Selling Sex

Is sex something to be ashamed of? Something to hide?

How else can one explain educated married Singaporeans having sex for over 10 years, was unable to conceive, seeking a Doctors advise, only to find that the reason they couldn’t get pregnant is because the wife was still a virgin?*

How has sex become such a taboo subject?

Why is sex so ‘bad’?

A really good Thai friend of mine from Bangkok expressed sadness and was ashamed that a large number of Thai women were making prostitution a career. To this I say, it is naive to think that we have jobs more dignified then the prostitutes on Bangkok’s streets. We are always exchanging money with our bodies and minds. Prostitutes just maximize a different body part for more money. It is society who dictates that selling sex is bad. But how do you define selling bodily pleasures as something bad? Spas are bodily pleasures too. Should massages be forbidden? Perhaps long ago when women wore corsets or when virgins were placed under locks, it would have been deemed shameful to sell massages.

It is an instinctive reaction of a woman - meaning i would be instinctively embarrassed if Malaysia was renowned for the female flesh trade, but when you think about it, the girls are offering nothing more then what the men want. If its not in the official streets of Bangkok, the men will go elsewhere. So why not Thailand? Or Malaysia, or Indonesia, or Philippines.

In fact, the women of Bangkok could be providing a greater service which a ‘dignified’ and ‘cultured’ society may not want to acknowledge. By providing a means of release for our men, they could have just helped us curb rape and molestation. Not just for women, but for our children too.

I am not condoning the sex trade, but neither do I condemn these women for what they do. They are just filling in a need and fulfilling their own need for survival. Unless of course we can give them other means that can provide them a relatively comfortable life. I can’t imagine any woman enjoying servicing men like that, but it is a job that pays well. If given an option, i would like to think most women would choose self-respect. There is only so much of your body and mind you can sell.

Most of us choose to sell more of our minds. And yes, some sell our bodies – models, beauticians, prostitutes, fitness instructors. And there are those who have gone so far as to sell their souls for a good sum of money. Which is worse? You decide.

*Source: Singaporeans Blur on Sex – Many have to seek bedroom advice.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/30/nation/19315645&sec=nation