There's a new show on network TV called Vice Squad. Basically, it's COPS, but all the criminals are dealers, pimps, or prostitutes.
I was half-watching an episode last night while I was getting dinner ready; in the first part of the show, police officers busted a hooker holding court in an Orlando hotel room. They gave her a riot act about condoms (she had plenty of them shoved in the bedside table's Gideon Bible) and harassed her about what appeared to be her appointment book. Although her profession was obvious, she denied any such behavior. The cops kept giving her shit, and all I could think was Why do we care?
What do we care if a woman wants to charge a guy 100 bucks for a screw? What do we care if some guy is willing to pay it?
People who condemn prostitution typically use arguments like "it's very dangerous and degrading for women."
It's dangerous, you puritans, because it's illegal. So if a pimp, or some john with rage issues, flies at her with his fists or coldcocks her, she's got nowhere to go. If she's runs to the police, she'll be arrested for prostitution before she's even stopped bleeding from the head. We've labeled these women criminals, and that's why they wind up beaten or dead at the hands of brutes.
And women with few options who are willing to consider prostitution are past the point where the illegality of something is going to deter them. And those that aren't destitute but do it just to make better money than they could elsewhere...well, they consider themselves successful entrepeneurs, not degraded women.
It seems to me that a regulated industry would be the best solution for everyone. Hell, even the IRS would win in that scenario. It would take the teeth out of the pimps, and it would give a woman's industry back to the women. I don't know why the feminists aren't all over this one. (Actually, I do - but that's for another rant).
Look, all women are prostitutes. The socially acceptable mating dance of civilized society is nothing more than a calculated exchange of goods and services. A woman lets a man buy her drinks, or a dinner, or several dinners, or a big f*cking diamond. Eventually, depending on what the woman considers her price point, a man's payout of money + time will get him sex.
So why do we consider it so awful if a woman just coldly charges a stranger cash and cuts out the pageantry? Does it offend our inner romantics? Is it an uncomfortable reflection and reminder of the socio-economic undercurrents that influence our own idealized relationships?
I have not met many intelligent, attractive young women who were willing to date a homeless bum. But what if I told you the homeless bum was bright, kind, and sufficiently healthy? And, women always say they love this, had a GREAT sense of humor? And was honest? He just couldn't, you know, invite you over to his place (unless you felt like sitting on a bench all night), take you out, or buy you anything, ever. Maybe a cup of coffee once and a while. What about that guy? Would you ever have sex with that guy? Your answer? No....or...sure...you know, as long as he got a job and got his life together and stuff.
Exactly. No matter how naive and idealistic our inner romantic, we still need to be taken out to the Olive Garden, or something, before we're going to take a lover. And as I watch the faces of some guys on dates at restaurants, listening to a woman talk and talk and talk about nothing, I can imagine how much better of an evening they would probably both have if he just got up, slid her a twenty, and took her to the backseat of his car.