When I was young and poor, I lived in a neighbourhood renowned for prostitution. I worked nights and would wait for a bus on a corner opposite from a coffee house that was sort of the break area for the 'working girls'. Initially, I was harassed by them as an intruder until they figured out I was jsut waiting for the bus and not a competitor.

I really have little animosity towards the women who have the misfortune to work servicing men. I was a little curious about them and it felt weird to be looked at as a fellow working girl by them. After a while they would joke with me from across the street. When I would run into one of them during the day, we would say hi. Nothing else, but no animosity either.

That was saved for the men.

I do have a real loathing of the men who want to buy a vagina to jack off in. Sorry if this sounds harsh but that is what it seems to me to be the case. Those men did not, nor did they want to look at the hookers as humans. They were just vaginas, assholes and mouths to be bought.

When I lived in that neighbourhood, I was DAILY harassed by men. I was just your ordinary 20-ish young woman. Not your Hollywood depiction of a hooker, not the reality of high heels and short skirts (which was the fashion in that neighbourhood)

So - there was NOTHING that indicated I was a hooker EXCEPT the fact that I was a young female and as such, had a vagina that could be bought.

And to the men: I was followed and whispered at. I was grabbed. I was verbally assaulted. I was followed by men in cars saying "pssst" to me and nodding their head to the car. I was once even accousted by a man with a 5 year old boy (his son?) in the back seat. Once a man was jacking off in his cars as he cruised, following me and saying some really nasty shit to me as I tried to ignore his presence. I was harassed. And only because I had a vagina. Wow! Did that make me feels great! Wasn't I a valued member of the human race!

Most of the time I tried to act like they didn't exist. It was hard to do - especially when I was grabbed. I hit. I kicked. I dumped milkshakes in the cars. I told them to fuck off. I told them their mothers must be so proud of them. Talking back made men angry. I'm a very fast runner.

So - - - what will legalising prostitution do for women?

Will it make men look at a woman on the street with more respect than I was treated to?

What it did was reduce the respect I had for all men - as I saw so many different types of men (well to do and not) behaving in the same manner while they sought a vagina to buy. That disrespect has been tempered over time, but anytime this subject comes up or some high profile skankiness hits the media - I am reminded of those men and that neighbourhood. Have men changed so much since that time?

I saw no man so hideous that the only way he could get sex was to buy it. A lot of men had rings on. Come on, my evaluation was that a lot of those men had wives or probably girlfriends but they just wanted to jack off in a bought vagina.

As long as men look at women as potential prostitutes, they will not be very respectful of women, prostitute or not. Because all can be, or might be, bought.

Someone may have been right when they said the only way you could get to a "good" type of prostition is when humans return to Goddess worship.

as long as male sexuality is not identical to female sexuality, or at least as long as men are not forced to behave as though it is, women are not secure and therefore not free

Are you saying that women will never be secure or free as long as men are free to express their sexuality? I kind of says that to me.

Does prostitution exist as an expression of male sexuality?