Bench views and chat, debate and discussion about prostitution at Minehead Harbour, West Somerset, UK

No, I don't mean there is prostitution at Minehead Harbour - about which question, I haven't a clue!

Instead, I mean that the bench around which I have set today's virtual discussion is at Minehead Harbor in the glorious West of England location of West Somerset on the borders of Exmoor.

However, the topic for today is about prostitutes and prostitution since it transpires that, according to an interviewee on the BBC Today Programme this morning, cheap sex is now being sold in London for as little as fifteen pounds sterling.

Apparently, there is an absolute glut of women who are willing to provide, or who are coerced into providing, these services and the supply is driving the price down.

Well, I can't talk authoritatively about this issue since I have never availed myself of these services but I can understand why men might do so, especially middle aged married men whose relationships have lost their physical road.

I'm more interested in the following question which is why do we think the question is important?

Is it something to do with the jealousy both men and women feel if their partner has a physical relationship with another? Is it to do with the feeling that the job is repulsive (to other women) and arguably exploitative? Is it to do with the criminal aspects that may be involved in managing these services?

If a man is in hospital and has intimate nursing or his wife sees the gynaecologist, there are no issues. Yet, if a man agrees with a woman that she will massage him for his pleasure, the situation appears to be completely different.

Quite honestly, I can easily understand how intimate contact with a stranger who others might not even want to shake hands with is likely to be most unpleasant for a woman providing such services but why should others object any more than they would if the woman decided to do other unpleasant work such as working in an abattoir?

Frankly, I could never work in an abattoir yet do I have the right to say others should not? Especially when obviously many people like to eat meat.

I suppose the truth of the matter is that I don't know the answer to any of these questions except that our physical relationships are a central part of our existence as human beings and also form the cement that holds together our child rearing families.

So, dear readers, as I sit here looking at the great view from the bench at Minehead Harbour in West Somerset, I look to you all to explain to me the answers, if there are any, to these difficult questions.

I look forward to hearing from you in the comments section below :-)

By for now

Rob

Rob Hopcott - online author