Wednesday, January 23, 2008
On the Legality of Prostitution (hey, am I blogging right now?)
For the purposes of making a point, I feel that prostitution should be legalized. This has quickly become a hot topic on the blog (I never knew there was so much drama on the world wide web.) I would firstly like to address the dialogue regarding the children of prostitutes. While sentiments of protecting the children of prostitutes from one day becoming prostitutes does seem noble, Beau and company, the reality of the matter is that keeping prostitution illegal is an ineffective means of achieving this. The naivety attached to this also implies that we wouldn't want the children of prostitutes becoming prostitutes. Now this is fine to say at current, when one can't legally be a ho, but were legalization to occur we would have to shed our preconcieved notions of the sex trade and begin to view prostitution as a legitimate profession, as it would in fact be legitimate. We would have to part ways with the stigma of prostitution that we are so culturally bestowed and transcend our prudent, medieval sexual ideology.(how do I post this, exactly?-- there will be more to come)
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2 comments:
Nice work, Goodwin! You figured it out!
A few things occur to me about this debate. First, the notion that prostitution might become a respectable and recognized profession, if only we as a society weren't so neurotically puritanical, seems rather naive. It isn't just family-values propaganda to suggest that sex has emotional content -- it's biochemistry. Paying women (or men, though the chemistry of attachment is somewhat stronger in women) to engage in sex and repress the emotional response seems both damaging and dehumanizing to me. Thoughts?
Also, what about the political implications of recognizing prostitution as a legitimate job? Most of you have admitted that you hope your own daughters don't grow up to be prostitutes; yet, if it is legitimized, suddenly these women are considered to be fully and productively employed, and society is no longer worried about them or their well-being. There go the social programs, incentive toward higher education, etc. And, as Will pointed out in class, if those things go away for the "legitimate" practitioners, they will also be rendered less available or even unavailable to the underclass of prostitutes working outside the establishment.
Goodwin that is a very good point.
and to answer Ms.Connell's question about women having a stronger emotional response. I do agree that it is true...but this could be a huge generalization..however I feel that if it was a profesion the women would have a this is my job mind set... and it would maybe be easier to detach those emotions.
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