Cry foul on World Cup prostitution
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The United States and many Western European countries stand as a marvel in contrasting attitudes toward sex. The term “Victorian” evolved as an obvious reference to Britain’s longest-serving and possibly most-revered monarch, Queen Victoria. But it has come to mean, at least in reference to sexual attitudes, exaggeratedly proper, straitlaced and prudish. Victorianism originated in Europe. The sexual revolution of the ’60s and ’70s was a largely U.S. cultural maelstrom. Today it seems more accurate to describe our attitudes toward sex as Victorian, and European attitudes as relaxed. In many regards, European attitudes are more advanced. For example, high-school sex-education classes in the Netherlands give students unbiased information on all aspects of human biology with no redactions to placate the hyper-religious. Sex education in much of Western Europe stirs up no debate about God, the Bible, premarital sex or “abstinence only” education. Sex is a biological function, like eating or sleeping. Nude beaches are commonplace and no one cares. Perhaps as a result, Western European rates of teen pregnancy and transmission of STDs trend much lower than our own. But I must say even I was taken aback when I learned about the German government’s sanctioning of its prostitution industry and the industry’s greedy wish to cash in on the flood of some 3.5 million tourists (mainly men) for the World Cup. Germany is one of several European nations where prostitution is legal. Germany came late to this game, in 2002. In only four years, it built up a work force some 400,000 strong for its multibillion-dollar annual prostitution business. More : seattlepi.nwsource.com |