"But look, why feel bad? We're not here because we like it, but it's a profession and we're not going to be grumpy and be treating people badly. If we're there working, we'll be smiling. In any profession you need to be like that..."
To reach the zonas, clients and workers alike must pass by the bouncer sitting on a bar stool on the side of the street, go through a metal detector and ascend flights of stairs; what awaits is a like a cross between a run-down prison and a hostel even the earthiest backpacker would turn away from. The floors are bare concrete, while the corridor extends past door after door into cell-like rooms where women lie. There, a girl just out of her teens confirms it's safe before noting: "It's rare but sometimes men rape."
20 comments:
In my 30s, I went through a bossa nova phase that lasted maybe 4 or 5 years which was probably longer than the actual bossa nova craze back in the 60s.
When I was a little kid, playing soccer, Pelé was the only professional player any of us had ever heard of.
Photos of the Rio Carnival are always spiffy.
I don't want to know about the ugly side of life in Brazil.
The very term "sex worker" is insidious. Thank you Schmendrik, ARM and all the other noble leftists for "evolving" us into the light.
Lem is going to start boning up on his Portuguese.
Another endorsement for the Libertarian lifestyle.
I believe the VD rate down there is through the roof.
Their roofs leak.
@edutcher--Most of the STD data I found in a quick search gives total infections rather than rates per capita, and I'm too lazy to do the division for you.
But I did find that the pct. of pop. aged 15-49 w/ AIDS/HIV is twice as great in the US as in Brazil.
Also, it ought to be pointed out that, while self-employed prostitution is legal in Brazil, brothels are not.
So Brazil is neither a libertarian paradise nor a hotbed of "VD".
Did someone say BONING up?
Take that man out into the penalty yard and make him stand there for 15 years like that guy in Papillon. A great film by the way. Not perfect, did I say perfect? But memorable, e.g. when you're standing there licking an ice cream cone on a summer day, in other words in a state of semi-erotic bliss, a bird's shadow will flit across you and you'll think well, I escaped the penalty yard in Papillon and then promptly forget about it. Capiche?
"How do I look?"
"You look good."
I remember those lines.
I was thinking about that movie the other day, and wondering if I should make the effort to watch it again.
Oh yeah, another key point - sharing cigarettes with lepers may or may not be a good thing.
My father told me about a salesman who used to sell at a leper colony, until his business dropped off.
Damnit, I am going to keep repeating that joke until someone laughs!
One more thing - public health statistics and rates of infection are all collected, controlled and manipulated by the state. What serves to create more graft and corruption is what will occur.
Need to push money to cronies - we have an epidemic! Need to keep tourists visiting? No disease here!
Sixty, your point is well taken, but which of these do you suggest?
1. Don't use data.
2. Use the imperfect data we have.
3. Make up our own data.
Chip S. said...
@edutcher--Most of the STD data I found in a quick search gives total infections rather than rates per capita, and I'm too lazy to do the division for you.
But I did find that the pct. of pop. aged 15-49 w/ AIDS/HIV is twice as great in the US as in Brazil.
Also, it ought to be pointed out that, while self-employed prostitution is legal in Brazil, brothels are not.
So Brazil is neither a libertarian paradise nor a hotbed of "VD".
Ah, you miss the point of my observation on Libertarianism. You want a no holds barred atmosphere, you get it. Legalized prostitution is not always safer, cleaner, etc.
VD, of course, refers to other party favors beside AIDS, such as syphilis, where the rate down there is 34%, according to one source. But, according to the CDC, the overall AIDS rate here is between 1/10 and 1/5 that of Brazil .3 or .6% (given the source) to .03%.
PS Careful, you're starting to sound like Ritmo.
How about a link, ed?
My source is the WHO, via Wikipedia, and it says the US rate is 0.6% vs. 0.3% for Brazil.
As for this…Legalized prostitution is not always safer, cleaner, etc., I agree that I missed your point, bc I can't figure out what it is.
If legalized prostitution were safer, cleaner, etc. 99% of the time your statement would be both correct and useless. The simple fact is that the shithole described in this post is illegal, so it offers no particular insight into the evils of legal brothels.
My advice, for everyone except Brazilian No Balls is, avoid fucking prostitutes.
That is all.
Something we can agree on.
Now Cartagena, OTOH...
Mine was from the CDC and basically took the number of people > 13 with AIDS - 1.144 mil and divided by 311 mil.
As for legalized, it means taxed. We had legalized in this country 150 years ago, but it wasn't better.
Geez. Just because I get more (safely) than ric, eduardo and Sniffly Grits combined doesn't mean I'm banging whores. That's for your friend Charlie Sheen. You know, the guy who embodies all that you like about the cocaine-fueled, money-loving, short-attention span, winning Tea Party spirit!
But it's interesting to see how much y'all obsess about me when I have work to do and can't get to the thread. Carry on!
So apparently this thread consisted of eduardo arguing with Chip about the importance of the word "always", as in, ed don't care about massively decreasing the rates of STDs if it ain't foolproof and can't guarantee that he personally can partake of it with whimsical abandon. Only 100% certainties will do for him! (Which is why he married a fat, pimply brown-bagger).
Again, carry on.
Chip's 4:54 FTW.
Give ed some credit, Ritmo. Thanks to his claim of expertise about the quality of prostitution 150 years ago, I googled around a bit, finding this overview.
I'd forgotten that it helped give birth to jazz. That seems like enough of a contribution to me.
Apparently the push to outlaw prostitution was part of the Progressive movement.
Well, nothing's perfect.
As for my own personal take on which developments of the early progressive era were proper and worthwhile, I'd say that if Teddy Roosevelt was for it, that's good enough for me.
The rest, including draconian ways of prohibiting both drugs and whoring, we don't need.
That said, when it came (no pun intended) to the latter, social mores and social realities probably made opposition to whore prostitution completely unfeasible, and even less likely.
Further, there would probably still be zoning regulations. But as far as prostitution in modern countries goes, modern public health developments and some sort of light regulation (I know you hate this) seem to have made it much safer than it was.
That said, I can see Americans still needing prostitution prohibited rather than regulated because if our history shows anything, even a regime cleaner theoretically than two virgins would get completely undercut by American incompetence and sloppiness. In less than a year I'd bet rates would rise to a level that would scare even Ed.
So what I'm saying is that while the public health concerns seem to be allayed in progressive countries, I have no faith in Americans effectively regulating a "neat and orderly" prostitution industry. Chlamydia would go through the roof. Check-ups would be missed. Forms would be lost. Tests wouldn't be done. Vaginas would go rancid. Butt pimples would spread rampantly.
You get the picture.
Keep it confined to the Bunny Ranch, etc.
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