This is the
last entry you can comment on for the month of December.
Is sex work
a legitimate choice which should become a legal profession? Does it make sense to criminalise seeing a
prostitute, but not being one? Would
legalisation make it more prevalent in our society, or would it simply make it
easier to regulate? Do you think the legalisation of this industry could ever
occur in Slovakia (as it has in Germany or the Netherlands)?
Well, I believe sex work is a legitimate work, and I agree with the article that sex workers are no victims. However, I am concerned about the part promoting decriminalization over legalization. I understand Canadian C-36 bill is well aimed, but it creates a situation when state can’t help the customer in case he/she becomes a subject of a fraud, what affects the demand and probably makes the clients somewhat nervous. Decriminalization of the industry could be a great step forward.
ReplyDeleteHowever, prostitution could be considered a demerit good, similar to alcohol, drugs or tobacco,therefore some regulation is needed. In society, prostitution is manytimes connected with problems harming the society, such as breaking relationships or work problems. I see why women this article mentions (such as Ms French) do not consider legalization a good solution, as their earnings would probably be affected by the regulation, however, prostitution is a business which in the end has some downsides for the customer.
There is one thing I do not like about this article. In the introduction, it seems like many prostitutes are for decriminalization and there are almost no problems in the industry. However, the way the article tries to support these claims is a bit strange, as it offers an interview with probably the richest sex worker in Canada, who is businesswoman in this industry. I can’t stop the feeling something is missing in this article.
This has been always a controversial topic. The main problem with its legalization or at least decriminalization is that how one is able to distinguish between the workers in sex industry who do it voluntarily and those who were pushed to this kind of job just because of lacking money. This article is mainly talking about strippers and workers who do porn – the one who come into no physical contact. But what about real prostitutes who offer their body to complete strangers and let them do whatever they want? Even though some people such as Bella French can enjoy their job, there are so many women struggling with drugs or any other addictions and therefore are in a need of money and many men (or women but usually this type of prostitutes is represented by women, so the one who pay for it are men) just abuse them because they know these prostitutes would do anything for money. Bella French mentioned as positive examples women who make a lot of many with no physical contact – she only talked about cam girls.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, it doesn’t have to be that hard to talk about legalization in porn and web cam industry. It could be treated similarly as any other movies and there could be given some copyright laws. On the other hand, it is a completely different story with prostitutes. You have no evidence if they did their job properly for the amount of money they were paid, so the client cannot complain because it is a word against a word. Similarly, if a client abuses a prostitute or she was underpaid, there is almost no way for this to be proved because it is very subjective and with almost no evidence it is almost impossible to tell who is right.
When speaking about decriminalization versus legalization I must agree with Andrej and not with the article. I see no reason why it should not be legalized if they want it to be a job like any other. There has to be some regulation otherwise people will always perceive sex work as something inappropriate because for many, word illegal means the same thing as a word bad.