service, then I'd say you are looking out for the customer's interests and not the prostitute's best interests.

[d'Arthez]

What harms women who are prostitutes is a profession that puts them at risk, turns them into objects to be bought and sold, where they have to mentally escape from the situation in order to be able to physically tolerate it. If you think enabling them to stay in that profession is doing them a good service, then I'd say you are looking out for the customer's interests and not the prostitute's best interests.

You did not answer my question. Please answer it.

[KathyM]

Let's say for the sake of argument that I think your position is a bad one' date=' and that people who hold such views are actually harming women who are prostitutes. Would the logical conclusion, that you are a bad person be warranted?[/quote']

You can spin it any way you want--doesn't change the fact that the profession is a harmful one. If you feel the need to consider me bad for speaking out on this, go ahead. I'll live with it.

[d'Arthez]

You can spin it any way you want--doesn't change the fact that the profession is a harmful one.

It does not matter whether the profession is harmful. That is not what my argument is about, and that you construe it as such, is perhaps more telling than you may care to admit.

 

It matters whether your position is harmful to the women in the profession. To me it is clear your position is harmful to the women in the profession. Marginalizing these women does nothing to address the issue of prostitution, nor does it do anything to offer them an opportunity to improve their lives.

 

If you feel the need to consider me bad for speaking out on this, go ahead. I'll live with it.

If I were to follow your moral reasoning, I should consider you a bad person. Your argument you make against prostitution, is equally applicable to you.

 

That does not mean I think you are a bad person. Just that your argument is hopelessly flawed.

[Mme. Chaucer]

You can spin it any way you want--doesn't change the fact that the profession is a harmful one. If you feel the need to consider me bad for speaking out on this, go ahead. I'll live with it.

 

Anyway, saying a profession is harmful is worlds apart from saying that all people in that profession are BAD PEOPLE.

 

I won't go so far as to say that you are a bad person. I don't know. But I do know that your attitude towards prostitution is harmful towards women who are prostitutes.

 

Edited to add: I don't believe that "God-fearing" people or Republicans are more worthy of being safe from harm than a prostitute, a street person, a gay one or a liberal. Do you?

Edited June 7, 2012 by Mme. Chaucer

[Els]

First off, good on you, Scott, for making a reasonable post against prostitution. Definitely beats 'prostitutes are bad people'.

 

I think the real problem with prostitution is that it is harmful to both parties. The harm is easier to see for the woman. My impression from reading articles is that the clear majority of prostitutes are trafficked/forced. As others have pointed out, legalization doesn't fix this. Anybody patronizing prostitutes is thus supporting what is essentially modern-day slavery under sometimes horrific conditions. If you think this isn't so, I would suggest you spend a few hours of your time on the Internet researching human trafficking. Read some of the articles, and then see if you can still convince yourself. In particular read some stories of victims of human trafficking.

 

I think the problem with this way of thinking is that it's difficult to know where to draw the line. Many, many people are enslaved and treated poorly all over the world. From sweatshop employees in Bangladesh and China, some of whom are 5-y-o children worked 16 hours a day under horrendous conditions, to young men forced to work under dangerous conditions in mines and construction sites with no safety regulations. If participating in prostitution is 'supporting modern-day slavery', should we then buy no factory produce or metals or anything that could possibly be produced by such industries?

 

A much better middle ground, IMO, would be for someone to check up on their sources, and to avoid if there is a hint of illegality or poor employee treatment. That is more that can be said for many people (myself included, and most likely most of this board) who buy things without looking into where they were produced and under what conditions. We are all, sadly, a party to modern-day human slavery, in many more ways than just prostitution.

 

Then there are the problems with the women who are doing it willingly. Can we surely agree that even if something is freely chosen it's not always a healthy thing? There may be some cases out there of women who use prostitution to legitimately pay for college or something and then get out of it. I suspect those cases are rare. Prostitution is very easy money in a sense once a woman has started. It can be very addicting in that sense, why would one want to work hard on a college degree and then work even harder at a job when she can continue to make easy money, at least until such time as her looks are gone? Then too, college degrees aren't what they once were. What if a woman sells herself to get one then can't get a degree-requiring job after? She's back to prostitution.

 

Even in today's economy there are other jobs, they are simply difficult and low-paying. It's not a choice between prostitution or no job, it's a choice between making more and easier money in prostitution or making less in a different job. Very few people are truly starving or homeless, so what this often comes down to is the choice of having money for a lavish lifestyle and drugs or not.

