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Prostitution in the Federation

ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!

But why???? You can't so no and have no reasoning to back it up!

Because he isn't cheating on her with anything sentient. It's a fantasy. If you think having a fantasy is cheating, then it would be.

But why is sentiency your test? Would Mrs. Tuvok agree, I wonder, agree?

Is it cheating if he masturbates with a pillow?

If not, how is having sex with a nonsentient hologram any different?
 
What are you basing that on? Were there any specific instances in which someone got busted?

I would base it on the fact that Star Trek was a morally correct "enterprise". Many things would have been "weeded" out by then. Many things.

Oh? Is it? The Federation went and did things like transfer ownership of its colony worlds to the Cardassians -- sold out its own citizens in the name of "peace." A peace that the Cardassians spat upon -- an attempted concession that put the Federation at a disadvantage when it came time to wage war against the Cardassians and Dominion. They even engaged in combat with their own citizens when those citizens tried to rebel against the Cardassian Union and establish their own independent state.

I'm not so sure I'd call the Federation morally pure. Certainly more moral than today, but let's not pretend that the Federation is as pure as the driven snow.
 
Because he isn't cheating on her with anything sentient. It's a fantasy. If you think having a fantasy is cheating, then it would be.

But why is sentiency your test? Would Mrs. Tuvok agree, I wonder, agree?

Is it cheating if he masturbates with a pillow?

If not, how is having sex with a nonsentient hologram any different?

I have two friends, three in fact, that would say that if they caught their husband watching youporn it would be adultery! Are you married? Think about it. You try telling YOUR wife, "Oh, sugar, it wasn't really screwing. I mean she, I mean, it looked just like you!!!!"

You know good and damn well that wouldn't pass the giggle test!:lol:

Here's the other piece, supposed Tuvok made a 18 year old version of his wife on the holodeck and gave her a set of 36DDs. How would that work?
 
Is it cheating if he masturbates with a pillow?

If not, how is having sex with a nonsentient hologram any different?

I have two friends, three in fact, that would say that if they caught their husband watching youporn it would be adultery! Are you married? Think about it. You try telling YOUR wife, "Oh, sugar, it wasn't really screwing. I mean she, I mean, it looked just like you!!!!"

I rather imagine that it's the sort of thing that would be discussed long beforehand and an agreement already reached.
 
Is it cheating if he masturbates with a pillow?

If not, how is having sex with a nonsentient hologram any different?

I have two friends, three in fact, that would say that if they caught their husband watching youporn it would be adultery! Are you married? Think about it. You try telling YOUR wife, "Oh, sugar, it wasn't really screwing. I mean she, I mean, it looked just like you!!!!"

I rather imagine that it's the sort of thing that would be discussed long beforehand and an agreement already reached.


Riiiiiiiiiight.

"Honey, listen, I've signed on a ship with a captain who I expect that will gt us so lost, it'll take us about 75 years, if we're lucky, to get back home. Say listen, would it be okay with you, I mean, let's say I get the urge..."

I'm sure that a conversation like that would go as smooth as silk on a pane glass.
 
I have two friends, three in fact, that would say that if they caught their husband watching youporn it would be adultery! Are you married? Think about it. You try telling YOUR wife, "Oh, sugar, it wasn't really screwing. I mean she, I mean, it looked just like you!!!!"

I rather imagine that it's the sort of thing that would be discussed long beforehand and an agreement already reached.


Riiiiiiiiiight.

"Honey, listen, I've signed on a ship with a captain who I expect that will gt us so lost, it'll take us about 75 years, if we're lucky, to get back home. Say listen, would it be okay with you, I mean, let's say I get the urge..."

I'm sure that a conversation like that would go as smooth as silk on a pane glass.

Post-holodeck society would probably have some kind of societal and cultural norms which would govern such issues. There could be some acceptable and unacceptable things. Maybe a representation of your wife/husband is OK, but only if you are separated by a distance, etc...

A new technology like the holodeck comes along, and it's bound to have that type of effect on a culture. In any type of spaceship, you might not see your family for potentially years (which was one of the reasons for allowing families on starships...which I still don't like, but there it is).
 
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I rather imagine that it's the sort of thing that would be discussed long beforehand and an agreement already reached.


Riiiiiiiiiight.

"Honey, listen, I've signed on a ship with a captain who I expect that will gt us so lost, it'll take us about 75 years, if we're lucky, to get back home. Say listen, would it be okay with you, I mean, let's say I get the urge..."

I'm sure that a conversation like that would go as smooth as silk on a pane glass.

Post-holodeck society would probably have some kind of societal and cultural norms which would govern such issues. There could be some acceptable and unacceptable things. Maybe a representation of your wife/husband is OK, but only if you are separated by a distance, etc...

A new technology like the holodeck comes along, and it's bound to have that type of effect on a culture.


