K0e4sF51

1Julie Bindel 
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3The Pimping of Prostitution 
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5
6Abolishing the Sex Work Myth 
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10Julie Bindel 
11London, UK 
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14ISBN 978-1-137-55889-3 e-ISBN 978-1-137-55890-9 
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16https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55890-9 
17
18Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939330 
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20© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 
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22The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) 
23of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 
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25This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively 
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31methodology now known or hereafter developed. 
32
33The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service 
34marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific 
35statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and 
36regulations and therefore free for general use. 
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38The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice 
39and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of 
40publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a 
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44affiliations. 
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47Cover illustration: Sam Johnson 
48
49Printed on acid-free paper 
50
51This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature 
52The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 
53The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 
549XW, United Kingdom 
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57“The first step in recognizing a big injustice is often an end to blaming the 
58victim -say, to stop assuming that most poor people are lazy, or that battered 
59women could just leave, or that our prisons are so racially imbalanced because 
60the imbalance is deserved. To find out the truth behind all those “Pretty 
61Woman” myths about the global sex trade read this well documented book by 
62Julie Bindel.” 
63
64—Gloria Steinem, feminist, journalist and social and political activist 
65
66“This book is comprehensive, authoritative, personally revealing, and a 
67clear headed rage against a tide of modern double think. It will help feminism 
68untangle itself from all the knots of faux progressiveness about prostitution, 
69which is repackaging sexual abuse as empowerment. Bindel is a fearless, 
70uncompromising voice who deserves to be universally heard.” 
71
72—Janice Turner, Times Newspaper columnist 
73
74“A profoundly impressive piece of reporting and polemic into a 
75commercial industry. You may love Bindel’s work, you may profoundly 
76disagree with it. But it will never leave you indifferent, and it will always 
77make you question, which is why there should be more of it.” 
78
79—Rose George, Author and journalist 
80
81“No one in Britain knows more than Julie Bindel about prostitution -the 
82politics, the debates, the myths, the scale, and the damage to individuals and to 
83the culture that sustains it. Every word in this long-awaited book is worth 
84reading. It combines scholarship, activism, personal narratives and political 
85analysis. It is a mighty challenge to the pessimism of ‘the oldest profession’ 
86and above all it offers hope of a society free of sexism and sexual 
87exploitation.” 
88
89—Bea Campbell, writer, activist, and author of The End of Equality 
90
91“An excoriating response to those who say prostitution is inevitable, that it 
92is work like any other, and that prostituted women need labour rights and state 
93regulation, not abolition. Bindel exposes gender inequality at its most brutal 
94and violent in this intelligent, well-researched and well-written critique. 
95Agree or disagree, I’ve no doubt it will become a core text for the study of 
96patriarchy and its consequences.” 
97
98—Karon Monaghan QC, leading human rights and equality law 
99practitioner 
100
101“This book is persuasive, clear, revealing and very powerful. It brilliantly 
102exposes the outright abuse and misogyny at the heart of a worldwide system in 
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105which men and boys control, buy, sell, rent and use women and girls. And it 
106answers back to any apologist, male or female, who defends men’s renting and 
107use of women in the worldwide system of sexual exploitation.” 
108
109—Bidisha, Writer, critic and broadcaster 
110
111“This is a critically important book on a critically important subject by one 
112of our most courageous and incisive social critics. Read it and understand that 
113there is no human right to prostitute women and girls that prostitution is about 
114power and profit, degradation, pain, fear and exploitation. Julie Bindel has 
115made the argument: we have a duty to echo it. Essential reading.” 
116
117—Dexter Dias QC, human rights lawyer and author of The Ten Types of 
118Human 
119
120“For decades, Julie Bindel’s journalism has helped us see the pathology of 
121patriarchy. This brave new book tells the stories not only of the incredible 
122women who have survived prostitution but the men who choose to buy and sell 
123women’s bodies. Bindel peels away the liberal veneer from the pro-
124prostitution lobby and its academic supporters to show how a feminist analysis 
125of the sex trade is essential to give meaning to the culture’s claim to support 
126‘human rights.’ With the voices of prostitution survivors at the core of the book, 
127Bindel’s reporting provides the context to understand the routine abuse in the 
128sexual-exploitation industries.” 
129
130—Robert Jensen, Professor, University of Texas at Austin, School of 
131Journalism, and author of The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for 
132Men 
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135This book is dedicated to the late Denise Marshall, as a small gesture of 
136gratitude for everything she did to end men’s violence towards women and 
137girls throughout her too-short life. Denise was the finest feminist and friend 
138who saved lives and changed hearts and minds. I am sure that her legacy 
139will be to inspire new generations of feminists to be the best they can. 
140
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142Preface 
143
144
145I have been an active feminist campaigner against male violence towards 
146women since 1979. For the past two decades of that time, I have focused much 
147of my energy on fighting for the abolition of the global sex trade, alongside 
148other feminists, many of them survivors of the sex trade themselves. 
