2nd-wave feminism ('boomer feminism') seems to adopt the stance that women who make such choices must not be in control of their faculties somehow, and need to be protected from such undesirable options by having them prohibited. It's an oddly paternalistic stance, for lack of a better word.

There is a certain group of second-wave feminists who define an act as "anti-feminist" if there exists a heterosexual male somewhere, anywhere, that might find it pleasurable or arousing. That particular clique carries more weight in Northern Europe.

Making it prostitution and stripping legal facilitates human trafficking. There's not going to be more of it with prohibition, and you are beyond idealistic to think that the 'protections' put in place protect the worker. These aren't debatable points.

Women should be allowed to control and use their bodies as they wish, but it is the ultimate in ivory towers to sit while there are millions and millions of women suffering as sex slaves.

"Women should be allowed to control and use their bodies as they wish"

... as long as you approve of how, of course. Oddly, these laws never make much distinction between sex slaves and free choosers, because the people who write them want to pretend the latter don't exist, anywhere, ever.

@11 Prove your first statement with documented empirical evidence. I already know that you won't even attempt to do so and that you will be unable to do so, but that won't stop you from spouting your hateful religious beliefs.

@11: "These aren't debatable points. "

Well, that's convenient for you, isn't it? I'm gonna use that in all my arguments from now on.

@17, it may not be an aspiration for most. Neither is being a waitress. It's just a _job_. And there obviously are men who sell sexual services (mostly to men) as a job, too. They just don't make for convenient political footballs in the same way.

I cite hundreds of articles. This debate has been happening for years. You morons are about 10 years behind. The red light district in Amsterdam is closed, opinions in Canada have 360'd. It's not debate for useless Seattle-tards. Yes, there are victims. Making it legal just encourages tourists, and pushes more money and more crime into it. It's not a debate about women making a free choice on what to do with their bodies. That's what everyone else (there may not be one in Seattle and you may debate whether it exist, but there's an organization called the "United Nations") has already concluded.

As with trafficking in women, increased trade in children has been boosted by high demand in the tourist industry. As one Interpol report noted: "The incredible escalation of child prostitution ... is directly caused by the tourist trade. Child prostitution is the newest tourist attraction offered by developing countries. The parallel to this phenomenon in the western countries is the explosion of a huge underground trade in child pornography ..."

http://www.un.org/events/10thcongress/20…

Pure horseshit, @34; your aside about child trafficking is irrelevant and you know it, because not a soul is advocating legalization of that, nor do strip clubs have anything to do with it. Plenty of sex work legalization advocates are more than willing to get on board with anti-trafficking efforts, but sex work opponents are never content just to attack trafficking; they want an end to all sex work, even of the voluntary and free sort. It's as absurd as saying an Iowa farmer plowing his own fields is no different than a child slave on an African chocolate plantation, and that we must treat both as the same.

@34: "It's not a debate about women making a free choice on what to do with their bodies."

Again, it must win you a lot of arguments to declare your point to be beyond debate.

Also, wouldn't your logic tend to suggest abolishing the tourist trade? After all, it says right there in that report that the tourist trade is leading to all these bad things. It's beyond dispute!

@34 No, you don't and haven't cited any articles, let alone hundreds of them. Nor am I the one living in the past you Dworkin wannabe. The world became a better, happier place when she died.

Anyways, until you can cite some real, scientific, published articles that support you, (and which are well-constructed, with proper statistical controls, and not being taken out of context), you can be ignored as a standard second wave feminist troll. Your opinions are ignorant, and unsupported by actual evidence, and are therefore ignorable. As such, I'll continue to poke fun at your sex-negative beliefs.

But seeing as how you're just going to continue lying through your teeth to support your fanatical beliefs, there's not much point in demanding that you provide evidentiary support. Just remember, you are directly supporting the work of the religious right who wants you to remain barefoot, pregnant and subservient to men for your entire life.

Again, the pain and suffering of others is not theoretical, and twisting sentences isn't going to win the argument. So far, I've yet to see anything cited by you evidencing that stripping and prostitution are liberating women. If anyone is talking about of his/her ass, it's you. Anyway, more studies below - gfy:

Donna M. Hughes, Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island, in an address this week at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, gave a quick overview of statistics related to women in prostitution in the United States. From 60 to 80 percent of prostitutes were victims of incest or child abuse, over 60 percent entered prostitution before age 18, nearly 90 percent are physically assaulted by their johns, nearly 90 percent suffer from depression, over 60 percent have tried to commit suicide, more than 90 percent use drugs or alcohol to cope with and during prostitution, and they are nearly 20 times more likely to be murdered than other women of their age and race.

Data from other countries is similar. One study was headed by prominent academic Melissa Farley and published in 1998. Based on nearly 500 prostitutes from five countries (South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, United States and Zambia), it found: 62 percent reported being raped in prostitution, 73 percent reported physical assaults in prostitution, 72 percent were currently or formerly homeless, and 92 percent wanted to escape prostitution immediately.

http://www.cwfa.org/articles/7668/BLI/na…