The myth that prostitution consists of two consenting adults

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I hear often on social media, “who cares what two consenting adults do?” anytime prostitution is brought up on New Bedford Guide’s Facebook page. The idea that prostitutes in New Bedford, or in America, are consenting adults is a myth and is a lazy way to look the other way or even condoning the sex trade.

I served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force and visited or lived in 22 different countries. The Air Force takes prostitution seriously and educates their personnel with briefings when they visit areas with high prostitution. When you get stationed in countries like Thailand or South Korea, there is required training on human trafficking and sexually transmitted diseases. Showing slides of STDs on faces and genitals is generally enough to scare the soldiers to think twice when hiring a prostitute. There is also the human side.

Human trafficking is real and hundreds of thousands of women, and some cases men, are forced into prostitution. Girls in poor countries are lured into the prostitution world through ads in their local papers with false offers of real jobs. In Thailand and much of Europe it’s clear-cut, the governments officially or unofficially condone prostitution, but in most countries prostitution is an underground trade.

In places like New Bedford, you’ll find working girls controlled by pimps and usually a need to feed their addiction. Either way, prostitutes are far from consenting adults in the way they are in Amsterdam where the woman have unions and get government protection.

As long as there is poverty and addiction there will be prostitution – especially when men continue to demand it. It’s important to educate yourself on why most prostitutes sell their body to strange men for so little money. When you are on social media condoning prostitution as “two consenting adults,” you are contributing to the sex trade. Men need to learn that it is not acceptable, in real life or on social media, if we are to end prostitution in our area and get these women the help they need.

About Michael Silvia

Served 20 years in the United States Air Force. Owner of New Bedford Guide.

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2 comments

  1. ha ha ha, in the Army they gave us a list of approved places to go…..

  2. Lynda Linn-Lee, Toronto

    Great little article. consenting adults is simply an excuse to fornicate without feeling shame, but sooner or later, the liberal bubble will burst.

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