On Nov 24, 2004, at 8:26 AM, Dan Minette wrote:
I don't. I'm sorry if my words indicated that. I'm just trying to not
make assumptions...and after I've been challenged to find support for
things for which the evidence is well known....
No you weren't. You were asked whether prostitution was unhealthy and you responded with the non sequitar that lots of people who practice prostitution were sexually abused as children. This has nothing to do with whether prostitution is inherently unhealthy.
Nothing?
Correct. Nothing.
So, you are saying the fact that sex workers, even strippers, are
overwhelmingly people who have been subject to sexual abuse, with the
inherent risk to sexual self image that is associated with that abuse is
meaningless.
Dan, you've used this argument several times now. At first it was simply "disproportionately" sexual abuse victims who become strippers or prostitutes. Now you're saying it's an "overwhelming" number. It would seem the percentages have grown in 48 hours.
I would like you to prove your words. Either cite some statistics to back up what you are saying, or stop using this argument, as unless you can provide evidence for it it's invalid.
In any case, I strongly doubt the "overwhelming" term -- that implies a majority, and presumably larger than 51%. ;)
In the social sciences, causality is extremely hard to prove. Opinions,
policies, etc. are formed on understandings obtained by correlations. It
is interesting that this standard technique is considered suspect in this
case.
The standard technique is not under suspicion. The conclusions drawn in a socially-biased context are what is under scrutiny here.
As far as other reasons to have sex -- I'm pretty sure you've had discussions like this one before, with other people in different contexts. Surely those people also highlighted other reasons to have sex. It would seem you either ignored those reasons, or chose to forget them (possibly because you don't consider them legitimate reasons). I don't know why a delineation of other reasons to have sex would have any more lasting effect on you now than it clearly failed to have before, but here are a few. Tension relief: Pure plain simple horniness. Pleasure: Sex is fun. Experimentation: I've never tried it this way before... Thrill: Oo, I'm being naughty. Non-marriageable affection: The fabled "friendship f---".
This can apply to partners of any gender, in any number or permutation. It's even possible for otherwise-heterosexual men, provided their sexual orientation is not threatened, to enjoy same-gender intercourse in some circumstances. (Trust me on that one.)
As to whether I'd want my daughter to be a prostitute: Assuming I were living in a place and time that lauded the profession; that is, if it were considered by society a legitimate way to make a living, then yes, and I'd want her to be the best she possibly could at it, assuming that was the future she wanted for herself.
How can I be so callous? I'm not: Ostensibly if I had a daughter who wanted to enter the sex trade, it would be because she had a healthy self-image; she'd see herself as desirable, and would believe herself to be skilled enough at intercourse to provide tremendous pleasure to her clientele. Good for her. How could I not support her in her goals? Of course I'd also want her to have plans for retirement, as I would if I had a daughter who wanted to be an olympic gymnast.
But in *any* case I'd hope that, whomever and however she chose to have sex, she'd be able to enjoy it and would be damned good at it.
Given the social negativity so completely plastered on to the sex worker trade now, though, I don't know if there are any venues in the world where such a career choice would be seen in that light. IOW, female sex workers are only seen as fallen women because they are seen as fallen women. It's a tautology you're promoting, not a universal rule.
I also find it very interesting that you speak only of female prostitutes. There's another entire gender out there you've overlooked, which says even more about a possible bias on your part than anything else I can bring up.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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