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From: barry@ames.UUCP (Kenn Barry)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Sex by numbers (really, prostitution)
Message-ID: <942@ames.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Apr-85 15:25:59 EST
Article-I.D.: ames.942
Posted: Thu Apr 18 15:25:59 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Apr-85 09:27:59 EST
References: <206@osu-eddie.UUCP> <1192@houxm.UUCP>
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 37

From Greg Skinner (houxm!gregbo):
>> 4. Getting into a real career (one I can respect).
>
>You have to be a little careful here.  "Real" careers depend upon the person in
>question.  I know some people who don't consider working as a hacker a real
>career, as opposed to some more productive venture (like working for IBM :-)
>I can respect practically all careers that I don't find morally wrong (like
>prostitution).  It might be more difficult to communcate with someone in a car-
>eer vastly different from mine (like a nurse, or a bus driver) but I can appre-
>ciate good, honest work.

	This is off the original topic, I know, but it pushed one of
my buttons. *Why* are so many people down on prostitutes?? As it exists
today, prostitution is a very tough way to make a living, and most hookers
are exploited unmercifully, both by their pimps, and indirectly by the
society which condemns them. Few women enter the field of their completely
free choice, and fewer yet are successful, i.e., make a decent living
and avoid the many pitfalls (arrest, drugs, harassment, brutality) that
come with living outside of the law.
	As for the morality of what they do, I guess there's no final
answer; but surely it's no more immoral than what their customers do,
under any consistant code of ethics. Speaking for myself, I believe that
prostitutes provide a valuable service which has probably done as much
to promote the social welfare as all the do-gooders ever born. Many men
go to prostitutes as much for a sympathetic ear to listen to their problems,
as for sex. Paid sympathy, sure, but that's true of psychological
counselors, too, and their rates are pretty comparable.
	None of this is particularly meant as a flame at Greg, but rather
is a complaint about a general societal attitude which makes prostitutes
into pariahs. Have a little pity for the working girl; it's seldom an
easy life.

-  From the Crow's Nest  -                      Kenn Barry
                                                NASA-Ames Research Center
                                                Moffett Field, CA
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