Asehpe, you're the non-traditional, level-headed, egalitarian father we never had.

Thanks for keeping the topic civil.

Selling your vagina for money is different than selling your brain (and otherwise mortgaging your life out) for one reason: Everyone else thinks so.

At least in this country prostitution has such a christian-right stigma that even the most liberal person you know may still believe it's wrong (immoral).

I by no means agree, but as long as the puritanical viewpoint prevails, there will never be legalized, regulated sex salespeople in this country.

And as for your first point: can't we pay taxes to legalize and regulate prostitution and all those other things like 'legitimate' job opportunities too? It's a fine argument to say we should spend the money elsewhere, but the plain fact is that prostitution ain't going away any time soon. As long as we have penises and vaginas, there will always be sex for sale. Shouldn't we take steps to make it safer?

@knecht:

If this were an either/or equation, of course I would want option A over option B. However, I don't think it's impossible that we could have A and B. I think that legitimizing prostitution, even 'endorsing' it would lead to it becoming an actual profession just like every thing else, no more prone to attracting damaged people (read: women with no other/better choices) than any other job.

@CeliaInSF:

I think you may have misunderstood me. I actually would prefer to have prostitution legalized. I've always been a big believer in Carlin's "Why is it illegal to sell something that's perfectly legal to give away for free?". Plus I'm a big fan of pornography, which is just prostitution on film. So don't get me wrong, please. I was merely responding to knecht's post...

and I don't disagree that prostitution is 'effectively' decriminalized here, but words like 'effectively' and 'virtually' and simply other words for 'not yet'.

It's like marijuana. It's 'effectively' decriminalized in California, but don't think that means you can walk down the street smoking a joint, or that the bud you buy in clubs is 'safe'.

I think that prostitution should be legalized like legitimate massage and other physical therapy is. It should be regulated so both the workers and patrons are safe, and taxed if need be to ensure that happens. Those ads in the back of the paper are sure there all right, but they're not what I would call 'safe' and you're taking a personal risk every time you call one. That's what I'd like to see end.

Legalizing, regulating, even taxing prostitution would make it as legitimate as any other occupation, subject to child labor laws just like eveything else.

Of course, my original post was to point out that this whole thing is a nice intellectual excercise, but with the current powers-that-be being in power, and with a large proportion of the poulation agreeing with them, it's not bloody likely to happen in my lifetime.

Asehpe has pretty much addressed all the issues I had, and in a more in-depth fashion than I would have.

So... What he said! ;-)

However, I think, Asehpe, that your posts may be so long-winded that some of your points get lost and people glom onto the one point they do get out of it (usually the first or last). You might be doing yourself a favor by breaking them up a little more.

Go ahead and put that book down too. Men don't like women who can read. Knitting? That's bad too, since men don't want women who are able to function independently. And while we're on the subject, you don't really think men want women who drink, do you? Do why don't you go ahead and pack up and go home. That's where men want women and that's the only place you'll ever impress one.

Wait, you don't already have a man at home to impress? Well, I guess you'll have to meet one at the grocery store, since that's the only place that men actually expect to see women. Of course, since men don't want to do any shopping themselves and expect the women to do it, good luck finding one there...

So, how does one meet a Count anyway?

I wouldn't want anyone classifying this Countess as a 'woman' any more than I would want people to look at me and classify me as an 'Anony'.

I'm male in case you didn't get that.

As many people here will attest to, feminism is about one thing: equality.

Preferring a machine to a man is really more like sexism if you ask me... (Specism? Animism? Chordotism?)

If NYC would just allow people to carry stun guns, I think the number of incidents would drop sharply...

I mean, you're allowed to carry an gun if you have a permit for it, but a less-than-lethal weapon is illegal? Couldn't we just have permits for those too?

Brightstar, I actually agree with your post! Yeesh, what's next? Parson Jim saying the iPhone isn't all it's hyped up to be?

Thanks for a thoughtful contribution.

Right on! I agree with every one of your points, especially the one about Israel. Why everyone thinks Israel is a country worth defending (or even rooting for) is beyond me. They are the mini-me of America, and they're just as evil as we are.

As an example, the Israeli Air Force is considered one of the most powerful in the world. And it's because we gave them all their aircraft and trained their pilots! They are nothing more than a puppet government we set up to appease a certain portion of our population. And, by the way, we took the land from the people who rightfully lived there for generations in order to do so...

And before anyone accuses me: I have nothing against people of Jewish descent.