Edit to add my opinion so I’m not just replying “I agree” to 90% of comments. I think it should be legal, properly regulated, taxed and viewed as a profession. I haven’t personally engaged in it but I have no moral objection to it. I do hate the common sentiment that it was the individual’s “only option” though.

  • psion1369@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Regulated with provisions for safety. I’m all for the idea it should be in a specific license location, like love hotels or massage parlors or something like that. No going to someones house or a different hotel.

    • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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      55 minutes ago

      And unionized, and the employer pays for (without touching employee pay):

      • PPE (including gloves, dental dams, and male and female condoms, which are mandatory for any and all physical contact that includes genitals, mucous membranes, feet, or non-intact skin).
      • regular STD testing
      • vaccinations
      • optional pharmacologic prophylaxis
      • building security
      • both bedside and wearable panic alarms
      • identity monitoring and protection / assistance removing their personal information from publicly accessible records.

      Every room should be required to have a poster listing employee rights.

      Aside from pricing differently for specific services (handjob vs blowjob etc) tipping is illegal.

      No employee (particularly owners or supervisors) are allowed to receive service at their own location or any owned by a same parent company.

      The owner and any shift supervisors are required to take a class on these regulations and sit for and pass a licensure exam.

      Independent workers can receive a special, less restrictive license (that includes basic sex ed but mostly focuses on informing them of their rights and that independent means independent not “your boss just doesn’t want to get a license” and keeping people with intellectual disabilities or low educational level from being misinformed of their rights as a sex worker).

      They worker will never face charges for not having a license but their boss or any John (Jane?) / client who can’t prove the sex worker or company was licensed (or that they were significantly or intentionally misled) can.

  • AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip
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    3 hours ago

    As long as the industry has regulations that help keep the prostitutes safe ( generic things like STD testing and time off to clear that all up, ways to deal with rowdy, rough customers, etcetera ) In have zero problem as long as the workers are consenting and at least in their mid to late 20s to keep the creepiest of people out.

  • Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca
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    5 hours ago

    You know what would give women power over men? Allowing them to charge money for sex. This is why it’s so demonized. It should be legalized so it can be regulated with health standards, and standards of engagement that protect everyone, like condom use, and having to do monthly or weekly STD/HIV checks. Make it 21+ ID is required to buy and sell services.

  • Breezy@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    As a dude, i sucked a dick for big money to some rich old guy. With inflation, over 900 dollars for like nothing. So im biased

    I think it needs to be legalized world wide to give it an opportunity to be regulated. If its already happening might as well capitalism the industry. Its going to happen either way, or the world will continue to have deep state sex clubs.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    16 hours ago

    Many complaints against prostitution also apply to trading labor for money/shelter in general. People just have a stronger emotional response.

    Emotional responses are rarely a good foundation for policy.

    Prostitution should be legal with safety regulations. All labor should have protections, unions, and such, to protect them from being abused by the wealthy.

    Some specific things would probably remain illegal or disallowed, in the same sense that you’re not allowed to work construction without safety gear. People can wear condoms as easily as hard hats and hi-viz vests.

  • Oak_Kitten@slrpnk.net
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    18 hours ago

    As long as all parties involved are consenting adults it’s none of my business what they are up to. Except that prostitution should be legalized in a way in which they get equal rights and protections to other professions. The only reason it’s illegal in many countries in the first place is likely based on religious Puritanism, which I do not think laws should ever be based on.

  • daggermoon@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    So long as it’s regulated and all parties are safe and consenting then it’s none of my business. It’s not something i’d be interested in however. To each their own.

  • Novamdomum@fedia.io
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    20 hours ago

    The only thing more certain to exist till the end of time than prostitution is people complaining about it. I like it because it makes something explicit that is implicit in so many apparently non transactional relationships. There are so many people who say prostitution should be banned, who are also in relationships/marriages where they expect sex for shelter, food, safety or whatever. Prostitution makes the transaction clear. People point to the exploitative nature of it, but then reveal their real agenda by also rejecting the idea of making it safer for the people selling access to their bodies. The whole thing is a massively hypocritical pile of double standards. Mix into that cultures with backwards patriarchal religious doctrines and that’s where you get the really angry people who talk about dishonor and stoning and all that jazz. Prostitution has been around since there were people and will always be around. When the puritans are in charge it just hides for a bit. This has been my TED talk, thanks lol

    • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
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      53 minutes ago

      “Kyle, every boy pays for kisses. Do you know what I am saying? If you got a girl and she kisses you, sooner or later you’re paying for it. You gotta take her out to lunch, take her to a movie, and then spend time listening to all her stupid problems. Look, look at Stan right there. He’s got to sit there and listen to all her stupid motherf___ing problems 'cause she kisses him. If you ask me, that’s a lot more than the $5 my company charges.”

  • jenesaisquoi@feddit.org
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    18 hours ago

    We should find out which policy minimises harm to those participating in it. Then, regardless of how anyone might feel about that policy, implement it.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    15 hours ago

    I think it should be legalized. The only thing wrong with sex outside of procreation is absolutely nothing. I have a hunch it would help with a lot of social ills out there. Why, in most depictions of the old west, you could go to town and get a prostitute. Eventually, powerful people with sexual hang-ups and twisted morals restricted the activity and pushed it underground where it’s dirty and dangerous.

  • Paragone@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    One of the commenters said it was fundamentally gross to them…

    It’s fundamentally depressing to me: intimacy’s … unending.

    There’s no such thing as “a 1-night stand”, or “just a fuck” … you’ll never be unmixed with that someone…

    & doing it as mere-transaction, or mere-physicality … ??

    but apparently that view that most of a someone isn’t physical, & most of sex isn’t physical either, is deemed to be nonsense,

    & pretending that merely-physical is “all that exists” is actually common …

    so, my perspective is deemed lunacy or idiocy by this world.

    But seeing women being used for mere-physical sensation by random strangers, as a purchased-transaction … that’s depressing…

    I wish the world didn’t work that way.

    I’m with all the people who want prostitution not-criminalized, who want it taxed & regulated, & I’d add that I want pimping criminalized: let women form cooperatives, or something, but nobody should coerce anybody into the biz of being used bodily.

    _ /\ _

  • yermaw@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    Absolutely should be legal and taxed, with rules and regulations in place to protect clients and workers.

    I pretty much do have moral objections to it, its fundamentally gross to me, but its not going to stop and id rather these prostitutes work in a safe place and pay their taxes like the rest of us than get their passports taken by a guy named The Scorpion with a spider Web tattooed on his neck.

  • remon@ani.social
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    2 days ago

    Never had anything to do with it personally, but just like with drugs it should be legal and regulated because it’s impossible to prohibit it.

    • bizarroland@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Hard agree.

      Regulate it, tax it, protect the workers and users. Prevent the spread of diseases and use the money to ensure their futures.

      Minimize harm, maximize happiness.

      Failure to do so is a failure of society.

      After all, we already have so many people making money on onlyfans and through doing pornography, which is legalized prostitution anyway, so the people that do that in a non-video scenario should have at least the same protections.

  • a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I’m not going to read through to find where Carlin was already quoted, but I stick with "selling is legal, f****** is legal, why isn’t selling f****** legal?