LECTURE TWENTY, ALL WORK IS PROSTITUTION

... "What does a prostitute do? She provides a service for a fee. What service does she provide? Normally a successful service results in the man orgasming. (I say man because men traditionally make up such a preponderance of a prostitute's clientele as to make anything else neglible.) How does the prostitute achieve the desired result? Classically, she spreads her legs, the man puts his penis in her vagina and moves back and forth until he ejaculates. These days, oral stimulation and manual stimulation of the penis are equally common with intercourse. Other variations exist. It is a cliche that a man will pay a prostitute to simply listen to him complain about his life. He may also hire an escort, to make him look successful in public. And sometimes a man will hire one or more prostitutes to put on a show for him, in this case he may join the prostitutes at some point for physical contact or he may not. In these cases while ejaculation is still common it is not required.

... "Prostitution is called "The Oldest Profession," it has existed everywhere there has been human civilization. The oldest known advertisement is a carving in a Greek sidewalk showing a barechested woman and instructions to the nearby brothel. When we call it a profession we acknowledge that a prostitute has certain specialized knowledge and skills that most people do not. Knowledge and skill in an activity that supposedly everyone practices? So if prostitution is so prevalent and so ancient and can be considered a profession why is it shunned?

... "The classic answer is that it threatens marriage, if a man can get sex outside his marriage then he might leave his wife. This argument, while questionable in its own right, neatly defines marriage -an honorable institution that all aspire to- as a form of prostitution. (Coincidentally it has been shown in a variety of studies that easy access to prostitutes has in fact allowed men to stay with their non-servicing wives rather then seek a servicing wife.)

... "So why does prostitution continue to be shunned? First, the vast, vast, majority of its practitioners are women. The purpose is to satisfy a man's base (animal) appetite, a private activity usually not even acknowledged in polite society. The presence of prostitution not only forces a community to acknowledge that men are animals with base needs but that this private function is common and commercially viable. It spreads disease (something that cannot be argued with except to say that prostitution is not the only or most common way such diseases are spread). And prostitution attracts other criminal elements. The same can be said for liquor stores, doughnut shops, etc. etc. The difference being that these other dens of crime are public while prostitution is not.

... "Prostitution is considered a vice crime, a morals crime if you will. Vice crimes are defined as victimless crimes. In most cities both the customer (The John) and the prostitute are guilty of a crime. The society as a whole is the victim. Drug abuse and gambling are the other vice crimes. Several attempts have been made to remove these activities from the list of crimes. A crime is usually considered an act against an individual or individuals and many people suggest that without an identifiable victim there can be no real crime. This is not a spurious argument as in most every other type of crime it is not enough to know that someone is performing an activity, normally you have to produce a victim before you can charge a person with a crime.

... "So what's wrong with prostitution? Unlike gambling and drug abuse the key activities are legal (you can even base financial relationships-marriage- upon it) in a different context. Is the fact that cash changes hands the key issue here?

... "Many years ago Jerry Lewis was hosting one of his Labor Day Telethons for Muscular Dystrophy and someone called in a pledge that they would give X amount of dollars if Jerry Lewis would stop smoking. Mr. Lewis responded that he would not prostitute himself that way and refused the pledge. Mr. Lewis had no trouble staying on the air for thirty six hours, joking, singing, dancing, making a fool of himself, being nice to people he didn't like and thanking people generously for even the smallest donations but you couldn't get him to stop smoking because that would be prostitution.

... "If you approached the common guy on the street and asked him to host a live telethon for thirty six continuous hours, to laugh, joke, sing, dance, make a fool of himself and be very nice to people he really didn't like you would probably have a hard time. Maybe if it was for a really good cause they might do it. But if you told them, no, its just to collect money. No way they wouldn't do it unless you paid them. So you offer them eight dollars an hour and they say, forget it. You offer them a thousand dollars an hour and most anyone would do it. And their boss at their regular job would understand.

... "Mark Twain is said to have once offered a woman ten thousand dollars to have sex with him. The very attractive woman said that for ten thousand dollars she would be agreeable. Mr. Twain then offered her ten dollars and she responded, What do you think I am, A whore? Mr. Twain is said to have replied, madam we have already established your profession, we are now merely haggling over price.

... "Is there a significant difference between an offer of thirty years of room and board for ten years of servicing and raising the resultant children and an offer of fifty dollars for a blow job?

... "All work is based upon doing something for somebody else that you would not do willingly if they did not pay you. And at base isn't that what prostitution is, giving someone an orgasm without enjoying it yourself? But it's so personal! A masseuse touches you. A doctor touches you. A chiropractor touches you. A physical therapist touches you. I will admit that professions that require physical contact with the client are generally looked down on (with the confusing exception of medicine) as not quite legit. But on a sliding scale from building a house or chair for someone to serving them food to rubbing their penis is there a clear line of departure?

... "The orgasm. That is the clear line of departure. When building a house, chair or delivering food you do not expect the client to orgasm. But, it is not unknown for someone to be so pleased with something that they spontaneously, or perhaps not so spontaneously, do orgasm. But in those cases an orgasm is an unanticipated side effect and not the objective. But don't we use sexual terms when we try to describe our greatest appreciation and pleasure in something, food being a classic? And if you offered someone dependable sex OR a house, chair or meal wouldn't most people choose the sex. It's the universal thing we all want, so why is delivering it a crime?"