CONSENSUAL ADULT SEX SHOULDN’T BE A CRIME
Colorado Springs Gazette, 3-20-08
Prostitution
should be legal. A woman’s body is her
own. It does not belong to her church,
although she may choose to consecrate it to God. It does not belong to her husband, although
she may choose to share it with him. It
does not belong to the state, although she may choose to rent it to state
officials. Like the Governor of New
York.
Sure,
Governor Spitzer is a hypocrite. He
broke his marriage vows, humiliated his wife and shamed his family. Even worse, he wanted unsafe sex, and
therefore put them at risk. How much
more hypocrisy and paranoia must we endure before we admit the ridiculousness
and immorality of legislating how consenting adults can be intimate with one
another?
Conservative
arguments against legalization are very familiar. Some quote Scripture. Some fear the threat to marriage. Some cite threats to social order. Some, I
suspect, are terrified of the personal temptations that prostitutes present.
Even the
normally let-it-all-hang-out feminist left is split on the issue. While the good people at Feminists for Free
Expression have called for the decriminalization of sex work, others see it as exploitive,
dangerous, and worst of all, capitalistic.
None of
these arguments hold water. There is no
Biblical precedent for throwing a woman in jail if she chooses to accept money
for sleeping with men. Such conduct is
clearly condemned, but the proper response is kindness and compassion, not
jail.
As for the
future of marriage, if the risk of legal punishment is all that prevents a
husband from seeing a prostitute, how good is that marriage to begin with? Why is such a marriage worth preserving?
Nor are all
clients of prostitutes married. Could we
at least allow single men to visit prostitutes?
Most social conservatives would say no.
I suppose when single men want quick, anonymous sex, they’re supposed to
go to bars and chat up women. Ladies,
what do you think of that?
Drugs,
poverty, rape and exploitation are clearly part of the lives of some sex
workers. But if you really care about
their lives, write them a check. Help
them get out. Better still, give them
the protection of legality.
Let them
call the cops if a john beats them up.
Let them sue for non-payment of services. Banish pimps to “Starsky and Hutch”
reruns. Brothel prostitution is legal in
Nevada, with nary a pimp in sight.
Medical testing is required, and the employees choose what they will and
won’t do. So before we talk about the
dangers of sex work, let’s talk about the dangers of sex prohibition.
The
exploitation argument is particularly silly in light of recent headlines. According to court documents, Governor
Spitzer’s escort, Ms Ashley Dupre, works for an agency where girls charge up to
$4,300 per hour. How exactly does she
qualify as exploited?
Whether we
like it or not, nature has set things up so that some women can make a great
deal of money by looking pretty and sleeping with men. They can earn a nice living with flexible
hours and high pay, just because they got lucky in the genetic lottery.
Is this
unfair? Absolutely. My wife is an attorney. She’s furious that Ms Dupre’s billable rate
is higher than hers. But
exploitive? Give me a break. If anyone is being exploited by a
$4,300-an-hour escort, it’s her idiotic clients.
Women who
otherwise fight for women’s rights will keep silent about decriminalizing
prostitution, for fear of being called sluts.
Men can’t come out in favor of legalization, because they’ll be seen as
future customers.
Enough.
Good public
policy should satisfy heart and head. If
it doesn’t succeed on both moral and pragmatic grounds, it should at least pass
muster on one. A ban on sex work fails
both. It’s not right to tell women how
they can use their bodies, and the consequences of criminalization are
horrible.
It’s time
to look the problem square in the eye, admit we were wrong, and bring a little
more freedom into the world. Sex without
payment is legal. Sex with payment
should be. Morality without choice is
not morality at all.