20/20 prostitution in america....

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"I'm not saying it's immoral, I'm simply saying that it's not a good thing"

Whatahuh?

So the standard by which something should be made illegal now is if it's "not a good thing to be involved in"? Really?

Having a tough time with the definition of "personal"?

I said that your argument was old, tired and cliched, and it was. I made no statements about you personally.

For the record, I will state right now that I have absolutely no knowledge of your age, how well-rested you are, or whether or not you have been overused to the point of losing your intended force or novelty.

Happy?

Why not? It's not like making it illegal has been so useful.

"Make it easy for young people to obtain"? Where did you pull that strawman out of? We have age-based restrictions for other drugs in this country (alcohol and cigarettes), don't we?

So the government shouldn't raise your children. just be their nanny.

"Think of the children!" Speaking of old, tired and cliched arguments....

In any case, children-raising is an irrelevant argument (and I'm a little embarrassed that I let you take me down that road) since we're talking about the actions of consenting adults. Children have nothing to do with it.

It doesn't read any better the second time through.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

Please show me where the sentence you quoted appears in my message? You took segments of two, separate sentences and pieced them together to change the meaning of the original message.

When I say "not a good thing", I am not speaking to the morality/immorality of the act, I am simply saying I do not believe people selling their bodies for money is good for their psychological well being. Do you disagree on this point?

There is the argument that the mere fact prostitution is illegal is what stigmatizes the act and is what causes the damage to a prostitutes psyche... and I would certainly concede there is a grain of truth to that position. That said, if prostitution were legal do you really think it is something the prostitute will look back on and be glad they did? I think not.

 

Prostitutes don't sell their body for money any more than ditch diggers do.

So you're positing that all prostitutes' psyches get damaged? Whats your source? What damage has been shown to occur to prostitutes in legal Nevada brothels or in other places where it's legal (like Amsterdam)?

Same with ditch diggers. Or garbage workers...

 

I was parsing your statment and rephrasing it into what it meant. It may not necessarily be what you meant to say, but it's what you said.

You said that the zealots who opposed alcohol did so because they believed alcohol use was immoral. You then said (quoting exactly) "That is not the argument I am making against prostitution, I am simply saying prostitution is not a good thing".

So how is that different from my paraphrasing?

I disagree that it is automatically bad for their psychological well being.

Actually I don't.

If a person is going to have their psyche damaged by the act of prostitution itself, I imagine that the damage would occur even if it's legal.

Well, first of all, you're speaking in absolutes, so you're automatically wrong. I'm sure some will look back on it fondly and some will not. Even if I grant your premise that every single one of them look back on it with bitter memories, I don't see how that's an argument for making it illegal.

Many people clean toilets for a living. How many of them will look back on that fondly?

 

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busyba

 

I thought on the show they were talking specifically about HIV. I can't imagine they've never detected any STD among legal brothel workers.

 

I usually watch 20/20 (at least on my other recorder where I can watch at 1.5x with sound), but for this one, I realized I didn't care, and after a minute or two, just FFed through it, only watching a few minutes that directly referred to Spitzer.

 

Did anyone watch the last Bill Maher show? Sen. Barney Frank, a great American, said that he will be introducing legislation that would legalize possesion of small amounts of marijuana. He also mentioned legislation to legalize prostitution as well.
Don't hold you breath on it passing.

 

She's not necessarily choosing to be forcibly prevented from disassociating herself from her pimp at some later point in time, and that is the only aspect I'm addressing. Maybe that's part of the agreement up front, in which case I'd agree. Still, if it were legal that wouldn't even be an issue.

 

Yep. Saw that.
Maher: Why did you wait so long to introduce it?
Frank: I finally thought I could get away with it.

His bill on legalizing private sex was something he introduced when he was in the MA legislature, not the U.S. House of Representatives.

 

Holy crap! Private sex isn't legal?!?! Man, that's going to be a problem.

 

Not everything is legal between two consenting adults, even if money isn't involved.

 

It's was a problem for quite some time. Lawrence v. Texas made it less of one, but it's still a problem in certain instances.

 

Some private sex is legal and some private sex is illegal.

 

Putting money aside, I believe there are a lot of people who have had consensual sex with someone and wasn't glad they did.

 

No doubt.

 

I'm a female. I didn't see this particular program (only because I didn't know about it), but I am not against prostitution. In my state it is legal in most counties and they are clean, well run businesses. They pay taxes and it is just a job for those involved. I am glad that it is legal because that is certainly a better avenue to take if one makes the choice to pay for it.

I don't think that it negatively impacts society one bit. Quite the contrary. I don't think you can blame the industry for married men partaking. I would think that their broken committment falls back on them as they go to the brothels looking for it, not the reverse. Granted, in the case of street hookers, they could be solicited but they still make the decision.

Having known quite a few prostitutes over the years (I used to work in a vanity business and had many of them as customers), what I probably found most fascinating was that many of them were married and this was just their job. Their husbands were fine with it and it was just normal life for them. As much as I have nothing against the industry, I think if I were a man I would not want my wife to be a prostitute. But then it's not for me to judge what is right for others either.

 

They may have detected it, that I don't know. There is a difference between a prostitute having an STD and transmitting it.

 

If the girls have to get tested before they can work there, and they force all the johns to wear condoms, and they keep up with the tests every week, I think it's pretty realistic that they wouldn't have any STDs reported.

 

Condoms sometimes fail. Rules get broken. STDs can get transmitted via sexual contact that is not intercourse. STDs can get transmitted through non-sexual contact. Some of the women have sexual relationships outside of the brothel.

I don't think it's realistic at all that no legal prostitute, being checked regularly, would ever be found to have an STD of any sort.