I have this running argument with an office female of the feminist variety about prostitution, strip clubs, lap dancing, beauty contests and Hooters. The law rightly allows
us some nakednessShe's in favor of only one out of those six enterprises. Can you guess which one?
No, it's not Hooters, the restaurant featuring waitresses in tight tank tops and tighter shorts. She's against that.
She's also against strip clubs, lap dancing and beauty contests.
She's for legalized prostitution.
How you figgah?
I'm a guy. I don't get it. I think women should be able to do anything they want with their bodies as long as they don't break the law.
And, I would think that most women would agree with me. But apparently there is a tributary of feminism that believes prostitution should be legalized because it gives women control over their own bodies and keeps them from being victimized by pimps. But the same philosophical axiom apparently holds that it should be illegal for women to dance naked for money, or, indeed, deliver hamburgers to tables while wearing a tight Hooter's-type top. Posing in bathing suits in beauty contests also is out, according to this theorem, because it demeans women.
It seems to my addled male mind that this means it is all right for women to make money using their bodies as long as they, uh, go all the way, like in prostitution.
I would think it should be the other way around. If a woman can make money legally simply by dancing on a table top, and she chooses to do that, why shouldn't she? No one ever gotten AIDS or venereal disease from dancing on a table. Or even a lap for the matter.
Of course, a woman of the '90s probably should be pursuing a Ph.D. in rocket science, but not all are inclined that way. Some are inclined to be inclined or even reclined if they can make a buck at it. And luckily for them, authorities generally aren't inclined to arrest them for it.
So, we are in the crazy position where streetwalkers are a permanent fixture in Waikiki and the Honolulu City Council spends its time trying to figure out how to regulate lap dancing. This is like taking your car to Lex Brodie's with four flat tires and the boys start fixing your windshield wipers.
I'm confused. And, apparently I'm not the only one. Soroptimist International of Waikiki is holding a panel discussion on Nov. 25 on whether prostitution should be legalized. I've agreed to be on the panel, along with Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, Councilman Duke Bainum and some other yet-to-be-determined panelists.
I'm not sure why they asked me to participate, especially since, until this week, I didn't know what a Soroptimist was. The club supports women in just about all of their endeavors. But even Soroptimists don't have a stand on legalizing prostitution.
My position has been that if you really want to get rid of prostitution in Waikiki, you should legalize it. There's no way a prostitute could stay in business if she had to pay all the taxes, rent and overhead that other small-business people have to pay in Hawaii.
In the meantime, prostitution is illegal. And so the police, prosecutors and courts should enforce the law. If they aren't going to, the City Council should find out why. I don't think the Council should be wasting time worrying about less extreme aspects of the skin trade -- like lap dancing -- when we can't even regulate the most obvious, already illegal facet of the sex industry.
But what do I know? I'm just a man.