And then of course there’s Rule 34.

As important as air and sustenance? No, but it’s a biological imperative nonetheless.

I’m with you on the subject of accessibility; of designing cities so that no one really needs a car. For one thing, it would cut down dramatically on the number of DUI’s and drunk driving incidents if most people could walk or ride public transit to and from their pub crawl. My condolences on being stuck in a relatively rural state like Arkansas (I’ve visited my daughter and her family there; it’s beautiful but very spread out). I’m stuck in L.A., also due to personal responsibilities, and there isn’t one amenity, not a gas station or convenience store, within a country mile.

The only sex tourism I’ve heard about is the illicit kind, but I do know that prostitution is less tawdry in some places; or was in the Far East in the 1960’s, anyway. So perhaps they are seeking a place where the culture is more open-minded about it than in the U.S.; I don’t know. It’s hard to conceive of a less open-minded place than the U.S. (Okay, probably the Middle East).

I’m willing to go along with the idea that sex is a basic human need, mainly because without it the race would die out. It is surely hardwired into our DNA. It just doesn’t require actual propagation to be fulfilled, and it doesn’t require fulfillment as often as air, food and water. But it is pretty compelling in our most fertile years, and it doesn’t go very far away later on.

Is — they’re in Portland, right? — one of those places where, thanks to great public transportation systems, one can basically go just about anywhere in the city just by walking (including, y’know, into and out of the transportation)? That’s one of the things that makes a social life more trouble than it’s worth (to me) in Arkansas, you’re not really going to get anywhere without driving (not that there’s necessarily anywhere to get to, but that’s subjective). I’d love to escape to some more civilized territory, like Washington DC or New York City, but personal responsibilities presently make that a pipe dream or would if I had a pipe. So it goes.

That’s part of what befuddles me about the concept of “sex tours” (and I don’t mean just in the, uh, pre-adolescent sub-classification, so let’s not shoot fish in that barrel of monkeys). Spend thousands of dollars and travel thousands of miles just for sex? I don’t even care enough about sex to DATE. That’s why I’m politely dubious re the claim that sex is a “basic human need” like food or sleep. I’m not presently sexually active and I’m mistaken for a productive member of society on a regular basis. ;-)

When you think about it (“So don’t think about it.”), if sex IS a basic human need, prostitutes serve a vital function in society. But do they get any credit for it? They do not. Then again, if sex is a basic human need, why don’t doctors ever prescribe it? Then again, to whom would you turn in the prescription?

Sex fascinates me. I can talk about it for minutes at a time…