oioioi wrote: I think you're absolutely right there, but is this as demeaning as it's made out to be? Is it any more demeaning than lots of other things that are completely taken for granted?

I guess no-one dreams of their little girl ending up as a hooker, but people do worse jobs IMHO, and definitely for much less money. Obviously street prostitution is a different matter, but that's all related to its criminal status. As with drugs, decriminalise the practice, and I believe you would solve a lot of the problems related to it. That's before you go into the links between street prostitution and drugs.

oioioi wrote:

Like pork bellies is a major commodity

Much of it depends on why that person is selling themselves for sex, and it's not always of their own volition.

Imo, a lot of it is to do with poverty. Where you get poverty, you get prostitution. Look at developing countries. Why do you think they get so much sex tourism? It's easy money for them, but would they be doing it if there was a fair distribution of wealth in the world? Probably not. Then you have to consider the fact that some people are selling other people's bodies for sex, ie human trafficking and child prostitution.

I'd feel pretty degraded. Most people would. Obviously some people must be really into it, but it looks as though most folk get into it because of poverty, self esteem issues and because they are pressured or forced into it. Then you have the people who will pay for sex. They turn a blind eye to all of this out of ignorance or selfishness.