From Wikipedia:The definition of “sexual activity” varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penetrative sex, manual sex, oral sex, etc.) with the customer.
Comment on Why is prostitution called sometimes world's oldest profession?
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 4 months agoYou can pay someone to pretend to be romantic on a date, to give you a massage, or to use their bodies for labor tasks. What exactly makes sex different?
Taco2112@lemmy.world 4 months ago
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Thanks for a reasonable response that cites a similar argument that I clearly didn’t deliver well. Maybe I sent the wrong message with the borderline incel line about males doing all the courtship work. I’m aware of how it’s defined but people here are acting incredibly blunt because everyone “knows” prostitution’s meaning. My point was it is sort of vaguely defined if you try to define each component in different regions. So if there’s flexibility there, then what other variation is there? The dictionary’s authors don’t make the rules - they write down how the population agrees to use it. Prime example: Meriam has a a 2nd definition for “literally” that defines it as “virtually”.
I thought we could have a reasonable discussion here but instead I managed to get a bunch of reddit knowitalls. I thought, within a secular crowd, we could reduce the meaning of “prostitution” without morality, but I could certainly agree with South Park’s expansion of the term.
Taco2112@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I’ll be honest, I had to read your comments a couple of times to get the crux of what you were getting at. It’s tough trying to translate our depthless thoughts to a quick comment on a website so a lot of times I don’t comment. Or, if I do, I preface it by stating that I agree with the problem/issue, then I state my case/thought and then reiterate that agree again at the end because it doesn’t matter if it’s Lemmy, Reddit, or some other part of the internet, people read quick and then type something to get a response or make themselves feel better, unfortunately most people aren’t looking for a discussion. And, a lot of time the best discussions come from situations like this where a couple of back and forth comments gets to the real point.
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Thank you for that. I added a paragraph to the end but might not have been quick enough. Just about why I questioned it at all. Anyway, I’ve certainly [tried to] cut down on the knee-jerk dismissal of comments. We can’t make progress if we only shut down the other side of a debate because they’ll just fortify their position. But I get it, when you interpret someone’s stance a certain way, it can lead to a pretty strong non-constructive emotional response.
chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Literally the definition of the word.
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The authors of dictionaries tell you what a word means in common usage. They don’t set the rules. If you don’t beleive there’s flexibility in definitions, look up your own word: literally. Meriam has a second definition of “virtually”
littlebluespark@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Your argument is shit and you know it. Jog on.