Monday, May 9, 2022

Resolution

A good society should criminalize the purchase of sex.

For the affirmative:

Julie Bindel is a feminist campaigner against male violence, an investigative journalist and an author. Her book The Pimping of Prostitution: Abolishing the Sex Work Myth (2017) is based on more than 250 interviews with the people involved in and affected by prostitution. Visiting brothels all around the world, Bindel got to know pimps, pornographers, survivors of the sex trade and the women currently being exploited, but classified as ‘business entrepreneurs’. The book gives an account of the struggle of those harmed by the sex trade, who (argues Bindel), make up the majority of those involved, and shows that the popularly accepted tropes about ‘agency’ and ‘choice’ in prostitution are challenged by the testimony of its survivors.

For the negative:

Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a Senior Editor at Reason magazine, where her work has focused mainly on the intersection of sex, tech, civil liberties, and public policy. She is also co-founder of the nonprofit group Feminists for Liberty. Brown has published in outlets that include The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Buzzfeed, The Daily Beast, Playboy, Fox News, Politico, Time, Spectator U.S., The Week, and the Cato Institute's Libertarianism.org. A native of Cincinnati, she lives with her husband in Cincinnati, OH.