6 ms·

At face value, this seems like mere prostitution. However, when viewed through a medical lens, you’ll realize that sexual satisfaction is an essential human nee

At face value, this seems like mere prostitution. However, when viewed through a medical lens, you’ll realize that sexual satisfaction is an essential human need that can have a profound impact on our general health and wellbeing. A change in perspective and a little compassion makes a world of difference.

risyachka 6y ago
I'd argue that the only difference between prostitution and not prostitution is mindset.
- mesofile 6y ago
  In front of a judge, or just on HN?
  - treeman79 6y ago
    Could be both. To oversimplify, It is legal to pay someone for sex in a film as an entertainer. Just not in private. Other places have hour long marriages to get around the problem.
    - lostcolony 6y ago
      Yeah; our laws are weird. Pay a person to have sex = criminal; pay a person to have sex -on camera- = perfectly legal.
      - kjeetgill 6y ago
        I get that you're just quiping but for anyone else that's curious, it's not as absurd as it sounds. There are a number of substantial differences. Intent and purpose are huge parts of many laws. The money flows in very different directions. Both actors are being payed and contribute to producing a sincere commercial good. No one is paying to have sex at all. There are enough laws around documentation and licencing that no one's out there running a brothel calling it a studio.
  - elric 6y ago
    I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Prostitution is legal (or mostly legal) in many parts of the world. I would argue that most progressive leaning folks are in favour of a legal framework for sex workers. Sex work is work, whether it comes with a fancy word like "sex surrogate therapist" or a derogatory one like "hooker". The issue is controversial in many places, to some extent because of real issues of abuse/trafficking, but more so because of moralizing. I would argue that all sex workers deserve respect, in front of judges or on HN, regardless of whether it's prostitution or surrogation.
- yaseer 6y ago
  Prostitution is generally framed as intrinsically bad, like drug use. Reality is more nuanced. Under regulation, drugs and prostitution are not intrinsically bad things.
  - airhead969 6y ago
    As I put it in another comment, in many countries, introduce a camera and somehow what amounts to prostitution becomes magically legal. Drugs are cool, but easily addictive / bad in excess. I don't see how sex is bad in any amount unless it interferes with daily life or health.
- trynton 6y ago
  risyachka: “I'd argue that the only difference between prostitution and not prostitution is mindset.” That, and you don't have to take them to dinner and there's no financial transaction involved.
willcipriano 6y ago
I find it hard to contrast this view with the view that healthcare is a human right. If you take both together it can lead to some nasty conclusions.
- lostcolony 6y ago
  Affordable -access- to healthcare should be a human right. No given doctor has to treat you (though there are a list of reasons a doctor can't refuse treatment), same as with every other profession. But inability to pay should not prevent you from seeking and finding treatment, and being treated should not mean bankruptcy.
  - willcipriano 6y ago
    >But inability to pay should not preclude you from seeking treatment. That's the sticky bit if you think about it. Not all, but many women and men get into sex work due to lack of other options, with all that in context it would seem that there is a suggestion that you have a human right to sleep with disadvantaged women or men at government expense. If no disadvantaged people exist then I presume it would be the governments role to create them. This quickly descends into madness.
    - lostcolony 6y ago
      How disadvantaged are we talking about? Making ends meet, or being well off? Because I got into software engineering because it was the best paying option available to me that fit into my morals and ethics. I'd imagine that's also what got people into being doctors, social workers, etc. I'm not sure how sex work in this case is different. In fact, from the article, it sounds like it requires training; even if the government provided that to anyone, how is that different from any other governmental work program? How is it different from joining the armed forces? How would both be different if we also addressed poverty via a UBI or similar? You're looking at sex work as it is now, a socially unacceptable option open to nearly everyone as a last resort. This categorically changes it to be a form of social work; I don't think the same stigmas and contexts apply.
    - 6y ago
excalibur 6y ago
Prostitution has always fulfilled basic human needs. Banning it has never been about helping people, always about dominating them and thereby increasing the power of the church or state. The fact that these bans remain in place in our "enlightened" modern societies is shameful.
- treeman79 6y ago
  Bans were part of a health code. It was one of the few ways to control diseases. Today some/many consider it immoral to walk around with face uncovered. Imagine hundreds to thousands of years ago when soap was a novel concept. Social distancing and strict rules were about as much as a society could do. Definitely some mixing of religion and sanitary practices.
- zozbot234 6y ago
  Unregulated prostitution always turns into a safe haven for violent and coercive human trafficking. And we don't know what kind of regulation would effectively prevent this, but what examples exist of legalized prostitution at the medium-to-large scale are far from encouraging. Banning prostitution outright might not be the best possible policy, but it's far from the worst.
  - airhead969 6y ago
    Violence and human trafficking exist when their is puritanical prohibition, not independent contractors without pimps. Prohibition never works and always creates more problems that it erroneously attempts to in "solving" moral panics getting in other people's business.
xenihn 6y ago
This article is literally the "government-mandated gf" incel meme, except it's real. I don't know how to define prostitution. Is any form of exchanging sex for money ("sex work") prostitution? Like acting in porn, escorting, sex therapy, sugar daddying, etc.. Or is prostitution simply the lowest rung on the sex work ladder, defined by things like the speed of the transaction, the quality of clients and providers, the cost, and the environments where the transaction occurs?
airhead969 6y ago
In the US, somehow introducing a camera between consenting adults exchanging money is legal, while without a camera it is not. There's nothing wrong with the oldest profession except the prudish puritanicals who throw pimping, "exploitation," and human trafficking FUD, moral judgments, slut-shaming, and sex-negativity onto independent sex workers and consenting adults. They need to stay out of other peoples' business. As my ex would say: "If everyone had more sex, the world would be a happier place." I think this starts with stripping away shame, judgements, and disgruntlement.
- stcredzero 6y ago
  As my ex would say: "If everyone had more sex, the world would be a happier place." I think this starts with stripping away shame, judgements, and disgruntlement. Re: disgruntlement -- I think sex surrogates would very quickly solve the "incel problem." In BBC's Sherlock, there's this idea that Sherlock is a "sociopath on the side of the angels." He could be a villain, but he has found a way to channel his natural talents and tendencies for good. I think there are certain people who have this talent/tendency to strongly influence the lives of an entire harem of sexual partners. I think this is largely seen as strongly negative by much of culture and society because there's no positive outlet for people who have such talents and tendencies. Also, the kind of power such therapists would wield needs a good education and various checks and balances, much as doctors and other kinds of therapists do. Lots of people who could have been a naturally talented doctor in the 21st century were probably burned at the stake in centuries past. I think this is one kind of therapy which falls into a similar pattern. The world just wasn't ready for it before.
  - airhead969 6y ago
    You're conflating fiction with reality. Her comment was euphemistic hyperbole, not a literal recommendation to go Brave New World.
    - stcredzero 6y ago
      I guess you would know her intent better, but in this particular regard, I am making a literal recommendation to go "Brave New World." I won't vouch for any of the other concepts from the book.