149
150For me, prostitution is a human rights violation against women and girls. 
151Not everyone shares this understanding. We are now at a crossroads, with a 
152number of countries around the world under pressure to either remove all laws 
153pertaining to the sex trade (including those governing pimping and brothel 
154owning), or to criminalise the purchase of sex (known as the Nordic model). 
155However, the polarised debate on the sex trade, being played out within 
156academia, media, feminist circles and human rights organisations has reached a 
157critical point. 
158
159No other human rights violation towards women and girls is so grossly 
160misunderstood. While domestic violence has often been, and sometimes still 
161is, assumed to be the fault of the victim (‘She was nagging him’, ‘She failed to 
162understand his moods’), there has been a significant improvement in the way 
163that those experiencing it are supported and the perpetrators called to task 
164thanks to feminist campaigning and interventions. 
165
166Rapists are often seen as men who ‘couldn’t help themselves’, or who 
167were coerced into committing such crimes by the behaviour and dress sense of 
168the victims. But increasingly, again as a result of feminism, rape is viewed as 
169an expression of misogyny rather than one of uncontrollable sexual desire. 
170
171Not so prostitution. In recent years, despite the increasing numbers of 
172women with direct experience of being prostituted coming out as ‘survivors’ of 
173the sex trade, the dominant discourse is one of prostitution being about ‘choice’ 
174and ‘agency’ for the women involved. The human rights abuse involved in the 
175sex trade, according to the liberals, libertarians and many of those who profit 
176from selling sex, is when men are deterred from purchasing sex, and not when 
177they rent the orifices of a woman for sexual release. The women selling sex, 
178according to this logic, are the victims of pearl-clutching moralists who wish 
179to take away their right to earn a living. 
180
181Indeed, supporting women to exit prostitution has been described as ‘an 
182affront to human dignity’ in one academic paper, 1 authored by four academics, 
183three of whom have been campaigning for total decriminalisation of the sex 
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186trade for a number of years. The war that rages between feminists such as 
187myself who seek to abolish the sex trade, and those who see prostitution as a 
188valid choice, is fuelled by the widely held belief that feminist abolitionists 
189wish to ‘rescue’ ‘fallen women’ and ‘demonise’ the men who pay for sex. 
190
191The redoubtable feminist writer Andrea Dworkin once described herself 
192as a ‘radical feminist: not the fun kind’. I use this phrase to distinguish myself 
193from those neoliberal ‘choice’ feminists who have absorbed the argument 
194about ‘sex work’ being empowering. These fun feminists ensure that they never 
195upset men, and appear to be happier tearing down tried and tested theories of 
196patriarchy and male power being the driver for the sex trade than they are 
197asking how prostitution can be sexual liberation for the prostituted. I and other 
198abolitionists are accused by the fun feminists of being ‘whorephobic’, since 
199they claim we hate the women in the sex trade instead of the pimps, buyers and 
200brothel keepers. 
201
202I became an active feminist partly in response to the police investigation 
203and media coverage of a serial killer who operated in the North of England 
204duringthe 1970s. Peter Sutcliffe, named ‘the Yorkshire Ripper’bythe tabloid 
205press, turned out to be an ordinary, married man living in a suburb of Bradford. 
206The Sutcliffe case brought attitudes about women in general, and prostituted 
207women in particular, out into the open, which in turn led me to join forces with 
208some of the most passionate and committed antimale violence activists in the 
209country. 
210
211The public was led to believe, thanks to the police leading the case and the 
212media reporting of the murders, that Sutcliffe hated prostitutes, when in fact 
213only a minority of his victims were involved in the sex trade. The mythology 
214that built up around the killer meant that police excluded a number of cases of 
215women found murdered in England because they did not fit the profile. It also 
216served to perpetuate the notion that women in prostitution somehow deserved 
217their fate, and that rape and murder were merely occupational hazards. 
218
219During the 1970s and into 1980, Sutcliffe killed at least 13 women and left 
220seven others for dead. The body of his first murder victim—28-year-old 
221Wilma McCann—was discovered in 1975 and, from the beginning, the West 
222Yorkshire Police were guilty of dragging their feet and bungling the 
223investigation. Complacent police officers overlooked vital clues, and 
224inadequate technology was used to collate the thousands of interviews and 
225intelligence reports they gathered. Amid all this, Sutcliffe just kept killing— 
226with hammers, screwdrivers and knives—and police were no further forward 
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229by the time the body of his fifth murder victim, Jayne MacDonald, was 
230discovered in June 1977. 
231
232MacDonald’s killing was described by police and press as a ‘tragic 
233mistake’. The previous victims had all been labelled as prostitutes and 
234therefore, in the eyes of many, complicit in their own demise. But MacDonald 
235was 16 and described by police as ‘respectable and innocent’. Victims were 
236duly divided into deserving and undeserving women. 
