why is prostitution illegal?

We are talking about it because three years later, prostitution is still illegal in the state of California, and that fact results in the contamination of the ranks of single/divorced men looking to partner up with women.

I want legal prostitution because I want to purify the ranks of men looking for relationships unmediated by monetary exchanges.

What prompted me to engage in this kind of train of thought originally was another post on here that mentioned a young man who wanted his gf to disrobe over Skype because he had sexual needs.

So, I thought, a young gentleman who is normal should, in my book, be expected to be able to excite the gf enough to want to do interesting things with him (ideally, without appearing recognizable yet naked on film unless the bf is very very very trustworthy).

He should not be talking about needs because this talk is miserable and pathetic. And very boring, too.

Normal men talk about passion and desire and not about needs.

It is fun to be with someone who desires you so much and, I imagine, it is not fun to be with a person whose needs you are called upon to meet (I have never done it, so I am using the word "imagine" here).

So I thought that the young woman whose first bf is such a loser that he cannot excite her to want to be sexual with him and instead relies on trying to get his boring and miserable sexual needs mets by her deserved a lot of compassion.

A few weeks later I found myself in this situation when a guy talked about needs and obligations. He wanted me to meet his sexual needs. It was my former friend/classmate (from the 1990s) who wrote that he spent money on dates and time on the train and I did not provide sex he hoped to get and by doing that I abused him, in his words.

That is how I started to wish for legal and affordable prostitution. Because right now, what can we say to guys who have "sexual needs"? One thing - go eff yourselves.

With legal prostitution, we would be able to offer an alternative to "go eff yourselves" for such guys. Or, even better, such guys would not even contact us at all.

Basically, I think that neither I nor other women deserve to deal with such men anymore but I do recognize that such men have valid needs for sex, so I want their needs to be met in some sort of a civilized fashion somewhere and I would not need to hear about anybody's unmet needs ever again.

LOL Hammy! I've never looked them up but have driven by plenty off of I-95 north of Vegas. They are trailers parked out in the middle of nowhere.

Picture sand, weeds for miles, and then these things.

Dunno ~ portfolio or not ....wouldn't be my dream road trip if I was a guy. But hey, there's something for everyone
Just sayin' ...

Yea, trailers, that is exactly how I pictured the "rugged clientele"!

I actually think that I once lived near a tiny illegal Asian brothel in the Bay Area. It was an apartment with blooming flowers in pots outside, very clean, but nobody really stayed overnight - instead, different women appeared at different times, and there were trucks parked during lunch time. I looked up the address online and it popped up in some sort of a SF directory of seedy massage parlors or other some such euphemisms for brothels.

The ladies swept the little yard in front of the apartment very carefully, watered the flowers, were friendly, wore very simple unassuming clothes, and in general would not be recognized as prostitutes the way typical harlots are pictured.

Here... this is about the guy who had "needs" and "requirements".

He "required" sex. Not even "wanted", but "required". How do you like that - he "required".

So basically those with needs and requirements should be routed into prostitution and porn and those with hopes and passions should be routed into human relationships unmediated by monetary exchanges and mass produced entertainment.

- The government doesn't know how to tax it.
- Pimps that force women into it & human trafficking
- The legal system wants to make money?

- It is legal here in Canada and there is a demand for sex work and a lot of money to be made but the work is very demanding and has an emotional toll and the social stigma makes it difficult.

- As far as STDs go.. Sex workers/prostitutes are very clean and practice safe sex - they don't have a choice because the body is used to make money and supplying and using condoms is expected and a standard practice.

-Call girls and escorts are not the women you hear about on the street corner with missing teeth. Those are street based prostitutes. The call girls/escort prostitution are in the hotels and apartments.

- Most porn starts and actresses are also prostitutes and do escorting

- Sex is a basic psychological human need.. check out Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. There is a demand for sex work.

very interesting, I have never checked it: he lists sex under physiological basic needs and sexual intimacy under love/belonging.

In the past there was also the issue of what was being done in the conjugal bed. There were things that men would not have done with their wives (let us take the Victorian stereotype) - the conjugal bed was for respectful procreation and prostitutes for the rest. To the extent that it is now acceptable to do more or less a lot of various things in the conjugal bed, the real demand for legal paid sex services among married men would probably be less than what it used to be in the past.

Breastfeeding is a similar case. Among higher class women in the past, the practice of hiring wet nurses from lower class women was quite widespread. Part of it was to allow the mother to be free from caring for the baby so that she could enjoy balls and high society, and part of it was the recommendation of the doctors of those days not to nurse in order not to strain the body of the new mother. High class women were considered too fragile for frequent sex or for nursing their young. As a result, prostitutes and/or women from lower classes were for more frequent and intense sex for their husbands and wet nurses from among lower class women were for breastfeeding the young of the nobility.

