Is prostitution immoral? In this book, Rob Lovering argues that it is not. Offering a careful and thorough critique of the many—twenty, to be exact—arguments for prostitution's immorality, Lovering leaves no claim unchallenged. Drawing on the relevant literature along with his own creative thinking, Lovering offers a clear and reasoned moral defense of the world's oldest profession. Lovering demonstrates convincingly, on both consequentialist and nonconsequentialist grounds, that there is nothing immoral about prostitution between consenting adults. The legal implications of this view are also brought to bear on the current discourse surrounding this controversial topic.

Is prostitution immoral? In this book, Rob Lovering argues that it is not. Offering a careful and thorough critique of the many—twenty, to be exact—arguments for prostitution's immorality, Lovering leaves no claim unchallenged. Drawing on the relevant literature along with his own creative thinking, Lovering offers a clear and reasoned moral defense of the world's oldest profession. Lovering demonstrates convincingly, on both consequentialist and nonconsequentialist grounds, that there is nothing immoral about prostitution between consenting adults. The legal implications of this view are also brought to bear on the current discourse surrounding this controversial topic.

Why does American law allow the recreational use of some drugs, such as alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, but not others, such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin? The answer lies not simply in the harm the use of these drugs might cause, but in the perceived morality—or lack thereof—of their recreational use. Despite strong rhetoric from moral critics of recreational drug use, however, it is surprisingly difficult to discern the reasons they have for deeming the recreational use of (some) drugs morally wrong. In this book, Rob Lovering lays out and dissects various arguments for the immorality of using marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs recreationally. He contends that, by and large, these arguments do not succeed. Lovering’s book represents one of the first works to systematically present, analyze, and critique arguments for the moral wrongness of recreational drug use. Given this, as well as the popularity of the morality-based defense of the United States’ drug laws, this book is an important and timely contribution to the debate on the recreational use of drugs.

An astonishingly brave memoir of prostitution and its lingering influence on a woman’s psyche and life. “The best work by anyone on prostitution ever, Rachel Moran’s Paid For fuses the memoirist’s lived poignancy with the philosopher’s conceptual sophistication. The result is riveting, compelling, incontestable. Impossible to put down. This book provides all anyone needs to know about the reality of prostitution in moving, insightful prose that engages and disposes of every argument ever raised in its favor.” —Catharine A. MacKinnon, law professor, University of Michigan and Harvard University Born into a troubled family, Rachel Moran left home at the age of fourteen. Being homeless, she was driven into prostitution to survive. With intelligence and empathy, she describes the exploitation she and others endured on the streets and in the brothels. Moran also speaks to the psychological damage inherent to prostitution and the inevitable estrangement from one’s body. At twenty-two, Moran escaped the sex trade. She has since become a writer and an abolitionist activist.

With twenty-five essays, seven of which are new to the eighth edition, this best-selling volume examines the nature, morality, and social meanings of contemporary sexual phenomena. Topics include: sexual desire and activity, masturbation, Sexual orientation, asexuality, transgender issues, Zoophilia, rape, casual sex and promiscuity, love and sex, polyamory, sexual consent, sexual, perversion, sexual ethics, objectification, BDSM, sex and technology, sex and race, and sex work. Updated and new discussion questions offer students starting points for debate in both the classroom and the bedroom.

Thirty contemporary essays that explore philosophically, conceptually, and theologically the nature, social meanings, and morality of contemporary sexual phenomena. From publisher description.

Through the lens of feminist theory, Kuo examines the milieu of prostitutes and the role of prostitution in contemporary society, and how the interplay of those two works itself out in practice.

Intriguing, and occasionally unsettling, In Defense of Sinis a refreshingly frank exploration of some real facts of life. Portmann gathers an on-target collection of great writers on transgressions large and small. Read about defenses for promiscuity, greed, deceit, gossip, lust, breaking the golden rule, and more--and use this unusual guide to decide for yourself if sin has a place in our contemporary, and virtually unshockable, society. Provocative and illuminating, this book may change how you think about sin, morality, and what's right. Contributors include Aaron Ben-Ze'ev, Anthony Ellis, Jane English, Ludwig Feuerbach, Sigmund Freud, Bernard Mandeville, Jerome Neu, Friedrich Nietzsche, David Novitz, Joyce Carol Oates, David A.J. Richards, Seneca, Jonathan Swift, Richard Wasserstrom, and Oscar Wilde.

A challenge to viceThis book examines New York reformers' efforts during the Jacksonian era to prevent young women and men from straying into sexual vice. Convinced that sin was voluntary, and thus subject to eradication, the reformers attacked such vices as drinking alcohol, and sexual misconduct. The "wicked city" would be purified and made into a proper Christian community.Help for prostitutesReform organizations first exposed the city's growing prostitution problem by enumerating the prostitutes and describing their condition. To rescue the women, the reformers made modest efforts to establish asylums where the women could learn proper morals and receive alternative vocational training. By the mid 1930s the Female Benevolent Society's asylum cared for a small but steady number of penitents, returning most of them to their families or placing them as servants in private homes.Shame for clientsA split in the reform efforts came in 1834 when some reformers gave up on prostituterescue and began to focus on the prevention of sexual misconduct. The Female Moral Reform Society targeted male seducers by seeking an anti-seduction law and by publishing the names of prostitutes patrons. In addition, the Society formulated a code of conduct for women and men to prevent them from falling victim to the city's enticements. The Society exposed many women for the first time to the city's working class conditions and made them aware of how poverty and economic difficulties contributed to the prostitution problem. At the same time, the women's expertise made some of them take notice of women's conditions in general, and become determined to bring changes to the male-dominated community.

Since the publication of the second edition in 2010, the field of sex work studies has expanded. This fully updated edition of Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and Erotic Dancing presents an innovative, in-depth, and nuanced analysis of sex work, its risks, and benefits, and pays attention to newer and everchanging types of sex work and its actors, as well as public policies and laws that govern its trade. Now in its third edition, this volume includes updated research on traditional forms of sexual labor and incorporates original, empirically grounded research on newer or less researched phenomena. New chapters explore the use of technology among street sellers, blurring the line between street and online solicitation, in addition to chapters on historical prostitution, transgender workers, illicit massage parlors, male strippers, commercial webcamming, alternative policies and legal systems, and the sex workers' rights movement. The combination of cutting-edge and comprehensive analyses and carefully constructed methodologies in Sex for Sale makes it an excellent source of information for scholars and university students in gender studies, sociology, and criminology.