237
238Officers made a plea to the women of West Yorkshire to look out for 
239strange behaviour in their sons and husbands. But they failed to listen to one of 
240Sutcliffe’s surviving victims: a 14-year-old girl who had had a good look at 
241the man who chatted to her about the weather before striking her about the head 
242several times with a hammer. When the girl reported the attack, she saw the 
243photo-fits compiled by other survivors and told police it was the same man. 
244They dismissed her because she was not in prostitution, and it was assumed the 
245Ripper was only interested in prostituted women. On 30 June 1977, an open 
246letter from the Yorkshire Evening Post to Sutcliffe said: ‘Your motive, it’s 
247believed, is a dreadful hate for prostitutes—a hate that drives you to slash and 
248bludgeon your victims’. 
249
250When MacDonald was murdered, I was 15 and already thinking about 
251feminism. I had been outed at school as a lesbian, and the misogyny I 
252experienced from boys taught me that girls were judged as either slags or 
253lezzers, and that boys were the ones doing the naming and shaming. Sexism 
254within popular culture was neither subtle nor occasional in the 1970s, and I 
255learned that sexual violence was endemic in reality and widely viewed as 
256entertainment. 
257
258In 1979 I moved from my home in Darlington, in the North East of England, 
259to Leeds where I met a group of radical feminists who were campaigning 
260against male violence towards women and girls. At that time, the main focus of 
261the group was to challenge the appalling attitude of police and journalists 
262towards the victims and potential victims—and all women were potential 
263victims—of this serial killer. 
264
265One night in November 1980, I was followed while on my way home from 
266a lock-in at the pub near the YWCA hostel where I was living. The man who 
267followed me was of medium height with a dark, full beard, wiry hair and 
268black, piercing eyes. I was 18 and new to Leeds. I ran into another pub to 
269shake him off. Friends persuaded me to report it to the police and I completed 
270a Photofit, but it was obvious they were not taking me seriously. The next day 
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273the body of the final victim, Jacqueline Hill, was found less than half a mile 
274from where I was followed. When Sutcliffe was arrested and his photograph 
275published, my Photofit was almost exactly like him. 
276
277Sutcliffe’s victims were named as deserving victims, sluts, slags and 
278whores. I heard it from men on buses and on the streets. In the open letter of 
2791977, the murderer was asked how he felt knowing that he had killed an 
280innocent, respectable victim rather than a prostitute. Surely he felt remorse 
281about mistakenly killing Jayne McDonald? 
282
283During Sutcliffe’s reign, I remember the jokes ordinary men in the North of 
284England used to make about this serial killer before he was caught. ‘There’s 
285only one Yorkshire Ripper’, football fans would chant. ‘Ripper 12, police nil’, 
286was one particular jibe during Leeds United football matches where the police 
287were penalisingunrulyfans. ‘Give us a kiss, love, I’mnotthe Ripper’was a 
288regular crack heard in nightclubs around the country. In the 1980s, a group of 
289anarchists named themselves The Peter Sutcliffe Fan Club because they saw 
290him as the ultimate rebel. 
291
292In 1990 I was one of the founders of the organisation Justice for Women, a 
293feminist campaign group that mainly challenged the convictions of women who 
294had killed an abusive male partner. In 1992 I received a letter from a woman 
295called Emma Humphreys. Emma had killed her violent pimp, Trevor Armitage, 
296when she was 16 years old and had been in prison since 1985, having been 
297convicted of his murder. In her letter, Emma described the violence and 
298brutality she had endured at the hands of punters and explained that the night 
299she killed Armitage he had threatened to rape her. 
300
301As a child, Emma had witnessed her mother being beaten by her stepfather, 
302who also sexually abused Emma. When she was 12, Emma ran away. She slept 
303rough and was abused into prostitution on the streets. When she met Armitage, 
304a sex buyer on the streets of Nottingham, Emma was drinking heavily and self-
305harming. One night, when Armitage had threatened to rape Emma yet again, she 
306stabbed him. Too traumatised to take to the witness box and represented by 
307lawyers with no understanding of the effects of sexual violence, Emma was 
308convicted and sent to prison, which was effectively a life sentence for under18s. 
309
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311Emma wrote to me seven years into her sentence, and for three years I, and 
312many others, campaigned for her release. On 7 July 1995, Emma had her 
313conviction overturned and was released from the Court of Appeal. The 
314following day, most national newspapers carried front-page stories on Emma’s 
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317campaign, showing a smiling young woman leaving the court surrounded by 
318hundreds of cheering supporters. 
319
320Prior to getting to know Emma and the details of her nightmare in 
321prostitution, I had heard of and been involved in debates and discussion about 
322the sex trade, but Emma’s story moved me to the point that I began to prioritise 
323campaigning against the sex trade within my feminist activism, writing and 
324research. 
