Growing up in the American environment, I was trained in the school of thought that holds prostitution to be an unmitigated evil that no good society can tolerate. This attitude came to be so culturally ingrained in me that when I went to China and, after living there in the blissful ignorance of the “honeymoon” stage for some months, finally realized that prostitution was everywhere in the Middle Kingdom, it was as though I’d been dealt a staggering blow. I distinctly remember innocently wondering why there were so many “hotels” with red lanterns festooning their doors. Why were all these men going to “beauty salons?” All I knew of prostitution was skanky crack hoes on street corners and the occasional call-girl I’d see downtown with an old man who obviously wasn’t her daddy, so when I realized that it surrounded me everywhere I went I was really, truly shocked. This realization probably contributed more to culture shock than anything else I encountered in China. Being in my early 20s, it was profoundly demoralizing to know that so many of the women my age were hookers, especially when I’d been raised to see prostitution as such a horrible, wicked thing.
How could I know that the girl smiling at me wasn’t a hooker? Was the girl I was dating making money on the side? Was any pretty girl not engaged in prostitution in one form or another? As I look back on it, I’m still amazed how much influence cultural conditioning had on me as an American male. Eventually, I came to question whether my revulsion for certain practices was innate, or whether it was inculcated in some manner. After considering how little the Chinese were bothered by the state of affairs, I had to accept that, somehow, my native culture had very powerfully shaped my sense of morality and propriety. I realized that I was not “my own man,” so to speak, and that was a pretty demoralizing experience. However, it was also a fantastic lesson, and I don’t think I could have learned it better anywhere else. For that, among other reasons, I’ll be eternally grateful to China for being the best teacher I ever had.
So, although I haven’t internalized the Chinese attitude toward prostitution, I have a perspective on the practice that few Americans share. For one thing, the idea that the prostitutes are being exploited by customers is true only in a tiny minority of cases. Many prostitutes are pushy and aggressive about plying their trade — far more so than your typical hot dog vendor on a city street. This is the only real problem they present to the general public: prostitutes can be quite a nuisance. In addition to this, there is the public health issue, STDs being a pernicious (and sometimes deadly) problem. As for morality, however, one can only make the case that prostitution encourages adultery and fornication. But so does feminism, birth control, women’s magazines and television shows, countless pop songs, movies, websites, etc. Other than those issues, what exactly is wrong with trading money for sex? A husband who visits a prostitute is doing no more harm to his marriage than a wife who has an affair with her boss (a relatively common occurrence), so why is he committing a crime while she is “empowering” herself?
Another question I’d like to ask is why is it any better for a woman to give it up for free with multiple different men? Is a slut somehow more honorable than a prostitute? One thing guys ought to ask themselves before committing to a woman is whether they want one who will simply give it up for free to all comers. If that’s the case, a former hooker would make a better bet for a committed partner, because at least she’s used to demanding something before she takes her pants off. Get involved with a slut, and what’s to stop her from giving it away to some random guy at the most convenient opportunity for any reason at all?
As it is today, American parents pay to send their daughters to what are essentially free brothels when they ship little pumpkin off to college. For some young men this can seem to be a bonanza, but ultimately it doesn’t do them any good, either. If, as a young man, you get used to free sex with no investment or commitment, you start to take it for granted that things will always be that way. This is how young men get set up. Having grown accustomed to easy and free sex, they are totally unprepared for what happens when they get married or knock a girl up and suddenly the boom is lowered (thought that sex was free? think again, sucker!).
I’m of the opinion that most women, including feminists, prefer legal prohibition of prostitution for this reason. In the current setup, women can retroactively determine the price of sex, and not only in marriage, divorce and child support — false rape accusations and sexual harassment accusations are, as often as not, a means to have the man “pay for it.” And what a price…
Furthermore, social recognition of the occupation of prostitute creates a clear division between wife, maiden and prostitute: you can be one, but you can’t be any other. In abolishing the distinction, women are free to choose to be whichever they prefer at any given time. Take, for example, the phenomenon of fornicating women going to church as their fancy suits them and calling themselves “born-again virgins.” Or adulterous wives — a very substantial proportion of married women these days. Because the prostitute class is suppressed but the demand remains, many women, married and unmarried alike, leverage their sexuality in one way or another — just like prostitutes. This also calls into question the disease issue. Because a larger pool of women are behaving like prostitutes, it may be more difficult to contain STDs.
It may surprise some people, but prostitution was not a crime until recent times, and even today it remains legal in most of Europe, India, almost all of Latin America, Canada, Australia, Turkey, and a number of other countries. In many of the parts of the world where it is illegal, such as China, Russia and practically all of East and SE Asia, it is ignored by authorities. In Western countries, there is some correlation between feminism and prostitution laws, and this is no accident. Just like prohibition of alcohol, prohibition of prostitution has been high on women’s agenda since universal suffrage was obtained, and even before.
However, despite over 100 years of prohibition, the profession just won’t die, and is thriving in a town near you. Thanks to the internet, prostitutes are more available than ever, and can be found online within seconds. Rather than eradicate the practice, it appears that feminist efforts to prohibit prostitution have only created a sort of online free-for-all, wherein women vie for clients in an unregulated market. If you check the ads these women put up, it’s clear that most of them are simply moonlighting (sometimes for a thrill, I imagine), and prostitution is not their sole occupation. This almost certainly skews the numbers; when you read figures on prostitution the only ones included are typically those who are whores by trade. In reality, there are far more women out there dabbling in it than the official figures would suggest. Rather than timid victims of “trafficking,” what you will find is apparently enthusiastic females looking to stuff a few hundred extra bucks into their purses per week.
It’s time we started recognizing that, while prostitution may not be an ideal solution, it does address an ancient problem, and it would be far better to deal with it openly, honestly and humanely than to continue with this charade of prohibition. All we’ve really done by criminalizing it is spread it out over a much larger number of women than would otherwise be the case; instead of a regulated, isolated profession, it has become something millions of women are involved in to some degree, which has caused a great many young American women to internalize the hooker attitude, which they then apply to their marriages (and divorces). Legalization of prostitution, perhaps along the lines of the Dutch model, would solve more problems than it would create.
