[mrphoebs]

No it's not, it might be acceptable in a few societies but in a vast majority of societies across the globe sex work is both frowned upon and illegal.

You are naive if you think all prostitutes are willing participants that chose this as a career. Across the world forced prostitution/sex work is fuelled by human trafficking of women and minors.

In an ideal world human beings should be free to make their own choices based on their context and society free to judge them based on it's context. One can't have it both ways. One cannot have absolute individual freedom within a social substrate and be an accepted member of said society without adhering to the norms of the social contract, what ever that might be.

[justinclift]

Simultaneously, it takes some balls (sic) to claim that sex work in all countries is definitely the result of human trafficking (etc).

How about: "In some countries, sex work seems to be illegal and problematic. But in other countries, it's regulated and successful.".

[mrphoebs]

I didn't claim sex work in all countries is a result of human trafficking. I said forced prostitution is fuelled by human trafficking.

>"In some countries, sex work seems to be illegal and problematic. But in other countries, it's regulated and successful."

My take is similar to yours, I'm just communicating to the original commentor that the societies where sex work is legitimate, regulated and safe is a minority compared to the societies where it isn't.

[justinclift]

> I said forced prostitution is fuelled by human trafficking.

Thinking about it, that's a good point. "Unforced" (eg voluntary or better term) prostitution seems like it wouldn't have anything to do with "human trafficking", as they'd be kind of anathema to each other.

[cscurmudgeon]

Wait I thought “ It's only controversial in the US”.

Now, it is “some countries”?

[justinclift]

Yeah, I reckon that's a silly statement too. It's clearly "controversial" (in various ways) across a large range of countries.

[Beaver117]

In terms of legality, well drugs are illegal too and they're still widely used and somewhat frowned upon in the US.

Morally, it's up to you but the human trafficking numbers are larely exaggerated and most participants are willing.