Decriminalization, actually. The New Zealand system. Look it up. Not “no regulation at all,” and certainly not nec. libertarian in spirit, but similar regulations as other businesses, not draconian government overregulation specifically for the sex industry.

I wouldn’t disagree with you. What I posted previously was offensive to Kora, as someone who chose to work at an NV brothel because it was the best option available. There may be sex workers who give money to someone they feel they are getting some kind of support from, but it’s more complicated than any “standard” business relationship. I would want to listen to why they choose to do that before forming any definite opinion.

It’s a problem how society can’t accept sex work as just another way of making a buck, a reasonable choice for some people. But we don’t want any new shaming creeping in place of the old. The plan of many sex workers is to work 100 days or less a year, pay their bills, and have a few splurges. Not crazy or dumb, just maybe encourage them to think a bit about the eventual “exit strategy”. It’s more worrisome when it seems like someone is using someone else. Could it be there are non-violent pimps out there, who are filling a need with similarities to the need sex workers sometimes fill for lonely johns? Of course, they would not be pimps if “pimp” has no non-pejorative sense.

I think there are a lot of problems with sex workers being employees. For example, someone I’ve been seeing a lot of lately hates being touched on the sides of her head. It’s just in the nature of it that you have to be the one making the rules.

There are many things inherently bad and wrong about pimps. I’m defining pimps as someone that is exploitative lives off of the backs of women not legitimate agency owners that take 20% or less and handle all the screening, advertising through the agency owner’s client list and the internet. The distinction is important. Women that work for an agency are free to leave any time and are not treated as chattel and otherwise controlled by a pimp. These women working at these so-called brothels are being exploited, restricted, controlled and stolen from by the brothel owners, and, more importantly, it’s sanctioned by the local governments. It’s disgusting and appalling.

Indy women do not need “security” or “promotion”. All an independent escort needs is access to the internet and a phone and they can perform these supposed pimp “services”. Most screening is done to ensure the client isn’t law enforcement not to determine if they are dangerous. Good screening techniques can be found in online books (Amanda Brook’s “The Internet Escort’s Handbook 1: The Foundation” is an excellent example) and in blogs like mine (www.hookerincorporated). Women can promote themselves by advertising on local review boards, Eros.com, Preferred411.com, My Red Book.com and The Erotic Review.com. There is literally NO reason any woman to pay anyone for alleged protection or to act as a promoter unless they choose to pay an agency owner a reasonable fee for a legitimate service.

The WHOLE point is that there is something socially and morally wrong with the Nevada brothels laws and regulations. It’s thinking like this that allows women to be basically held captive and submit to medical examinations that may or may not be given with good will. There is literally NO reason at all for government sanctioned business like these to exist. Prostitution should be decriminalized and that’s the end of it. It’s no one’s business what a woman does with her body. The important issue is that people aren’t exploited and are allowed to earn a living as they see fit, and that’s not happening in these brothels or anywhere in the US.

Caty and John — Both excellent points. I have no problem with support staff hired by the choice of the sex worker. Witness the many screening and marketing assistants now online. There are agencies that I wouldn’t have minded working for because they’ve gotten such good feedback from the women working for them, but they are rare.There’s only one US brothel I have heard good things about from a sex worker I trust.

The “pimp” remark I make about brothels is because management seems determined to make money at any cost, regardless of the well-being of their employee; and they work as hard as possible to scrape as much off their employees as they can. The attitude isn’t treating the women like true employees or even like human beings, hence “pimp.”

I understand that creating an underground economy by criminalizing prostitution leaves the door wide open for exploitation. Seeing the same exploitation, state-sanctioned and legalized, is reprehensible on many levels. Change is needed. If it’s supposed to be the “best” option, then make it the best option.