On Prostitution

I think that prostitution can not be eliminated and attempting to do so worsens conditions for prostitutes. Therefore, I think that it should be legalized and regulated. I live in Italy where it is legal to prostitute oneself and to solicit for prostitution but not to pimp or "sfruttare" (exploit) prostitutes. This seems to me a legal order infinitely superior to the US approach. Still I see people in dresses (many of them men) offering services on the street. This seems to me to be terribly dangerous.

Once when I was 22 I took a walk in Manhatten late one summer night. I saw 3 attractive young women wearing practically nothing. I almost went over to them to say that it was crazy to dress like that at night in New York (I am now 47 so this was pre Bill Bratten* when New York was more dangerous). Then I realized that they were prostitutes and weren't just standing around like that but were going to get into a car driven by a strange man alone and maybe provide sexual services for cash or maybe end up in a river. At least whore houses are safe for the sex workers.

However, if prostitution were just plain legal, it would be necessary to require clients to use condoms. I don't imagine that the female police officers who now catch men soliciting for prostitution would like to go undercover to check on that one.

So what seems to me to be needed is to require places of prostitutions to keep the used condoms. To have inspections in which the number is compared to the number of men who enter. To make sure that the used condoms have real live spermatazoa in them (not used a week ago that is) and to check that the genetic variety of the condoms matches the number of men (other wise Mr sexmachine megastud would have a very profitable career filling condoms so paying customers don't have to).

I think this is a great idea (although I am not volunteering to collect the used condoms)


*Bill Bratten is the police commissioner who introduced the reforms which helped cause the reduction in crime in New York for which someone else took credit. We can tell that the key guy was Bratten not the other guy, because Bratten has gone on to achieve stunning success in L.A. while the other guy had police officers walk his mistresses dog.