 

Yet who are we to tell them what is healthy or not? People are adults and entitled to make their own choices, as long as they don't hurt others. Again, by this line of reasoning, we should ban fast food, beer, high heels, sports cars, taking two full-time jobs, jobs that require 80 hours/week, and a whole lot of other things that we do not.

 

Then there is the question of what a prostitute does for her own love life. Have you ever met a guy who would really be happy having a prostitute as a serious girlfriend? How about a wife? How would most men feel about having a prostitute as the mother of their children (presumably after careful paternity tests)? It's difficult for me to imagine most prostitutes having a very satisfying personal life.

 

I agree with this. But again, freedom of personal choice. Men working certain jobs are away from their families for years at a time often do not have a satisfying personal life either, but it is something they know they are getting into, and are accorded the choice of making.

 

Then we get to the men. The problem with prostitution for men is that it's like a drug. It's an easy sexual release with very little effort required. Once a man gets used to that, why would he want to put in the effort to deal with a real woman and the difficulties that go along with that? Why bother to try to fix his relationship with his wife when he has an easy answer? Why bother to make something better of himself so that real women will want to be with him? It's not exactly great for man's self-esteem either is it, knowing in his heart that he has to pay for sex because he's not man enough to get it on his own?

 

I disagree. If a man is the sort of man who thinks that 'if I could get easy sex, why should I bother with relationships at all?', he is likely doing the opposite sex a favour by deciding NOT to have them. Because who wants a man like that, who is only with them for the sex? Far better that he pay for prostitutes than lead a girl on just because he 'has to, to get sex'.

 

I'm not going to say that prostitutes are bad people, I agree with M. Chaucer that we shouldn't judge people. However, we can most definitely judge the act of prostitution itself. It is wrong because it is seriously harmful, it harms some and ruins the lives of others, and should be recognized as such.

 

I agree that it has the potential to be unhealthy. Many other things do, as well. I believe that we should allow fellow adults to make personal choices for themselves, though, and not judge them negatively. Which is what the title of this thread is about - why do people think lowly of hookers?

[KathyM]

It does not matter whether the profession is harmful. That is not what my argument is about, and that you construe it as such, is perhaps more telling than you may care to admit.

 

It matters whether your position is harmful to the women in the profession. To me it is clear your position is harmful to the women in the profession. Marginalizing these women does nothing to address the issue of prostitution, nor does it do anything to offer them an opportunity to improve their lives.

 

 

If I were to follow your moral reasoning, I should consider you a bad person. Your argument you make against prostitution, is equally applicable to you.

 

That does not mean I think you are a bad person. Just that your argument is hopelessly flawed.

My position is harmful to the destructive profession. My position is advocating a less destructive lifestyle for the woman. If you consider that position harmful to her, and think that enabling or advocating for her to remain in that destructive profession would be better for her, then we obviously have very different opinions on the subject. The profession is what marginalizes these women--not the advocating against it. I'm actually doing my internship to counsel women who are abused, some of whom are prostitutes. So I'm doing my part. What more you think I can do, I don't know. I'm trying to advocate for allowing women to get out of a destructive, damaging profession, which will improve their lives.

[d'Arthez]

I'm actually doing my internship to counsel women who are abused, some of whom are prostitutes. So I'm doing my part. What more you think I can do, I don't know. I'm trying to advocate for allowing women to get out of a destructive, damaging profession, which will improve their lives.

I have lived in a country where a prostitute gets paid as much as $2 for a lay, without condom, with serious risks of contracting HIV / Aids (and yes, that would be about the average daily wage in those areas, where unemployment is rampant). Fighting for decent opportunities for these women, means giving them a viable alternative. Else you are just asking them to stop whoring themselves out and let them and their children starve to death.

 

Your position is harmful to these women; it cannot be harmful to the profession, since it is an abstraction, not an actual human being.

[KathyM]

I have lived in a country where a prostitute gets paid as much as $2 for a lay, without condom, with serious risks of contracting HIV / Aids (and yes, that would be about the average daily wage in those areas, where unemployment is rampant). Fighting for decent opportunities for these women, means giving them a viable alternative. Else you are just asking them to stop whoring themselves out and let them and their children starve to death.

 

Your position is harmful to these women; it cannot be harmful to the profession, since it is an abstraction, not an actual human being.

