An interesting example

A reader sent a link to this story (in French) about the recent decision to ban strip clubs in Iceland. I’d vaguely heard about it, but didn’t pay it much mind – I always thought Iceland was a bit of a weirdo kinda place. Maybe I should have (my translation):

But isn’t dancing in legal clubs better than clandestine prostitution? Feminists disagree. ‘The presence of dancing bars increases prostitution instead of reducing it,’ says Katrin Anna Gudmundsdottir. ‘If we want to fight prostitution and the traffic of women, we cannot accept that women should be akin to something you can buy and sell.

‘Prostitution isn’t the world’s oldest profession, it’s probably the world’s oldest oppression,’ says Ms. Gudmundsdottir. ‘We can’t make it less dangerous by legalizing it. It is a form of violence, so we have no choice but to make it illegal. We may not succeed in eliminating all forms of prostitution right away, but one day, when we have more equality and liberty, prostitution will be inconceivable.'”

I’m not sure exactly how realistic this woman’s position is, but I don’t really care. Maybe she’s a touch too idealistic. But so what? Isn’t her ideal worth pursuing? Wouldn’t you rather live in a world where buying and selling sexual services from other humans would be virtually inconceivable?

I think so. And now I’m thinking: What lessons can those of us who would prefer to live in a world where the indiscriminate killing of “inconvenient” or “unwanted” unborn babies is virtually inconceivable learn from this example?

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