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There needs to be a follow up comic of England finding out about Canada using a prostitute...

@SelfSexual May all the upvotes go to you.

@txag70 Mine just did! LOL

To my knowledge prostitution is legal in all countries, provided there is long term work contract.

something called marriage.

@Mayhemeffect lmao fucking brilliant!

@Mayhemeffect In what way is marriage similar to prostitution? Prostitution is sex for money. Marriage needs neither sex nor money to be a marriage.

@FloraNB Some girls pick their hubby with their backgrounds

@kiyori although there are some who marry for money, but society doesn't seem for be as harsh on them about it. A lot of this could be because men have for a while been more socio-economically more powerful while women have traditionally been reduced to their value primarily being their looks and sexuality, but luckily that's changing and you can find sugar mommas these days so it's not always the man with all the money and power and the woman only being valued in the relationship for her looks and sexuality. Although sugar mommas might still be rare because even if a woman has achieved millionaire status or become a powerful figure, if she's ugly people people are still going to be harsher on her about it than her male millionaire or powerful figure counterparts because a lot of society will still only value a woman for her sex appeal even if she has achieved a lot in the business or political field. So wealthy but not so attractive woman? Bit harder to find a sugar baby because as a woman she's still held to higher appearance standards and her beauty is still regarded as part of her value as a human being. Wealthy but attractive man looking for a sugar baby? Well that's just fine because he's a man and allowed to age and gain weight and loose sex appeal because as a man that was never considered as much of his value as it would be for a woman.

@FloraNB There are some people who only marry because their spouse is rich or has rich parents.

@PaxRomana

Ivana Zelníčková
Marla Maples
Melania Knauss
Ivanka Kushner

@TangoXrayActual Hail to the people and president of the United States lol

What annoys me about this topic is how much dishonesty there is on both sides of the issue. I read a fascinating article about the legalized industry in Amsterdam years ago, that was addressing the moralistic crusaders who were reporting that something like "35% of sex workers in brothels were trafficked in from other countries!" basically making them sound like sex slaves. The author pointed out, however, that what they were doing was conflating the terms "sex trafficking" and "migrant sex workers." Yes, many of the women came from other countries to be prostitutes in Amsterdam, not because they were being forced to, but rather A) it was illegal in their home country, B) the working conditions were safer and all around better in the Netherlands, and C) they were making MAD money hand over fist working there. No different from any other professional that decides to relocate, really.

But on the other side you have the people caught visiting malnourished Asian women chained to mattresses on the floor, saying "No, officer... I thought she was in the line of work because she enjoyed it!" This is why I support a legalized framework with strong support services for workers, and even stronger criminal sentences for pimps and traffickers.

@TuxedoCartman

That's hardly "both sides"! Who the hell on the pro-legalization side is for "chained to mattresses"?

@Grahor I'm guessing he's talking about either the Johns or pimps who would put a victim of human trafficking in that situation, because of course they wouldn't want to legally be persecuted for their haneous actions so technically might be on the pro-legalization side. I have met a lotnof individuals pro-legalization who when you bring up the awful violations of human rights that happen in some sex work rings who will immediately silence you and shut you down because they don't want sex work spoken of in a negative light thinking it'll hurt their cause. However, if someone is pro-legalization I think it's still vital to address the gross violations of human rights that happen in the sex work industry, specifically how that should be monitored and prevented when and if it's legalized to keep the workers safe and healthy.

@Crypto Grahor, yeah... what Crypto said. I'm not talking about the academical "to legalize/ to not legalize" both sides. To be honest, I have yet to meet someone who can offer a solid, logical defense of criminalizing prostitution that doesn't fall back on religious morality or emotion eventually. (My favorite being, "Would YOU want that job?" Well, no, but I also don't want to be an oil rig worker or work in a hospital... doesn't mean those jobs shouldn't exist).

