Also there's no need to be so condescending.
Well, maybe but you need to understand that it is very provocative when you talk about prostitution in terms of "not all jobs are fun" etc. Whatever you write about prostitution please remember that selling your body is a fundamentally different thing from selling your labour. Using that comparison is both disrespectful and absurd.
I will admit that you can find several studies that disagree with the majority view.
One important thing to consider when evaluating studies of prostitution is that the
worst psychological problems with prostitution are not related to shame, stigma etc. but to the simple fact that
a prostitute has to have sex with someone he or she doesn't want to have sex with. In order to cope with this you need to
disconnect your mind from your body and it is this process that in the long run is very harmfull and dangerous. Since we are talking about long term injuries it is not necessarily relevant how the women (and men) currently working in the sex industry are doing, since they may not yet have been damaged enough to have the problems.
Remember that psychological damages can potentially occur decades after the actual event.
(think war veterans, victims of violent crime etc.).
Another problem is that many prostitutes are former victims of sexual abuse and they have already had to build up the defence mechanisms I was talking about in my last post in their childhood making the consequences of having to prolong this process in adult life even more problematic.
Prostitution is a complex issue. It can never be fully eradicated and I am not necessarily against legalization (for people over 21, you are generally not mature enough to make that choice earlier) under
all circumstances since it might be the least bad option.
If I were to support legalization it should be combined with an active effort to discourage young people from entering into prostitution and attractive exit offers to the ones already in the trade offering an alternative (including rehab programs for drug addicts) + a strict control with the industry including a license to buy prostitutes given only to people without a police record of being charged or convicted of violent and/or sex related crime.
This is hardly realistic in a US context, where the authorities are not exactly known to be generous regarding social work and it would obviously create a black market for unlicensed and underage prostitution, but at least make it safer for the regulated trade. The penalties for customers enganging in illegal prostitution should be very harsh in this scenario (comparable to rape).
What made me angry was therefore not your support for legalization, but this callous comparison of menial work and prostitution and the general carefree attitude in your post.