I Vote For Legalization

i am not sure you have done anything other than prove Trisha's points.Just because it is the oldest profession does not mean it should be legalized.
You also mention having an addiction issue when you quit working but not having one before that another point of the toll it wreaks on one's mind
You also state "I was able to detach myself, perform at my best and get it over with quickly. I became a robot" why then would you want to subject other women to this most inhumane working situation?
You seem very scattered in the delivery of you message jumping around from emotion, to emotion without really saying how the women's lives would be improved by legalizing prostitution.
I can hear your anger at your dad for being a workaholic but not sure how that then relates to your argument. Yes dysfunctional people work in all forms of employment but it seems to me that women and men involved with the sex trade are almost guaranteed to suffer from some form of abuse especially sexual so do we just legalize the only thing they know how to do because of their history? Or do we owe it to them to try and help them deal with their issues?
You also mention the workers safety and how you were safer when you worked indoors at the Hastings sauna room i am sure you may have felt physically safer but if you were safer all the way around i imagine you would not have suffered addiction issues you had.
Also you mention the women who would have sex without a condom have low self esteem, i would imagine they do look at what their lives have been reduced to.
In the end i feel that you have actually proved everyone of your colleagues points

Thanks Noella,

Personally, I am not in favor of legalization either, but I agree with Pauline on a number of levels. (For one, she is right that prostitution is not going anywhere.) But I agree with Trisha's statement that it's a Band-Aid solution, and just plain impractical, on so many levels, since many women prefer to do this work under the table.

I think Pauline is right in saying that prostitution is safer in an establishment. In terms of "harm reduction" (a big movement here in Vancouver, Canada), legalization works on some levels. That's why I found it surprising that Pauline was against the safe-injection site for heroin users. She said it was like giving addicts a loaded gun. But if Trisha is correct in her assertion that sex trade work kills the human spirit, then legalizing prostitution is also like handing someone a rope to hang themselves with.

I think Pauline is saying that addiction is the "ground zero" of the problem, so we should address that by helping people get off drugs rather than helping addicts get high. I think in the long term, harm reduction is not the solution. We need to teach men not to objectify women so that this exchange of services doesn't automatically disadvantage females.

But we cannot deny Pauline's assertion that some prostitutes enjoy their job. Certainly there are some former or current sex trade workers who do feel empowered by their jobs. (Dacia Ray, who wrote Sex Worker Journalism is one example) We cannot make blanket statements or assumptions that paint all sex trade workers as victims.

On a gut level, I do think it damages women's psyches though...I don't think there's any way to avoid that. If all the clients/ johns repected women, then it might be a positive exchange, but the fact is that so many men that use sex trade workers have serious problems with anger toward women and many are motivated to use prostitutes just for the opportunity of degrading women without retribution.

But I don't think it's fair to deny Pauline or others the right to claim that this is 'work.' It most certainly is an exchange of service for money, and women are able to support themselves with the money. Unfortunately, many are forced into choosing this work in order to support addiction problems, which Pauline addresses.

I think it's great to offer both perspectives, and in a way I'm glad Pauline and Trisha disagree so they can each bring unique insights. I know both of them want the same thing for women: SAFETY.

It's a sad fact society even needs to have this debate. It will never be a matter of yes or no to legalization. We need to take a much more complex approach that addresses misogyny, addiction, classism, racism etc...We don't need to only ask why women do this work, but why on earth men want to kill women, why they kill First Nations women more than white women and why violence is so sharply gendered. I am not saying that men are bad. I am saying that the ones who are bad, are very, very bad and it's time society looks closely at this disease. Are the rest of men, the majority, going to sit quietly by and let this happen? Or is it time they stand up for what's right and demand that the wolves among them stop this madness?

Heather Wallace
Senior Editor