Acclamation is in order for Labour deputy leader Toni Abela for being in favour of regulating prostitution. His is a very mature stand in a country suffering from a severe case of puritanism and inverted morality.

Much of Maltese society and its politicians would much rather stick their heads in the ground than deal with the sexually-charged minefield of prostitution. When they do have to deal with it, they generally express disdain, outrage or feigned sorrow for the ‘lot’ of these ‘fallen women’.

It is ironic that so many Maltese people consider prostitutes so contemptible – they are among the few women who frankly admit that they make money by renting out their bodies. Whereas actresses, singers, dancers, models and other professions usually the domain of women work with safety nets (safety nets being the men who catch them when they don’t feel like working anymore), a prostitute has no such recourse. When she is tired or sick, there is no one there who is waiting hopefully for the time when he will be allowed to support her.

No man in our society would allow a prostitute to exploit him as a fashion model, for instance, could. Women, too, despise the common prostitute but for a different reason: they despise her for her stupidity. A woman who sells her body so ineptly is shockingly stupid by female intelligence standards. They admire only such women as are able to exact an exorbitant price for their favours, for example those who marry money, celebrities or royalty. They have impressed on men the concept that prostitution is a ‘sordid profession’ to intimidate men who otherwise might one day be able to draw parallels.

Regulating this profession will give these brave and unflappable sex workers the chance to build the safety net that is now so cravenly being denied them.