Prostitution: Have you ever?

[JJChambers]

With all the rancorous debate between the puritanical prohibitionists and the steadfast proponents of a woman's right to choose what to do with her own body, I think this makes for a timely poll.

9 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	I have patronized a prostitute.
	1 (11%)
	I have been a prostitute.
	0 (0%)
	I haven't patronized a prostitute, but if it were legal, I would.
	1 (11%)
	I haven't been a prostitute, but it it were legal, I would.
	1 (11%)
	I never have and never will engage in prostitution.
	6 (67%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[MineralMan]

1. Never have. Never will.

And I was stationed in Turkey in my early 20s while in the USAF, where government operated brothels were legal. I cannot even imagine using a prostitute, and can respect no man who has.

[BillZBubb]

2. I would support legalization, but am not in the market for the service.

[edgineered]

3. If it were not for being able to view user names,

the unrepresented in this poll may not choose to answer. Is this another faux poll?

[MineralMan]

4. That usually doesn't stop people from voting.

Wait and see. Some folks are fine with prostitution.

[edgineered]

9. +1 nt

[BainsBane]

5. You mean a child's right to choose

Since most prostitutes are in fact underage, according to one poster who approvingly cited this source:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/08/02/teen-prostitution-in-america/

I would submit this is not about a woman's right to choose but an entitled man's right to acquire and own, with no regard to the ensuing human trafficking--which means slavery--child rape, and economic blight that comes in its wake. It's about middle- and upper-middle class men taking and using the bodies of underage girls and boys for their own sexual pleasure with willful disregard for the consequences.

It's neoliberal class exploitation and the fortification of patriarchy.

This study tracks 121 countries and documents a marked increase in human trafficking where prostitution has been legalized. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1986065
Human trafficking is the slave trade. Legalization increases demand, which increases slave trading of very young women, girls, boys, and young children to those areas so that men can violate them at will.

When people determinedly refuse to pay attention to the fallout of prostitution, including legalized prostitution, it shows they do not care about those human beings and care only about either their theories of capitalist utopias or men's access to human bodies to use at will.

What you call "puritanical" I call human rights. Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky also decry such industries for the rampant and violent abuse of women and children.

[closeupready]

10. +1.

[regnaD kciN]

17. Uh...

Since most prostitutes are in fact underage, according to one poster who approvingly cited this source:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/08/02/teen-prostitution-in-america/

I just read that article/editorial (twice), and it makes no such claim, nor provides any evidence to support it.

[BainsBane]

18. Well, let me clarify

another poster cited that article is evidence that young kids "choose" prostitution as a career. I do not know if the percentage of underage sex workers is the majority or not. It certainly, however, is commonplace.

[Callmecrazy]

6. Yep...

A legal brothel in Nye county, Nevada.

[BainsBane]

7. I have first-hand experience with this issue

of growing up in an area where prostitution proliferated and was in effect legal because the cops protected the operation. I was one of the many children preyed upon by men who came to buy sex. That was a daily occurrence, as anyone who grows up in such areas knows.

If your notion of puritanical is the right of children not to be raped, bought and sold as property, then so be it. Include Noam Chomsky and Chris Hedges on your list of puritans.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Great post. Thank you. n/t

[BainsBane]

16. Just so you know

I wrote an OP on my experience, if you are interested in reading more. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025346527

[JI7]

8. i understand why guys who need to pay for sex would feel a need to turn

this into some issue of purity and women's rights.

i know the reality and it's very very ugly . the people are not like the characters played by richard gere and julia roberts.

[BainsBane]

11. A woman's "right" to be owned

trafficked and sold. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1986065

The fact is that many, if not most, are in fact well underage.

The women's rights argument is a canard, an obfuscation of the real issues.

[PowerToThePeople]

12. Where is the "I am patronizing one as I write this post" selection

No, not really.

It is an economic issue. It is a capitalism issue. Universal minimum income and/or 100% employment at living wages would greatly decrease the occurrence imho. Divert war on drugs money to war on human trafficking. Decriminalize the selling side of it could help too (per Redqueen's post). If women would be able to go to the police without fear of imprisonment they could give info on potential trafficking victims without fear of them or the other girl (if not trafficked) going to jail.

[leftstreet]

13. What an odd poll

What do the personal experiences and attitudes of 'middle class' liberals on a US message forum have to do with the billion dollar global human trafficking industry?

[BainsBane]

14. You nailed it in one short sentence

[edgineered]

19. Currently one out of eight polled

have answered yes to paying for sex, as compared to none being paid. One would think the numbers would be a bit closer than that.

Steadfast proponents, not of a woman's right to choose, but of prostitution in general, are not the same thing. When the right to choose has been taken away it should not also mean that the basic right to be treated like a person is gone. Either way, as long as consequences for reporting abuse
are as vulgar as the abusers themselves no meaningful actions will occur.

It does however look like puritanical prohibitionists are the ones most eager to denounce payment for sex - by a seven to one margin.

[840high]

20. Never. Never.

[Prophet 451]

21. Never done it, probably never would

I'm not willing to say I absolutely wouldn't if it were legal (anything is remotely possible) but I think it's pretty unlikely that I'd ever choose to employ a prostitute even if it was legal.

That said, I've known people in porn and a close friend was once a "rub n' tug" (massage followed by a handjob) girl in Australia and they seem to have been perfectly ok with their choices.

[hunter]

22. Puritanical? Me? I've never been Puritanical.

The "legal prostitution" you imagine, relationships between healthy, economically secure, and equally powerful adults, is a very rare commerce.

[flvegan]

23. Define prostitute. Are we just talking sex?

Otherwise, everyone here that's voted has been part of it.