325
326In 1996 I was one of the organisers of an international conference in 
327Brighton, UK, on violence and abuse of women, the brainchild of feminist 
328academics and well-known campaigners against male violence Professors 
329Jalna Hanmer and Catherine Itzin. At the conference I met speakers from all 
330over the world who were pioneers in the fight against the international sex 
331trade. Some of these women were survivors of the sex trade. Each had the 
332same goal: to abolish the system of prostitution. However, Austrian pro-
333prostitution lobbyists at the event tried to disrupt one of the sessions, claiming 
334we were ignoring the voices of ‘sex workers’. 
335
336At the conference were feminist anti-sex-trade campaigners such as Andrea 
337Dworkin, Janice Raymond and Norma Hotaling, founder of Standing against 
338Global Exploitation (SAGE): a San Francisco-based centre offering services 
339to help women out of prostitution. Hotaling had also founded the world’s first 
340John School in 1995, a re-education programme for men attempting to buy sex 
341on the street. 
342
343Fiona Broadfoot, a survivor of prostitution whom I had met during the 
344organising of the Brighton conference, chaired a workshop on the violence of 
345prostitution. With her was Irene Ivison, author of Fiona’s Story , a book Ivison 
346had written about her daughter Fiona, who was murdered in 1993 at the age of 
34717 by a punter, having been exploited into prostitution by her older 
348‘boyfriend’. Ivison had not known that Fiona had been prostituted for three 
349weeks before her death, although she had spent the previous three years 
350battling with police and social services to try to stop the abusive relationship 
351in which her daughter had been involved since the age of 14. 
352
353The following year, in December 1997, I co-organised a conference 
354entitled ‘Prostitution: Violence against Women and Children’. A small group of 
355pimps brought along prostituted women and tried to disrupt proceedings. They 
356were thrown out. Emma Humpreys had been released from prison two years 
357earlier and spoke at the conference about her experiences. Also speaking was 
358Angel, a volunteer at SAGE who co-ran the San Francisco John School with 
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361Hotaling. 
362
363As the conference began, two men approached the registration desk and 
364began peeling off money from large wads of £50 notes. In a deliberate and 
365cynical pantomime, the men were dressed in stereotypical US ‘pimp’ attire: 
366long fur coats and fedora hats. With them were two women, dressed in 
367stereotypical ‘prostitution’ clothing. Almost as soon as the four were seated in 
368the conference hall the women, who described themselves as ‘sex workers’, 
369began to heckle and loudly protest at the title of the event, shouting that 
370‘feminists have no right to tell us what to do with our bodies’. They were 
371quickly asked to leave. 
372
373Humphreys movingly described her own experiences of prostitution and 
374called for sex buyers to be criminalised. She died a few months later in the 
375summer of 1998, three years after her victorious release from prison. A few 
376weeks before she died, Humphreys was raped by a man who dragged her into 
377her flat as she was fumbling for her keys. For her, it was the last straw. 
378Deciding to report it to the police, Humphreys spent the next few weeks taking 
379too much medication and drinking in an attempt to calm her nerves about 
380making a statement. One morning, having been unable to contact her by phone, I 
381let myself into her flat and found her dead in bed. The inquest into her death 
382ruled that she had died by ‘misadventure’, but I knew it was the pain of living 
383with the legacy of prostitution that had killed her. 
384
385At the time that Humphreys died I was in the final stages, alongside Jalna 
386Hanmer, Fiona Broadfoot, Irene Ivison and others, of setting up the first UK-
387based John School in West Yorkshire. The conference and the John School 
388signified the beginning of the abolitionist movement in the UK and I was at its 
389forefront. I linked up with a small number of survivors of the sex trade and we 
390set out to challenge the bigger, louder pro-prostitution lobby. However, by now 
391the ‘sex workers’ rights’ movement had entered academia. 
392
393In 1998 a conference was held at East London University entitled ‘Sex 
394Work Reassessed: A National Conference’, including a workshop called 
395‘Cause for Concern’. At the workshop were various speakers including Jo 
396Doezema, a ‘sex workers’ rights’ activist and academic, and a nameless man 
397who spoke as a sex buyer. They spoke against any intervention with ‘clients’, 
398and argued that the John School would cause harm to women in the sex trade 
399because educating men about the realities of prostitution would further 
400stigmatise the women. Then I announced who I was and pointed out that the 
401police had agreed to the demands of the John School founders to stop arresting 
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404the women, at least for the duration of the pilot. Doezema said she did not 
405believe me. 
406
407Taking its name from the workshop and made up of more than 20 agencies 
408across England that provide support for women in prostitution, Cause for 
409Concern was founded in order to convince policymakers and criminal justice 
410agencies to oppose the kerb crawler scheme. Around 500 women linked to the 
411agencies signed a petition against it. This all happened a month prior to the 
412first John School being held but, nevertheless, our opponents seemed to know 
413that we were holding sex buyers accountable. 
