Got a blog tip? Contact us
« NYC's recipe for depression | Main | Street Campaign Cost/Benefit Analysis: Bargain! »
So, you think your job sucks?
I'm basically a believer in legalized prostitution. It is sort of a libertarian-meets-prurient-interest thing. This, on the other hand is going too far: now that prostitution is legal in Germany, women may lose their unemployment benefits for refusing work as prostitutes.
Update: The source for this story, Telegraph.co.uk, misrepresented the facts, which you can read here. (Thanks, Alex!)
Brothels are posting positions in job centers; a refusal to cut off benefits to women who turn down work is grounds for a suit by the brothel against the job center. Prurient interest aside, forcing women into prostitution sounds like rape to me, but I guess if you are in the business you can get pretty cold about it:
"Why shouldn't I look for employees through the job centre when I pay my taxes just like anybody else?" said [brothel owner Tatiana] Ulanova.
It sounds like a reality show in the making. Coming soon to Fox: Conscript Hookers.
Stop frowning sweetie, the customers are complaining. Wipe off your face and get back in the lounge.
(Via Metafilter))
Posted by Charles Star on 04/14/2005 | Permalink
Comments
I believe this is an urban legend.
See here.
An example of simple mistranslation combining forces with ideologically-driven sensationalization.
Posted by: Alex | Apr 14, 2005 1:23:18 PM
Dammit!
Posted by: Charles | Apr 14, 2005 2:44:02 PM
Thanks, Alex. It's not an urban legend, but as you say the original source was mistranslated. Under Germany's law, there is the *potential* to deny someone benefits for declining sex work but it sounds like there's no evidence that that has actually happened.
Posted by: carrie | Apr 14, 2005 3:21:18 PM
Prostitution is a job. Though there may be horrific abuse involved in many forms of prostitution as it is typically practised in the world, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the basic concept. It is providing a service. I had a friend once who was a very successful IT consultant--but who wanted to get out of programming and go back to school and get her MBA. So she started a nude internet site and charged the men she knew considerable amounts of money to see her nude. She didn't care what these men thought because she wasn't going to be working with them again. Essentially she was prostituting herself but it was very empowering for her.
It sounds like Germany isn't actually forcing anyone to become a prostitute but that it could happen down the road. A government cannot legislate morality. Should women be forced to become prostitutes or lose unemployment? I think a useful criterion might be the same one the USA would use if it ever reinstated the draft--to claim 'conscientious objector' status, you need to be able to provide evidence that you had a clear belief that a certain actual was fundamentally immoral long BEFORE the situation arises where one is being asked to do the job.
I'm against the draft ever being reinstated, and note that the unemployment situation is in other ways not like the draft--no one is being forced into anything in Germany, just (and only potentially at that) being asked to do something or lose unemployment. But I think the 'conscientious objector' test is a good one to apply if someone claims they shouldn't have to spread their legs for strangers on moral grounds, or shouldn't have to flip burgers if they are a vegetarian, etc.
Posted by: David | May 5, 2005 3:18:34 AM
Many people in Germany are liberal, yes, but they are not out of their mind. The way German women may use their sexuality is a purely personal decision, and as such just like religion, cannot be forced upon unemployed women as a valid option of choice. In addition, I can't see how an educated German woman would even remotely accept a primitive and disgusting pimp (male of female) as a boss, especially not the government, who functions as a pimp trying to get their taxes from the adult entertainment community (they don't like to pay taxes, lol). Pimps, in the German culture, are just caricature males from MTV-shows or primitive Italian mobster movies, and as such German women (as a whole) are totally and utterly uninteresting to be accepted as a boss in leadership positions. This whole story is ridiculous. I really don't mind generalizing here. This topic is just too bizarre.
German women like their freedom of choice when it comes to sex and that includes the commercial selling of their body as well.
Nobody can or will make that choice for them ever.
Posted by: Katinka | Jul 17, 2005 8:03:48 PM
