British Labour politician, Harriet Harman, has appealed to Arnold Schwarzenegger to 'terminate' the use of a California-based website called 'PunterNet' which allows men to rate prostitutes and give comments for other men describing the womens' bedroom activities and offering recommendations (or not as the case may be). Harman said:
It is 'PunterNet' and fuels the demand for prostitutes. This is the ultimate commodification of women. It is truly degrading and puts women at risk.PunterNet has pages and pages of women for sale in London. But PunterNet is based in California so I've raised it with the US Ambassador to London and I've called on California's governor Arnie Schwarzenegger to close it down.
Surely it can't be too difficult for the Terminator to terminate PunterNet and that's what I am demanding that he does.
In a reference to Mr Schwarzenegger's catchphrase from the Terminator series of films, she joked: "And if he doesn't, I have got a message for Arnie: I will be back."
The Labour MP who has campaigned earnestly for women's rights also had something to say against the tabloid newspaper 'The Sun' featuring topless models on page 3:
She said: "I am speaking to you this morning about something The Sun knows absolutely nothing about: equality.
"The nearest their political analysis gets to women's rights is Page 3's News in Briefs.
"We are all angry about The Sun this morning but I say to you: don't get bitter, get better.
"Don't get outraged, get out there. Don't get mad, get mobilised. Yes, we may be the underdog but we will not be bullied. This underdog is biting back."
Read more here.
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Protecting prostitutes' rights, and the rights of all women by extension: Yay!
Continuing to use ridiculous, hypermasculine language to discuss politics while we do so: Boo!
(I mean boo to the politicians involved, not the OP)
From my understanding based on an economic study I read which used the sites data set, the site owner goes to extensive lengths to ensure that the reviews are accurate through contacting the prostitutes, allows them to post responses (which was not uncommon) at the same time 97% of the reviews were positive. The encounters were typically (always?) located in the establishment of the prostitute and in comparison to other studies (such as Levitt and Venkatesh's study of Chicago) they were paid better and faced far better conditions.
Well now I'm really conflicted. Tough issue. I stick by my boo, though.
All I was thinking is that I don't see the particular link to safety or prostitutes rights. It does not seem that this website violates them. Quite the opposite it would arguably have a beneficial impact on many of the prostitutes.