Pick one: Do you think aug is...

[skeptik]

I'll comment more later.

Here are some of my thoughts on the broader discussion taking place (which is obviously much larger than aug being a creepy pervert).

I don't believe anybody here is actually arguing that prostitution shouldn't be legalized. In fact I would imagine that most, certainly including myself, would agree with the notion that legalizing prostitution would make the entire enterprise safer and less psychologically damaging for everybody involved. I think it's pretty well known and documented that many prostitutes develop substance abuse issues in order to cope with the emotional distress that goes along with subjecting one's most intimate possession, the self, to the sexual desires of some lustful stranger, compounded by the knowledge that one's very means of self-sufficiency has been deemed wrong and immoral by society like some metaphorical scarlet letter.

In other words, as I believe Einherjar touched on, the real issue, at least for most people here, probably is not the profession itself, in theory, but rather how it ends up being in practice. I would imagine that the number of women who voluntarily choose to prostitute their bodies for money because they enjoy the line of work is a very small percentage, and that, accordingly, the vast majority of prostitutes probably must carry around emotional baggage encompassing self-loathing and guilt for having to resort to what most reasonable people would view as debasing oneself in such an intimate and personal way in order to get by. I will not even touch on the very real existence of slavery and the sex trade. There's a reason that there's a glint of sadness and emptiness in the eyes of the prostitutes aug photographs, and it's not just because of aug.