Video Brothel and a Christian context
December 17, 2009
I was exposed recently to a website which I think surely would be described as a internet brothel. What I saw were young 18 to 22 boys (for so I consider such) who were in various levels of undress and were pictured, I think for long periods of time, waiting to find someone desiring enough to pay a fee to have a “private viewingâ€, and my guess is that there would be some negotiation about visual service and price.
I soon got beyond the sexual part (porn, for some reason, has never captivated me) and became interested in the boys and what they must be thinking. It’s hard to tell. For it is all a show and the boys are billed as performers. Some might be in need of money, while others might enjoy exhibiting themselves and are happy to use money as the excuse to hide the enjoyment (which I don’t think, and don’t know, is cool), and of course the incentives could be mixed. Some may be doing it on a lark or because they are exhibitionists who are out of the closet. I think it is ok. I think it is ok to masturbate and indeed I think that it should be promoted as a legitimate sexual expression, i.e., it should be presupposed like sex within a marriage. I don’t think it would be good for these boys to have any physical contact with their admirers and customers, not in this sinful world. I would think there should be monitors to make sure that nothing like telephone numbers or e-mail addresses or names can be exchanged. Even if they are professionals, they need to be protected from what lurks out in the dark.
I guess I am suggesting that prostitution be reclassified as sexual employment and the workers be cared for and protected.
I think this could be done in a Christian context for it is very, very expedient, to use Paul’s expression, and in a lot of ways. This prostitution is not temple worship, but therapy. Perhaps it would be necessary to have a doctor’s prescription to enter into a brothel. Perhaps it would be treated as marijuana should be treated, as a matter between a competent doctor and the patient. Except that perhaps the doctor must be assured that the wife understands the prescribed therapy, for in a Christian marriage there is a “single fleshâ€.*
[* I wonder if that should perhaps be a requirement for any service (except a divorce attorney, of course) so that a doctor would be required to share all health information to both of a marriage. The idea of the “one flesh†means utter candor without inhibition, like being naked.]