No, I'm talking about the extremes here: the anti-vice people who want ALL sex work banned (alcohol and smoking too, if they could), vs. the users in the industry that don't give two figs about human rights, so long as their knob gets polished. I live in Las Vegas, and some of the things people do here... *shudder*. I WISH I could say the chained-to-a-mattress scenario was the worst thing I've heard. But you get these guys out here expecting debauchery, and yes there's a lot of them that are good guys just looking for some fun... but then there's the groups of guys you can pick out of a crowd a mile away... drunk, abrasive, extra douchey towards waitstaff... who you know won't ask twice about the age of a girl they find themselves paying to sleep with later, or about the bruises on a sex worker. THOSE are the ones who'll say, "Nah, brah, it should totes be legalized! Some chicks like blowing me on a dirty bathroom floor for a $20 bill."

@TuxedoCartman I believe that that's why many sex worker advocates push for decriminalization rather than legalization.

@TuxedoCartman that's why I like the idea of making being a pimp/owning a brothel illegal, but being a prostitute not. The prostitute will get help if she needs to, but never punished, while forcing anybody to be a whore for you becomes automatically very illegal. Legal but regulated brothels would have the same effect, provided there was really serious control on nobody being forced or treated badly, and I feel there wouldn't be enough control.

(like you can make rules about it being illegal to sell horsemeat if you say you're selling cow's meat, but it turned out there was hardly any control so it happened everywhere, anyway)

@Wortel I read one time about an "employee-owned" brothel, where there was no head madam/ pimp, but all the ladies went in together on a place for safety reasons. That model makes sense, but yeah... too much potential for abuse otherwise. I live in Las Vegas, and have heard stories about the legal brothels in our state, that they're not all they're cracked up to be (abusive owners, pimps, etc...) It's sad because this seems like an issue that could be fixed really easily if governments put personal morality and emotions aside, and simply passed laws with the best interest of people involved.

(Side note: I did not realize we had gotten Celebratory Sister America avatars! Yay!!!)

@TuxedoCartman Oh, that model is certainly a perfectly good one!
Still, there's nobody they're giving their money too - only tax and the cost of the building, like the self-employed lady in the comic.

(I costum-avatarred that one, from the Tesla comic. The look on her face is awesome. So is America-Thos, by the way :yes

@Wortel or he, don't forget some sex workers are men. Although sadly I think a lot of why there are so many more female sex workers is because when women turn to sex work because it's the only source of decent income available, specifically only sex work and not other decent sources of income are available because of how society reduces a woman's value to her sexuality. A man when desperate for employment might have more options like working in construction, or in sanitation such as a garbage collector or a sewage worker, or mining. All of those jobs are incredibly hard for women to break into because of sexist biases that they wouldn't be capable of it plus the relentless sexual harassment women face in those jobs. So yeah, when a working class man is desperate for decent income he has all of those options that women are typically barred from due to relentless sexual harassment and sexist biases, but because a woman's primarily valued just for her sexuality she might only have sex work to turn to.

@Crypto that's a good point...
Desperate option work is hardly available for women.

@TuxedoCartman
This service should not be an excuse for additional migration.
Otherwise the EU and UN talkheads constantly speaking of ageing workforce in the EU and the need for a fresh workforce might look a tad bit kinky. Old grammies playing tie-up games with underaged immigrants from the MENA and SSA? Does that foreign workforce even have enough education for this field? On the other hand, if such foreign workforce is needed, one should also beware of the little green women from Russia, because they tend to be too professional - with honeypots and audiovisual recordings and blackmail and such.

@TuxedoCartman The dutch system is the way to go really. I've yet to find any real flaws in it so far, not that I've used it personally.

> In most European countries it's perfectly legal to be both a prostitute and a customer though, but illegal to own a brothel or be a pimp. If the prostitute has to hand any of their money over to anyone else besides the government in the form of taxes, that other person is in big trouble.

Does this mean that in these countries the government is the pimp?

@Gerusz We must go deeper.

@paaaaancake that's what she said

@Gerusz Sounds right to me. lol

@Gerusz You can see it that way. In my country, that was actually the main argument against institutionalizing prostitution in some way. So now it exists in a grey area; I don't think any prostitute actually pays taxes, but they should, and brothels and pimping are of course illegal. Well, there are brothels. But they operate as strip clubs, they pay girls for the dancing and provide rooms for "private dances", and pretend they don't know about any prostitution.

@Gerusz If that makes the government the pimp, does that make us all prostitutes?

