No little girl ...
... dreams of growing up to become a prostitute.
Belgium becomes first country to give sex workers robust labor rights and protections
Belgium made history on Sunday as the first country in the world to allow sex workers to sign formal employment contracts — granting them access to sick days, maternity pay and pension. The new law also guarantees fundamental rights for sex workers, including the ability to refuse clients, set the conditions of an act, and stop an act at any moment ...
I have two thoughts about this ...
1) it's way past time that sex workers have all the protections any other worker has.
2) Prostitution should be illegal.
You may think those two things are antithetical, but I don't. Of course everyone deserves work protections and rights, but being a prostitute is still a crap job - there really just isn't any honest way to dress it up.
At the end of the day, the "job" only exists because some people (mostly men) have a deep-seated belief that they should be able to screw another person whenever they want to. They believe they deserve this for all kinds of reasons, including health.
The fact that prostitution exists is not an affirmation of that tortured belief in entitlement, it's an example of the failure of our society from the dawn of time to treat women like people equal to men.
Some will use this law in Belgium as an excuse for why prostitution is fine, and they will tell thesmselves and others that most women become prostitutes because they love having sex with strangers and, hey, it's an easy buck. I don't believe those tropes.
Here's a scene from an episode of The West Wing, The Women of Qumar - the first part of the scene lays it out ...
Belgium becomes first country to give sex workers robust labor rights and protections
Belgium made history on Sunday as the first country in the world to allow sex workers to sign formal employment contracts — granting them access to sick days, maternity pay and pension. The new law also guarantees fundamental rights for sex workers, including the ability to refuse clients, set the conditions of an act, and stop an act at any moment ...
I have two thoughts about this ...
1) it's way past time that sex workers have all the protections any other worker has.
2) Prostitution should be illegal.
You may think those two things are antithetical, but I don't. Of course everyone deserves work protections and rights, but being a prostitute is still a crap job - there really just isn't any honest way to dress it up.
At the end of the day, the "job" only exists because some people (mostly men) have a deep-seated belief that they should be able to screw another person whenever they want to. They believe they deserve this for all kinds of reasons, including health.
The fact that prostitution exists is not an affirmation of that tortured belief in entitlement, it's an example of the failure of our society from the dawn of time to treat women like people equal to men.
Some will use this law in Belgium as an excuse for why prostitution is fine, and they will tell thesmselves and others that most women become prostitutes because they love having sex with strangers and, hey, it's an easy buck. I don't believe those tropes.
Here's a scene from an episode of The West Wing, The Women of Qumar - the first part of the scene lays it out ...
posted by crystal | 11:34 AM
3 Comments:
Katherine, for some reason your comment didn't show up here, so I copied it ...
I understand how women get drawn into prostitution, as a way to survive. I don't think they intend for it to be a permanent thing. Just something to get by.. But once you're in, it's hard to get out.
I remember there was a prostitute in the Bible, Rahab. I think she was one of the people in Jesus' geneology. Some commentators say that she wss an innkeeper rather than a prostitute. I suppose she could have been both.
I suppose that as long as women are going to do it, there needs to be some protection under the law.
I read about an order of nuns which helps women transition out of prostitution. I don't think it was in the US though.
Lots of prostitutes in the Bible. Scholars have been trying to show Mary M was not one after all. Now days there are places like that Sugar Daddy online place where Matt Gaetz would meet the girls he paid for sex. It seems somehow a cross between nihilistic and desperate.
Thanks for copying my comment, Crystal. Don't know what I did!
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