All your genitals are belong to us.

I've blogged before on how the prudishness of some Western nations when it comes to the business of sex is childish, illogical and illiberal. It really should be nothing to do with government or law what consenting adults choose to do with or too each other's genitals, and to some extent they've mostly given up moralising the rest of us on the subject. Not, however, when money or even just the appearance of gain is involved. Oh no, then what is acceptable to the neo-puritans when given away for free suddenly becomes something sordid and nasty which must be punished. In other words women don't own their own vaginas if they going to try and benefit from their use. In many places this simply means that prostitution is illegal to a greater or lesser extent, but in Philadelphia they've gone in further by charging a woman with offering sex in return for baseball tickets.

An American woman who was charged with offering sex for World Series tickets on the Craigslist website has said she is embarrassed about her arrest, but did nothing wrong and is still hopeful of attending a game.
"I didn't do anything wrong, so I'm not embarrassed about my actions. I'm embarrassed about how I was arrested," Susan Finkelstein said one day after meeting at a suburban bar with an undercover police officer responding to an advertisement on Craigslist.
Miss Finkelstein's lawyer said his client is merely "a nice lady overcome with Phillies fever."

Only in America. Maybe she really did offer to shag the cop, maybe not. Who knows or cares apart from those directly involved. Even someone who opposes prostitution ought to be able to see what a stretch this is: either the arrest was because the tickets have a commercial value or because they're something she really, really wants, and how the hell does that make her a prossie? Is it so different from a woman offering sex in return for getting a big bunch of flowers on her birthday? Ultimately, if women are not allowed to benefit in any way shape or form from sex you have to ask if they're even allowed to have an orgasm. Ridiculous? Extreme? Sort of, yes, but by the sounds of things Ms Finkelstein enjoys baseball at least as much as some women enjoy sex.

Or maybe it was the wording of her Craigslist advert that got them worked up:

She might have dropped double entendres in her Craigslist advertisement but never explicitly offered sex, her lawyer William J. Brennan said.

If double entendres are a problem I really think they've got bigger fish to fry than a forty-something baseball nut.