414
415The first meeting of Cause for Concern, held in Leeds, was chaired by the 
416then director of the Bradford Working Women’s Project (BWWP), at which 
417Fiona Broadfoot had volunteered before leaving to set up her own support 
418organisation: a telephone helpline called Street Exit that she ran from her 
419home. 
420
421BWWP was notorious for being very pro-legalisation. I had invited the 
422director to speak on a panel at the 1997 conference on prostitution, and during 
423her presentation she made it clear that any police intervention would not be 
424welcomed by her organisation. She specifically mentioned the legalised 
425regime in the Netherlands as a good practice model. 
426
427Ivison, Broadfoot and I decided to ask if we could come along to the 
428meeting of Cause for Concern to answer questions on the scheme, and 
429hopefully put the members’ minds at rest. Julia, who described herself as a 
430street sex worker, used a large flip chart to list her weekly expenses and 
431expenditure, arguing that she needed a job that would pay at least £600 a week 
432to be able to give up selling sex. At that time, my salary as Assistant Director 
433of a research unit at Leeds Metropolitan University paid less than half of the 
434amount Julia said she needed. 
435
436The three of us had clearly failed to make an impression on the meeting and 
437we left feeling dejected. Afterwards we heard that Broadfoot had been 
438dismissed as ‘not right in the head’ because of a family tragedy that had 
439prompted her to escape the sex trade. It was common knowledge in West 
440Yorkshire that Fiona’s cousin Maureen had been murdered by a sex buyer, 
441George Naylor. Naylor had previously been jailed for 11 years in 1984 for 
442killing Deborah Kershaw, also a prostituted woman, two months after the 
443BBC’s Rough Justice programme helped free him early from a 15-year 
444sentence for raping a 60-year-old in her home in 1995. 
445
446Following the 12-month pilot of the John School, I embarked on a two-year 
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449project funded by the UK Government’s Department for International 
450Development to develop and deliver training for non-governmental 
451organisations (NGOs), social workers and law enforcers in several Balkan 
452countries on anti-trafficking initiatives. 
453
454It was the year 2000 and the UK had only recently woken up to the fact that 
455women and girls were being transported from poor and conflict-ridden 
456countries into brothels in Western Europe. I had been attending the annual 
457Police Vice Conference of England and Wales since 1998, as one of the few 
458civilians among at least 200 police officers specialising in crimes relating to 
459the sex trade. Head of the Metropolitan Police Clubs and Vice Unit, Inspector 
460Paul Holmes, would give a detailed presentation on the various surveillance 
461jobs that had led to a number of dangerous traffickers being arrested. 
462
463I had also recently been invited to speak at an anti-trafficking conference in 
464Albania, at the invitation of Vera Lesko, founder of Vlora Women’s Hearth, an 
465innovative project set up by Lesko in 1997. Lesko set up the Hearth because 
466she became aware that the main economy in Vlora was from trafficking women 
467and girls out of Albania. As a result of her work, Lesko had been physically 
468attacked in public on several occasions and, following threats to her family, 
469felt it necessary to send her daughter to live with relatives in Italy. 
470
471After the seminar, Lesko told me that she was sick of projects setting up 
472safe houses for young women who had been rescued from traffickers ‘and only 
473teaching them to do macramé and what to do with half a kilo of minced beef. 
474Those girls need a gun and a driving licence’, she told me with a glint in her 
475eye. 
476
477My project in the Balkans was my first introduction to the pro-prostitution 
478politics of international human rights organisations based in unstable countries 
479and regions. I had understood but disagreed with the arguments put forward by 
480the ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby in the UK (for example, the English Collective 
481of Prostitutes and Scot-Pep 2 ), and at the Brighton conference had heard a 
482number of presentations from international speakers on the false distinction 
483between forced and chosen ‘sex work’ from organisations funded to combat 
484human trafficking. 
485
486During the course of the project I spent time in Albania, Bosnia and 
487Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro. My scoping trip 
488to Sarajevo, Bosnia, included a trip to the offices of the UN Office of the High 
489Commissioner for Human Rights, where I met the head, Madeleine Rees. 
490
491Rees is the human rights lawyer who campaigned alongside Kathryn 
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494Bolkovac, the whistleblower who exposed DynCorp, the private contractor 
495providing US personnel for the UN mission in Bosnia, who were not only 
496sexually exploiting trafficked women but were also on the traffickers’ pay-roll. 
497Rees told me, during a tense meeting in her baking-hot office, that our training 
498was not needed in the Balkans, as there were local NGOs that knew the terrain 
499better than internationals. However, when I pushed Rees, it became clear that 
500she and her colleagues did not like the fact that the training included sessions 
501on the harms of prostitution, and how to curb the demand. Although our training 
502sessions did go ahead, the local anti-trafficking human rights organisations 
503circulated petitions calling for our training to be boycotted, stating that the 
504trainers were ‘conflating prostitution, which is a choice, with trafficking, 
505which is clearly a human rights violation’. 
