Prostitution

I have been meaning to write out against people who are coming out in force against the -reopening of Dance Bars in India. Some of them have absurd notions, chosing to believe that prostitutes are to blame for the profession. This is like saying that Soldiers are to blame for Wars.

I came across a passage in Glory Road, by Heinlein, which brings forth the real root of 'evil' in our society, (not just Indian, everywhere). The two characters, Star and Oscar, are in a parallel universe, discussing the similarities and differences between Earth(ours) and other planets. Oscar has been hired to perform a service for Star, acting as her champion, and Star is one of the most well-read people in the known universes. Actually, she turns out to be much more than that... But I'm not discussing a novel here.





"I speak of people, the dominant race of each its world. Highly civilized."
"Ugh!"
"You will not say 'ugh' when you see them. They are so different from us that their home life cannot matter to us. Contrariwise, this planet is very like your Earth--yet your customs would shock old Jocko out of song. Darling, your world has a custom unique in the Universes. That is, the Twenty Universes known to me, out of thousands or millions or googols of universes. In the known Twenty Universes only Earth has this astounding custom."
"Do you mean "War"?"
"Oh, no! Most worlds have warfare. This planet Nevia is one of the few where lolling is retail, rather than wholesale. Here there be Heroes, killing is done with passion. This is a world of love and slaughter, both with gay abandon. No, I mean something much more shocking. Can you guess?"
"Uh . . . television commercials?"
"Close in spirit, but wide of the mark. You have an expression 'the oldest profession.' Here--and in all other known worlds--it isn't even the youngest. Nobody has heard of it and wouldn't believe it if he did. We few who visit Earth don't talk about it. Not that it would matter; most people don't believe travelers' tales."
"Star, are you telling me that there is no prostitution elsewhere in the Universe?"
"The Universes, my darling. None."
"You know," I said thoughtfully, "that's going to be a shock to my first sergeant. None at all?"
"I mean," she said bluntly, "that whoring seems to have been invented by Earth people and no others--and the idea would shock old Jocko into impotence. He's a straitlaced moralist."
"I'll be damned! We must be a bunch of slobs."
"I did not mean to offend, Oscar; I was reciting facts. But this oddity of Earth is not odd in its own context. Any commodity is certain to be sold--bought, sold, leased, rented, bartered, traded, discounted, price-stabilized, inflated, bootlegged, and legislated--and a woman's 'commodity' as it was called on Earth in franker days is no exception. The only wonder is the wild notion of thinking of it as a commodity. Why, it so surprised me that once I even--Never mind. Anything can be made a commodity. Someday I will show you cultures living in spaces, not on planets--nor on fundaments of any sort; not all universes have planets--cultures where the breath of life is sold like a kilo of butter in Provence. Other places so crowded that the privilege of staying alive is subject to tax--and delinquents are killed out of hand by the Department of Eternal Revenue and neighbors not only do not interfere, they are pleased."
"Good God! Why?"
"They solved death, milord, and most of them won't emigrate despite endless roomier planets. But we were speaking of Earth. Not only is whoring unknown elsewhere, but its permutations are unknown--dower, bridal price, alimony, separate maintenance, all the variations that color all Earth's institutions--every custom related even remotely to the incredible notion that what all women have an endless supply of is nevertheless merchandise, to be hoarded and auctioned."...

..."Even your secondary customs," she went on, "are shaped by this unique institution. Clothing--you've noticed that there is no real difference here in how the two sexes dress. I'm in tights this morning and you are in shorts but had it been the other way around no one would have noticed."
"The hell they wouldn't! Your tights wouldn't fit me."
"They stretch. And body shyness, which is an aspect of sex-specialized clothing. Here nakedness is as unnoteworthy as on that pretty little island where I found you. All hairless peoples sometimes wear clothing and all peoples no matter how hirsute wear ornaments--but nakedness taboo is found only where flesh is merchandise to be packaged or displayed . . . that is to say, on Earth. It parallels 'Don't pinch the grapefruit' and putting false bottoms in berry boxes. If something is never haggled over, there is no need to make a mystery of it."
"So if we get rid of clothes we get rid of prostitution?"
"Heavens, no! You've got it backwards." She frowned. "I don't see how Earth could ever get rid of whoring; it's too much a part of everything you do."
"Star, you've got your facts wrong. There is almost no prostitution in America."
She looked startled. "Really? But--Isn't 'alimony' an American word? And 'gold digger'? And 'coming-out party'?"
"Yes, but prostitution has almost died out. Hell, I wouldn't know how to go about finding a whorehouse even in an Army town. I'm not saying that you don't wind up in the nay. But it's not commercialized. Star, even with an American girl who is well-known to be an easy make-out, if you offered her five bucks--or twenty--it's ten to one she would slap your face."
"Then how is it done?"
"You're nice to her instead. Take her to dinner, maybe to a show. Buy her flowers, girls are suckers for flowers. Then approach the subject politely."
"Oscar, doesn't this dinner and show, and possibly flowers, cost more than five dollars? Or even twenty? I understood that American prices were as high as French prices."
"Well, yes, but you can't just tip your hat and expect a girl to throw herself on her back. A tightwad--"
"I rest the case. All I was trying to show was that customs can be wildly different in different worlds."...

So, do the aborigines who we ridicule for their nudity know something that we don't?