to think that truely feminist stance on prostitution, is to support legalisation?

[StuckInTheMiddleWithYou]

I recently moved to an inner city area.

There is a known brothel here and a homeless shelter.

I have seen some very sad, desperate sights walking past our home lately.

I wouldn't want any child of mine involved in this trade, however this does strike as something which desperately needs regulating - for the sake of the women, girls and boys involved.

Prohibition has failed miserably.

AIBU?

The purposeful lurches into emotive phrasing like "selling women" (which isn't in any way the definition of prostitution) really doesn't help either, imo, especially when links are constantly made to other, possibly illegal, activities.

I am usually strongly in favour of legalization and certainly think it would be a more rational approach to the drug trade, however if you look at the research evidence (at least that which is relatively easily available) from countries that have legalised or regulated prostitution there is no evidence to suggest that it decreases the amount of prostitution or increases the safety of prostitutes (in fact there appears to be a correlation with a rise in trafficking and violence). Evidence from Sweden is a little more equivocal, I don't think that it's possible to say that they have the answer - and even if they did the way that they have decided to manage things is not necessarily exportable.

The other thing to bear in mind is that this is not a neutral topic, not only is there the issue of why women end up in prostitution (generally an act of desperation not choice) but the more fundamental one of why men choose to use prostitutes (use being the operative word) - there is some really very depressing and somewhat scary research on the attitudes of at least some of the men and what it does to society if that is normalised.

Bad enough that young men think it OK to go off to a strip joint on a Friday night after work, but how would it be if your colleagues came in to work on a Monday morning and boasted about what they had done with a prostitute? Or your son, husband or father? Or if you had to see adverts on the bus/tube/TV all about women for sale. Would that not have a generally dehumanizing effect on all women? I find it uncomfortable enough to see the ads for porn channels on cable and the billboards for strip nights on my local high street. I worry a lot about the impact on my son and daughter, and if buying sex was legal there would be a hell of a lot more advertising/exposure.

no poster has compulsion to reveal why a topic is of interest.certainly if they spontaneously volunteer reason,fair enough.but certainly one doesnt have too give an insightful reflective reason for posting/posts/topic can provoke a response for a myriad of reasons.demanding to know why anyone posts is over bearing.dont have to accept anyone else pov or subjective account ,but not on to demand reasons for any posting

The key here is to protect the women, making it illegal to buy sex won't actually help the women's conditions the same things will happen although the numbers may fall they will still be significant. Sweden still has prostitution occurring and their neighbouring countries have had an increase in prostitution the problem has only moved not been solved.

Not all models that apply to a country can easily be shipped and applied to another country. I think adaptations and modifications should be done but having highly regulated legal 'brothels' which undergo frequent inspections would be the best way to deal with this.

If legal brothels are available it should lower the number of punters that would even go to a coerced/trafficked woman. And if highly regulated then it will also make sure that trafficked woman are not pumped into legal brothels making it harder for the people who do these things.

What this will do is improve the safety of the women involved, decrease illegal pimps and traffickers and allow all involved to go to the police willingly if they notice something suspicious.

How confusing!

Allo allo allo, is the Guild of Harlots crew in town? This thread is making me feel vulnerable to exploitation. I might have to to go and mainline a bag of brown in a mo.

Actually I am giggling over my tea here. I did this of formulating a long reply then I though....ah fuckit.

In a nutshell:
Whoring is legal.
We have enough protection (thank you)
We CAN go to the police y'know, because erm....prostitution is LEGAL unlike beating up women
Stop persecuting women working together (this is happening in Scotland atm where police are hassling independant working girls in flats and hotels-mainly as a result of this media driver human trafficking frenzy
Prosecute brothel owners.
No we don't need 'watching' or 'checking up on' thanks anyway

xxxxxxxx

'think' not 'this'.
That'll teach me to type with one hand (i'm smoking crack with the other)

Dittany I saw your comment after I posted but like I said not all models should be lifted from their place of origin and put on another country you will find they probably won't work well anyway. Modifications should be done see where others have gone wrong and try to make a change, as it is now women who live and work together for safety can be prosecuted for pimping/controlling, this is not right. Most women in prostitution in the the UK are not trafficked or forced into it, although many do it because they need the money, some have expensive drug habits whilst others do it because they have no problem with it. No matter the reason they went into it they have the right to safety for doing something which is legal in this country.

hello blackbess. can i ask how you happened upon this thread? are you a namechanger?

Dittany, life is not all seriousness. It's ok to laugh-even at heroin addicts. Some addicts even laugh too would you believe it

"The evaluation concludes that, since the law came in to force in 1999, the number of women involved in street prostitution has halved,"

"Advertising of prostitution through the internet has increased in Sweden"

You don't get it Dittany - it has not gone away. It is elsewhere, where you can't see it, and where people cannot access help and support!

I swear you are not interested in actually helping women - you just want to punish the evil men for everything.