My internship involves helping women to get out of destructive lifestyles. We actually advocate and help women to find alternatives that will support them. If you find advocating for these women to be destructive, and enabling a destructive lifestyle to be a better alternative, then that's your opinion, which I certainly don't share.

[USMCHokie]

Does natural selection apply here...?

[d'Arthez]

My internship involves helping women to get out of destructive lifestyles. We actually advocate and help women to find alternatives that will support them. If you find advocating for these women to be destructive, and enabling a destructive lifestyle to be a better alternative, then that's your opinion, which I certainly don't share.

Hey, if you are perfectly okay with putting words in my mouth that I have not uttered, go ahead, and make something nice of this:

 

From what you describe it seems you are just addressing the symptoms, not the system that gives rise to the problem. That in itself opens a whole can of morally ambiguous questions; accepting the status quo that leads to these women making the choice for prostitution, can in itself be seen as immoral. In extreme cases even be seen as a mechanism to fulfill certain psychological needs, to the detriment of the supposed beneficiaries of the assistance. Famous case in point is Mother Theresa.

 

And again, by your own moral reasoning, your actions make you a bad person.

[Mme. Chaucer]

Does :

 

My position is advocating a less destructive lifestyle for the woman.

 

Equal:

 

Prostitutes are bad people

 

??

 

I'm actually doing my internship to counsel women who are abused, some of whom are prostitutes.

 

Are the women you are counseling and advocating for aware that you think they are "bad people"?

 

Sounds like you are headed in a terribly wrong direction, professionally. Destructive.

[zengirl]

You don't help people by telling them their profession makes them a bad person. I help troubled teens, typically (that's what my group mostly does), and plenty of them are into drugs, in gangs, and some of the girls have turned a trick or two (as TEENAGERS) and need help escaping that lifestyle. How would my judging them or their mothers, who may have turned to prostitution to provide at some point or another, help me help those teens? I can suggest that their CHOICES are not productive without judging them. That's basically advocacy/education/life/being a good person 101, learning to separate a person from their choices and situation and understand that not everyone was as lucky as I was.

 

As to prostitution, I don't see how legalizing and regulating it would do harm. It could help the people involved and help deter poor conditions, diseases, pimps, violence, etc. Not to mention throwing someone in jail for hooking or drugs is a waste of resources all across the board and does nothing to 'help' anyone, except people who don't want to hear about it and want to judge others and feel superior. However, legalizing prostitution doesn't end or fix human trafficking elements, which would still need to be controlled.

 

I don't think hookers are 'bad' people. However, unlike you, Leigh, I don't see it as some sort of respectable calling. It's not a respectable career; that doesn't mean I don't respect the PEOPLE in it, as human beings.

 

The men who cheat destroy marriages and families. It is not the hookers that force them to do it. You can't sanitize the world because some make less than honorable decisions. It is also why I think drugs should be legalized.

 

What about those other examples I posted?

 

Agree entirely. I'm not pro-cheating by any means, but the person doing the cheating is responsible, not the person they purchase services from.

[Scottdmw]

First off, good on you, Scott, for making a reasonable post against prostitution. Definitely beats 'prostitutes are bad people'.

 

I think the problem with this way of thinking is that it's difficult to know where to draw the line. Many, many people are enslaved and treated poorly all over the world. From sweatshop employees in Bangladesh and China, some of whom are 5-y-o children worked 16 hours a day under horrendous conditions, to young men forced to work under dangerous conditions in mines and construction sites with no safety regulations. If participating in prostitution is 'supporting modern-day slavery', should we then buy no factory produce or metals or anything that could possibly be produced by such industries?

 

A much better middle ground, IMO, would be for someone to check up on their sources, and to avoid if there is a hint of illegality or poor employee treatment. That is more that can be said for many people (myself included, and most likely most of this board) who buy things without looking into where they were produced and under what conditions. We are all, sadly, a party to modern-day human slavery, in many more ways than just prostitution.

 

You make a good point here, reminding us all that we should be careful as much as possible where we buy from in general.

 

I would say we have a moral obligation that among other things is proportional to how close we are to the problem. The thing with prostitution is you are actually directly interacting with the person who is enslaved, looking into their eyes, and forcing them to do your will. You are in a position to see that something is wrong and to directly do something about it. That's not quite the same as when you buy a product that has been contributed to by many people and corporations around the world, going through a number of steps before it reaches you.