risyachka 6y ago

I'd argue that the only difference between prostitution and not prostitution is mindset.

mesofile 6y ago
In front of a judge, or just on HN?
- treeman79 6y ago
  Could be both. To oversimplify, It is legal to pay someone for sex in a film as an entertainer. Just not in private. Other places have hour long marriages to get around the problem.
  - lostcolony 6y ago
    Yeah; our laws are weird. Pay a person to have sex = criminal; pay a person to have sex -on camera- = perfectly legal.
    - kjeetgill 6y ago
      I get that you're just quiping but for anyone else that's curious, it's not as absurd as it sounds. There are a number of substantial differences. Intent and purpose are huge parts of many laws. The money flows in very different directions. Both actors are being payed and contribute to producing a sincere commercial good. No one is paying to have sex at all. There are enough laws around documentation and licencing that no one's out there running a brothel calling it a studio.
- elric 6y ago
  I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Prostitution is legal (or mostly legal) in many parts of the world. I would argue that most progressive leaning folks are in favour of a legal framework for sex workers. Sex work is work, whether it comes with a fancy word like "sex surrogate therapist" or a derogatory one like "hooker". The issue is controversial in many places, to some extent because of real issues of abuse/trafficking, but more so because of moralizing. I would argue that all sex workers deserve respect, in front of judges or on HN, regardless of whether it's prostitution or surrogation.
yaseer 6y ago
Prostitution is generally framed as intrinsically bad, like drug use. Reality is more nuanced. Under regulation, drugs and prostitution are not intrinsically bad things.
- airhead969 6y ago
  As I put it in another comment, in many countries, introduce a camera and somehow what amounts to prostitution becomes magically legal. Drugs are cool, but easily addictive / bad in excess. I don't see how sex is bad in any amount unless it interferes with daily life or health.
trynton 6y ago
risyachka: “I'd argue that the only difference between prostitution and not prostitution is mindset.” That, and you don't have to take them to dinner and there's no financial transaction involved.

willcipriano 6y ago

I find it hard to contrast this view with the view that healthcare is a human right. If you take both together it can lead to some nasty conclusions.

