A few years ago, I (J) visited Amsterdam, Holland and Durban, South Africa. (Roderick, I was with my wife, OK.) One of the more intriguing (and disturbing) aspects of both cities was the high level of prostitution. But the prostitution differed significantly. In Amsterdam’s famous “Red Light District,” the women of the night, many of whom are gorgeous, stand behind glass doors. Patrons can just open the glass door, walk in and disappear into a back room for surreptitious, anonymous sex. In Durban, the prostitution was more despicable. The women, who appeared impoverished and beaten down by life, walked the streets barefoot, ducking into dark alleys to service their Johns.
With street prostitution on the rise in cities like Atlanta and Los Angeles, sometimes I think America would be better off legalizing it and restricting it to certain hotels–like they do in Las Vegas with the “Bunny Ranch.” This would keep prostitutes safe, off the streets and HIV-free because condoms would be required. But the arguments for and against legalization are both strong. Here’s a sample:
“Where no law exists there can be no crime. It is an obvious but perhaps actually not very trivial fact that legislation is the fundamental cause of all crime. It is true that no culture has ever succeeded in existing without a legislation, but compared to our own no other culture has ever been submitted to a so comprehensive set of judicial rules. We count the articles in thousands - as many as hundred or thousand times as many than in preceding cultures.”
“Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution is a gift to pimps, traffickers and the sex industry. Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution and the sex industry promotes sex trafficking.”
TheStateOf . . . Red Light Districts. I would support containing prostitution to small, safe, regulated hotels in certain parts of the city. If filming porn is legal, why not prostitution?
Filed under: Culture
