General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What Consenting Adults Do In Private Is Their Own Business. Period. [View all]jeff47
(26,549 posts)So those people in the sweatshops are being exploited, and they are consenting to the exploiting.
"This OP was started in response to my daring to say that prostitution was the cause of too much violence and was a form of exploitation"
What your post lacked was reliable statistics to back up your assertion. Yes, there are horrible stories. But I can find stories of abuse of women working in any occupation. We're not about to ban paying women to be doctors because a woman doctor was beaten, are we?
"As such, I think we should draw distinctions between consenting relationships between people which don't involve monetary compensation in order to buy access to the person's body."
And I don't support letting the government into any bedroom that only contains consenting adults. These women are adults. Not children. It is not our right to demand they behave in a certain way because as adults they get to make that choice.
There is also a large class bias to your proposal. A mistress is just a much better-paid prostitute. A woman who "marries an old rich guy" is a much, much better-paid prostitute. The only difference is her pay isn't left on the dresser. Yet your proposal only goes after the Johns who don't pay as well.