 

It is true that if a person were to be very careful about which prostitutes they employ, that would remove this particular issue, although not the others.

 

 

 

 

 

Yet who are we to tell them what is healthy or not? People are adults and entitled to make their own choices, as long as they don't hurt others. Again, by this line of reasoning, we should ban fast food, beer, high heels, sports cars, taking two full-time jobs, jobs that require 80 hours/week, and a whole lot of other things that we do not.

 

I agree with this. But again, freedom of personal choice. Men working certain jobs are away from their families for years at a time often do not have a satisfying personal life either, but it is something they know they are getting into, and are accorded the choice of making.

 

The main point of my post was not to say that we should try to prevent others by force or laws from doing these things, although I certainly believe force IS appropriate in actual cases of trafficking. What I am doing here is exactly the same thing that many people do when they say that fast food, high heels, etc. are potentially harmful. I’m trying to call people's attention to the idea that I think prostitution IS harmful, and a good deal more so than fast food or high heels. I'm suggesting to people that for their own sakes they should stay away from it and encourage others to freely choose to do the same.

 

I think that our culture is careful to a fault about judgementalism. We have very thoroughly gotten the message that trying to judge others or force people to do good as we see it can be counterproductive. However, I think we sometimes lose the message that it is still possible to help each other see what is harmful or not and encourage each other to stay away from the harmful things.

 

Scott

[KathyM]

Does :

 

 

 

Equal:

 

 

 

??

 

 

 

Are the women you are counseling and advocating for aware that you think they are "bad people"?

 

Sounds like you are headed in a terribly wrong direction, professionally. Destructive.

Fine, I'll clarify my statement to say that what they are doing is bad, just like I can also say that a person who steels your car is doing something bad. I've also tried to help those in prison to be rehabilitated. I'm also going to help men who abuse their spouse/gf to be rehabilitated. What they are doing (abusing) is bad. But, obviously, my intention is to help them to turn from a destructive lifestyle. So if you want to question whether doing something bad means the person himself is bad, then there will be a difference of opinion among people. So I'll clarify, and say prostitutes are doing something bad and destructive to themselves and others with the profession they choose, but they have usually made the choice because of a dysfunctional childhood, often coming from homes where they have been abused, either physically or sexually, by adults. So maybe we should blame the abusive parent who screwed them up (no pun intended), or maybe we should blame the consumer who keeps them in a destructive lifestyle. Same thing with abusive men. Do we call them bad because they abuse? They are a victim of a dysfunctional childhood where they were likely abused or witnessed domestic abuse in the home. They are acting out the abusive patterns they learned in childhood. Does that make them bad as adults, or just a victim of a bad childhood? I think they can have compassion shown to them as well, and I have every intention of having compassion for these people who are stuck in a destructive lifestyle and destructive pattern. I wouldn't be spending my time counseling or helping them turn their life around if I didn't have compassion for them as people. I can still hate what they do while trying to help them to turn their life around.

[ascendotum]

Actually, I've heard of women putting themselves through university with money earned from prostitution.

 

I know two who did this, and from memory in a suvery of the pros in brothels in my country, I think students were the biggest component followed by single mothers. There's lots of guys with former short term escorts/pros for gf or wife who would be oblivious of that past aspect of her life.

[Els]

You make a good point here, reminding us all that we should be careful as much as possible where we buy from in general.

 

I would say we have a moral obligation that among other things is proportional to how close we are to the problem. The thing with prostitution is you are actually directly interacting with the person who is enslaved, looking into their eyes, and forcing them to do your will. You are in a position to see that something is wrong and to directly do something about it. That's not quite the same as when you buy a product that has been contributed to by many people and corporations around the world, going through a number of steps before it reaches you.

 

It is true that if a person were to be very careful about which prostitutes they employ, that would remove this particular issue, although not the others.

 

Good point, and I agree. I have only the deepest of disgust for the people who use prostitutes despite knowing or suspecting that the prostitutes were there against their will.

 

 

The main point of my post was not to say that we should try to prevent others by force or laws from doing these things, although I certainly believe force IS appropriate in actual cases of trafficking. What I am doing here is exactly the same thing that many people do when they say that fast food, high heels, etc. are potentially harmful. I’m trying to call people's attention to the idea that I think prostitution IS harmful, and a good deal more so than fast food or high heels. I'm suggesting to people that for their own sakes they should stay away from it and encourage others to freely choose to do the same.

