The reporter's plea for accountability from Craig Newmark's website went unanswered. But with almost 600 written responses to the article, readers made their feelings loud and clear about the fight to end prostitution and also, child prostitution.
Popular opinion says two things:
1)GoodTouch Fighting prostitution makes about as much sense as the war on drugs. We're wasting billions just to satisfy someone's false sense of moral superiority. Like(110)
2)xmxm Blaming this on craigslist is like blaming your child's reckless driving on BMW. Like (71)
In this last comment, instead of only asking how come, this reader goes into detail about why holding companies like Craigslist accountable is so important. It talks about the most important element in the equation, which isn't Craigslist at all. Nor is it the criminalization or decriminalization of prostitution.The reader describes the exploited prostitute as the most important element, and insists our primary focus start to shift from protection of our rights and privileges to what's best for her.
pleasebenice "wow... reading the comments all the way down this page makes me realize how dangerous this world really is. And how cruel so many people are. Some people have said that it's okay for grown women to be prostitutes because it is their choice. However, obviously you guys haven't done your homework, that or you just don't think much through, because there are some obvious flaws in this argument that I am going to have to point out: 1) A woman does not automatically become strong, independent and lose her vulnerability at 18, so just because a prostitute is over 18, it doesn't mean that she ever wanted this for herself. 2) A horrifying percentage of underage girls who have been sexually abused or trafficked as a child, feel that there is nothing else they can do, because their dignity and respect and value in society has been ripped from them too soon, so whatever woman you are using, she could very well still be a little girl inside, and by exploiting her you are burying her deeper into that pit than she has already dug herself. 3) In this time of recession and economic disaster, people are losing their jobs left right and center, and with it. losing their identities, futures and hopes, but when this happens to a man, he does not immediately turn to selling his body or doing other terrible things just to make ends meet, he will exhaust every last option before resorting to anything that horrific, and usually, it doesn't come to that for a man, or he can't bring himself to do it anyway. Don't you think that women do exactly the same thing? It's only when they have nothing else to turn to, no one else to got to, and nothing left to lose that they resort to giving up all they have left, their hearts, and with it goes the rest of their identities. If this was your mother, sister, wife, girlfriend, daughter, would you really want them to have to turn to prostitution, because they have no other way to live? Or would you want there to be another way for them? A second chance at life? That's why this campaign to end the adult services section of CL is so important. Because these women are mothers, sister, friends and daughters." Like (14)