506
507During the two years I spent travelling in the Balkans and encountering 
508similar attitudes to Rees’s, I decided to stop doing research on trafficking into 
509the sex trade and focus on local and national sex trade and the women caught 
510up in local prostitution. Trafficking is merely a process in which some women 
511and children are prostituted. Prostitution itself is the problem. 
512
513Having decided to leave academia to pursue journalism, in 2003 I 
514contacted the then features editor of Guardian Weekend Magazine , Katherine 
515Viner, whom I knew from the occasions she had asked me to write the odd 
516opinion piece for the paper. I told her I had read some fascinating and 
517disturbing research by two British academics, Julia O’Connell Davidson and 
518Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor, on female sex tourism in the Caribbean. I told 
519Viner that the only coverage I had seen on this topic to date was either making 
520monsters or idiots of the women, or dismissing it as a bit of a laugh. 
521
522I was delighted when Viner gave me a commission to travel to Jamaica and 
523investigate female sex tourism from a feminist perspective, and I knew that 
524with the 4500 word limit I could do it justice. However, I was met with a wall 
525of resistance from some feminists prior to my trip, who told me they were 
526worried that by drawing attention to the fact that ‘women do it, too’ and also 
527pay for sex, it would provide a get-out clause for male sex buyers. This 
528attitude shocked me. My intention was to investigate the exploitation of young, 
529impoverished black males by white, relatively wealthy Western women. I 
530assumed that if the women were paying for sex either directly or indirectly, 
531there would be a pimp industry to support it. I was right. 
532
533In Jamaica, I found that wherever there were female sex tourists, there 
534would be third-party exploiters ready to sell the ‘beach boys’ and broker the 
535
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537deals. I also found that while the women justified their treatment of the young 
538men by using racialised and class-privileged mythology, female sex tourists 
539are, in most respects, unlike the men who travel to poor countries to buy 
540women and children, in that they rarely, if ever, inflict direct violence on the 
541men. The men are not frightened of the female sex tourists, and there is far less 
542stigmatisation faced by men who sell sex in this way compared to women in 
543prostitution. My article, published in July 2003 as a cover story, made such an 
544impact that it inspired the playwright Tanika Gupta’s Sugar Mummies that was 
545staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 2006. 
546
547One year later, as I was packing up my desk in the university, ready to enter 
548the unknown and rather scary world of full-time freelance journalism, I had a 
549visit from Denise Marshall, CEO of Eaves for Women, a feminist charity that 
550provided services for women who had experienced male violence. Two years 
551earlier, Marshall had set up the Poppy Project, the first service in the UK to 
552support women trafficked into the UK sex trade. Poppy was an acronym for 
553‘Pissing off Pimps and Punters, Yay!’, but Marshall told the Home Office, 
554which funded the service, that it was named after one of the first victims of 
555trafficking referred to Eaves. 
556
557Marshall told me she needed me to come to Eaves on a part-time 
558consultancy basis for six months to build up some research capacity within 
559Eaves, and to write a response to ‘Paying the Price’, a government consultation 
560document on how best to deal with prostitution in the UK. I stayed at Eaves 
561rather longer than six months. When the charity went into administration in 
5622015, weeks after Marshall died of stomach cancer aged only 53, I had just 
563submitted my final piece of research under its name. 
564
565Marshall was an innovator and a fierce abolitionist. Together we built up a 
566successful research unit within Eaves and I led on a number of projects, all of 
567which caused consternation among the pro-sex work service providers and 
568academics. 
569
570In 2008 Eaves published ‘Big Brothel: A Survey of the Off-Street Sex 
571Trade in London’. It was the largest study on the indoor sex trade in the UK to 
572date. We gathered information from 921 brothels in the capital, and to do so my 
573co-author Helen Atkins and I recruited male volunteers to help with the 
574research. They telephoned brothels posing as potential sex buyers, with a list 
575of questions including ‘What nationalities are on offer tonight?’, ‘Do the girls 
576do anal?’, ‘How about oral without a condom?’, and ‘What age are they?’ The 
577idea was to find out as much as possible about how the brothel owners and 
578
579
580managers marketed the women and what was being sold. Had we gone in 
581wearing suits and carrying clipboards to ask research questions, it is likely we 
582would have been told where to go. 
583
584The pro-prostitution academics in the UK and beyond went berserk on 
585seeing the national publicity on our findings, and quickly put together a letter, 
586signed by 27 academics, slating its methodology (unethical), aims and 
587objectives (ideological) and conclusions ( Carry On Criminology , according 
588to Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon). 
