prostitution in the Trek Universe?

[Deckerd]

Any two-bit lawyer could take any random sexual act or intent and establish it as involving payment. (Or coercion, for that matter.) So once again, we only have our common sense to keep our definitions straight - or to discard them as unnecessary.

I'm thinking reductio ad absurdum here.

 

[T'Girl]

well, its legal on the wolf in the fold planet

Are they the Federation Members?

My impression was no.

The high mucky muck referred to Argelus as a "treaty port," the only one in the sector... so Captain Kirk better play ball with local laws.

Maybe they were one of those associate members.

")

 

[Timo]

I'm thinking reductio ad absurdum here.

To the contrary, it's a highly practical concern. In places where prostitution is illegal, it may be horrendously hard work for the police to prove that prostitution took place, even if they can show that sex took place, and money or goods changed hands at roughly the same time or in the approximate context. This because prostitution really isn't definable, or distinguishable from sex in general.

Things can only get more complicated from there. The next level of difficulty comes from sex-that-is-not-copulation. What are the "sexual acts" that a law may declare forbidden but that do not differ particularly from everyday actions such as removing of clothes or moving of limbs?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deckerd]

I think your argument is ridiculous.

 

[sonak]

I think your argument is ridiculous.

I think you're right

 

[Timo]

Nevertheless, it completely prevents prostitution from being criminally prosecuted today. One can only prosecute things like "human trafficking" or "coercion". For the abstract act of selling one's body for sexual purposes, evidence is by its very nature so flimsy that any court case is a mockery of justice and only serves to diminish respect of law.

The semantics games being played here, in contrast, have no practical significance. If prostitution is considered illegal, it is prosecuted arbitrarily, regardless of the wording chosen. Such judgement is moralistic or at best moral, not legally sound, nor particularly different from prosecuting the wearing of red socks on left feet.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deckerd]

That isn't the same as saying all sex is prostitution, which is what you were saying before.

 

[Timo]

How so? Prostitution cannot be prosecuted specifically because its definition is invalid - it cannot be told apart from any other sort of sex. Honest policemen and judges fail in the effort; dishonest ones prosecute anyway, with sad results.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deckerd]

There is a legal definition of prostitution, whether you like it or not.

Lumping the whole wonder of human sexual love with it is specious.

 

[Kemaiku]

I feel weird doing this but I'm afraid I must agree with Deckard here and am scratching my head at the rather pedantic and slightly creepy attempts of others to dodge or ignore the sexual slavery issue and lump it together with legitimate prostitution.

 

[sonak]

I feel weird doing this but I'm afraid I must agree with Deckard here and am scratching my head at the rather pedantic and slightly creepy attempts of others to dodge or ignore the sexual slavery issue and lump it together with legitimate prostitution.

I thought only one poster was doing that earlier in the thread and that we had since moved on.

Now we're at a weird discussion about whether all sex is basically indistinguishable from prostitution and how prostitution itself is apparently impossible to define and impossible to prosecute, even though it's defined and prosecuted in many places.


It's fun to see where these threads go.

 

[Yevetha]

bump

 

[CaptainMatt]

I am sure someone else has already said this but Harry Mudd once had three lovelies he brought with him to the Enterprise in the OS episode "Mudd's Women."
He intended to leave them on a nearby world as wives and mates for some rather sad and lonely men.

 

[T'Girl]

^ And no doubt make a boatload of money in the process. Mudd was a pimp.

 

[MANT!]

And we all saw how Harry ended up...

The sad part about pimping..there's no retirement plan..

 

[Star Wolf]

In terms of cultures, we've never heard of Romulan or Klingon or Cardassian prostitutes, or of the general status of one gender over the other as a sex object. In DS9, it appears that Bajorans coping with post-occupation poverty take part in Quark's dabo girl business only reluctantly, and that the profession is not a respected one in either Bajoran or UFP view - but several of our main heroes change their attitudes in that respect during the show.


Timo Saloniemi

I just saw TNG's Redemption last weekend. I could have sworn that Gowron tried to dismiss Torol of the Duras clan as being the product of his father's visit to a brothel.

 

[xortex]

Prostitutes don't wear uniforms or anything else at all so it could be impossible to prosecute or prove except through the transfer of funds evidence or what have you by computer which makes it even more exclusive as well during Trek's time.

What I'm interested in is if you're allowed to have holographic or robot spouses like the EMH Doctor or Data? That raises a whole bunch of cans of worms. You could have a harum of holograms or robots who are prostitutes by night and criminals by day. They would probably be very expensive too, assuming that they are working for the equivelent of money in Star Trek's time, or for power or information, manipulation, domination, etc., etc.. Vogayer's EMH was getting married in 'End Game' and Data dated.

 

[T'Girl]

robots who are prostitutes by night and criminals by day

If they're a prostitutes by night, then they're (or someone's) a criminals by night.

If the hologram / robot is legally a person, then they can be a criminal too.

 

[sonak]

Prostitutes don't wear uniforms or anything else at all so it could be impossible to prosecute or prove except through the transfer of funds evidence or what have you by computer which makes it even more exclusive as well during Trek's time.

What I'm interested in is if you're allowed to have holographic or robot spouses like the EMH Doctor or Data? That raises a whole bunch of cans of worms. You could have a harum of holograms or robots who are prostitutes by night and criminals by day. They would probably be very expensive too, assuming that they are working for the equivelent of money in Star Trek's time, or for power or information, manipulation, domination, etc., etc.. Vogayer's EMH was getting married in 'End Game' and Data dated.

Why bother marrying your sex fantasy hologram? Just get a holodeck built into your home or something, and spend your off time with the hologram.

 

[xortex]

Prostitutes don't wear uniforms or anything else at all so it could be impossible to prosecute or prove except through the transfer of funds evidence or what have you by computer which makes it even more exclusive as well during Trek's time.

What I'm interested in is if you're allowed to have holographic or robot spouses like the EMH Doctor or Data? That raises a whole bunch of cans of worms. You could have a harum of holograms or robots who are prostitutes by night and criminals by day. They would probably be very expensive too, assuming that they are working for the equivelent of money in Star Trek's time, or for power or information, manipulation, domination, etc., etc.. Vogayer's EMH was getting married in 'End Game' and Data dated.

Why bother marrying your sex fantasy hologram? Just get a holodeck built into your home or something, and spend your off time with the hologram.

If the hologram was a mistress, wouldn't it/she get jealous? And the wife angry at what amounts to internet porn except that you've programmed the hologram to look like Jessica Simpson.