Morning Ed: United States {2017.04.25.T}

DavidTC in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

A lot of the (very valid, btw) concerns you have here could be mitigated if the practice was legal and had enforceable contracts, much like a normal lease would.

That just introduces other concerns.

All prostitution, legal or otherwise, is generally a one-off done with a prostitute that, *at the time*, chooses to have sex right then with a specific person.

To have a housing contract where rent is *paid* in sex, you have to define all sorts of rules and requirements…how often is sex required, is it scheduled, is there a penalty for late payment?

Now, of course, there is nominally a ‘contract’ negotiated for all prostitution (Even if illegal, and totally verbal.), just like for all service transactions…but it is basically ‘thirty minutes of a predefined sex act right now’ or whatever. It’s not trying to schedule repeated stuff in advance.

Stretching consent out like that makes it much less likely to be *actual* consent. Normal prostitutes, and in fact everyone, consent to sex *right then*. They don’t consent to sex six months down the line. Yes, in theory, they have to reconsent to it at the time even if they’re under contract, (See also: Martial rape, where we shot down the idea women could ‘pre-consent’ to sex and not back out.), but ‘consent to this sex act or you are penalized via the contract you have signed’ is *not really consent*.(1)

Does she get vacation or sick days?

Is this sexual contract it transferable, i.e, can the sex worker swap in subs? Can the homeowner loan her to other clients? Can he charge those other people?

Is he going to provide her with proper documentation so she can correctly pay her taxes (Legally, yes, you have to pay for housing provided as income.) and deduct her business expenses?

Is he required to meet any standard of personal hygiene? Does she have personal space? Can she date, and have sex with, other people?

And, here, we get to part of the reason why ‘your employer provides lodging’ is so problematic throughout history: Often, it turns out that employers are *jealous and noisy assholes* if they also control your housing, especially if you housing *is* your work. The clear delimitation between ‘on the clock’ and ‘not on the clock’ is entirely gone.

And I suspect here, it would be *exceptionally* gone. They don’t just control her housing in the sense of being their landlord, it literally *is* their house. They are living with their employee. They aren’t going to respect *any* boundaries.

So, yes, it is, hypothetically, possible that there could be some contract that defines clear sexual duties and times for those, and clearly defined private areas, and all sorts of things…but the thing is, the sort of people who are running those ads are *exactly* the people I do not expect to be constructing such contracts. (Not even illegal verbal ones that have any sort of detail…and these women are not going to be experienced prostitutes so don’t know what sort of rules they have to lay out.)

I suspect those people offering free housing are basically considering having *leased* themselves a woman that is available for whatever, whenever they want, under whatever rules they want, or out on the street she goes.

Another question: Wouldn’t sexual harassment laws still apply, even if prostitution became legal?
The woman: ‘My boss keeps trying to have sex with me, and gets upset and threatens to fire me when I refuse, creating a hostile work environment.’
Their lawyer: ‘Didn’t you literally sign a contract stating you would have sex with him? Is that not the whole premise of your employment.’
The woman: ‘Yes, but under sexual harassment laws, my boss saying I must have sex with him or he will fire me is *still illegal*. It is the most illegal thing there is under those laws! That law doesn’t change just because ‘sex with him’ is literally the job I have been hired to do.'(2)

1) For those who wonder how it works in legalized prostitution: From what I understand, those women always have the ability to turn down clients. They are operating in a commission-based system. The brothel cannot say ‘Have sex with this person or you are fired’, although presumably if they never have sex with *anyone*, they won’t be kept on the staff.

2) Again, in legalized prostitution, people are not told, or even asked, to have sex with their *boss*. They are given an opportunity by their company to have sex with the company’s *clients* and offered a cut/commission/however it’s phrased.Report