(replying to some postings where people were blaming both the women in some random news report where a married man was caught with a prostitute)
I don’t think it’s not the wife’s ‘fault’ at that point either. It’s the husband that is not only being unfaithful, but doing so in a way that is devoid of what you’re saying the wife is supposed to do… be attractive and a good lover. All the guy has to have to hire a prostitute is money. He could be a horrible, nasty, rude, smelly, fat, repulsive, murderous bastard.. and if he had enough money, he could screw the most beautiful prostitute in all the land. So saying that the wife needs to do a better job is a moot point, since the only person that does have to do a good job in this situation is the prostitute.
Also, on this level, it’s the same as the drug problem. You can fight the war on drugs all you want, but it’s never really going to change anything. They will ALWAYS find a way to get the product to the buyer. But if there was no demand, there would be no supply. So it’s stupid to prosecute whores any worse than the men that use them. The average street hooker is there because she can’t do much else besides be attractive and undiscriminant. Her need for money is the driving force, she needs it to survive. Just about EVERY ‘john’ on the other hand, is there because they choose to be. They don’t have to do this to survive. They do it because they’re either too ugly, selfish, careless, or clueless to seduce a woman… probably their own wife most of all. They just want to get off at the emotional expense of others. I mean, it would be different if the husband were going to the hooker for the purpose of self-improvement or therapy. Or if the prostitute were hired by both the husband and the wife for sexual enrichment of the marrige.. But in most cases, it very much is not. If it were, I would then also see even less reason for it to be illegal…which kind of brings up a larger point.
Why is sex for hire even illegal? Why are illegal drugs illegal? In both cases, it doesn’t appear to be doing much good. Both problems are rampant in our and other societies, and the illegality creates harbors for violent criminal behavior. Why? Because they’re the most profitable things to be illegal. Making them illegal really doesn’t solve anything, it just makes them more dangerous. Think if prostitution could become legal to the point of organizations forming for the purpose of training, certifying, sanctioning and unionizing the industry. Pimps would become rapidly extinct, replaced by trained security. Gone would be the abuse and danger in the prostitute’s profession. At this point they could be seen and hired in the same way as doctors and psychologists (or, well..psychiatrists). I think that would be a healthy improvement for both all the people involved and the society that contains them. They would have a recognized purpose, and be regular productive members of society.. In other words: paying taxes, keeping the place of business up to code, and providing a range of other jobs maintaining the day to day operations of the establishment. Also for all the girls that fall into this world because they have no other place to go, this could provide (if they chose to continue with it) actually, a good place to go. Instead of wandering the street and dealing daily with the possibility of being killed, raped, robbed, or any number of other things; they could be getting student loans or scholorships to study to become certified in the field of sex. I mean, if it’s the best thing they know how to do or enjoy the most, they should be able to get the proper training to be as successful as they can be in order to pay back the (government or institutional) subsidies that gave them the leg up. Good for the people, good for the economy. More money in circulation and less homeless on the streets. No need for the mixture by location of sex and crime.
Being secretive and criminal about providing sex (or drugs) for hire only encourages other forms of crime, because of the mind-set that surrounds most things of a criminal nature. Gangs wouldn’t grow as large or have as many reasons to shoot eachother if you could buy drugs at the drug store. Pimps and street hookers would be out of a job if you could hire sex specialists at the sex clinic. Organized crime, really can’t be a very powerful force if it can’t traffic something that is both illegal and highly in demand. If drugs and sex for hire became legally providable by everyone else, the price would go down, the danger level would disappear, and the government could actually DO something about the problems that do exist with addictive behaviours. Just think if all the money that currently goes into manpower and weaponry for fighting the ‘wars’ on drugs and prostitution could instead be spent on programs to provide aid to the people that are destructively addicted to one or the other (or something else entirely). That would take care of the problem at the source, not by trying to fight the supplier..which is pointless. And why would this be easier? Because there would be no need for secrecy by either of these businesses. Their records by law would be as open as any other business, and their clientel could be easily referred to or found by these programs. With disclosure comes the ability to track down problems..and track them, to the very place they begin.
Where would the organized crime lords go in all this? The only illegal things they could make a profit with then would be assassinations, selling stolen objects and selling stolen people..and all that, is a lot harder to do. With their bread and butter gone, they’d have to either change their operation to meet government standards, or change their damn industry. They just couldn’t make a profit otherwise.
So with the danger of the supply problem out of the way, what about the demanding masses of ‘johns’? Well which would you rather hire the services of:
1. A trained, certified, accountable Sex Specialist
or
2. An uneducated and possibly diseased hooker operating without a business license/permit, who could cost you trouble with the law and/or your health
I think most people would choose number one. Why take needless risks when the service provided will in all likelyhood, be better than the illegal alternative? Also with an open market, the rights to referral (to other specialists or self-help programs), refusal (rules of the establishment that have the backing of the law) can be things posted and available to the owners/employees and the clients of the sex for hire businesses.
Maybe then, the word prostitute will incur a new meaning, or be replaced by a new one.. devoid of the old one’s stigma.
But going back to the main question of this section (with the law as it is, not as it should be), the only difference in treatment I feel the police should enforce between prostitutes and ‘johns’ is that the prostitutes could have to serve more jail time, and the johns could be heavily fined. If the prostitutes don’t have anywhere or anything better to do with their lives, they should be given a place to stay and opportunities in that environment to aquire the training to do something else for a living. If the ‘johns’ have enough extra cash to be spending on illegal, non-consented extra-marital sex.. then they evidently have money to spare.
Anyway, I’d better stop before I make a tome of this.. at least here anyway. I guess I just needed to read someone’s brainless opinion to spur me into writing my immediate thoughts on this and related matters. Hopefully I’ve expressed my points clearly, and with the totality that this subject deserves.