This semester I’m taking a class called Transnational Feminism and it’s had such a huge impact on me. One thing I love about this class is that it always leaves you with topics to debate over and really think about. One of the most recent topics that really stood out to me was about legalizing prostitution. It has been a debate for quite some time now.

While I started the class firmly saying it should not be legalized, I left the classroom unsure if I still felt the same way. Ignoring this topic is becoming an issue in our society today. Instead, we should properly educate ourselves and make an informed decision. I’m not trying to sway you towards either side, I just hope to leave you with some thoughts to chew on.

The debate within the class was really interesting to listen to. I found that some of my classmates seemed to continuously bring the debate back to unrelated arguments, (precisely like the debate we watched prior to our own discussion). For example, the mental or emotional issues of these sex workers was brought into question a few times.

Another student then pointed out that the topic of discussion is not why people want to be sex workers, or even if they will be abused. Round and round this discussion went until there was finally a strong key argument. If sex work was legalized it would ideally be a safer environment for everyone. The workers be able to get a psychological evaluation, protection, and industry rights without fear of getting arrested while the overall risk of STD’s would be drastically lowered.

Could bad things be inspired by this and happen? Yes. But, ideally, that would be up to the government and law enforcement to control. It’d be hard to do this, but it’s a debate that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, any time soon. By remaining uneducated and criminalizing this trade, it only continues to force these workers into even more dangerous situations.

Many parallels can be made to this issue in order to provide clarity. I know this is a long stretch but for example during prohibition, speakeasies popped up all over the country, if people were dangered while intoxicated they couldn’t get help. The same situation happens currently with brothels. There was another parallel made in class, this time to abortions.

The pro-choice argument for abortion is that if you don’t want to get an abortion you don’t have to, but you shouldn’t take that right away from others. If people really want to work in the prostitution industry, is it our job to stop them? It’s not like we have to a part of the business on either end.

This has been attempted before in the Red Light District and over half of the original establishments closed down while crime rate remained the same, if not rose. However, just because something was done wrong once, doesn’t mean it can’t be done right afterwards. What exactly are the risks or fears? Other than the moral aspect of the situation, some things people fear are the possible rise of sex trafficking or child prostitution, the government exploiting sex work just to pay of the national debt, and the rapid expansion of the sex work world. Are these fears valid?

To be honest, I learn something new every day, I'm by no means an expert on this topic. I have been asking around about this topic to see what other people have to say and the findings were interesting. Most of the college aged individuals I asked were Pro-Sex Work. However, the students that did had negative opinions were unclear as to why and cited ideas or events that weren’t directly correlated with the topic.

For now, this idea remains just that, an idea, but sooner or later it’s going to come into serious question. When it does, are you going to be able to make an educated decision? If not, take even just a few minutes and look into the pro's and con's a bit more in depth. It’s always better to be informed and as Americans we are given the freedom to vote and voice our opinions, let’s use them wisely.