Where Are We?

So, I am here again. I think I am positively addicted...to blogging :). I have always loved talking, to myself as well as to others...I have even wondered aloud to myself frequently whether that's an aberration or not. Talking always excited me from my teeny weeny nappy days. Of course, I cannot vouch for reciprocated feelings from my not-so-patient listeners, though. I have even been pulled away from a classroom and "punished" for "talking too much" (whatever that means!).
Well, to get back to the topic. What did I do on a warm and balmy Sunday evening all by myself? Discounting such trivia as chewing the nth Wrigleys and the rare fingernail to stave off another trip to the refrigerator and admiring my new hair style in the mirror (in the absence of an admirer, that is), I did some reading...something I had been putting off since a long time. Well, I am reading up on legalisation of prostitution..a touchy subject, no doubt. The first question is, being a woman, what do I think of prostitution? There are so many rhetorical questions nagging at me like those summer evening gnats...where do I start? Do I analyse prostitution from the point of view of morality, from the point of view of individual freedom, from an economic viewpoint, health, or violence against women or what? Having led a sheltered and often uneventful life till now, it is so difficult for me to grapple the reality...why would any woman give up herself so totally knowing the odds against it. Why would any woman want to strip herself of self respect and dignity? Well, we know the reasons..."couldn't help it because there was nothing to eat", or close relatives acting as pimps or sometimes because of the glitzy world of the sophisticated escort services. Whatever it is...now, it's time that we look at it from the other side of the "cage". Why do men (the so-called "johns") go for it? Do they ever stop and think for a moment what it'd be like if there had a sister/mother/cousin in the same position? I wonder......Do they do it because it's a power game and it makes them feel big because they realize that they are after all the tiniest and insignificantest bleep on the radar of humanity without that momentary act of assertion?
Well, let's not get emotional about it. After all, all the articles I read today were very dry, matter-of-fact and full of stats. But where does that lead us? Does it lead the men of today (educated and very emancipated) to stand up and say that prostitution should be banned? No, on the other hand they think that it should be legalised. And why, pray? Because they think that by legalising it, it'd ensure that the women are not taken advantage of and they are not the subjects of battery. I say, B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T! Did you know that in places of legalised prostitution, the powers-be test the women prostitutes regularly for the presence of STDs, etc but not the male customers. It's just like ensuring that you get the best of products, nicely and hermetically sealed to perfection for your use, sir!!! Talk of a consumerist society! Do men forget that even if you pay money, soliciting for prostitution is an act of violence, an aggravated assault on the physique and the soul of a woman (and I am not even talking of the sado-masochistic parlors) ? It's like how do you like your meat, sir, rare...boned...or....
To me, this is an issue that men should equally be aware of. I know all the "natural instinct" reasons and blah blahs for justifying the prostitution trade. But, how far have we come from being cavemen and cavewomen; how far have we come on our path to being fulfilled together; how far have we come to realize the facade of meaningless excuses we put forward to hide our iniquities?