I am going to be frank. I hate that Prostitution is only legal in one state. The economic reality of the situation is that it is gives Nevada room to charge exorbitant fees for sex. It also creates a sexual black market that opens up both men and women to be scammed out of money, abused, or in worse cases lead to their deaths.
I know the US has a heritage in Judeo-Christian values. However I truly believe that our government was designed to be secular. I know that it's not written directly in the Constitution, but the principle of "separation of church and state" is inherently a part of the US history. In the first amendment it even states that Congress will pass no law favoring a religion.
The truth is that neither party has the political will or power to actually do anything. The GOP is full of evangelical power brokers who see prostitution as a sin and will never support it. The Democrats are full of radical feminists who hate prostitution because they detest ANYTHING that brings heterosexual men pleasure. They also see prostitution as a economic system that exploits women exclusively.
The irony is that both groups fail to acknowledge that prostitution is mostly the CHOICE of most of the women who participate in it. Porn acting is also a CHOICE that most women make. The people being exploited, if at all, are the men who engage in buying the adult content or services of the women involved.
There are many cases of women and men being trafficked in depraved circumstances. I believe some form of law enforcement and restriction should be placed so that innocent people are not taken advantage of. However, an adult willingly selling their sexual services to another adult is a victimless crime.
On a more secular level of thinking, I think prostitution is banned for similar reasons as certain drugs with very low lethality rating. It is mainly a form of control agreed upon by multiple political parties and special interests groups. Conservatives want to push traditional nuclear families and prostitution provides a cheaper alternative to that result. It also lacks the legal requirements that enable going after a person for taxes and childcare. Liberals want it gone because women benefit from the divorce-alimony game in the family court systems. Divorce heavily favors women and allows the reallocation of wealth and resources. Prostitution acts as a hard counter to this and even serves as a "soft competition" for the would be future wife or husband.
I acknowledge there are a plethora of benefits to marriage. I am not discussing those today because my primary goal was to defend prostitution. We have a sitting President who participated in this act yet we all have to pretend it never happened. This level of selective ignorance just further proves that argument of morality being a basis for laws is at best foolish and misguided.
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last commentThe idea that divorce benefits women and screws men is simply total bullshit. Such a fucked up belief.
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@ skibum609, explain yourself please. I want to hear this. It's common knowledge that divorce is designed to destroy the financial resources of the man. The only condition where this doesn't happen is if the woman makes more money. Even then, it's based primarily on who wins custody and unless a woman is in seriously bad condition (basically a criminal or mentally/physically impaired) she wins.
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Why is it illegal in most of the West, then, including countries far less religious than America?
On one side it's religion, on one side it's feminism.
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The constitutional argument stems from labor law. Its illicit labor. The moralistic arguments influence local ordinances ie lewdness etc.
As for drugs. Classification is based on the viral dose for levels of impairment.
Theres no conspiracy or weird shit behind it.
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Sex positive feminists are the most vocal pro prostitution group
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^ How many are sex positive, though?
Most feminists, seems like their vaginas have frozen shut from disuse.
They could make it not illicit easily enough, it's circular.
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It's not clear Trump engaged in prostitution. He foolishly thought Daniels would fuck him without getting a financial benefit.
The problem with legal prostitution in Nevada is it forces the sex worker to have a pimp aka brothel owner.
Many social conservatives see sex workers as degenerates, attacking monogamy for financial gain. But people more broadly are inclined to see sex workers as victims. They don't see the occupation as something someone could every come out ahead by doing. Belittling and hateful attitudes towards sex workers, as often seen on this website, support the viewpoint that doing sex work is never a good long term option.
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@ ilbbaicnl, just so we are clear, I am okay with sex work. The entire reason for this post is that I support sex work and would like to see brothels and red light districts in more than one state. I didn't think most of the posters disliked sex work. I think people get upset because they believe a sex worker scammed them (which does happen).
Ironically, legalized sex work eliminates most of these problems (because legit business needs returning customers).
In my ideal world, The US should have about 6 or 7 "red light zones" that compete with each other but have strict state regulations. These areas obviously would be located a good enough distance away from mainstream society (likely a place that has a low chance of gentrification). There are a bunch of other regulations I would add similar to strip clubs and international brothels.
