Steven M. Finkelstein

And no, I’m not talking about marijuana. Today’s topic…is prostitution. The past week, New York papers were abuzz about L.T. (that’s Lawrence Taylor, not New York Jet Ladanian Tomlinson), supposedly raping a sixteen-year-old prostitute. Now, whether it was actually rape or not has yet to be established, but if sex between L.T. and this girl took place, it would automatically be statutory rape, since she’s a minor. All the facts of this case have yet to be revealed, but it seems like this girl, who was a runaway, was found on the streets by a man who gave her a place to stay, then pimped her out…it’s the same old story. She was delivered to L.T.’s hotel room, and what happened next was anybody’s guess, although I’ve got a fairly good idea.

What happened to this girl was awful, and L.T.’s conduct was irresponsible and reprehensible, though not really surprising. After all, the two-time Superbowl winner and hall of famer has had drug problems going back the past couple of decades. When L.T. isn’t in the news, you know he’s doing okay. If you’re hearing about him, he’s as likely to be tarnishing his reputation some more as Dancing With The Stars. But I don’t want to talk about L.T. I want to talk about this young girl, and so many others like her, who get into these situations because people who want to have sex for money aren’t able to do it legally in this country.

What kind of sense does that make? Prostitution has been referred to as the world’s oldest profession, and with good reason. It’s been around since the dawn of time, and it will never, ever go away. Why should it, when people continue to want sex, and others continue to want money? The point is, prostitution doesn’t hurt anyone, provided it’s consensual. The only reason it’s illegal in this country is because we’re still a bunch of prudes. We allow kids to see excessive violence on television, but not a pair of exposed breasts. What kind of a message does that send? The human body is somehow “taboo” or “bad” and must be covered up, but blowing someone’s brains out is perfectly acceptable? In Europe or Asia, racy ads in papers or on T.V. are fine. Kids are taught that there’s nothing wrong with seeing some skin…as indeed there isn’t. And how about in extremist Muslim society, where women must cover their entire bodies, with only their eyes peeping out? Does anyone think that maybe it’s this kind of psychotic repression that’s leading to suicide bombings?! I mean, without seeing a naked woman every once in a while, I’d probably want to kill myself too!

But to get back to prostitution, trying to “wage war” or “crack down” on something that the general public wants is always doomed to fail, just like the “war on drugs.” People like drugs and want them, just like people like sex and want it. The difference is, some drugs are harmful and dangerous to the point that they should be illegal. But if a grown man (or woman) wants sex but not a relationship or the necessity of going through small talk, then who in their right mind would deny them, if a sex worker is only too willing to supply the service…for money? These are both consenting adults, and there’s simply no good reason that their transaction should be illegal. Making it so causes these situations like what happened with L.T. He’s a troubled man, yes, and misguided. But if he’d been horny one night, and said, well, instead of running the risk of bedding some indigent, underage runaway tonight, I can call any one of the thousands of qualified sex workers  that would be only too happy to fulfill my whims…for money, in a neat, clean business transaction. And think of all the cops that run around, undercover or otherwise, trying to catch hookers; they’d finally be free to solve some real crimes.

There’s a lot that America, great nation that is is, got right. This is something they got wrong, and there’s no logical reason for it. Sometimes to make society better, it is necessary to step back from it and take a long, hard, objective look at what’s working…and what clearly isn’t. This really seems like a no-brainer to me. Let’s take a page from the book of a lot of other sensible nations around the globe, who know that there are always going to be people in need, and others willing to service them. Let’s stop being prudes, and give people like L.T. options, if only so girls like his unfortunate victim stand less chance of  becoming a statistic next time around.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 2:19 pm and is filed under Opinions, Rants, and Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.