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Essay / Summary of From Disgust to Humanity by Martha Nussbaum
The fact that homosexual clubs are monitored by the police much more than heterosexual clubs is a form of social inequality according to Nussbaum. She takes John Stuart Mill's view on self-centered actions and believes that actions that do not cause harm to others should not be monitored. While Devlin and Kass use disgust as a criterion for lawmaking, Mill and Nussbaum use harm as a criterion for lawmaking. People who believe that sex clubs are unnecessary believe this because they think it harms customers. Nussbaum points out, however, that there are other harmful activities that are not regulated. “Alcohol, a dangerous drug with well-documented links to harm against others (violence, drunk driving, sexual assault), is largely unregulated except for age restrictions and at the place of purchase” (Nussbaum 178). She even counters the argument that criminals tend to participate in criminal activity because they frequent sex clubs by stating that "we should target criminals, not places of consensual activity that are sometimes frequented by criminals” (Nussbaum 182). Through these arguments, Nussbaum comes to the conclusion that there is no need to ban or regulate sex clubs, because they do not harm non-consenting people and the actions carried out in the clubs are selfish. The only criteria that people