Debating, philosophy and gender equality

Yet again philosophy has proven to be a wonderful, useful subject for everyday life. 

We were debating today at Dame Alice whether space travel was worth it. My position was yes and most people agreed with me, which was somewhat disappointing as I prefer to challenge people's assumptions. But I could feel the philosopher in me working like crazy. Every point that was made I was evaluating. I was making connections in interesting places, it was all great. It was a bit slow towards the end as most people agreed so there wasn't much to say and the arguments from the opposition were often weak, so it wasn't too hard. But nevertheless the philosopher side of me was properly working today and I do feel like I'm actually a philosopher now. Compared with last year, my thinking is so much clearer and I am much more critical of the views of others. (Still not critical enough, I think, but I'm working on it!)

In short, yay for philosophy.

But another point about the debate was the difference between the girls and the guys. In the audience, the gender mix was about equal so you would probably expect there to be an equal number of points from both genders, especially brought up as we are in a girls school that paints a very 'girl power!' view of life. Not so. The argument was mainly conducted by the guys, I was the only girl that spoke more than once. And the few points that the girls were making seemed so pathetic. For example:

"Well, if we go into space, what happens if we meet aliens and they like attack us and that's bad." (Not verbatim, but it was as ineloquent as that.)

See also:

"TV shows like Star Trek are making us think that we can do things that we'll never be able to do, so we shouldn't spend money on it."

And:

"We never aim to produce the good side effects [mobile phones] that space travel provides, so we shouldn't do it."

They just make me want to cry! They're almost too bad to counter! We are supposedly seen as man's equal now but we can never be equal if we continue to be quite so pathetic. Yes, pathetic! You cannot say that women should have the same jobs as men but also that they should be allowed to go on pregnancy leave whenever they like. We shouldn't be equal when it suits us. If we ever want to be considered equal to men then we've got to stop acting like such blonde, hair-flicking air heads and stand up for ourselves.

Maybe philosophy has enabled me to see what idiots people are?

Brothels, prostitution et al.

So this is about philosophy of ethics. I feel like arguing with someone but nobody wants to play, so here we go. Also, I'll try and be brief as I really would like to be asleep soon.

The source is really Stephen Fry visiting a brothel in America. In that state (I don't know where, I only saw a very brief glimpse of the show) brothels were legal so I asked dad what the rules were in this country. He didn't know so we looked it up.

It turns out that it is not illegal to pay money for sex. So prostitution is allowed, right? To a certain extent. The problem is, it's illegal to advertise that you are a prostitute, kerbwalking, etc. So this all means that the women always get prosecuted, never the men. I just thought that was terrible.

There are two potential solutions to this problem. Firstly, we could do what Sweden (I think) did. They made it illegal for men to visit prostitutes and by doing this they criminalised the men, rather than the women. The sex industry dropped dramatically. However, I believe that in all likelihood it just made it more difficult for many women to earn a living. Also, if they find themselves in any trouble they have nobody to go to for help, as they would be prosecuted.

The other solution, the America solution, is to make prostitution illegal but only if it's organised correctly, probably in a brothel. I think this really is the best solution. Primarily, it looks after the women. Instead of being out there and alone, they are looked after by the law. The problem of women trafficking is greatly reduced, as there would be proper checks in place to ensure the women were happy and not being forced anything. It gives them the oppourtunity to report anything bad that happens to them and allows them financial stability to a certain extent. By sweeping it under the carpet, it makes it much harder to locate individuals who are suffering. We should drop the squeamishness and face up to the fact that sex is a growing part of our society. Only by doing this can we protect the women who really have no choice.

I'm not saying I approve or disapprove, it's largely irrelevant. But to take the example of abortion, which I dislike in most cases, when it was illegal far more women died through backstreet surgery. This is exactly the same issue. We don't have to like other people's lifestyle choices to recognise that they deserve to be looked after. Prostitutes have a terrible time of it and at the moment in our society they are very vulnerable, as nobody is prepared to speak up for their rights.

Yes, I am prepared to go on a march to London on this issue.