Should prostitution be legal?

I think it should. Sex shouldn’t be a punishable offence. If people want to go and have sex with prostitutes, why the fuck shouldn’t they be allowed to? It’s their body.

Modern day Britain is fairly liberal in terms of social attitudes. Gay marriage is legalized; prior to the 60s it was illegal. Women and men are equals. People of all racial backgrounds are treated fairly. All religious beliefs/lack thereof are allowed to be practiced, but religion is kept out of politics. Healthcare is universal and accessible to everyone; so is education. On the whole I’d say this is one of the better countries to live in right now compared to the rest of the world.

But people forget that it wasn’t that long ago that Britain was highly conservative. I don’t necessarily mean conservative in the economic sense of being pro-capitalism, I mean more in terms of social attitudes. Prior to the 20th century, men owned and inherited property, men could vote, go to war, and made all the political decisions. I don’t know if there were any or many women that held key political decisions; it’s unlikely, since women couldn’t vote until 1918.

This country was founded on Christianity, and with ‘strict’ Christianity comes women being ‘subservient’ and men being ‘in control’; homosexuality as an abomination, ditto divorce and abortion and pre-marital sex. Social attitudes towards how people dressed, behaved, and conducted themselves were all very ‘rigid’. Noted: Britain has traditionally been a classist society, and the higher your class, the ‘better’ you’re expected to behave. It’s likely that those who were more likely to have more relaxed attitudes to sex and clothing and social behaviour were lower class people; nowadays they’re given derogatory names like ‘chavs.’

My guess is as good as yours, but presumably because Britain’s liberalism has only happened in the last 60 years, is why prostitution still isn’t fully legal. Same with marijuana. I mean, we only just got gay marriage a few years ago. It’s likely that prostitution with probably catch up. It’s legal in eight European countries, including Switzerland and of course The Netherlands.

Why should it be legal? The main reasons I believe are that it would make being a sex worker easier and healthier as they would be able to get tested for STDs more regularly and have better access to contraception. It would also reduce exploitation and violence against sex workers. As prostitution is illegal, it is something done under the Black Market. This means that the practices are more dangerous and ‘shady’, and that if something happens to you as a sex worker, healthwise or legally, it’s unlikely you’ll be insured or taken care of. Pimps, gangs, criminals – if prostitution were legal and regulated it would eliminate these dangerous people. Prostitutes provide a service to the public, like all working people. They shouldn’t have to feel ‘punished’ for it.

Not to mention, when something becomes legalized and taxed under government control it means those taxes can be used to help the economy. Same with marijuana. If these illegal practices were brought under government control and taken away from the Black Market, tax payers would have their money used to help further fund public services like education, welfare, health, housing and the like. Privatization of businesses can lead to exploitation of workers; we know this, and it’s one of the downsides of free market capitalism. Something that could be as seriously exploited as people sleeping with others for money should be protected under the government.

Fact is, prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. Humans enjoy having sex; it’s the purest thing you can do with your body, and we need it to fucking survive. In less socio-economic reasoning, having prostitution as legal would further create a more relaxed and accepting attitude to sex, seeing it as something pleasurable that everyone can enjoy, not ‘shameful’ or that enjoying a lot of it makes you a bad person. Having sex work as legal would hopefully show the public that there’s no shame in sex and there’s nothing wrong with being a so-called ‘slut.’ I don’t see what’s wrong with a woman using her body to make money if she decides to do so. One could argue that models, dancers, actors and singers all use their bodies to a degree in accordance with making money. If society’s attitude to sex changed and became more positive and liberal, then prostitution could be seen as a public service and a way for women and men to make money and live.

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Europe

https://www.listland.com/top-10-reasons-prostitution-legalized/

http://bigthink.com/think-tank/legalization-of-brothels-in-ontario-a-major-victory-for-sex-workers
The above article states that in countries where prostitution has been decriminalized, crime rates have gone down.