We now know that both breastfeeding and more frequent and intense sex are not harmful to the health of married women, so that has been an objective change.

In my Victorian lit. classes we spend more time talking about prostitution and single men instead of married men. It seems more common for single men to have prostitutes because they couldn't sleep with single women. Women were only supposed to sleep with their husbands and assumed to have no sexual identity/feeling/curiosity of their own. It was also "accepted" that Victorian men developed sexual needs long before they were financially able to support a wife (maybe they should have saved their money better ) Victorian men typically ended up marrying fairly late in life, mid twenties to thirties, if not even later which was quite common. I've never heard this bit about married men having prositutes because risque sex was not allowed in the marital bed. Having not done research, I can't say one way or the other, but it also wouldn't surprise me. Perhaps just not a topic quite novel worthy...except in the French novels all the Victorians were reading...

Prostitution is legal here as long as it's in a licensed brothel.

I would hire a prostitute to dominate me, which is something my partner does not want to do.

Right. So your demand comes from verbalized, yet unsatisfied wants.
There are also people who just cannot verbalize their wants to their partners, so they would create demand, as well.

Legalize it! Straight, gay, transgender. The same goes for pot. Legalize it! Tax it, regulate it and free up the police to go after rapists, thugs, murders and child molesters. Let consenting adults do whatever the hell they want to. The founders of this nation were no angels and I don't believe they expected its citizens to be any different. Just to note, the owner of the Mustang Ranch, a famous brothel in Nevada, was elected to the county council. He's a Republican, too. More sex, less religion.

Paying for sex is not illegal in the UK. What is illegal is to patrol the streets looking for prostitutes. But you can hire an escort no problem. I think it's a good thing because most people can get sex if they really try without needing to pay for it. But some people with severe facial disfigurments or severely disabled, it makes it very hard for them to get sex. Also some people are very socally awkward. It's better someone pay for sex then rape an innocent person, and whilst most people wouldn't do that if paying for sex was illegal, a few might be tempted.

About disfigured and severely disabled people...that's one thing I've felt for years. They should be able to have their needs met, too. Sex is a need, even if it's not needed to live. Scientific research shows health benefits from sex. There was this guy on an old talk show who was old and not very attractive, and he pointed out he wouldn't be able to have sex if he didn't have access to prostitutes. To some people, sex is very important, and it's not fair to dismiss those people just because you don't think sex is important.

I fundamentally do not agree with the idea of prostitution. I contemplated getting one for a short time when I was a teenager because I couldn't get a girlfriend but I think that prostitution uses women and is highly degrading to them. The whole "industry" is just too sleazy to me to be a legal business

Hmm... 'prostitution uses women' as opposed to what other trade? Burger flipping? Nothing can be more dumbing than that, no? Also, 'sleazy' as opposed to what? government kickbacks are not sleazy to you?

And why do you talk of using women - don't you realize that there are prostitutes who are not women?

Prostitutes use men for money. Whichever way you look at it, why does it matter if it's between two adults that aren't being forced to do something they don't want to do?

Sex trafficking is different and needs to be stopped.

My opinion is to make it legal, tax it and regulate it. Nevada has a model for how to make it work.

If people want to end prostitution, then the problem doesn't lie in the prostitute, but in the market. Why does someone feel the need to pay a man or woman for sex? What's the motivation there? Work on that side of things and the market will go away. If the market dries up, then the service won't be there.

There's so many reasons why someone wants to pay for sex. A post I made over a year ago explains that for a small minority of people, they're so disfigured that it might be very difficult if not impossible for them to get a GF/BF.

For others, it might be they have a certain fetish/fantasy that isn't possible or very difficult to be able to act out unless it's with a prostitute.

Laws are so inconsistent that they often don't make sense.

So if you are going to visit a prostitute make sure to bring along your video camera and tape the sex, then if you get busted your not engaging in illegal prostitution but making totally legal porn. What is legal in front of a camera is illegal without one.

And in Denver it's illegal to loan your vacuum cleaner to your next door neighbor, but it's OK for the guy down the block to borrow it.

if it is legal for sex to sell, why then is it illegal to sell sex.

there are two places I know of in the US where prostitution is legal. Las Vegas NV, and Atlantic City NJ. now this may have changed, but I do remember when it was voted in to legalize it in Atlantic City.

most attitudes about it by authority figures (even though they themselves may partake) is that prostitution demeans women period, end of story.

where as I have met women who simply enjoyed sex that much and figured "might as well make some cash while I am at it".

the other side of the coin is why pay for it when you can get it for free? first of all it is never free. in fact often times it will cost you more (dinner, movie, etc...) to get giggity with your girlfriend (and even then it is not a sure thing) than it costs for an hour plus a motel room.

and lets not forget those of us who for whatever reason cannot get laid any other way.