Why didn't the sexual revolution end prostitution?

Why pay for it when even "nice girls" are giving it away for free? asks one pundit in today's round of prostitution commentary.

Judge Susan Himel’s landmark ruling on prostitution last week continues to fuel debate in the op-ed pages today.

Many women’s rights groups have come out in favour of decriminalizing prostitution, but writing in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, the Elizabeth Fry Society’s Caroleen Wright says that won’t address the real problem. She argues that Canadians need to look at factors that force women into prostitution, “such as poverty, abuse, racism and isolation for women in our communities.” She writes that decriminalization “will institutionalize and normalize the purchase of women as commodities (and) further disenfranchise those with the fewest rights.”

On the other hand, the Globe and Mail’s Margaret Wente says decriminalization is the only realistic solution. Society would “be better off to decriminalize (rather than legalize) prostitution, as we more or less already have,” she writes. “Ignore the consensual indoor sex trade, try to protect street workers while managing the public-nuisance factor, and vigorously develop exit strategies to get them into other lines of work.” She admits that it’s not a perfect solution, but it’s the best we can hope for because Canadians clearly can’t agree on what to do. “For those who fret we'll now have hookers on every block, I have news: We already do,” she says. “Like freelance writers, they quietly ply their trade in the condo right next door. Except they make more money.” Writers at The Mark can verify at least half of that statement, by the way.

The terminology the National Post’s George Jonas uses to discuss the issue is so archaic it takes a second to realize he’s talking about sex. One can’t quite tell if he’s being nostalgic for the good old days of celibacy, but he’s certainly wondering why the pill didn’t eradicate the world’s oldest profession. “When I was young, ‘nice’ girls didn’t,” he writes. “(They did, of course, but nowhere nearly as often or as casually as in the last 40 years.) When the Sexual Revolution came in the 1960s and everybody started doing it, prostitution should have ended. Many thought it would.”

For better or for worse, no such luck.