589
590The following year I was part of an international research team 
591interviewing men who pay for sex, led by the psychologist and feminist 
592academic Dr Melissa Farley. At that time, I was in the middle of frantically 
593fending off a potential libel case. I had received a letter from notorious 
594prostitution apologist Dr John Davies, then of Sussex University/University of 
595the Witwatersrand who, through his lawyers, threatened me with litigation 
596unless I paid £5000 to a ‘women’s charity of his choice’. I now suspect that the 
597charity was Sompan Foundation through which he defrauded the British 
598government of £5 million (some of which was used to pay prostitution 
599apologists): a crime for which he was recently imprisoned for 12 years. 
600
601In 2009 I began a study on women exiting prostitution. During my time 
602interviewing the men who create the demand and the women on the supply 
603side, I realised just how persuasive the misinformation and mythology 
604surrounding the sex trade is. Talking to the sex buyers, it became apparent that 
605many of them delude themselves that the women they buy actually enjoy the sex 
606of the transaction, and believe that most prostituted women actively and 
607happily choose to earn money through the sex trade. 
608
609Since 2009 I have continued to investigate and write about the sex trade. 
610This work continues to be my main priority as a feminist campaigner. 
611
612Over the years I have been accused of being a Christian moralist, a prude 
613and a man-hating monster. I have also met and worked with the finest 
614abolitionists and human rights campaigners in existence. One thing I can say for 
615sure, from everything I have learned about the global sex trade, is that it is built 
616on the exploitation of women by men, and that it could not exist without the 
617institutionalised oppressions of gender, race and class. I wish to see an end to 
618prostitution because it is both a cause and a consequence of women’s 
619subjugation at the hands of men and I am, after all, a feminist. It is surely right 
620and proper that I do my bit to dismantle this monstrosity? 
621
622As Dworkin said: ‘I have spent 20 years writing these books. Had I wanted 
623
624
625to say men are beasts and scream, that takes 30 seconds’. I hope this book 
626gives a fair account of the struggle by those harmed by the sex trade, who we 
627will see make up the majority of those involved, and that the popular tropes 
628about ‘choice’ and ‘freedom’ within the sex trade are challenged by the 
629testimony of its survivors. 
630
631Julie Bindel 
632London, UK 
633
634
635Acknowledgements 
636
637
638Having found that she had some spare time on her hands, Lee Nurse asked me 
639if I needed any help with my work. Over the two years it took me to research 
640this book, Lee transcribed every interview, helped me organise my data, and 
641was always there to assist in any way necessary. Because of Lee, I was able to 
642do a huge amount of travel and research I otherwise would not have been able 
643to contemplate. 
644
645To the Indigenous, African-American, and other women of colour who 
646patiently explained to me how colonialism and racism intertwine with 
647misogyny, and helped me better understand those particular dynamics of the sex 
648trade. 
649
650Heartfelt thanks to the survivors who entrusted me with their stories, and 
651for their courage and determination in exposing the truth about the sex trade. 
652
653To Rachel Moran for writing Paid For , and for bringing together survivor 
654abolitionists from all over the world to fight to end the sex trade. Throughout 
655this project, Rachel has been a constant source of inspiration. 
656
657Fiona Broadfoot is the founder of the modern-day survivor abolitionist 
658movement in the UK. Meeting Fiona in 1996 was a pivotal moment for me, and 
659for the other feminists whose lives she has touched. 
660
661Sara Maguire, for her positive attitude, and her air miles. 
662
663Patricia Holmes for making me laugh about things we probably should not 
664laugh about. Ashley McGuire, a great friend who told me to ‘never give up’ 
665and to ignore the sticks and stones coming my way. Sandra McNeill, one of the 
666most committed and determined feminists I know, for taking me under her wing 
667and introducing me to proper feminism when I arrived in Leeds aged 18. 
668
669Jinny Keatinge, Janice Raymond, Jalna Hanmer and Melissa Farley for 
670offering editorial guidance. Sarah Ditum and Jane Duffus for wading through 
671my typos and reorganising my more chaotic pages. Brigette Lechner for 
672summarising a deeply disturbing document. 
673
674Roger Matthews, Helen Easton, Anna Zobnina and Maddy Coy for daring 
675to be abolitionists in the hostile environment of academia. 
676
677Lynda Dearlove for providing good coffee and a place of refuge. 
678
679Thank you Andrew Minney from Australia; an honourable copper and a 
680good friend of feminism. 
681
682My gratitude to Michael Shively for guiding me through the complex 
683
684
685scientific data on AIDS/HIV, and explaining ideological bias in the field. 
686
687Thank you so much to those who contributed to my byline.com 
688crowdfunding campaign. I used this money to book flights to and 
689accommodation in the places I needed to visit, and to pay local fixers to help 
690me navigate my way around some tricky situations. 
691
692Angie Conroy in Cambodia, who organised my trip to Phnom Penh and 
693provided invaluable support. 
