While the readings on the morality (or immorality) of prostitution were extensive, they glossed over quite a number of points which I thought were of extreme importance to the issue. Before presenting those points, however, I will give an overview of my thoughts on the matter as presented by the articles.
Firstly, I disagree with the argument that prostitution necessarily reinforces patriarchal ideas of male dominance. There are some male prostitutes in existence, a small number of which are heterosexual. It is difficult to argue that these men are reinforcing patriarchal ideals, unless one argues that sex itself reinforces them - which would bring up a whole new issue. While there are fewer male prostitutes, I think that is a result of society's views on the matter, not the cause of those views. One could say that it is a result of lesser demand by women for sexual services, but again, I think that lower demand is a result of society (and even if it were not, then the fact that there would be a lesser demand for male prostitutes does not mean that prostitution in itself is immoral.) If prostitution were recognised as a valid career option, it seems likely that many men would choose to work in the field.
Secondly, the idea that prostitution results in the weakening of family values is, I think, both invalid and not necessarily a bad thing if it were valid. Sex does not necessarily create love, and neither is it required for love (between two people of the same age and with no biological relation) to exist; the fact that most (not all) loving, married couples have sexual relations with one another does not mean that they need to do so in order to love one another, or that having sexual relations outside the marriage would result in a lessening of love between them. Also, if one took the idea that parents must have sexual relations with (and exclusively with) one another in order to raise their children properly, that would mean that single parents who are not in steady relationships are incapable of raising well-adjusted, happy children - something which is evidentially not the case. The idea that parents who raise their children badly will cause those children to lack moral values as adults, or rather lack self-esteem which results in moral values, is also, I believe, seriously flawed. It is true, perhaps, that children with loving parents are more likely to share their parents' moral viewpoints, but that is not always a good thing; in fact, I think it is better if children formulate their own independent moral viewpoints, as parents' moral viewpoints are all too often flawed. Loving parents do have a tendency to instill their children with higher self-esteem, which is a good thing, but at this point we are deviating too far from the initial subject (that of prostitution, if you still remember.)
Thirdly, I agree with Ericsson that the lack of psychological well-being of prostitutes is largely due to society's attitude towards their line of work, and by extension, towards them as well. In addition, even if there are some elements of psychological damage inherent in the work, that does not mean that society should ban the option of taking up that work. As long as as no one was forced into prostitution, or forced to remain there, then it would be entirely their own choice to risk that psychological damage - and removing their right to make such a choice is, I think, highly paternalistic.
This does not, however, mean that I support the legality of prostitution. There are two vitally important and related factors which all four of the essayists neglected to address - firstly, that of the possible reproductive consequences of prostitution, and secondly, that of the current ratio of voluntary prostitutes to coerced prostitutes. Both of these would require extremely strict regulatory measures (obligatory contraception in the case of the first, and some sort of intensive qualification procedures in the case of the second) to prevent, and I do not think that society is currently in a position to enact those measures. Until society has progressed far enough to make the implementation of such regulation possible, I think that prostitution should remain, or become, illegal.
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