Do you think prostitutes are misjudged? Do you believe many have good intentions?
the short answer here is yes, i do believe that prostitutes are misjudged.
i don’t understand the “good intentions” part of your question, however. what do you mean their intentions? their intention is to earn money to support themselves and whatever family they may have. i don’t really think there’s much room for intention interpretation there.
now as to why i think prostitutes are misjudged.
there is an awful stereotype about prostitutes, that they are the scum of the earth and any bad thing that happens to them they deserve because they shouldn’t be selling their bodies because it is immoral for them to solicit sex for money. it is my opinion that if they want to sell themselves, they should be legally allowed to do it. it’s their body and they should be allowed to oversee how it is used… but that’s a whole other can of worms right there.
that being said, i do not by any means think of prostitution as a respectable way to earn a living. it is incredibly degrading to the women, not to mention a terrible health liability.
but i think the most important thing to note here is that almost all prostitutes did not choose to become them. i would hazard a guess that a good 95-99% of prostitutes would never had become prostitutes if they had thought they had any other choice. the life of a prostitute is very unpleasant and i don’t think it’s something anyone would wish for themselves. the women and girls who have to do it do it because they have no other option for keeping themselves from being homeless or starving. it’s not as though they are sex-craved maniacs and they satisfy that by soliciting to irresponsible men, as goes the stereotype. (if you’re following min ju, remember that post on porn actresses? that’s very similar to the life of a prostitute)
(and of course, it is important to note that i am referring to prostitutes in the united states and other developed countries; in many countries, like india and cambodia, there is a very active human trade where girls are regularly sold into sexual slavery. this is despicable and i don’t think anyone in their right mind who has a conscience would argue that they get what they deserve, though, so i’m going to stay away from that.)
what i’m trying to say here is that they don’t deserve being thought of as trash because that’s not what they are: they are desperate women taking advantage of the only thing they might have left, which is themselves.
honestly the ones who deserve this stereotype are the men who hire the prostitutes. there is a horrifying double standard when it comes to prostitution. a girl becomes a prostitute and she’s shunned as a whore and not worthy of respect while a man hires a prostitute and he’s just “being a guy” and don’t experience even remotely the same amount of social ostracization that women do. those men who pay money for these women to have sex with them are the ones who are the problem. most of the time they have no respect for the women they hire and see them simply as sex objects. sure, there are stories of men falling in love with their prostitutes, but that’s not prevalent. it is by thinking of them as less than human that men can, sometimes, justify the way they treat these women. these reprehensible men are the ones who should be rejected from society, not the prostitutes.
prostitution is ugly business, that’s for sure. but i do not condone the social degradation of the women who engage in prostitution as a way to put food on the table, because they’re just doing their best to support themselves.