In the US it's illegal to sell sex for money as well as to buy it. During a typical prostitution arrest sting here, the women/men/children who have been found to be prostitutes are automatically arrested and sent to jail even if it's obvious they were trafficked/forced to do it. Makes my blood boil.

Though in a few states (including my own, California), there have been laws passed to no longer require the automatic arrest of prostitutes in a sting if it looks like they're being trafficked.

@PetuniaPinkPink
Is it that way everywhere in the USA outside of rural Nevada (where there are a few legal brothels)?

In the US state of Rhode Island, the local government accidentally legalized prostitution in the 1980's when the laws had to be updated due to new technology, so long as it wasn't advertised outdoors. This is why the strip clubs were built next to motels that charge by the hour, and also why RI has so many strip clubs. Then a couple years ago, after a scandal involving a disgustingly pink building with underage sex slaves, the state decided to finally change the law, and the capitol elected a mayor who pledged to go after prostitution.

Except it's still de facto legal for the state senators, because no cop is going to lose his job trying to take down either a state senator or his favorite call-girl.

@CorruptUser Actually it's not always something a Politician can get away with. If a Journalist got a hold of that kind of dirt then there'd be a field day and the Senator's career would be over. Just ask Eliot Spitzer.

@PaxRomana

That's federal, not state, and not Rhode Island. No seriously, Rhode Island's most famous politician, Buddy Cianci, was a man who literally had the cops hold another man down while he personally beat the shit out of that man (the man slept with Mrs Cianci), went to prison, got out, and STILL got re-elected.

Then eventually got taken down by the FBI for extortion, witness tampering, etc.

And got out of prison a couple of years later and nearly won another election for mayor.

'@CorruptUser' roads seem to be bad down there as well, you can advertise it as Russian Experience Lite in US.
In real Russia person being beaten by the mayor would be the only one to go to jail as well.

@CorruptUser Rhode Island politics- it makes us Massholes feel superior.

Hum0n,

We called Denmark as "Stupid-Sweden" on our "Finland 2nd" video. How about a comic about it and all other Trump-video's? It would be great, huge, you'll love it.

It would have been cool if this was a male prostitute. There's a really strong stereotype that all sex workers are women which I think can contribute to women being the more sexualized gender. Most people I know, especially men, will seem fine if you talk about female sex workers but once you bring up male sex workers they get grossed out and / or uncomfortable. Because women are supposed to be the more sexualized ones according to a lot of people.

'@Crypto' That is because a womens primary value is her fertility, while a man's primary value is the resources he can provide. The end goal for both is progeny.

@Crypto At least in Europe, most visible sex workers are female. I've heard quite a few stories when I moved to Amsterdam how there was an attempt to introduce men to the Red Light District, but that it failed miserably because women were not interested enough in such services.

@Dachaz I feel like that's probably a combination of how most societies hypersexualize women for the male gaze while simultaneously suppressing female sexuality. I think if we stopped hypersexualizing women so much purely for the male gaze and stopped shaming women so much for their own sexual urges then there would be a more even distribution of sex worker's genders. Maybe not totally equal, but not so drastically skewed. Also, not everyone is straight, not everyone who might want a male prostitute would necessarily be a woman just like not everyone who would want a female prostitute would necessarily be a man.

@Crypto Since SATW humor relies on sweeping generalizations, making a joke with a minority case doesn't fits here. Male prostitution is marginal compared to female prostitution.

As for sexualization of women, it's men who determine whether women are sexually appealing or don't. With some exceptions, most men agree that women are sexually appealing. So this leaves potential communicators with a large sector of population which is both prone and sensitive to the sexualization of women, and that's a powerful incentive for said sexualization.

Also in the specific case of advertising, women are sensitive to role-leading women, thus women are used to sell certain products/services to women... that explains why women dominate visual advertising.

In Canada, it is "illegal to purchase sexual services but legal to sell them". So you can be a prostitute, you just can't buy one.

@amypisces

No, cops will still drag you away to jail. They just used to have to be more creative making up a reason why.

@Hinoron I wouldn't know. I just googled lol

For how long did Europe hide behind the bushes? You're naughty, don't you Europe?

@Lotus