Well, they say that people already do that with charities and church fundraisers, etc. Yet prostitution still exists so either it's not having the desired effect of feeding all the people on the streets, or prostitutes aren't as desperate for money as Vegan describes them to be.

My guess, most of them are not trying to survive. They're trying to get enough money to feed their drug addictions. And for that, I don't have much sympathy.

Well, I had an ex about a year ago who was a very, very strong believer that prostitution and stripping were fantastic professions to work in. He was also under the delusion that most of the women involved were otherwise well-adjusted, substance-free and just doing it to get through college. It led to more than a few arguments.

In fact, when I was hard up and living in my car (completely different story), he actually encouraged me to do prostitution. His reasoning was that because he thought I enjoyed sex, I would enjoy sex with complete strangers and I would be able to "choose" my customers, so it wouldn't be "that bad". Never mind the fact that I was underage then.

/coolstorysis

Anyways, it was a ****ed up relationship and he's not an example of most men out there at all, but it obviously stuck with me. It made me wonder just how many people out there actually think the sex industry is just something "nice" girls resort to so they can graduate and leave completely unscarred with their ****-tons of money.

Also, I really don't believe it's that empowering... since most of the arguments I've heard about how empowering it is have come from men only.

Men are, for the most part, idiots when it comes to such things.

There are situations, I'm sure where a woman appears to be empowered by stripping/prostitution/pornography, but I think that in those cases it's a reaction to having been disempowered or victimized through abuse in the past.

Men will use the personal empowerment of women argument as their justification of their patronage of these "industries", but I think it's a safe bet that these are the same men who show little to no respect for women outside of that context.

I'm inclined to agree with Urban... and I think that the problem here is that the question is a little confusing as 'empowering' isn't necessarily the polar opposite of 'degrading'.

For example, if we take a man and a woman of similar abilities/background/etc. who are in the same economical situation and have rougly similar career prospects, if Person A (pick one of the two) is able to prostitute themselves out and Person B isn't (due to factors such as their appearance and demand for prostitutes of their gender etc.), then A effectively has an extra option (one more than B) for making a living and therefore, has more power than B... I think that is objectively true.

The fact that A's extra 'career option' could be considered to be of a degrading nature (subjective) doesn't invalidate that. So if A does prostitute himself/herself, A is exercising their power to perform acts which are considered by a portion of people to be self-degrading. Regardless of whether you consider Person A offering services as a prostitute to be degrading, it is (or it should be) entirely their choice.

Indeed. Prostitution under one form or another is the oldest profession in the world, despite any personal views I have.

It has been a while since I saw the documentary, mr dave, but I agree with you that it didn't necessarily show the typical experience of women who work in strip clubs. I felt the women were pretty gutsy. I don't know much about stripping beyond what I saw in that one documentary.

I wonder if a culture that allowed women and men to be shirtless in public and lacked societal prohibitions against premarital sex would tend to have fewer women working as strippers or prostitutes. I suspect female stripping and prostitution are more common in societies where women are of less value and are burdened with more social constraints on their sexuality.

By the way, for a good look at what prostitution is like in countries such as in India, the movie Salaam Bombay is excellent: Salaam Bombay! - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It's fictional but very realistic, I think.

True, some jobs can make you feel degraded...and maybe sometimes having sex feels like cleaning someone's toilet! Still, hopefully there is a slight difference between janitorial work and opening one's legs for some stinking, horrifying beast...although perhaps prostitution is preferable to working at McDonalds.:p:

I hope janitors and trash collectors don't feel degraded. Ideally, no one would feel degraded doing any job, and the difficult jobs to do (mundane, stinky ones) would get extra pay. You are right, though, that the world isn't perfect and often people are just lucky to get any work at all. I wish such desperation didn't exist.

And these are good reasons why prostitution should be illegal because..............

I'm not saying strippers are predominately one thing or another, like you do with your mind blowingly gross generalizations.

I wasn't even talking about porn stars but it's interesting how these stereotypes of being "broken down, self loathing" are only applied to the female porn stars while the male ones like Ron Jeremy are pop culture icons because they're just doing what every guy wants right?

You're probably right in that most porn star chicks are like that but you're only talking from subjective experience and not real statistics or anything. I'm saying it's wrong to apply the stereotype to EVERY woman with such an occupation. Not saying that many or even most of the women don't fit the stereotype.

I'm not painting it as empowering or healthy either but I'm not gonna say it can't be ever regardless of the type of person. Which is retarded to believe I think. It can be empowering to those that have no shame or guilt about it or don't find it degrading. I'm not denying that most women probably do find it degrading, because they have been conditioned to belief that sex is totally shameful and repulsive.

Oh f*cking please. You don't think ANY women seek out prostitutes? EVER?

YOU'RE ****ING DELUSIONAL!!! GET HELP NOW!!!

Compared to men seeking men, no. A girl could walk into a bar with legs open without paying for sex. No matter how butt ugly.

haven't you seen documentaries on prostitution? they're ALWAYS nice, well adjusted girls getting themselves through school / hard knocks.... :banghead:


@Vegangelica - it's really hard to say how things would go in a society like you described. i remember a few years ago legislation was being passed in Ontario (and possibly a few other provinces) allowing women to go topless in public. hasn't really resulted in a change in attitudes towards genders yet, nor did i ever see fresh boobs getting sun when i lived in the province either. personally, being a pessimist, i think that making it more socially acceptable and tolerated would have an increase in the behavior, though it might be easier to get treatment for those who become destructive (not unlike the way alcohol is handled).

@ BooBoo - STFU and read what Vanilla said, you really are clueless in this discussion.

I know it's much more common for men but to deny that some male prostitutes do service women is goddamn f*cking insane.

Mr. Dave clearly has a mental problem, he makes these crazy generalizations all the time and thinks the whole planet functions exactly how he experiences things personally. He's really f*cking crazy and a danger to other people, he should be locked away.