In surveys, most women say that they would get out of prostitution immediately if they could.
In addition to reading about the subject I also talked to someone who years ago wanted to start a brothel in Germany for some time and who did background research into how the industry operates. That conversation shifted my own views on the subject because he’s not simply a feminist with a political agenda where I don’t trust the person to accurately represent reality but his views are the product of contact with the ground reality.
would get out of prostitution immediately if they could
I wonder what you would find if you surveyed ordinary workers and asked how many would stop working immediately if they could?
“Would get out immediately if they could” might mean that they’re being kept prisoner at gunpoint. Or that they are addicted to a drug that they can only get from the pimp who’s insisting that they keep working as prostitutes. Or that they don’t have any other way to earn as much money as they need (or want). Or just that like many other people they don’t like their job much.
I suspect there’s quite a lot of the third of those; in such cases I suggest that the underlying problem is poverty more than it’s prostitution, and maybe legalizing and destigmatizing prostitution makes those people’s lives better by giving them one more viable way to earn a living. (Only maybe: it could be, e.g., that prostitution is in almost all cases a much worse way to earn a living than it seems from outside, in which case making it an easier option could be doing them a big disservice.)
The article I linked to contains the passage:
In addition to reading about the subject I also talked to someone who years ago wanted to start a brothel in Germany for some time and who did background research into how the industry operates. That conversation shifted my own views on the subject because he’s not simply a feminist with a political agenda where I don’t trust the person to accurately represent reality but his views are the product of contact with the ground reality.
I wonder what you would find if you surveyed ordinary workers and asked how many would stop working immediately if they could?
“Would get out immediately if they could” might mean that they’re being kept prisoner at gunpoint. Or that they are addicted to a drug that they can only get from the pimp who’s insisting that they keep working as prostitutes. Or that they don’t have any other way to earn as much money as they need (or want). Or just that like many other people they don’t like their job much.
I suspect there’s quite a lot of the third of those; in such cases I suggest that the underlying problem is poverty more than it’s prostitution, and maybe legalizing and destigmatizing prostitution makes those people’s lives better by giving them one more viable way to earn a living. (Only maybe: it could be, e.g., that prostitution is in almost all cases a much worse way to earn a living than it seems from outside, in which case making it an easier option could be doing them a big disservice.)