I remember reading about the last changes to the prostitution laws in ireland, colour me surprised when it turned out that the most prominent NGO( Ruhama) fighting for that change was run by magdelin nuns. Not surprised that it hasn’t protected sex workers.
Bitter-Equal-751 on
People (pimps) that own Escort websites are also very active at funnelling money to groups that advocate for legalising prostitution. Legalising does not improve the lives of women who end up in it, there is research that it actually makes the Johns more demanding/aggressive/entitled as it’s a legal commercial service and the ‘customer is always right.’
Wonderfully progressive Reddit so keen to reduce women to commodified glorified wank rags for men.
caisdara on
Germany and the Netherlands have discovered that legal sex work is still largely populated with trafficked and/or exploited women.
Sex work is real, but it’s always going to be ugly. I’m not sure Ireland is mature enough to confront that reality.
SurrealRadiance on
It makes complete sense to me just like drug reform and taxation really does seem like a better attitude than the “drugs are bad, m’kay” crowd. It all should be about harm reduction and giving people as safe as possible means of accessing these vices whilst also giving people who perform these jobs adequate workers rights and safety at their workplace.
Additional_Olive3318 on
Wasn’t criminalising the purchase of sex, rather than the selling of sex, considered progressive a mere 5 years ago.
Willing-Departure115 on
Prostitution is grimy, often nasty, and populated by plenty of criminal elements.
It’s also not going away. No country on earth has managed to stamp it out.
The entire approach should therefore be about harm reduction. Ensuring people in prostitution are there because they want to be (these people do exist!) and hunting down and punishing people traffickers and pimps.
Anything else strikes me as tilting at windmills.
sludgepaddle on
We should do an Uber style ride-sharing thing.
caoluisce on
I don’t understand the points about stigma in the article. In reality, if somebody is a prostitute or escort in Ireland it’s hardly by choice, they are almost always vulnerable and in that situation because they have no other choice. They are also overseen by violent or otherwise dangerous pimps. The stigma exists because people recognise that this is morally reprehensible. Other people also view the work itself the same way and believe that going downtown and paying someone for sex is wrong.
This stigma isn’t going to change if we suddenly legalise it. Neither will the structural violence these women face. Why is the proposed solution to make sex work legal and forget about it, instead of attempting to actually remove people from the situation where they are forced into prostitution in the first place? Are these researchers really arguing that women grow up and decide to be escorts of their own accord because it’s an enjoyable and fulfilling career? They are forced into it and stay in it because they have no pathway to remove themselves from it.
If this law was changed tomorrow, do people think pimps and escort owners will suddenly give up that coercive financial control and let the prostitutes they oversee register with Revenue? These women would still be vulnerable and subject to the same stigma and violence mentioned here, only it would now be legal to buy sex off then.
The real reason is that prostitution is illegal is because 99% of people in Irish society view it as morally reprehensible and see the negatives associated with it. These negatives don’t magically go away if we change the law to make it legal.
9 Comments
[deleted]
I remember reading about the last changes to the prostitution laws in ireland, colour me surprised when it turned out that the most prominent NGO( Ruhama) fighting for that change was run by magdelin nuns. Not surprised that it hasn’t protected sex workers.
People (pimps) that own Escort websites are also very active at funnelling money to groups that advocate for legalising prostitution. Legalising does not improve the lives of women who end up in it, there is research that it actually makes the Johns more demanding/aggressive/entitled as it’s a legal commercial service and the ‘customer is always right.’
Wonderfully progressive Reddit so keen to reduce women to commodified glorified wank rags for men.
Germany and the Netherlands have discovered that legal sex work is still largely populated with trafficked and/or exploited women.
Sex work is real, but it’s always going to be ugly. I’m not sure Ireland is mature enough to confront that reality.
It makes complete sense to me just like drug reform and taxation really does seem like a better attitude than the “drugs are bad, m’kay” crowd. It all should be about harm reduction and giving people as safe as possible means of accessing these vices whilst also giving people who perform these jobs adequate workers rights and safety at their workplace.
Wasn’t criminalising the purchase of sex, rather than the selling of sex, considered progressive a mere 5 years ago.
Prostitution is grimy, often nasty, and populated by plenty of criminal elements.
It’s also not going away. No country on earth has managed to stamp it out.
The entire approach should therefore be about harm reduction. Ensuring people in prostitution are there because they want to be (these people do exist!) and hunting down and punishing people traffickers and pimps.
Anything else strikes me as tilting at windmills.
We should do an Uber style ride-sharing thing.
I don’t understand the points about stigma in the article. In reality, if somebody is a prostitute or escort in Ireland it’s hardly by choice, they are almost always vulnerable and in that situation because they have no other choice. They are also overseen by violent or otherwise dangerous pimps. The stigma exists because people recognise that this is morally reprehensible. Other people also view the work itself the same way and believe that going downtown and paying someone for sex is wrong.
This stigma isn’t going to change if we suddenly legalise it. Neither will the structural violence these women face. Why is the proposed solution to make sex work legal and forget about it, instead of attempting to actually remove people from the situation where they are forced into prostitution in the first place? Are these researchers really arguing that women grow up and decide to be escorts of their own accord because it’s an enjoyable and fulfilling career? They are forced into it and stay in it because they have no pathway to remove themselves from it.
If this law was changed tomorrow, do people think pimps and escort owners will suddenly give up that coercive financial control and let the prostitutes they oversee register with Revenue? These women would still be vulnerable and subject to the same stigma and violence mentioned here, only it would now be legal to buy sex off then.
The real reason is that prostitution is illegal is because 99% of people in Irish society view it as morally reprehensible and see the negatives associated with it. These negatives don’t magically go away if we change the law to make it legal.