Thursday, August 27, 2009
Law and Order Nashville's "John School" Observed by CNN
Posted by Ashley Spurgeon on Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 3:22 PM
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Thank you for a totally biased and uneducated retort to an otherwise deep subject. I live in an urban area and have known quite a few "working women," and while some had pimps who were abusive and stereotypical, there were many there on their own free will because it was easy money. Of those who had pimps, many were also boyfriends and there for protection more than anything. Many worked independently. One in particular came from the rich suburbs. Easy money has nothing to do with background or whether or not someone was abused. Past abuse does not excuse present behavior. As far as public registries are concerned, studies have consistently shown public shaming lists do nothing to deter crime. See the website www.oncefallen.com for registry facts.
Decriminalize drugs, treat addiction as a disease, provide economic opportunities for folks with no marketable skills, and open prescribing and injection centers to the addicts.
Abuse without addiction is a harder problem to address, but less frequent.
Most johns have serious problems as well-- they're not necessarily sick horndogs with money. A friend of mine popped up on Metro's patronizing prostitution site. His wife died of metastatized breast cancer in the winter. He loved her and never would have cheated on her, but loneliness can be torture, and he wanted some form of intimacy. Yet he was arrested in a sting, lost his job, and apparently may be classified as a sex offender.
Get to the causes of poverty and desperation to address them.
This program sounds a lot better than giving prostitutes long jail sentences. But some of the assumptions behind it seem a bit bizarre. For instance, it seems the only way to humanize prostitutes is to portray them all as pitiable victims, raped, abused and forced into prostitution. I don't doubt this happens often, but it ignores the possibility that a woman could choose the job of her own free will, out of economic self-interest (because, for instance, she doesn't mind the work, & it pays a heck of a lot more than working at a factory). Would we still regard prostitution as a horrible moral evil in those cases? If so, why?
A related assumption is that "prostitute"="woman" and "john"="man." I assume there are plenty of male prostitutes & gay johns around, but the article doesn't even consider such a possibility. This assumption contributes to a simplistic view of the issue -- prostitution is bad because it "contribut[es] to the exploitation of women," men are evil exploiters, women are helpless victims.
This doesn't do much to improve the prostitutes' actual safety. Legalizing sex work would help a lot more, since that way prostitutes would have legal recourse against clients who steal or are violent.
"they are also grown women who have always been seen as belonging to someone other than themselves"
I beg your pardon sweetie but upon investigation your premise just does not universally hold water, though I'm satisfied you'll probably never change your mind. In case you're open minded enough to do it just check out some of the high priced whore web sites. None of them march to any drummer but the long green. And they know how to be circumspect about doing their business. They qualify their buyers just as though they were selling upscale real estate or Rolls Royces. (Which indeed some of them just might be doing when they're not peddling ass.)
Aside from the misfortune of a couple of monumentally stupid, testosterone saturated politicians, when was the last time anyone heard about the chairman of the board of a Dow-Jones Industrial company caught in a sting, losing his job, shamed, featured in a governmental website and declared a sex offender. Doesn't happen. And the world's oldest profession bustles merrily on its way.
Sam, if you're going to patronizingly call a woman you don't know "sweetie," it's important to be able to back up your patronizing tone with the ability to actually stick to the subject at hand.
The difference between the work experience a high priced call girl has and her ability to protect herself and her johns' abilities to stay out of the way of the police are worlds apart from the people Ashley's talking about in this post.
So, what's your point?
Cynic, what in the following sentence makes you think the writer was implying "universal:"
"Prostitution is not a victimless crime, because for every man or woman that enters the profession willingly, there are far more people suffering from abuse and addiction with no clear way out."
She clearly (to everyone other than you) writes that there are some who enter the practice willingly.
One suspects that you may have issues with women in general.
What's wrong with Craig's List? Anyone?
Stay away from the street junkies. Go hit up the Brentwood mama's who are making a little cash while the husband is at work.
Or for that matter, pick up a copy of the Nashville Scene. I hear that the girls in the back pages do more than just "escort."
Really, you are going to "pay" for it one way or another. Might as well make the transaction an open and honest one.
"One suspects that you may have issues with women in general."
Cynic—Sounds to me like you've been skipping your Misogynists Anonymous meetings. Get back with your program, boy.
Legalizing sex work would make an immense difference. And Emily is right, these issues DO always bring up the question of a woman's agency. It's true that women can and do absolutely choose to sell their own bodies for sex. And if women are going to continue face the sorts of conditions that lead them to choose sex work as the most viable or desirable option, it should be regulated so it can be made safe and clean.
But we always tend toward treating symptoms over causes in this country.
And I also think that these stories of the Brentwood mama and the college student who turn to prostitution/stripping/sex work for the cash are really there to make us feel better about the society we inhabit. These are just clean, healthy, privileged women who are liberated, and more power to them!
Because then we don't have to think and analyze the very complicated conditions that lead to these kinds of choices, or why it is still true that so many more women than men are the ones making them.
Choices are complicated. No one makes them in a vacuum. But we get to feel so much less guilty when we say, "She chose to do it." Then we don't have to think like humanitarians and take the long view, or ever calculate the cost.
this really helps, now i encounter the problems and i donot know how to puzzle out,
i research google and found your blog,
thanks again
one thing, can i post this article on my blog? i will add the source.
regards!
Legalizing prostitution will not help the problems involved with it. Human Trafficking is a 32 billion dollar a year industry, and it's growing by the day in America. Over 50% of the individual involved in the sex industry are under the age of 18. If we legalized it, it would only give traffickers more ammunition to seek out young boys and girls to traffic.
First time in my life I stopped my car for a strange woman smiling at me. I had only $20 in my pocket. I was trapped by a police woman. She came to me and enticed me and i did not ask for it. My very first arrest. Because of my arrest, I lost my job, paid two thousand to a lawyer, paid court fees and $300 to John school. This is an entrapment. No more donation to police causes. It is a bad law. I will never trust a strange woman. I will never respect police and since I am now unemployed no more taxes going to useless police force. My house was bruglarized twice and the useless police did not do anything. They made me a criminal.
