I actually got really interested in this issue when I read a New York Times Op-Ed piece by Nick Gillespie, who jokingly (at least I hope it was a joke) suggested that the current administration tax prostitution. I wrote a piece about it here. I think raising awareness is the important issue here – I’m not sure what everyone was so upset about.

Anyway, thanks for the post!

Sorry, if you do.

I also found it a bit disingenuous that you said he supports making prostitution illegal, to be honest. It appears that he supports making it illegal to pay for sex and is indifferent to whether it is legal to sell sex. This isn’t good enough by a long shot, obviously, but it also sure as hell isn’t the same thing as “making prostitution illegal” with all the overt hatred of prostitutes that that implies.

Second, I feel like these comments are getting sort of off track. There’s a person above who’s been in prostitution and found herself forced by her “boss” to do things she said she wouldn’t do. (BTW, I’m very glad that you’re out and safe.) She feels, as I feel, that it’s a horrible thing to do to criminalize prostitutes. She also disagrees with me in that she feels that it’s a horrible thing to do to criminalize johns.

I, a former prostitute who was repeatedly abused and physically forced to engage in sex acts which I did not consent to, feel that criminalizing my old clients would be an excellent idea. I am somewhat confused as to why it would be somehow bad for those who are trafficked or otherwise experiencing a particularly high level of violence within the sex industry to make paying for sex illegal. According to at least one Swedish pro with a blog, criminalization of clients hasn’t stopped enough of them buying her services for her to make a living, just made them nicer. Certainly, it would appear that criminalization makes clients willing to pay more. How is this bad for prostitutes? Could someone explain?

http://swedishsexworker.wordpress.com/

In any case, I’m just sort of wondering why people aren’t talking more about criminalizing the clients. It seems like every feminist alive agrees that criminalizing prostitutes is not the answer, so why on earth are we still hashing it out amongst ourselves at the expense of talking about criminalizing clients?

Also, if you have opinions on the header, feel free to email us (see the email address on the about page), but please don’t derail.