If you can't identify who's going to shag you, I don't think you can consent, next-guy-to-buy-me-a-drink notwithstanding.

How full is full? You can consent to sex with someone you've just met, I think. How much knowledge is necessary before you can be said to be consenting?

You need to know who they are, for one thing.

Maybe I'm being too particular, but if I'm going to let some guy stick his dick in me, I want to at least know who he is before it gets started.

t edit Or, what ita said.

But don't prostitutes in a brothel basically consent to whoever shows up? Isn't that intrinsic to that gig?

That is, they're consenting to the job requirements whoever that is.

Similar to...a soldier accepting that he will kill people in battle. Not making individual decisions about who deserves to live or die, but accepting that killing is part of the job.

Then again the point of the Nuremberg trials and My Lai is that even soldiers are not relieved of moral responsibility because they're under orders.

In theory hookers should be able to say no in the moment, but they work in a morally grey (at best) and unregulated world.

I'd think that if they keep the money, yeah, they need to sex the guy, but do they have to take the dosh?

Surely it depends on the brothel, she says, having just watched some episodes of Deadwood.

But don't prostitutes in a brothel basically consent to whoever shows up? Isn't that intrinsic to that gig?

They agree to terms of a job, not an intimate relationship. I think there's an important distinction there.

"But Steph," someone will say, "the 'job' IS sex! If they agree to the job, they agree to have sex!" And you know what? I don't think that prostitutes in a brothel *can* consent to have sex with whoever shows up. That they *do* is beside the point.

(Also, I'm not ditching the conversation, but I gotta get some work done. Stoopid paycheck.)

But don't prostitutes in a brothel basically consent to whoever shows up? Isn't that intrinsic to that gig?

Take this line of reasoning a little further, though, and it becomes by definition impossible to rape a prostitute. One step further is "you can't rape a slut" and from there it's a short leap to "you can't rape your wife."

Which is why, legally, both parties have to consent every time.

Which is why, legally, both parties have to consent every time.

Exactly. Now, obviously, this is a situation that doesn't exactly exist in the real world, but every outside indicator that we have on the situation makes it appear unethical and illegal:

• The straight-laced (as far as we know) cop looking to take the Dollhouse down.
• The handler who is beginning to see his charge as a person and not an object.
• The former active who is seemingly out for revenge (begging the question of why would he want revenge for, which seems obvious on the face of it.)
• And finally, Echo's own resurging personality, which adds unease to the "programmed" personality.

I think, if you're an inattentive viewer, you would look at the Dollhouse operation and think, "Well, OK, that's probably illegal and unethical, but no harm's really done," as people often think about matters of illegal sex.

But I think the show gives you the pointers to indicate that the situation is actually otherwise, and that what happens to the Actives is far more horrific than it seems on the surface.

And according to some sex workers I've read many prostitutes can and occasionally do turn down a customer. That is they are not as picky as someone not doing it for money would be but they do turn down clients. The most common reason is the John gives off a scary vibe and they are afraid of being subject to violence, or the level of personal hygiene is too poor. The point is though the criteria is up to them. They really do consent or not to their clients on a case by case basis. And the turning down occasional clients, on whatever basis, really does make an argument that the consent is real. Giving general consent, without an ability to change your mind on a case by case basis is much more problematic. Even if the only penalty for saying no is being fired from the particular institution, that is pretty extreme pressure.

[Edit] And again talking about real prostitution not Dollhouse. Spectrum for real prostitution ranges from ability to say no on case by case basis to strong pressure never to say no, to inability to ever say no enforced by threat of violence.