Discussion on prostitution

Lmao what a laughable set of data.

Prostitution should be illegal. Period.

I suspect those stats aren’t even close to being accurate.

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Why? (Disagree, but interested in your reasoning.)

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Source: Wikipedia

Wikipedia’s source for the Taiwan number: This WSJ Article

The source for that WSJ Article: Apparently COSWAS (A group advocating for rights of Taiwanese sex workers). No citation though.

Still no clue how they got the 100k number.

Also note that Wikipedia stats don’t have any new data for Taiwan, whereas other countries now have a ratio much higher than 43 per 10000.

Also, definitions. Is someone working a KTV that only drinks and chats a prostitute? Yes and no. But in any case, skewed stats vs other countries.

or a mail order bride? aren’t there a lot of women from poor countries who are economic immigrants by marriage?

i notice that thailand isn’t on the chart, which also suggests the data isn’t very reliable. as for definitions, it is my understanding that sometimes girls there looking for a good time, or a new phone, or a little extra money before the holidays, would dabble in the freelance pay for play. very different from the full time pros!

taiwan i haven’t been around long enough to form an opinion. it is very noticeable in kaohsiung that there are love motels all over the place, but i suppose if many young people are unmarried and living at home then the ubiquitous love hotels don’t necessarily imply a lot of prostitution going on…

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Yeah it would be in the best interests of COSWAS to overestimate the number, so I’m sure they include every employee.

It is easily observable that sex work, in the vast majority of scenarios, is not a profession people would voluntarily choose. Impoverished women or women of the most discriminated ethnicities are overrepresented in prostitution. These women would not have sex with the purchaser if it weren’t for the money in exchange, which invalidates the consent.

There’s also the problem with human trafficking, which is a huge problem in countries where prostitution is legalised such as the Netherlands where many criminal organisations are engaged in trafficking of women from Eastern Europe and Asia. The Swedish approach is the right approach, aka penalise the purchaser of prositution, but not the sex worker. Many other countries have followed this model including France and other Scandinavian countries.

I doubt anyone here would go to work for the purchaser of their time and labor if there weren’t money exchanged, so this argument doesn’t feel particularly compelling.

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Well off people won’t work in 7-11 either, so the whole argument is invalid. Also then we should let those impoverished women, stay poor and deprive them of a very lucrative source of income?

Would anyone provide their services for free?

Then legalize it and give visas for sex workers. Perfect example of prohibition of victimless activities leading to worse crimes.

Completely disagree with this neo-feminist approach. If prostitution is bad why is the prostitute not at fault? It’s like making buying drugs illegal while selling them is legal.

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So which one do you really want: illegal period or just half illegal?

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Stats and numbers are just a reference.

Key takeaway is that there is a lot of prostitution in Taiwan.

It’s different from many countries in that it’s not streetside, not easily visible, not throwing up neon lights, etc. And a lot arranged via internet.

In regards to the point about the Netherlands and sex trafficking is this really a rebuttal? like he said sex work is legal in the Netherlands and yet they still have a huge problem with gangs and people trafficking.

Visas? Most trafficked individuals in the Netherlands are Eastern Europeans. Hungarians, Romanians etc don’t need visas to live and work in the Netherlands, that includes sex work.

Legalizing prostitution doesn’t magically make the problem go away. I would argue it’s a tad more complicated than that.

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Look again. It does seem highly unlikely to me that Taiwan has almost as many prostitutes as Thailand, though. If that’s accurate they must REALLY be hiding here. There it’s difficult to walk a block in most tourist areas without being propositioned by one, and here you can live for many years without it happening.

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The Swedish approach is logical because it allows individuals to maintain body autonomy by allowing them to sell sex, but offers some protection to individuals who may be coerced or under duress to sell sex.

I don’t have any problem with that approach from a civil liberties perspective. Buying sex just becomes similar to buying illegal drugs.

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Both sex and drugs should be regulated and taxed. Safer for things that people will do anyways and a nice source of tax revenue. Win-win…

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I’m also OK with that solution.

Neither of them are going away anytime soon.

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oh yeah, #5; i may have been drinking last night…

handsome man, where you go!?

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you mean, another thing that never happens at NTU? @gain, can you confirm?

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True. What it does, though, is puts the focus of law enforcement on the human traffickers and abusive pimps. Those are the true criminals who should be punished, not the people who consensually buy or sell sex between themselves. If it’s legalized and regulated, it at least allows an important legal distinction to be made between consenting adults and modern day slavery. Those two things shouldn’t be lumped together.