Reference no: EM133302248

Case: In Laurie Shrage's opinion piece, "When Prostitution Is Nobody's Business" posted to The Stone of The New York Times, Shrage takes a pensive look into the moral and social debate on the ethics and legality of prostitution performed by women as opposed to men, as well as how it is compared when observed next to other private acts of fornication among two or more consenting adults. While Shrage presents arguments from differing perspectives and examples of acts that are considered prostitution and their consequences, it is made clear that the author believes that sex in exchange for money is ethical so long as it is done in private and does not affect people outside the transaction. The author argues her stance by comparing prostitution to other forms of conventional commerce, arguing the double standard when compared to women online with "sugar daddies", male sex workers and the double standard of men vs women with a large amount of sexual partners, and brothels and other organized establishments for prostitution. While I am an advocate for sex work I disagree with the author on how it should occur, it is not a viable solution for sex workers to work in private unregulated as this leaves the worker (generally female sex workers) unprotected against clients with mal-intent who may seek to take advantage of them. It is my humble opinion that establishments such as brothels and other such ventures are the best way for sex work to conduct business in the most efficient and safe way. I argue this because it allows sex workers to be protected from shady clientele who may want to rape them or have STDs as it is an official business and is protected by rights that other businesses are given and can be regulated for and by the workers. While this solution may lack privacy at first, individual establishments can take measures to ensure the privacy of their workers and patrons.

The author begins her discussion by commenting on privacy and how our decisions in people's private lives should be kept secret among themselves especially when pertaining to one's sexual partners and how this is a commonly accepted notion. On the inverse, she explains that certain social transactions like commerce are ones that lack privacy and actually value transparency because in order to conduct business in a safe and responsible manner it is important for both sides to be well informed about what is taking place with the specific trade, furthermore she comments that usually market or business transactions take place in public settings. Shrage specifically says "We often want market transactions to be scrutinized or regulated by third parties in order to insure that they are fair and equitable, especially when full transparency is not available, as in the cases of pharmaceuticals, health care and real estate." Shrage creates this contrast in ideas of privacy in order to display the immediate head butting of linking both sex and commerce in the form of prostitution, already presenting the idea is innately difficult before even introducing the idea. With this introduction of prostitution and its murky waters, she asks rhetorical questions such as "should exchanges of sexual services for monetary gain take place with guarantees of privacy or transparency?" or "where, exactly, is the border between the private exchange of money or gifts and the impersonal profit-making of the market?" to further define how morally gray the subject is and to begin to introduce different perspectives of the dilemma. The author also argues that the exchange of gifts between sexual partners in a relationship is considered normal but when it is done with many partners for the purpose of economically supporting one's self it is unethical by most standards. Shrage explains that traditionally it has been frowned upon for women to take on multiple sexual partners unlike men who were able to have many mistresses, furthermore it is illegal for women to take on multiple partners and accept gifts for it while many face little to no repercussion. This trend of inequality and double standards for women in sex work takes a precedent throughout the rest of the article.