Did you know distributing information about birth control used to be a crime? So was divorce and interracial sex/marriage. All of these things were once illegal because they were deemed a threat to society. Then we came to understand that they’re morally neutral personal choices, and laws about them changed. I believe prostitution should join that list of decriminalized behaviors.

Society has a duty to protect the unwilling and the underage from sexual exploitation. But we have other laws for that. I’m a fully cognizant adult, and I own my body. If I choose to consent to sex with another adult for any reason, then absent any force or coercion, the government should have no right to say my reason for consenting is unlawful. If it’s not illegal for me to have sex with someone because he bought me an expensive dinner, it shouldn’t be illegal for him to just give me the money.

You may think being (or being with) a prostitute is an example of self-destructive behavior. I disagree, but even if you were correct, people have a legal right to engage in other potentially self-destructive activities. I can gamble away my paycheck on state-sponsored Lotto tickets and live on nothing but cigarettes, Twinkies, and Jack Daniel’s. Should I be arrested for doing those things? Do you think that would help me?

I use the comparison to tobacco and alcohol advisedly. Like other adult behaviors, there should be rules about prostitution. I’d frame it like this: If a sexual act would not be illegal if no money were exchanged, then the exchange of money shouldn’t make it criminal. Thus, laws protecting the unwilling and the underage stay in place, and laws about public sex/nudity, trespassing, and general nuisances would address concerns about street solicitation. Prostitutes would get business licenses and pay taxes. Their licensure wouldn’t be punitively difficult or designed to stigmatize them. Their tax revenue, together with money currently spent investigating and arresting consenting adults, would be directed toward helping the truly victimized.

If you find prostitution distasteful, then you shouldn’t engage in it. But most people have to work at something to earn a living. In my experience, having sex for money was infinitely preferable to waiting tables or being a cashier. Any human interaction can be positive or negative, depending on the people involved. Take marriage: There’s nothing bad you can say about prostitution that can’t also be said of the institution of marriage. Was it historically a system of ownership of women? Yes. Are some wives abused by husbands? Yes. Are young girls forced into it for financial reasons? Yes. Those things happen. Nevertheless, we don’t outlaw marriage, because for some people, it’s a positive choice. There are always ethical subtleties when it comes to sex. But the government shouldn’t have control of what I do with my body. And it certainly shouldn’t be in charge of sexual morality, as it is spectacularly ill-equipped for that task. recommended

19 replies on “Control Tower”

  2. I agree with your argument. The unfortunate thing is, that you really don’t own your body, at least not in this country. You can’t sell your body fluids (except sperm maybe, but I think that’s still labeled as a “donation” like plasma) or body parts. There are things that you can’t put in your body… and so, so much more…

    But, I’m rambling. Everyone knows there is a lot of wrongness in this country. This column was excellent though. Thank you!

  3. Most women are prostitutes and have been for time immemorial. Women provide their bodies for sex and procreation, men provide everything else.

  4. Once you legalize prostitution the quality of the providers health and service would become the most important aspect of the marketing. The $5 would be a thing of the past. If a woman wanted to quit she would be fully supported by programs instead of given a scarlet letter

  5. Well Said MM. Well Said. This nation was built on a rational foundation that has grown over with the mold, mildew, and brambles of fundimentalist beliefs in the name of returning to a “tradition” that never existed. For all the steps forward we have made since the constitution was radified there are those who would throw us back to the Magna Carta in the name of this tradition. This last thing will go the way of all the others. It probably should have decades ago. The fact that it has not says a great deal about the power of the puritanical thought that we have such difficulty shaking off.

  6. @3 What’s up with reducing women down to nothing except our naughty bits, which are fundamentally for the pleasure of men (to you)? Men, I see, get to do a ton more shit in your “cute” little summary of all human interactions in history ever.

    You are either a conservative, stupid, or 15.

  8. Laws aren’t moral codes handed down from on high. They’re tools to help make the world a better and safer place.

    If you look at the results in countries that legalized prostitution versus the results in countries that continue to prosecute johns but decriminalized prostitution and offer women resources to leave the profession (if they so choose) the choice is clear.

  10. “Women provide their bodies for sex and procreation, men provide everything else.”

    Yes, like child-rearing and cooking and cleaning and tending the chickens and the garden and making the clothes and nursing the sick. Men have provided those things since time immemorial.

  13. My experience working with underage prostitutes in NYC demonstrated to me that there is too much overlap between the legal sex services industry and human trafficking/child prostitution. The case that needs to be made is that legalizing adult prostitution would reduce this overlap, but the author’s reference to laws that already exist don’t accomplish this. If anything, the “let those laws do that” argument just underscores how the existing laws are NOT sufficient to protect children. I’m open to the idea that creating a market of consensual, adult prostitutes will help reduce the demand for young exploited women– but the author needs to make that argument effectively to convince me. “My body, my choice” sidesteps the trafficking/exploitation problem completely and most unsatisfactorily.

  14. haven’t you written this same article a number of times before? publishing this in the stranger is preaching to the choir. NEXT..

  15. @14 If sex was legal to sell, rather than just not-quite-“real”-sexual touching or looking, as it is now, then prostitutes wouldn’t have to hide among the sex workers who really are just offering looking and touching. What’s more, sex workers themselves will be better able to shut out people who compel women (or men) to work as well as children who work for themselves, because they won’t get arrested for existing. And finally, customers will be more empowered to ask and state their preferences – the VAST majority of clients would prefer to sleep with someone over 18.

    Besides, Matisse only has a few hundred words here. This column need not present every argument in favor of legalization, but the ones it brings up should be done rigorously and well, and I think she does that.

  16. I think its interesting that you didn’t cover the reason why the Dutch have legalized it.

    My understanding of their reasoning goes something like… since the availability of birth control removes sex purely from the realm of procreation and raises it to a leisure activity, then why not go the extra step and have people who are experts in that activity?

  17. I’m surprised MM didn’t mention one of the primary reasons prostitution is illegal in the first place… it is one of the only transactional realms in which women are in sole possession of the most valuable commodity. It fits squarely under the umbrella of all moral panics and social structures created to control women by controlling their sexuality.

  18. yep, as the above poster said, preaching to the choir by posting this in Stranger. Now, just like me as a tradesperson, taking up grievance up with my union, for example, MM, as a worker in this shadow industry, would be advised to do something about it, or at least try. Organize and try to make some changes….

  19. MM is correct, it should be legal between adults if the activity itself is legal. Sex can be the most positive therapies to grow and heal individuals if truly intimate.

    Our thought police want to enforce the morals of the Government Church upon us. Morals should be in the province of the Church and what we believe. I understand why the right wants to control others, but I do not understand the left wanting us to have the liberty to choose how we live, provided it does not hurt others.

Comments are closed.