My initial reaction to charitydawnosauras’s comment on sex workers
(Letters, August 27, re: “Sex work in the shadows,” August 20), was
that maybe it was satirical. On reflection, though, I have to conclude
that she really did mean it when she said “the punishment for picking
up prostitutes should be much, much harsher.”
Did she entirely miss the point of Meredith Dault’s article? The
problems faced by sex workers in our ridiculously hypocritical society
will not be alleviated one iota by increasing the punishment meted out
to those who make use of their services. In fact, to take
charitydawnosauras’s comment to its extreme, let’s say increasing the
punishment for clients of sex workers results in said clients forgoing
visits to sex workers. Presuming that the aim for most sex workers is
to earn a living, how the hell is that going to benefit them?
Legalizing and regulating the sex worker trade would be a good thing
and it’s really the only thing that would make the lives of sex workers
safer. Our society must be at the point where we can accept that
occasionally, for a number of reasons, people decide to engage in
sexual activity with a professional. —Steve Jamieson,
Dartmouth
This article appears in Sep 3-9, 2009.