World’s oldest profession goes legit
by Vanessa Gillard
Ilustration by Courtenay Davidson. Women in Mesopotamia were allegedly required to prostitute themselves once in their life, and they had to stay in a temple until a man paid them for sex.
To many, prostitution is a dirty word that conjures up visions of drugs, disease and those patent leather boots that you could probably conceal a crowbar in (perhaps for good reason). Regardless of your view on the world’s oldest profession, Canadian ladies and men of the night may soon be seeing a lot less of the inside of a jail cell.
The Globe and Mail reported that Justice Susan Himel has, to the complete shock of the litigants, struck down all three Criminal Code provisions that had been challenged: communicating for the purposes of prostitution, pimping and operating a bawdy house. Justice Himel took a year to make her 131-page ruling and was presumably waiting for another ruling to cite in her decision: the six murder convictions in the Robert Pickton case.
Pickton is still awaiting trial for 20 additional charges of murder against women involved in prostitution in the city of Port Coquitlam, B.C. Essentially, Himel has made the ruling because her concern is not for those morally opposed to the sex-trade or the results that come along with the plying of it, but the safety of those working in the trade. I like the term sex-trade, it summons the idea that you could go to school to get your journeyman (or journey-person) designation in prostitution. I’d buy the textbook just for fun.
So, will we be seeing red-lit five-storey brothels in our near future? Hopefully. Decriminalizing prostitution not only allows for further safety but also means that prostitutes may feel more comfortable charging pimps for abuse, and generally cooperating with police in investigating many of those crimes that people associate, often wrongly, with prostitution. Decriminalizing prostitution can also curb human trafficking, which is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world preying primarily on children and women. Paying for company and sexual satisfaction from another is by no means a new thing, and I mean come on ladies, how many of you have gone on a date just to get it on? What? You’re in it for the free food? You whore!
Sacred or temple prostitution was performed in many ancient societies, and in Mesopotamia every woman was allegedly required to prostitute herself once in her life. They would go to the temple of Aphrodite and weren’t permitted to leave until a man had tossed whatever amount of money he chose into her lap, then they would go to somewhere outside the temple and do the deed. As I’m sure we are all aware, some gals are not as um…enticing as, well, others, and because they had to stay until they had some cash plopped in their lap apparently some stayed for two or three years, and they didn’t even have Justin Bieber to obsess about!
One of the litigants in this recent landmark ruling is a dominatrix who said that this decision is like emancipation for sex-trade workers, and when asked for reaction by the waiting press exclaimed, “I’m going to spank some ass. Legally!” And perhaps every naughty ass she spanks with her trusty riding crop will, in some small way, be payback for all those years those more homely girls sat around waiting for some jerk to chuck some coins in their laps.