lostcolony 6y ago
Affordable -access- to healthcare should be a human right. No given doctor has to treat you (though there are a list of reasons a doctor can't refuse treatment), same as with every other profession. But inability to pay should not prevent you from seeking and finding treatment, and being treated should not mean bankruptcy.
- willcipriano 6y ago
  >But inability to pay should not preclude you from seeking treatment. That's the sticky bit if you think about it. Not all, but many women and men get into sex work due to lack of other options, with all that in context it would seem that there is a suggestion that you have a human right to sleep with disadvantaged women or men at government expense. If no disadvantaged people exist then I presume it would be the governments role to create them. This quickly descends into madness.
  - lostcolony 6y ago
    How disadvantaged are we talking about? Making ends meet, or being well off? Because I got into software engineering because it was the best paying option available to me that fit into my morals and ethics. I'd imagine that's also what got people into being doctors, social workers, etc. I'm not sure how sex work in this case is different. In fact, from the article, it sounds like it requires training; even if the government provided that to anyone, how is that different from any other governmental work program? How is it different from joining the armed forces? How would both be different if we also addressed poverty via a UBI or similar? You're looking at sex work as it is now, a socially unacceptable option open to nearly everyone as a last resort. This categorically changes it to be a form of social work; I don't think the same stigmas and contexts apply.
  - 6y ago

excalibur 6y ago

Prostitution has always fulfilled basic human needs. Banning it has never been about helping people, always about dominating them and thereby increasing the power of the church or state. The fact that these bans remain in place in our "enlightened" modern societies is shameful.

treeman79 6y ago
Bans were part of a health code. It was one of the few ways to control diseases. Today some/many consider it immoral to walk around with face uncovered. Imagine hundreds to thousands of years ago when soap was a novel concept. Social distancing and strict rules were about as much as a society could do. Definitely some mixing of religion and sanitary practices.
zozbot234 6y ago
Unregulated prostitution always turns into a safe haven for violent and coercive human trafficking. And we don't know what kind of regulation would effectively prevent this, but what examples exist of legalized prostitution at the medium-to-large scale are far from encouraging. Banning prostitution outright might not be the best possible policy, but it's far from the worst.
- airhead969 6y ago
  Violence and human trafficking exist when their is puritanical prohibition, not independent contractors without pimps. Prohibition never works and always creates more problems that it erroneously attempts to in "solving" moral panics getting in other people's business.

xenihn 6y ago

This article is literally the "government-mandated gf" incel meme, except it's real. I don't know how to define prostitution. Is any form of exchanging sex for money ("sex work") prostitution? Like acting in porn, escorting, sex therapy, sugar daddying, etc.. Or is prostitution simply the lowest rung on the sex work ladder, defined by things like the speed of the transaction, the quality of clients and providers, the cost, and the environments where the transaction occurs?

airhead969 6y ago

In the US, somehow introducing a camera between consenting adults exchanging money is legal, while without a camera it is not. There's nothing wrong with the oldest profession except the prudish puritanicals who throw pimping, "exploitation," and human trafficking FUD, moral judgments, slut-shaming, and sex-negativity onto independent sex workers and consenting adults. They need to stay out of other peoples' business. As my ex would say: "If everyone had more sex, the world would be a happier place." I think this starts with stripping away shame, judgements, and disgruntlement.

stcredzero 6y ago
As my ex would say: "If everyone had more sex, the world would be a happier place." I think this starts with stripping away shame, judgements, and disgruntlement. Re: disgruntlement -- I think sex surrogates would very quickly solve the "incel problem." In BBC's Sherlock, there's this idea that Sherlock is a "sociopath on the side of the angels." He could be a villain, but he has found a way to channel his natural talents and tendencies for good. I think there are certain people who have this talent/tendency to strongly influence the lives of an entire harem of sexual partners. I think this is largely seen as strongly negative by much of culture and society because there's no positive outlet for people who have such talents and tendencies. Also, the kind of power such therapists would wield needs a good education and various checks and balances, much as doctors and other kinds of therapists do. Lots of people who could have been a naturally talented doctor in the 21st century were probably burned at the stake in centuries past. I think this is one kind of therapy which falls into a similar pattern. The world just wasn't ready for it before.
- airhead969 6y ago
  You're conflating fiction with reality. Her comment was euphemistic hyperbole, not a literal recommendation to go Brave New World.
  - stcredzero 6y ago
    I guess you would know her intent better, but in this particular regard, I am making a literal recommendation to go "Brave New World." I won't vouch for any of the other concepts from the book.