Legalise prostitution to counter feminism (yes really)

Oh, sorry, that was trying to be an analogy! If Jane wants to do something distasteful/criminal that isn't related to sex, does Hakim (the twatbadger) also think it's fine for her to pay someone to do that?

Hotel rooms, serviced apartments. Condoms, lube, tissues, babywipes, showergel, sheets and towels, washing powder, electricity. Restaurants, bars, theatres, taxi drivers, flower, perfume and chocolate sellers... The sex industry isn't only street prostitution.

Jane is a privileged white woman and she feels like being racist today. Is hakim going to advocate providing her with a black person she can pay to assault and harass to "contain" her urges?

Of course not, because it's an obscene and demeaning idea.

What a twatbadger.

It'll include stuff like ann summers, lass. And I think some prostitutes pay taxes, as Do other cash in hand workers.

The sex industry is estimated to be worth over four billion pounds to the British economy

In what sense is it of any worth to the economy? Most of it will be going through the black economy.

Well it's like saying, some people like punching nurses in the face. This is not what we want, but there will always be people who punch nurses in the face. So, we need to provide people who are prepared to dress as nurses and act like nurses to be punched in the face. This hopefully will stop actual nurses from being punched in the face. Oh, and the people who dress as nurses and get punched, they get well paid for it and hold all the cards so really it's a positive choice for them.

or something

Terrible analogy I know. And someone will come along and say, sex isn't like being punched in the face. Well no, but the author wants to supply women in order to stop men raping. So logically she must mean supply women for them to rape, as sex and rape are not the same thing. Additionally, plenty of prostitutes are subjected to violent attacks including being punched in the face. So, there you go.

I just think that there are many professions where you might need protecting from Joe Public being violent so I didn't sense that anyone was trying to create a separation, more just focusing on the problem in question

Yes but the police, ambulance service, fire service,social workers, animal cruelty inspectors, NHS A&E, even lawyers acting for accused persond are there fundamentally to serve society and to try to make the circumstances of those they are dealing with in particular better and in general to try to make the world a better place for us all to live.

Some of these people individually might be personally hopeless or even corrupt but that is irrelevant to their raison d'etre. They have a purpose. On the whole many things would be somewhere between bloody awful to intolerable if they didn't do their job.

Who does prostitution serve? Would the world be a worse place it ceased to be a thing?

I don't see what is so problematic about imagining a world where prostitution didn't exist.

No, NAAALT. That one isn't covering them in glory though (you do).

Buffy, I thought that might be what you meant.

I just think that there are many professions where you might need protecting from Joe Public being violent so I didn't sense that anyone was trying to create a separation, more just focusing on the problem in question.

""As economists recognise (Levitt and Dubner 2009: 54-55), the puzzle is
not why intelligent and attractive women become prostitutes, but rather
why more women are not tempted into this lucrative occupation."

...........

Not sure what to say to that one"

How about this - after you, Catherine. But no, too busy being a "researcher" and criticising every other woman isn't she. Really brings a bad name to academia.

Buffy - yes, I am saying I can't imagine a world where some people want to pay for sex. I can't imagine a world where some men at least won't just see women as bodies and think they should be able to pay to use them.

That may be depressing but I'm afraid I think it's reality. I'm never one to have these conversations in any kind of "ideal world" context though.

I have been very careful to say "some men" because I do think that is important.

Maybe in 2000 years we might have a world where only a tiny tiny percentage feel that way about women. But I don't tend to think that far ahead

I'm not sure what you mean about men being removed from discussions on safety to be honest.

achieve also not just "poor men" but also the threat - if we don't give men access to as much and whatever type of sex they want, they will just take it aka rape.

Such a low opinion of men

Also someone needs to explain about wanking to her

It's a really grimy little piece isn't it.

The part about "why on earth don't more women choose to be prostitutes, it's a great job, it's really odd that they don't" in conjunction with saying there are no problems with trafficking anywhere (basically), not mentioning child exploitation, and saying that people who are legal or illegal migrants who are selling sex it's because they feel all footloose and fancy free like they're on holiday....

It's not a serious article though is it? I mean, I can see she's published it, but it's not a "proper" scientific thing surely, it's so blatant in it's agenda.

I hear you Buffy. It's just me thinking in a very practical sense of the safety of sex workers. Realistically, I can't imagine living in a world where sex workers don't exist, so I hadn't even factored that in to be honest.

I was thinking more that I am annoyed that in spite of practical and safety related reasons for (maybe) legalising it, this woman has come up with an argument that reads - to me - like "oh the poor men!! They aren't getting enough sex! We must urgently reduce barriers to men getting sex!!"

I have just realised this woman wrote "honey money". Hrmph.

Buffy ISWYM.

Perhaps I didn't phrase it well. I was thinking of the fact that Hakim's argument is based entirely around her perception of "men's needs", whereas the only arguments I would see in favour of legalising prostitution would be about better protection for the workers.

"Hakim has enough resources and citations that ignoring what she writes will only happen if your ideology is set in stone and you can't view anything objectively."

She really can't imagine a world where men don't buy women for sex. One where women aren't objects for men's sexual desire.

That's not really an objective base to start from.