Prostitustion Needs To Be Legalized
Prostitutes. Hookers.
Whores. How about sex workers? That’s what they are: Workers. Sex is their profession. Just like any other job. We all have jobs, careers.
We all need a way to make money. Whether you’re in waste management or a CEO for a Fortune 500 company; we all depend on our jobs. Sex work is work. Sex workers are workers; as such they should be protected under the law. To achieve this prostitution needs to be legalized.
Sex. It’s everywhere. And what do they say about it? It sells. Prostitution, or the buying and selling of sex may be one of the oldest professions in the world (Ahmed, 2014). “The earliest human records, about 4000 B.
C., make reference to it…” says F. Arnold Clarkson, author of History of Prostitution. Prostitution dates back to ancient Mesopotamia with records of The Whore of Babylon (Ringdal, 2004). Child sex slaves. Human trafficking victims.
They’re all terrible things; however legalizing prostitution doesn’t hinder progress in ridding the world of these terrible things. It promotes it. “From 2001, the year the law legalizing sex work in Germany was passed, to 2011, causes of sex-based human trafficking shrank by 10%…
” Cathy Reisenwitz a D.C. based writer, political commentator and a sex extraordinaire says in one of her many articles on the topic. Making prostitution illegal can make sex workers afraid to come to the authorities if abused. Religious groups that claim to be helping by ‘rescuing’ illegal sex workers are often violent and abusive.
Adult sex workers are often treated in the same, unfair, violent manners (Ahmed, 2014). Rape. Unprotected sex. Abuse. These are all some of the traumatic experiences unprotected sex workers deal with every day. Legalization promotes safer practices.
“Harm-reduction programs… would go a long way towards protecting sex workers health.” argues Aziza Ahmed an expert in health law, human rights, property law, international law, and development. The internet is helping the safety of prostitution grow. Consenting adults should be able to buy and sell sex safely and privately online (A Personal Choice; Prostitution, 2014). “..
.law professor Hila Shamir at Tel Aviv University has argued that respecting labor rights in all sectors could help address many of the social and economic forces that lead to trafficking.” states Ahmed in one of her informative articles on the subject. You may think that this doesn’t affect you at all; but you’re wrong. If prostitution is safer it directly impacts public health.
Sex workers in a legalized state looked healthier and more empowered (Reisenwitz, 2014). Criminalization is making sex work more harmful to all parties involved in it. Even those who aren’t (A Personal Choice; Prostitution, 2014). Sex trade can’t be rid of and criminalization isn’t making it safer (A Personal Choice; Prostitution, 2014). Criminalization makes sex workers scared to carry condoms, so they end up having unprotected sex which is unsafe for all parties (Ahmed, 2014).
Legalization gives us more money. I mean who doesn’t want more money? I hear my teachers, and other peers talking about the “deficit”, and how bad it is, and how much money we owe. we hear it in the songs we listen to about how we’re “…
down like the economy…”. We can change that. Because standing around complaining about it isn’t doing anything. “…
each legally licensed sex worker would contribute more than $20,000 in federal income taxes per year…the tax revenue generated by this industry becomes a staggering $20 billion per year ” (Sonntag, 2009). Prostitution is a 108 billion dollar market. Prostitutes earn an average of $250,000 a year (Knufken, 2010).
Prostitutes. Hookers. Whores. How about humans? That’s what we are: Humans. Our job is to survive, to live, to thrive.
In however way we deem necessary and fit. Caleb Cushing, an American diplomat, said “These our great natural rights we keep to ourselves; we will not have them tampered with; respecting them we give to you no commission whatsoever.” We need to be able to design our futures the way we want them. We need every choice possible open to us. We need to be protected.
We need what this country stands for: We need freedom. We need prostitution to be legalized.
