by John B
Absolutely superb comment at Liberal Conspiracy from ‘Starchild’ - reduced in full here because it’s at the bottom of a very long thread and deserves a wider audience:
In the world of Prohibitionists, prostitutes are almost all women because that way they can portray them as victims. The reality of course is that there are many male and transgender sex workers. I’m one of them. I enjoy my work, and I provide an important service by offering intimate companionship and affection to clients who may be shy, lonely, conventionally less attractive, or just too busy working to date and have a way to meet people in a romantic context. We all need love and touch, and a good massage has many health benefits too. Many of my clients have told me that seeing me has been very good for them; some have said better than going to the doctor, taking pills, or seeing a therapist. Informal therapy is often a part of what I do. Sometimes people just need someone to talk to, and to share their problems with. In some ways what I do even has a spiritual aspect. This should not surprise anyone, as history has numerous examples of cultures that had sacred sexual temple priestesses and priests, or the equivalent. It makes me sad and angry that some people want what I do to be criminalized. My clients and I don’t deserve to live with the fear of getting arrested. Why is there so much anti-sex bigotry in the world? Why can’t people be more tolerant?
Similarly, I’m enjoying a glass of wine as I write this. It’s quite likely, it being 1AM on Saturday night, that somebody else is being horribly injured in a drunken fight. The suggestion that we should criminalise prostitution because a small proportion of sex workers are coerced into the job is as silly as the suggestion that we should criminalise alcohol because a small proportion of idiots get pissed up and start fights.
Even sillier is the suggestion that prostitution is inherently wrong because it involves women, or men, or transgendered people, selling their bodies. If you believe this point of view, what the hell do you think “manual labour” is? Certainly, I’d be a rent boy rather than a coal miner or a fruit picker any day of the week. Well, if I were 10 years younger and a couple of stone lighter…
Furthermore, we already have laws to deal with those who coerce women (and men) in to prostitution.
It’s not just manual labour that is people selling themselves at risk to their health. That’s most jobs of any kind.
How on earth can we say that a prostitute has no right to sell sex? If that’s not theirs to sell what the hell is?