When someone mentions prostitution, most of us think about run-down parts of towns, cross-eyed hookers, and pimps with knives and fluffy hats. And that’s okay — not our fault. The portrayal of women who earn their bread by selling sex isn’t the sweetest of things you can see on TV and in movies. The mainstream looks down upon it, moralizing how it’s inherently awful. However, we dare argue differently.
By legalizing sex work, we can benefit in numerous ways, especially the members of the fairer sex. These pros of prostitution concern everyone’s health and safety, from minimizing violence against women to stopping sexually transmitted diseases.
In the following paragraphs, we’ll list and explain some essential prostitution benefits that come with the legalization of the world’s oldest profession.
More Access to Health Care
As if health care issues weren’t already a controversial topic in the USA, granting access to it for sex workers is something that triggers many people. However, it’s for the common good, and all of us should fight for it. In essence, selling and buying sexual services is one of the most common causes of spreading diseases and unwanted pregnancies. As such, it affects the whole society, not just women in this industry.
Most sex workers have no health care whatsoever, and we leave them to resolve their issues without professional aid. They participate in the shady market of illegal drugs, unsafe abortion procedures, or they fade out without anyone by their side. And most of those that do give birth can’t afford to look after their children.
Even if we were cold-hearted and didn’t care for human life, this would be a social issue of overall concern. But by legalizing prostitution, we would, in turn, provide all sex workers — women especially — regular genital check-ups and improved birth control programs. As such, it would affect STI transmissions and the number of children without proper care and orphans.
Additional Source of Revenue
You know how we all pay taxes? For the most part, it’s how we finance our country, which, in turn, provides us with all the necessary services. Well, when it comes to prostitution, it doesn’t work the same. Sex workers don’t pay revenue because they’re working illegally.
However, if we legalize consensual sex for money, it would be a substantial source of financial revenue. Most brothels across the United States would be happy to pay taxes, just like all other businesses. It would allow them to escape the world of gray economy, provide them with state protection, and generally organize their line of work.
Being a legal part of our economy would have numerous pros for everyone involved. The country would become wealthier, the people in the business would profit, and women working would acquire all the benefits the rest of us enjoy. It’s as simple as that.
Intensified Women and Prostitution Rights
Most people who moralize how prostitution is inherently bad suggest that it isn’t a choice. But that’s simply not the truth. You see, not all sex trade is forced. Some participants see it as a normal way of earning their living. So, in other words, prostitution is a valid choice for many.
However, if it’s illegal, no one can help workers inside the sex industry to maintain their civil rights. Society keeps looking down upon them, leaving them with no room to maneuver. There are no syndicates and unions to join groups of prostitutes and help them fend off outside and inside attacks.
So, another pro of legal prostitution is that it would allow everyone involved to fight for their rights with the same tools that are at everyone else’s disposal. And by increasing the rights of prostitutes, we would improve women’s rights in general. Of course, not all sex workers are female, but the majority are.
Women Exploitation Can Be Minimized
Although not all feminists are pro-prostitution, some of the problems they have with selling and buying sex are justifiable. Namely, they suggest that women inside the business are more prone to depression, alcohol and drug abuse, depression, and sexual exploitation. Furthermore, they emphasize how bad their working conditions are. But by legalizing this line of work, most of these concerns would be lessened.
By allowing sex workers access to health care, most of these health issues we’ve mentioned would decrease, for example. On the other hand, if it’s legal, there would be no shady pimps forcing someone into sex work without their approval. As such, the numbers of sex trafficking and victimless crime would become rather low, benefiting women’s safety.
Widespread of Safe Sex Campaign
Let’s be frank here. It’s no secret that enjoying the services of street prostitution isn’t the safest way of experiencing carnal pleasures. Since most of the workers in this industry have little or no health care access at all, the chances of catching some nasty infection are rather high. Thus, the spread of dangerous STIs flourishes. It affects both workers and customers, and they later spread it to other people outside prostitution.
But if we legalize consenting adults to enjoy the sex trade like any other business, these percentages will only drop. It would, furthermore, lead to a better safe sex campaign, with healthy workers and customers who follow all the rules. From using condoms to regular medical appointments, the notion of having safe sex would prosper greatly.
But that’s not all. Safe sex doesn’t just stop with contraception and hygiene. It includes how people treat each other while doing the deed. Legalized prostitution would mean filling out forms and leaving IDs as a reassurance that no action would endanger the workers. In other words, no rape or any other form of violence against women would be tolerated.
A perfect example of how legalized prostitution can work in the United States would be to adopt the Dutch method. Although it’s not legal in all parts of the country, Amsterdam’s “Red-Light District” is where the action’s happening. You can see sex workers in booths, offering their services to passers-by. And anyone who goes in gets to have a great time after leaving their documents and filling out forms as a guarantee of safe sex.