"I don't have sex for money I spend time with men for money"

[snooper2]

"The sex is always free"


Instead of knuckleheads bantering back and forth about call girls and prostitutes, why don't you actually listen to some real live ones? You know, they can talk, and people have done documentaries and stuff. There's this cool thing called YouTube where you can find them...Like this-

[Squinch]

1. Says "Annie" about 15 minutes into the video, "Once you have that first rape, that first beat down,"

it stops being fun. "I've had clients try to kill me and left me for dead in the room."

And she was a "high class call girl."

[snooper2]

2. yep, but instead of DUers going back and forth

really better to learn what really is going on from the horses mouth right?

[Squinch]

6. Yes, but keep in mind that this is only the segment of prostitution that includes the

most presentable and safest women involved. Still, every one of them recounts harrowing, deadly, and degrading experiences.

[LadyHawkAZ]

9. Yep, that's what happens when there's no security

or police to back you up. That's what criminalizing does to the industry.

[geek tragedy]

12. Garment-making isn't crminalized in Bangladesh.

Those women still get exploited and crushed.

[LadyHawkAZ]

17. That's the point of legal and REGULATED.

That last word is important. Funny how prostitution is suddenly comparable to mainstream, nonsexual jobs when you want it to be, but it's never comparable in the many instances where the comparison is in our favor.

If you prefer to continue your support for this kind of non-exploited, crush-free business model, just come right out and say so. Please. Do.

[Squinch]

21. I don't have any

problem with legalization, but I don't think it is going to change as much as people think it will.

There still won't be protection within the hotel rooms. Where it is legalized there is generally a boom in trafficking, so in practice, it turns out that legalization doesn't curtail the ownership and selling of women by people other than the women themselves. It will add another hand going into the women's pockets, taking out taxes for the work they do.

Right now, the vast majority of the problems come from men who are perpetrating violent acts, that are already illegal, against prostitutes. Those acts just aren't prosecuted because law enforcement has always largely treated the johns as untouchable.

So fine, regulate, but you also need to prosecute the johns for violent acts. That is what will really make the difference. And I frankly don't believe that will ever happen. Just look at that guy in Texas who was just acquitted for killing the escort. She was solely engaged in legal activities. She's still dead, and the guy still walked.

[LadyHawkAZ]

22. Yep, enforcement's the key thing

Neither Germany nor New Zealand had a rise in trafficking- Germany actually experienced a drop. Legalization won't completely solve every problem, sure, but if we're waiting around for a perfect solution to present itself before we change things, then we're going to be waiting a long long time.

I wouldn't have minded paying taxes in exchange for making my work status legal and allowing me access to police services. I wouldn't have minded a bit. I suspect there aren't many that would be really bothered by that exchange. The system Germany has going now would have been heaven to work in for me.

Part of the reason crimes against prostitutes don't get prosecuted is simply because they don't get reported. The violence is illegal, but since the work is also illegal a lot will just opt not to report rather than risk arrest themselves. Full disclosure: I've done that. I would have happily paid a daily tax to not have to do that. It still haunts me 13 years later wondering if the guy might have succeeded in kidnapping someone else because I got away and I couldn't report him. It's not a nice thought to have running loose in your head.

[geek tragedy]

3. Indeed, whenever I want to know how a major institution or practice

affects hundreds of thousands of people, I check out random YouTubes.

[snooper2]

4. LOL, it's a national geographic documentary

not a random jezebel blog

[geek tragedy]

5. funny how you highlight the "yay prostititution" part of it

Go beyond the sometimes glossy veneer of this industry's respectability to see heartbreaking stories of how young girls are sold into sex slavery. For many this turns into a lifetime of abuse, disease and destitution. Experience one such case of Maya, who was sold at just 10 years old into a Bangladeshi sex slum. As one of roughly 2,000 prostitutes, she services passing truckers for around $4 an hour. Back in the UK, we follow a disabled man as he prepares to travel abroad to a legal brothel specialising in sex for those less able.

[MadrasT]

7. It's a typically disappointing response to prostitution I seem to hear from many "progressives".

Turn a blind eye to everything but the "YAY SEX IS GOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!! SEK-SHOO-AL FREEEEEEEEEEEDUMB!!!!!!!!!!" part of it.

[geek tragedy]

11. The classic Republican/rightwing hypocrisy is that government regulation

of economic activtity and exploitation should be forbidden unless it involves sex.

The classic Democratic/liberal hypocrisy is that it's necessary to oppose the inequality-based economic exploitation and degradation of others, unless it involves sex.

It's like one has to identify with either Falwell or Flynt, and don't have the choice of saying "they're both misogynist assholes, just of different stripes."

[sufrommich]

15. "It's like one has to identify with either Falwell or Flynt,

and don't have the choice of saying "they're both misogynist assholes, just of different stripes."

[snooper2]

20. so you didn't watch the whole video eh?

[Squinch]

18. Actually, if you watch it, it's not sugar coating anything. It's pretty open about how

harrowing their lives are. And these are the prostitutes at the top of the totem pole. And they are abused by pimps, beaten, raped and subject to routine violence.

[opiate69]

19. As opposed to...

The contingent who turn a blind eye to everything except "trafficking!", "enslavement!!", CHILDREN!!!!??

[snooper2]

8. how did I highlight the "yay" part of it

Did you miss the spirit of the OP or are you being dense on purpose?

[geek tragedy]

14. Yes, this passage really conveys the grim reality quite well:

"I don't have sex for money I spend time with men for money"
"The sex is always free"

[snooper2]

16. It was the opening line of the documentary

Have you watched it yet or you still just trollin' me

[Nimajneb Nilknarf]

10. And as has always been the case, the men are really paying them to LEAVE and not get involved.

They're not paying for sex or companionship.

[LadyHawkAZ]

13. You LISTEN to *people*

You talk ABOUT objects. Actually listening to workers would imply that we are people, with brains, which is a taboo idea. I appreciate the thought, though.