[hirundo]

> No woman should ever be characterized as a "whore."

No, since "whore" tends to be derogative. But we should make it socially acceptable for a woman to be a prostitute, lady of pleasure, hetaera, etc. These can be highly skilled, honest businesspeople that deserve our respect. Calling one a "whore" should be like calling a physician a "sawbones", which is often not meant derogatively.

> Without socially acceptable outlets ... you just compound problems and actively create problems.

And one important such outlet is prostitution, by and for all sexes.

Hopefully some day we could call someone a whore and they'd honestly respond with something like "well I'm not actually a professional at it, but I generally admire them, so thank you."

[DoreenMichele]

Just for the record, I'm for the decriminalization of prostitution as defined by Dolores French in her autobiography "Working: My life as a prostitute."

I intentionally did not mention that because the current climate means an awful lot of men would like to strongly advocate for a woman's right to say "yes" while not just as strongly advocating for her right to say "no," this is an overwhelmingly male forum and this article is not a good jumping off point for having a good discussion about that topic.

I've spoken before about my pro decriminalization stance. That's not news.

I don't think this is the right time and place to focus on that. So I didn't bring it up.