Ahhh, so you suggest that there will be a 23rd/24th century version of "looking the other way?" Another way to look at this is of course forgiveness. But how is that different from today? Or yesterday, for that matter.

Oddyseus, I'm sure didn't tell Penelope they would have to make some kind of arrangement as he galavanted. And if I recall correctly, Mamie heard the skuttlebutt about Ike's driver.

Now before I start to get hate mail, NO I am not suggesting that husbands get a "Get Out of Jail Free" card for their indiscetions. Far from it. I firmly believe that marriage is important and that it should not be violated...especially on a holodeck, which IMO is nothing more than a wank job. Bt what I am saying is that people are people regardless of whether we are talking about 24th Century BC or AD.

You wife might put up with it, she might look the other way, she might forgive it, but she's never going to be good with the idea.

What it comes down to is feelings and respect. This is the reason, the only reason, why I think tht prostitution might be illegal in the Federation.

Illegal yes, but they still do it.
 
Is it cheating if he masturbates with a pillow?

If not, how is having sex with a nonsentient hologram any different?

Or, say, having sex with a retarded girl?

Or a very young one, not yet able to fill her IQ test forms?

Timo Saloniemi
 
Is it cheating if he masturbates with a pillow?

If not, how is having sex with a nonsentient hologram any different?

Or, say, having sex with a retarded girl?

Or a very young one, not yet able to fill her IQ test forms?

Timo Saloniemi

That question goes straight to Criminal Law in the first year of law school. Sex with a minor or a mentally handicaped person would be illegal becuase those classes of individuals would/could be incapable of making informed decisions. One could surmise that Federation criminal courts would be built upon our own legal precepts and framework. There are court case that have held that the reigning concept would be to protect those who could not protect themselves. This theory would seem to be in keeping with what we know of the Federation, in regards to Federation citizens.
 
Sex with a minor or a mentally handicaped person would be illegal becuase those classes of individuals would/could be incapable of making informed decisions. One could surmise that Federation criminal courts would be built upon our own legal precepts and framework.

(But would it be built on our mores and customs, too? I mean, these people would be incapable of making informed decisions about their diet or hygiene, too - should this mean that they should not be fed or bathed? Would the act of sex be viewed as automatically negative while the act of providing food or hygiene would be automatically positive?)

But that's just one issue in the scenario. The perhaps more interesting question is the one that evoked those comparisons in the first place. If your special other is having sex with a creature that is not fully sentient, should that make you feel better about the transgression? If so, why?

Timo Saloniemi
 
Since there supposedly isn't any money in the Federation, you can't pay for sex.

I guess there are escorts who receive gifts of precious minerals but the UNRELATED sex is consensual.
 
The services of a prostitute can traditionally be paid for by means other than money - say, further services - in situations of great poverty. However, perhaps this holds true to situations of great wealth, too: when nobody in the Federation is poor, prostitutes have no interest in acquiring money, but have a keen interest in acquiring services.

Indeed, prostitution might prosper like never before when nobody accepts your money. Paying with your body could be very practical indeed.

Timo Saloniemi
 
The services of a prostitute can traditionally be paid for by means other than money - say, further services - in situations of great poverty. However, perhaps this holds true to situations of great wealth, too: when nobody in the Federation is poor, prostitutes have no interest in acquiring money, but have a keen interest in acquiring services.

Indeed, prostitution might prosper like never before when nobody accepts your money. Paying with your body could be very practical indeed.

Timo Saloniemi

50-50. It depends on what part of the world you are in. Sure, if you are stuck in some squalid refugee camp and sex is all you have to trade for food, medicine, or to keep from being killed, you're right.

But there are parts of today's world in which people will pay top dollar for sex. According to some of the literature, there are women, either for the fast buck, the thrill, the challenge, or whatever reason that see prostitution, or sex work in general, as glamorous. A few years ago the Washington Post Magazine ran an article about some women who in their younger years had used sex, and the tax free income derived to set themselves up.

But I digress...

In the Federation, as now, their will be men who want sex, they may be married or not, handsome or not, and they want access to a woman or women, or men, I guess, that they would ordinarily not have access to and I'm telling you, the holodeck, for whatever reason will not satisfy their lust. Ans there will be people who will be willing to satisy what their wants for a price.

I am not, nor will I ever be, totally convinced that there is no money in the Federation. Call it whatever you will, there is some form of money, or cedits, or quatloos, or gold-pressed latimum, or whatever. I do believe healthcare is free in the Federation. If you go to a state school, or you get into the Academy, school is free. You pay for clothes. You pay for antiques. You pay for all luxury goods. You pay to get a haircut, and you're crazy if you don'! You pay to go to a restaurant. And don't give me replicators. You would not go to a restaurant for replicated food. People will cook in the 23rd/24th Centuries, according to cannon. And if you are some fat admiral, riding a desk all day, and you are not looking forward to going home to the wife, he'll pay for companionship.
 
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