Prostitution ought to be legalized

Thank you for that brilliant round. I'll get right to the case.The most crucial point in the opponents case is the autonomy of a person's body. He affirms that illegalizing prostitution robs the girls of their right to sell their bodies for money, if they so wish. He links it with patriarchy and the rape culture, and then talks about reducing STDs. However, that is an extremely idealized view of the problem. A worker does not have complete autonomy over his/ her working conditions. Legalizing prostitution is legalizing the work of *all* the stakeholders in the prostitution rings. It legalizes the work of pimps, of the customers and everyone in the process. Legalization creates an environment where the prostitutes become a commodity. They enter into a contract with the pimp, the person who gives them money. They have a *limited* amount of autonomy over their bodies, if they want the money. In the same way a worker is not always completely in control over his working conditions if he wants the money. the bottomline is that the pimp would be her boss, and her body would be the commodity. She would have a certain say over her working conditions IF she's on the top, or a star prostitute- but everyone starting from the bottom would have to keep up with minor infractions of the contract, just like in every other industry, if she doesn't want to be branded as a problem worker. However, in this case, minor infractions of the contract equal rape, exploitation, and assault.In the Mustang Ranch of Nevada, located in the county of this state where prostitution is legal, and which is the largest brothel in US has a prison like appearence. Women are still pimped into this brothel, work 12-14 hours a day, have no right to chose clients and are subject to violence and abuse. Similarly in Germany, legalised prostitution has increased the vulnerability of registered prostitutes, causing the police to harrass them anytime. Women are arrested outside their designated work spaces even if they are not solicitating. (D' Cunha, 1991, 1992). It is no surprise that the illegal sector (unregistered prostitutes) of prostitution flourishes even in areas where prostitution is legal, since it helps prostitutes retain the autonomy of their bodies. The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International (CATW) has conducted 2 major studies on sex trafficking and prostitution, interviewing almost 200 victims of commercial sexual exploitation. In these studies, women in prostitution indicated that prostitution establishments did little to protect them, regardless of whether they were in legal or illegal establishments. “The only time they protect anyone is to protect the customers.”The women, in this case, isn't an independent entity with free will to choose any of the people she wishes to have sex with, sex IS her work. She has to work actively to please men, that is her job. The customer (who is always right, as the saying goes in service industry) has brought the woman, any restrictions the woman puts forth has to be paid by a part of her pay. Or no pay at all. An ideal prostitute is the one who pleases her customer the most, and THAT definitely does not look like woman emancipation to me. With this basic case in mind, let us have a look at our opponents case once again.R1. Self sovereignty: There are definitely women who enjoy prostitution, true. Some people enjoy heroin and meth too, but in those cases it is the harm to the people that governs the law and not the consent that is the governing standard. As we saw, legalizing prostitution was harmful to the women because of the very nature of the work- thus it is something that should definitely not be legalized. R2 Reducing rapes: Proving unwanted sexual assault is difficult when your job is to sell sex. The status quo *still* discourages it. Claiming rape lowers her market value. It hits her pocket, AND there is a high chance that the case wont even be proved considering there would be documents proving her compliance in a sexual act. This is ignoring the fact that many women don't even realize that they were raped, since there is a widespread notion that since they were paid for sex- it isn't rape. In a study conducted by CATW, Philipino prostitutes were asked about whether or not they were ever forced to do something they didn't want to. A number of women accepted performing perverted acts for the pleasure of their customers, even though they did not want to. However they only had a vague notion of this act being rape, since they were paid. They also accepted that pleasing the managers/ pimps helped them get more work, and hence was a catalyst to a lot of their actions. R3 Patriarchy and rape culture: In a world where prostitution is legal, and pimps and customers are the bosses of the whole prostitution circuit, the only way to earn more is to please men. The better you are at satisfying them, the more you advance. Your entire work life revolves around focussing on how your customers (who are often men) percieve you. This isn't about self identity, definitely not about being individualist and standing up for your rights. This would be a push towards the worse form of rape culture coupled with an unhealthy amount of internalized misogyny. R4 STDs : This relies on the entire prostitution ring being regulated, i.e. removal of illegal prostitution. As we have seen, however, registering prostitutes causes them to lose their autonomy and increasing their vulnerability. Thus, legalising it actually INCREASES the illegal sector, that excaberates the problem. This has been seen in Australia and Germany, both of which have legalized prostitution. R5 Political/ Economic costs: If prostitution causes widespread exploitation, rape, violence and viscious crimes against humanity- tax dollars should definitely be used to stop it. That is what we pay tax for, for the safety of our citizens. And as we've seen, legalization of prostitution has actually caused a detrimental impact on ALL these parameters, and further strengthened the problem of rape culture and internalized misogny, so that is definitely no solution. Perhaps we can increase the tobacco taxation to bring in more revenues and subsidize education, rather than trying to milk the prostitution cow. There is something wrong with the society if they are okay with women prostituting themselves just to pay for their education. If the final aim is education, the government should provide affordable alternatives to education.R6 Victimless crimes: As we have seen, prostitution is definitely not a victimless crime. Rather than going down the same route, and explaining why sex for money is a dangerous precedent for the society- let us look at it economically. Money is a means of exchange. If we are claiming that a woman is entering prostitution because she *wants* to have sex with possibly creepy- stranger customers, there is already the double coincidence of wants. They can just have sex like normal people at a sorority party or a bar. Once money enters the equation, the woman is commodified. It increases the chances of victimization of women. If we truly want woman emancipation, we need to talk about how its okay for women to have sex if they desire to. Not how they can be coerced using money.In conclusion, legalizing prostitution would lead to commodification of women, increasing dependence of women on their pimps and customers (all of whose actions would be legalized). I struck down the presumption that legalizing would lead to complete autonomy of the prostitute over her body, drawing a comparison with workers working in any other industry- who do have to serve their customers and work under their boss. It would still lead to rapes, there would still be unregistered prostitution circuits (if experience in Germany and Australia is to go by) that would still lead to STDs. There are victims everywhere. CATW Report: http://tinyurl.com...