 

I think that our culture is careful to a fault about judgementalism. We have very thoroughly gotten the message that trying to judge others or force people to do good as we see it can be counterproductive. However, I think we sometimes lose the message that it is still possible to help each other see what is harmful or not and encourage each other to stay away from the harmful things.

 

Scott

 

I understand your point, and I partially agree with it. What I am trying to point out, though, is that negative judgement of prostitutes is often more harmful to most involved than the act itself. I once read that the worst part of the job, for many consensual prostitutes, is the judgement and ostracism that society levies upon them for it. I don't think people are 'careful to a fault about judgmentalism', IMO. Many of the replies on this thread prove otherwise, in fact.

 

It is possible to help and encourage without judging, no?

[Els]

Edit: Ugh, repost.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Elswyth

[zengirl]

So I'll clarify, and say prostitutes are doing something bad and destructive to themselves and others with the profession they choose, but they have usually made the choice because of a dysfunctional childhood, often coming from homes where they have been abused, either physically or sexually, by adults.

 

Typically, as far as I can tell (and statistics are obviously imperfect when polling illegal activity), there's no reason to believe most people who are prostitutes, whether street-corner or high-end (and obviously, we're looking at a big difference in safety, lifestyle, and all around in the profession and various types of prostitution) are f-ed up, dysfunctional, or were abused. The key factor in leading them to such choices would be economic problems and a lack of opportunity, which most of the lower class face today in America. Or, additionally, with higher-class prostitutes a lack of opportunity at the same economic level AND a liking for the job. I don't really think ALL forms of prostitution are undertaken for the same reason, but I've seen no correlation in any type between dysfunctional childhoods (except the dysfunction naturally caused by poverty) and abuse and prostitution. Most prostitutes were not abused as children and most people who are abused as children do not become prostitutes; some do, of course. Drug use/abuse is fairly common among prostitutes, especially those of a lower income/class, but that's also a more common social problem for impoverished circles, in general (not that middle class and rich people can't and don't use drugs --- they so totally do; they just don't get hit with the stats as though it's a 'problem' because they're far less likely to get arrested for drug use).

 

What I am trying to point out, though, is that negative judgement of prostitutes is often more harmful to most involved than the act itself. I once read that the worst part of the job, for many consensual prostitutes, is the judgement and ostracism that society levies upon them for it. I don't think people are 'careful to a fault about judgmentalism', IMO. Many of the replies on this thread prove otherwise, in fact.

 

Very true. Certainly the idea of someone 'renting' their body out creeps me out a bit, which is why I don't respect 'the profession' (not the people). I don't respect loads of professions, though, like working on Wall Street (in trading, not on the actual street) or being a CFO that saves companies money by hiding taxes overseas, etc, etc.

 

Basically most jobs that take an MBA, I have the same respect for as I do prostitution or drug dealing or whatnot --- very little. Less, actually, as at least prostitutes and many drug dealers that aren't associated with gangs don't really harm society; prostitution and drug rings through gangs are a much bigger problem and such problems would be mitigated if such things were legalized.

 

I think everyone in the world is deeply judgmental, but I also think that's fine as you don't pose yourself as trying to "help" the people you judge OR try to legalize against them in some way that puts them at a societal disadvantage. No one has to associate with hookers or whatnot, and I don't have to associate with people who do things I disagree with either (there are seriously people I've refused to hang out with because of their jobs), but to discriminate against them in societal ways is a larger problem. I'm not sure how anyone could say we didn't when we make prostitution illegal.

[threebyfate]

Uncertain why people "must" view prostitutes and prostitution, in a positive way. It's a pretty gross occupation.

[Woggle]

Uncertain why people "must" view prostitutes and prostitution, in a positive way. It's a pretty gross occupation.

 

It is gross according to you. Others might feel differently.

[zengirl]

Uncertain why people "must" view prostitutes and prostitution, in a positive way. It's a pretty gross occupation.

 

I don't think anyone is suggesting individuals 'must' view it in a positive way. I do think it's wrong to say it's immoral or make it illegal, because legalizing someone's individual views of morality or imposing social morality on an entire society is rather "gross" to me.

 

I don't feel duty-bound to think hooking is a particularly good or productive occupation, but I really don't see how it's different from many professions no one blinks an eye at that are far grosser. At least most hookers aren't cheating anyone out of anything.