Today's 24HOURS newspaper features an article, entitled "Women at risk: Activists", about an upcoming Vancouver conference of anti-prostitution advocates. They're concerned about Vancouver becoming a "magnet for international prostitution and trafficked women in the lead up to the 2010 Olympics."
Now I think an influx of overseas SPs is largely a good thing, for both us pooners and most "trafficked" women who'd otherwise be stuck dirt-poor or starving in an Asian slum. But all the people quoted in the article portray sex-buying in an ignorantly unsympathetic way. And they ALL happen to be women.
In fact, I've noticed this before, when talking about my pooning hobby: overall, women are more judgmental than men. Wonder why that is. Three possibilities cross my mind:
1. Few women can really identify with two facts about male reality: the intense urgency of many men's sexual cravings and the tremendous shortage of attractive and willing female partners—two facts which can lead to an explosive level of potentially destructive frustration.
2. Some women know or sense that the humdrum "relationship sex” they offer is likely to be far worse than the sex their partners could buy; and they don't want to be held to high sexual standards or face the constant threat that their man will otherwise seek out an SP.
3. Many women deeply resent—perhaps at a subconscious level—the reduction in their own sexual bargaining power due to men's relatively easy access to commercial sex. It makes men less dependent on any particular woman's favors, perhaps less willing to get or stay married out of neediness and lack of options, and certainly less prone to commit to self-sacrificial monogamy in the face of lousy sex at home.
These, I tend to think, are the main reasons for women's widespread opposition to prostitution—and their concern about the level of abuse experienced by SPs is largely a smokescreen.
Now I think an influx of overseas SPs is largely a good thing, for both us pooners and most "trafficked" women who'd otherwise be stuck dirt-poor or starving in an Asian slum. But all the people quoted in the article portray sex-buying in an ignorantly unsympathetic way. And they ALL happen to be women.
In fact, I've noticed this before, when talking about my pooning hobby: overall, women are more judgmental than men. Wonder why that is. Three possibilities cross my mind:
1. Few women can really identify with two facts about male reality: the intense urgency of many men's sexual cravings and the tremendous shortage of attractive and willing female partners—two facts which can lead to an explosive level of potentially destructive frustration.
2. Some women know or sense that the humdrum "relationship sex” they offer is likely to be far worse than the sex their partners could buy; and they don't want to be held to high sexual standards or face the constant threat that their man will otherwise seek out an SP.
3. Many women deeply resent—perhaps at a subconscious level—the reduction in their own sexual bargaining power due to men's relatively easy access to commercial sex. It makes men less dependent on any particular woman's favors, perhaps less willing to get or stay married out of neediness and lack of options, and certainly less prone to commit to self-sacrificial monogamy in the face of lousy sex at home.
These, I tend to think, are the main reasons for women's widespread opposition to prostitution—and their concern about the level of abuse experienced by SPs is largely a smokescreen.