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OWL - What you cite as common knowledge is simply a bunch of people who all believe in the same thing, despite it being wrong, based on their limited experience and subjective biases. I will explain. 50+ years ago men worked outside the home and most women were homemakers. The man earned the income, accumulated the assets, and being human, when its the house you bought, the pension you earned, the 401k that you saved, gets split up you think you're getting screwed You were as long as there was no monetary value on raising the kids cleaning the house, running the errands, laundry, dishes, cooking, doctor's appointments etc. If you view a marriage as a partnership, she made him able to do this, but he fails to value her contribution at all, hence getting screwed.
You actually know this because you mention women getting screwed if they earn more money. If that is the case, then it has jack shit to do with gender, and is all based on the gender neutral issue of earnings. It's their incorrect perception, not a fact.
It is also true that whomever gets custody of the children, gets part of the other's paycheck. Judge Catherine Sabaitas always used to say: "Ma'am I am ordering you to receive child support. Its not going to be enough. Sir, I am ordering you to pay child support, it is going to be more than you can afford. I wish I could be fair, but with expenses doubling (2 households) and no commensurate increase in income, its all I can do".
My opinion? The custodial parent gets the short end of the stick. As far as father's getting custody? All things being exactly equal men have a 40% chance of getting custody. I have 7 custody cases going to trial in the next 12 months, 5 are for men and I expect 3-4 to win.
My point of view is based on my parents having 5 divorces between them; 5 step-parents; 1 year representing people in divorce court while at Law School and 43 years, about 7,500 days spent, in divorce court watching this bullshit for hours, but not since 11:30 this morning.
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Puddytat most feminists are sex positive. They support prostitution and porn and promote women profiting off it for themselves. They oppose the sex industry being male dominated not yhe industry itself.
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Ibbaicnl I think sex work is very main stream. Look at pop culture. The stripper aesthetic female rappers use. The presence of sex workers dating athletes rappers etc. the prominence of civvies doing of and p4p. Its mainstream.
If anything people ignore the negative factors that force women into sex work
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To make it not illicit labor theyd have to change federal labor laws. Tax codes etc
US cities had red light districts up to prohibition
In LA the former DA turned a blind eye to it. Now the conservative one is cracking down on it.
Strip clubs, massage parlors, escort agencies skirt the laws. But when they go down its always about taxation and illicit labor makes it money laundering.
Congress could change the laws. But they dont want to.
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@Skibum609 youre correct in that divorce rulings are gender neutral and biased against whoever made more money.. but i have heard women overwhelmingly get custody in child support cases.
I dont see how you can possibly argue the custodial parent gets the short end of the stick. Because they have to take the kid to school and doctor appointments?
And the child support system is completely flawed, as is the divorce system. You mention things like the wife 50 years ago raising the kid, driving them around feeding them, and not being compensated. Thats true they deserve some compensation, but it doesnt mean they deserve hundreds of thousands just for taking care of the kid. If you hired a caretaker to do all that stuff the cost would be like 30k a year or even less. And the wife was getting free housing, free food and bills paid so she already got some compensation.
Being married to someone shouldnt entitle you to their wealth.
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The feminism camp has two parties, one extremely pro sex work, and the other anti sex work who believe sex workers are always getting screwed whether sex work is illegal or legal.
Prostitution clients are overwhelmingly male, even clients of male prostitutes. So the people voting against legalization are usually going to be religious people, women who dont want men having access easy paid pussy, and also parents who are worried that legalization will lead to their kids getting into prostitution. And there’s probably some guys who are worried their wife or girl would get into it with legalization.
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@icey “ If anything people ignore the negative factors that force women into sex work”
Yeah but the solution definitely isnt socialistic policies domestically, let alone forcing taxpayer dollars to be given to places like colombia, bolviia, cuba, dominican republic etc just so you can reduce prostitution lol. Yoi can perhaps improve some domestic factors but reducing those factors worldwide is impossible
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“ the 401k that you saved, gets split up you think you're getting screwed You were as long as there was no monetary value on raising the kids cleaning the house, running the errands, laundry, dishes, cooking, doctor's appointments etc. If you view a marriage as a partnership, she made him able to do this, but he fails to value her contribution at all, hence getting screwed.”
Those activities are worth at most 20-30k a year of compensation, but the wife was already also being compensated via free food and free rent.
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