Since Meta has been messing with the algorithms, some very random stuff has been coming up in my personal Facebook feed. Among this miscellanea are the Facebook posts of Alice Little. Ms. Little is a courtesan at one of Nevada’s legal brothels. In other words, she’s a legal sex worker.
I will admit—I enjoy reading Alice’s posts. She’s funny, unabashed, and far less depressing than most of the random digital creators who show up in my Facebook feed.
The legalization of sex work is a topic that comes up from time to time in our public square. The world’s oldest profession has few friends among our political class. Republicans don’t like commercialized sex because it involves sex. Democrats don’t like commercialized sex because it involves free enterprise. The political proponents of legalization or decriminalization are a hodgepodge of politicians from both the left and the right fringes—sex-positive feminists on the left, and libertarians on the right.
The arguments against the legalization of sex work used to be based on commonly shared cultural and sexual norms. That argument might have had some validity in the 1950s. But never in my lifetime have Americans been able to agree on any common standard that might reasonably be called public morality.
Nowadays the argument is more likely to hinge on issues of power imbalances and real or imagined exploitation. The argument here is that no woman would ever freely decide to exchange sexual favors for money. Ergo, all sex workers are under the control of sadistic pimps lurking somewhere in the shadows.
Alice Little is not only active on Facebook, she has also been interviewed by the mainstream media. She charges four figures, makes tons of money, and is very adamant that she’s doing what she wants to do.
None of the above is meant to imply that sex work should become a mainstream career. Men simply cannot do it. (The demand for male services is virtually nonexistent.) The vast majority of women would likely have no interest in doing Alice Little’s job for any amount of money.
Nor are all men lining up to be clients—and certainly not at those prices. I have no interest in paying Alice Little’s high fees in exchange for access to her company. (You see, I would consider that degrading and insulting to me. What am I—chopped liver?)
But unlike so many busybodies out there, I have no desire to restrict the personal choices of others.
And this is really the crux of the issue. Consenting adults are either free to make their own decisions, or they’re not. We either trust women with individual agency, or we don’t. Either you own your sex life—or the government does.
-ET