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French move to ban prostitution by punishing clients
Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2011-12-07 02:46
Article here. Excerpt:
'France's parliament is to debate abolishing prostitution through a crackdown which would criminalise payment for sex.
The National Assembly will vote on a symbolic resolution drafted by a cross-party commission which, if successful, will be followed by a bill in January.
The resolution urges abolition at a time when "prostitution seems to be becoming routine in Europe".
Some campaigners reject the bill, advocating prostitutes' rights instead.
Around 20,000 people are believed to be working as prostitutes in France.
France has been committed to abolishing the practice in principle since 1960 but the MPs behind the resolution want this stance to be "proclaimed loud and strong".
The criminalisation of clients is "the best way to see prostitution reduced in France, given that all the countries that have regulated this activity have seen an increase", the commission has argued.
...
However, France's sex workers' trade union, Strass, has called a rally outside parliament to oppose the proposed bill.
It draws a clear distinction between consensual prostitution and sexual trafficking and fears that a reduction in clients might drive prostitutes to accept riskier transactions.
A letter to MPs signed by Strass and other groups accuses politicians of treating prostitutes as "marginals whose voice does not deserve to be heard".
It calls for prostitutes to be given rights rather than penalising clients and thereby creating "more isolation and more clandestine behaviour". '
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Comments
Legal standards... out the window!
But it should come as no surprise given how they are routinely tossed out the window when it comes to fathers' rights. Anyway, some simple facts about illegal transactions: it's a legal principle that when parties to an illegal transaction (or, "paperless contract") are competent to engage in it and of age to do so, they are both liable criminally for having engaged in it. The question of whether the act of selling sex (money-for-sex or some other kind of exchange wherein it is understood explicitly or implicitly that that is what is going on) aside, the general rule is that if the transaction (or, contract) is illegal and the parties knowingly enter into the act or contract, knowing to do so is illegal (or sometimes, that isn't even necessary), they are both criminally liable. This proposed measure would say that in the case of prostitution, this is the exception: only the buyer (one party) will be held liable.
The belief is that the net result of this will be a decline in prostitutional acts. I don't think so. This is the world's oldest profession. The penalty for it in some countries has been and is to this day death by hanging, stoning, or when things go better for you, you get whipped and/or locked up for 10 or more years. But, it still goes on. What outlawing the buyer from buying the service of having sex will only do is *lower* the price of the service, as now the seller will be free to sell without dissuasion while the buyer assumes all the risk. Prices will naturally go down and the number of sellers will of course, rise. Simple economics.
There are a lot of lies and distortions about the facts and figures around trafficking in human beings for sexual or other reasons. Feminists have exaggerated these claims and pols all over the world have gladly bought the line in an effort to look good for the cameras. So figures like "9 in 10 prostitutes are trafficked" get bandied about, when such is an absurd statement. The web has a lot of false information out there, but you will occasionally find a site that debunks the myths. One is here: http://sextraffickingtruths.blogspot.com/2011/02/sex-trafficking-sex-slavery.html
It's the prostitutes who
It's the prostitutes who take money for something that should be natural. It's the prostitutes who don't produce anything for society.
The john want sex, which is a mutual act. The prostitutes want an atm which is not mutual.
Morally we should not be targeting the johns.
Just more misandry
Going after the John's alone is just pure misandry. And I oppose penalizing either the John's OR the sex workers. These are consensual sexual acts between adults behind closed doors. Absolutely nobody's business, even if money is exchanged. This is just more obsession with controlling other people's sex lives and personal choices, and especially attacking male sexuality. I believe sex workers provide a VERY important service to society and ought to be THANKED for it, because they serve a NEED that men have, and it's not wronging anyone. By making it illegal we push it underground and make it unsafe. When it's legal and safe, it does not spread disease at all. This is just a bunch of misandry and bullshit.
@Matt
I agree with your prediction, and add one of my own. With the increase in risk, the clientele will deteriorate. The "lonely guys" will stop coming out, but the criminal types, the aggressive type and the type that want to do things they normally can't get from the average date, they will be all that's left. The prostitutes who need to earn a living will be forced, more and more, to accept these bad guys, and so will be in greater danger.
men need sex but do they need prostitites?
" because they serve a NEED that men have,"
Women are going to have sex regardless, even the prostitutes are more often addicted to sex themselves. Men need to realize this, and/or start spreading "game".
And I agree people need sex, just like they NEED friendship but to call that a "service" to society is ridiculous imo.
I'm not saying that we should criminalize prostitution. What I'm saying is that prostitutes aren't productive to society and they aren't an ideal for men. (Obviously the non violent johns are not taking advantage of anyone in general...)
There's this idea that men's sex drive is so much higher than women's but a lot of that is just engineered. Women will often slut shame each other to make their competition ashamed of their sex drive and allow them more access to the men. In other words women will sometimes work to inhibit other women acting on their sex drive. But men don't do this to other men. In our culture we encourage men's sex drive to ridiculous levels, even calling a boy who got raped by a teacher "lucky". So a lot of masculinity is about us reinforcing the idea that getting laid is all important.
Then there's the burden of homophobia that men, especially, have to deal with. In fact, women are more likely to leave a guy who cheats, if he cheats with another man. But why should the gender you cheated with matter? Men do not do the same thing to women. I think it has to do with women being threatened by the idea that men can bring pleasure into a relationship as opposed to women having a monopoly on it. Homophobia does have real effects on men, because prior to the more recent categorizations of sexuality, western men would much more frequently help take care of each others "NEEDS" (I think the study was from Berlin).
I think it is pretty obvious that our culture exaggerates men's need for sex and to some extent undermines women's sex drive which is no help to men in the exchange of sex. This is something we should keep in mind when talking about liberating men sexually.
Criminalize Money For Sex?
Okay, so no more payments to whores. Just pay $200.00 for a cheap thin metal souvenir ashtray from a stack on the nightstand.LMAO!
MRA Marc Rudov says that women are more sexually oriented than men by far and need sex more. I believe this!
Typical
Typical. Its illegal to buy but not to sell. Why not apply such logic to drug dealers??? Help the drug dealers with benefits, psychiatry and housing but punish the clients with imprisonment. Yeah right!
No one forces these women to become prostitutes. They do so through their own choice and they should be arrested and thrown in prison for it. This is designed to target men and let women off with criminal behaviour.