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part one ***
chapter one
the ***
subject to ceaseless harassment by bluelaws church groups chambers of commerce etcetera
prostitutes nevertheless continue to trade with the public
the value of their services proven by the fact that people continue to seek them out
despite the legal and civic opposition
a *** may be defined as one who engages in the voluntary trade of *** services
for a fee
the essential part of the definition however is voluntary trade
a magazine cover by norman rockwell sometime ago illustrated the essence of prostitution
if not the specifics
it portrayed a milkman and a pieman and standing near their trucks
each busily eating a pie and drinking milk
both obviously pleased with their voluntary trade
those lacking sufficient imagination will see no connection between the *** entertaining
her customer
and the aforementioned milk and pie episode
but
in both cases
two people have come together on a voluntary basis
in an attempt to mutually game satisfaction
in neither case is force or fraud applied
of course the customer of the *** may later decide that the services he received
were not worth the money he paid
the *** may feel that the money she was paid
did not fully compensate her for the services she provided
similar dissatisfaction could also occur in the milk pie trade
the milk could have been sour
or the pie under baked
but both regrets would be after the fact
and would not alter the description of these trades as voluntary
if all the participants were not willing
the trades would not have taken place
there are those women's liberationists among them
who lament the plight of the poor downtrodden ***
and who think of her life as demeaning and exploitative
but the *** does not look upon the sale of sex as demeaning
after considering the good features
short hours high remuneration with the drawbacks harassment by the police enforced commissions
to her ***
uninspiring
working conditions
the *** obviously prefers her work
otherwise she would not continue it
there are of course many negative aspects experienced by prostitutes
which belie the “happy ***” image
there are prostitutes who are drug addicts
prostitutes who are beaten by pimps
and prostitutes who are held in brothels against their will
but these sordid aspects have little to do with the intrinsic career of prostitution
there are nurses and doctors who are kidnapped and forced to perform for fugitives from justice
there are carpenters who are drug addicts
there are bookkeepers who are beaten by muggers
we would hardly conclude that any of these professions or vocations are suspect
demeaning or exploitative
the life of the *** is as good or as bad as she wishes it to be
she enters it voluntarily qua *** and is free to leave at any time
why then the harassment and prohibitions against prostitution
the momentum does not come from the customer he is a willing participant
if the customer decides that patronisation of a *** is not to his advantage
he can stop
nor does the move toward prohibition of prostitution come from the prostitutes themselves
they have volunteered for their tasks
and can almost always quit
if they change their minds about the relative benefits
the impetus for the prohibition of prostitution is initiated by third parties
not directly involved in the trades
their reasons vary from group to group
from area to area and from year to year
what they have in common
is the fact that they are outside parties
they have neither stake nor standing in the matter and should be ignored
to allow them to decide this matter
is as absurd as allowing an outsider to decide about the trade between the milkman and the
pie man
why then are the two cases treated differently
imagine a league called the decent eaters organized to espouse the doctrine that eating
pie
together with milk is evil
even if it could be demonstrated that the league against pie and milk
and the league against prostitution had identical intellectual merit
namely none
the reaction to the two would still be different
the attempt to prohibit pie and milk would evoke only laughter
but there would be a more tolerant attitude toward the attempt to prohibit prostitution
there is something in operation which staunchly resists an intellectual penetration of the
prostitution question
why has prostitution not been legalized
though the arguments against this legalization are without merit
they have never been clearly assailed by the intellectual community as specious
the difference between *** trades such as the ones that take place in prostitution
and other trades such as the pie milk trade
seems to be based on or at least connected to
the shame we feel
or are made to feel at the prospect of having to buy sex
one is hardly really a man
nor in anyway to be confused with an attractive woman
if one pays for sex
the following well-known joke illustrates this point
a good-looking man asks an attractive and virtuous woman if she will go to bed with
him for a hundred thousand dollars
she is appalled by the offer
however after some reflection she concludes that as evil as prostitution is
she could use the proceeds of the offer for charity and good works
the man seems charming not at all dangerous or repugnant
she surely says yes
the man then asks how about for twenty dollars
the woman indignantly replies how dare you what kind of woman do you think i am
as she slaps his face
well we've already established what kind of woman you are
now we're trying to establish the price
he replies
the degree to which the man's reply strikes a telling blow against the woman is a small
measure of the scorn heaped upon individuals involved in this kind of endeavor
there are two approaches which might combat the attitude that paying for sex is degrading
there is the frontal attack which simply denies that it is wrong to pay for sex
this however would hardly convince those who think of prostitution as an evil
the other possibility would be to show that we are always paying for sex all of us all
the time
and therefore we should not cavil at the arrangements between a professional ***
and a customer
in what sense can it be said that we all engage in trade and payments
when we engage in *** activity
at the very least we have to offer something to our prospective partners before they will
consent to have sex with us
with explicit prostitution the offer is in terms of cash
in other cases the trade is not so obvious
many dating patterns clearly conform to the prostitution model
the male is expected to pay for the movies dinner flowers etcetera
and the female is expected to reciprocate with *** services
the marriages in which the husband provides the financial elements
and the wife of the *** and housekeeping functions
also conforms clearly enough to the model
in fact all voluntary human relationships from love relationships to intellectual relationships
are trades
in the case of romantic love and marriage the trade is in terms of affection consideration
kindness etcetera
the trade may be a happy one
and the partners may find joy in the giving
but it is still
a trade
it is clear that unless affection
kindness et cetera or something is given
it will not be reciprocated
in the same way if to non mercenary poets did not get anything from each other
their relationship too would terminate
if there are trades there are also payments
where there are payments for relationships which includes *** congress
such as marriage
and in some dating patterns
there is prostitution
according to the definition of that term
several social commentators have correctly likened marriage to prostitution
but all relationships where trade takes place
those which includes sex as well as those which do not
are a form of prostitution
instead of condemning all such relationships because of their similarity to prostitution
prostitution should be viewed as just one kind of interaction
in which all human beings participate
objections should not be raised to any of them
not to marriage not to friendship
not to prostitution