Prostitution

Dear Abbot:
How are men capable of using other beings as though they are trash? The "trafficking of … women all over the world - they are being bought and sold by men for use by men. What does this say about men in general and how they are dehumanized by society?

A Feminist


Dear Feminist:

You are referring to the aspect of selling sex specifically? That is, the fact that prostitution is involved, that women are “bought” and “sold” in this sense?

Leaving aside the question of kidnapping, in the general run of things, who do we consider more responsible for the morality of a transaction, the buyer or the seller? The dealer, or the druggie? The bootlegger, or the drunk? The bookie, or the gambler? The corporation, or the consumer? Why is the normal equation commonly reversed only for the case of the prostitute? Why do we so rarely hear of the drug dealer with a heart of gold?

And if it is a question of treating another human being as an object, who is more guilty of that? The woman, who will feel or feign intimacy with anyone and only for money, or the man, who is prepared to pay for intimacy or feigned intimacy with this individual?


Beware too of blaming all men for the actions of a certain small percentage of men. Of saying the actions of a few men speak to the nature of all men.

Are you prepared to accept the same standard of judgement for women? Are you prepared to accept that Imelda Marcos’s acquisitiveness, for example, says something about all women? Or Catherine the Great’s sexual appetites?

And are you prepared to equally give all and only men credit for the good that any man does? Do they also all get full thanks for Shakespeare, Einstein, Mandela, and so forth?