A little different, but reminds me of a friend I had probably twenty odd years ago who worked as a topless barmaid, before the WA govt stuck their noses in where it wasn't needed and banned this form of bar work.

She was a qualified, experienced solicitor [the legal kind] and had worked as such, but preferred topless bar work for a number of reasons. Very good pay [much better than ordinary bar work]. Hours that suited her and allowed her to spend much of the day on the beach. Work she found interesting, pleasant and stress free.

Of no particular interest to me personally, as I have never liked the front bar atmosphere and particularly not other peoples' tobacco smoke. But some may have pitied her for her work and assumed that was all she had the intelligence or education to get.

To Cornflower:

If being a "feminist" means arguing for human dignity for all human beings, then I am one.

If being one means standing for opportunities for work other than feeding an unspiritual mentality that demands objectified body parts that lead to more violence generally, then I am a "feminist."

And If being a "feminist" means aspiring to a world in which women and girls are no longer conflated with bodies only, and are approached always with respect, then, yes, I am a "feminist."

If you ask Sergeant Victor Vigna of the Los Angeles police if prostitution is a "victimless crime" he will show you graphic pictures of victims who have been brutalized (www.teachcops.com) by their pimps and tell you of cases where they have been as well by their "customers." Ask him if he has similar evidence of those subjected to violence through pornography.

Yankie Lawyer

In all but two U.S. states, the buying and selling of sexual services is illegal, not so in Australia.

In Australian any person over the age of 18 may offer to provide sexual services in return for money. A person who wishes to run a prostitution business must have a licence. Prostitutes working for themselves in their own business, as prostitutes in the business, must be registered. Individual sex workers are not required to be registered or licensed.

Comparisons to your sick society are irrelevant in this debate.

Hawaiilawyer,

For the record I am also in Australia and things aren't a total Utopia for prostitutes here either. The lyrics of that Bloodhound Gang song "Sex is better with a hooker when she's crying"(?) might even apply. It is true that prostitution is legalised over here but that is about all I'd agree with. I'm sure that there are exceptions that prove the rule but I suspect that those in here who make things sound rosy have lived a sheltered life and taken newspaper feature articles too seriously.

I am sure I recall John Birmingham (the Fellafell guy) telling me about a visit he had to Sydney where he felt frustrated watching pimps beat up prostitutes but he felt that if he intervened it would just make things worse for them. I mention the name not to name drop but as one of the better known Australian authors there must be some way for anyone interested enough to contact and verify with him.

Likewise in Brisbane all prostitutes I have encountered have not been enjoying the great life of a topless barmaid(if working in a smoke filled bar can be characterised as such) like the WA topless barmaid who claimed to have given up a job as a lawyer to do the work.

One lady I used to half know worked as a prostitute because her mother was a heroin addict and she thus became a heroin addict at a young tender age before developing any other type of money earning skills. In the time I knew her she earnestly tried the methadone program at a location just around the corner from Police Headquarters. I recall her expressing frustration that they are required to start off on insufficiently small dosages thus making it harder to go off heroin completely and onto the methadone. However she didn't make it and last I heard she was shooting up again. Part of her problem is that her mother would get her to buy heroin for her and she had trouble being around it without using it.

Continued.

I recall a guy I once talked to speculating that the reason prostitutes gravitated toward heroin was that they probably felt worthless as no matter whether or not it is legalised and no matter how permissive the society prostitution will always be socially unacceptable at an individual level so only self-abusive and desperate people will do the work. That reminded me of another prostitute that I half knew who had partnered with a guy who dragged her around by her hair and beat her up frequently. She said she had gone out with another guy but left him as she didn't deserve him as he was too nice.

There are sex worker groups (and major newspapers) who promote a flowery image and make unsubstantiated claims about having University students after extra pocket money in their ranks. I have always suspected that such groups are driven by pimps rather than prostitutes.

One of the earlier posters nailed this one on the head. What people do in the privacy of their own homes is their business. Porn should not be freely available in public places, as public places should be able to be utilised by those that have not yet been sexualised (ie, children). Schools and libraries are obviously ridiculous places to have porn freely available. Of course teenagers will always be able to get their hands on some porn magazine from somewhere, but that is different to having it freely available. having to sneak around with it, have an older friend buy it for you etc, all sends the message that this is not ordinary, which is a good and healthy message to convey. This is not real-life. That's (generally, there's always exceptions) not how women act during sex - yes I have seen porn, so I feel I am able to make that comment. At the same time, the porn itsef is not particularly harmful, in the right hands - in the hands of those that can objectively see that it is make-believe.

The big issue raised is whether the internet is a public place that should be kept free of porn. Arguably yes it is one of these public places, but the practicalities of regulation will prevent any govt from being able to control the content. So perhaps an alternative solution might suffice. Wouldnt it be preferable to regulate the ability of search engines to throw up porn sites from innocent searches (eg a little girl typing in "pussy" to find something about cats). Those that really do want to find porn will be able to track it down pretty quickly anyway. This approach would have to be much easier - the search engines are relatively few, whilst the porn sites are many.