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Comment by orthecreedence | Hacker News Reader

Sorry, I completely disagree.

Sex is one of the last places where women have more power than men. I believe that illegalizing prostitution and other forms of sex acts is a way for a male-dominated world to try to, yet again, limit the power women have in society.

A regulated sex marketplace is going to mean women can be much more picky about who they choose to sleep with, and can do so much more safely. They can use their sexual power to make financial gains for themselves. I believe this is empowering towards women, much more so than trying to erradicate all forms of prostitution.

There will still be illegal activity, but legalizing prostitution will decrease the noise on activity that actually IS bad (children in sex work, forced sex work, etc).

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>> Sex is one of the last places where women have more power than men.

It's interesting that you point that out. Some claim that plenty of women use their sexuality to manipulate men, to trade sex for resources (marriage), and other such things. By legalizing prostitution you deprive the rest of the women from being able to do this - guys don't have to buy the cow when they can get the milk on an as-needed basis for a negotiated price and no strings attached.

Those managers and husbands and whoever else are still bound by social rules. Legalizing prostitution doesn't magically make it ok to go out and bang a bunch of hookers if you're married or have elevated social status.

Are they more likely to do it? Maybe. But I think woman can still use their sexuality outside of the legal sex market to achieve the things they want, if that's what they choose to do.

That's only true for the middle class. Once your social status is sufficiently high it doesn't matter. Case in point, the current POTUS is known for banging hookers.

Sure, but those people aren't harmed by banging illegal hookers already, so legalization of sex work is irrelevant to them anyway.

To them, yes, but not to the prostitutes they use.

Is it moral to use sex to manipulate someone into giving you the things that you want?

Just because it happens doesn't mean it's something that can't be construed to ALSO cause harm.

I would be devastated to know that a partner was only having sex with me to further some other goal. I don't see how this is good for the parties involved.

You misunderstand. Women use their sexuality to manipulate men all the time without actually having sex or violating social rules. In fact a lot of them play this game for sport. Here's one woman's take on this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manipulated_Man

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