694
695Lee Lakeman and her colleagues at the inspirational Vancouver Rape 
696Relief, who made it possible for me to spend time in the city, and organised a 
697set of brilliant interviews and events. I am beyond privileged to be part of a 
698global feminist movement, which sustains me. 
699
700My agent Becky Thomas, who always has my back. 
701
702The Coalition against Trafficking in Women (CATW) gave invaluable 
703support throughout this project, as has SPACE International. 
704
705Twiss Butler’s contribution to the movement is invaluable, and her 
706guidance and wisdom much appreciated. 
707
708I am grateful to those from the ‘other side’ of the debate who agreed to be 
709interviewed by me, and trusted me to represent their views and words fairly. 
710
711To Harriet Wistrich, always. 
712
713The late Ernest Wistrich gave me his love and support throughout the 28 
714years we were in each other’s lives. He was a good man. 
715
716To my dear, survivor abolitionist friends who died in combat—in 
717particular Emma Humphreys, Andrea Dworkin and Norma Hotaling. Lest we 
718forget that there are many who do not survive. 
719
720
721Introduction 
722
723
724During a powerful speech on the future of feminism in 1995, the writer Andrea 
725Dworkin asked the audience to: 
726
727remember the prostituted, the homeless, the battered, the raped, the 
728tortured, the murdered, the raped-then-murdered, the murdered-thenraped; 
729… I want you to think about those who have been hurt for the fun, 
730the entertainment, the so-called speech of others; those who have been 
731hurt for profit, for the financial benefit of pimps and entrepreneurs. I want 
732you to remember the perpetrator and I am going to ask you to remember 
733the victims: not just tonight but tomorrow and the next day. I want you to 
734find a way to include them—the perpetrators and the victims—in what 
735you do, how you think, how you act, what you care about, what your life 
736means to you. 3 
737
738The debate on the sex trade has reached a new nadir. Globally, groups are 
739being funded to lobby for decriminalisation of all forms of prostitution. Most, 
740if not all, of the major funders describe themselves as human rights-based 
741organisations. So-called ‘sex workers’ rights activists’ are marching in the 
742streets, waving their red umbrellas (a symbol of the ‘sex workers’ rights’ 
743movement) and shouting about the rights of women, and men, to do what they 
744wish with their bodies. 
745
746Feminist abolitionists, many of whom are sex trade survivors, are 
747attempting to counter this dominant discourse, and are pushing for the 
748introduction of laws to criminalise those who pay for sex and to decriminalise 
749those who sell it. 
750
751There is no issue as contentious between feminists, liberals and human 
752rights defenders as the sex trade. Radical feminists tend to argue that 
753prostitution is both a cause and consequence of male supremacy, and that if 
754women and men were equal, prostitution would not exist; it also means that if 
755women and men are ever to become equal, prostitution must not exist. But for 
756liberals who believe in an essential freedom to buy and sell sex, or for human 
757rights campaigners who see access to sex as a human right, abolition is simply 
758not an option. While acceptance of the sex trade has become mainstream, the 
759idea of ending it has become even harder to imagine. 
760
761
762My gratitude to Michael Shively for guiding me through the complex 
763scientific data on AIDS/HIV, and explaining ideological bias in the field. 
764
765
766The Laws on Prostitution 
767
768Currently, a number of countries around the world are in a state of flux in terms 
769of legislation and policy around the sex trade. Several countries—including 
770Ireland, Northern Ireland, France, Norway, Sweden and Iceland—have 
771introduced a law criminalising those who purchase sex, while also 
772decriminalising those who sell sex. There are calls from abolitionists, 
773including many survivors of the sex trade, to introduce this model globally. On 
774the other hand, the pro-prostitution lobbyists are calling for laws similar to 
775those currently in place in New Zealand. 
776
777In July 2016, the UK Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee published an 
778interim report on prostitution, which looked favourably at decriminalisation of 
779the sex trade. It also made clear that the committee members, chaired by Keith 
780Vaz MP (who three months later was exposed by a tabloid newspaper as a sex 
781buyer), were unlikely to recommend introducing a law to criminalise those 
782who pay for sex. The Committee said the report was ‘not yet persuaded that the 
783abolitionist law is effective in reducing, rather than simply displacing, demand 
784for prostitution, or in helping the police to tackle the crime and exploitation 
785associated with the sex trade’. 
786
787The way that governments regulate the sex trade sends out a powerful 
788message about how seriously we take the issue of sexual exploitation and 
789violence against women more generally. 
790
791
792The Two Models 
793
794Legalisation/Decriminalisation 
795
796
797The pro-prostitution lobby adopted the term ‘decriminalisation’, and 
798stopped using ‘legalisation’ during the early 2000s. This was around the time 
799that New Zealand introduced the Prostitution Reform Act, which 
800decriminalised its sex trade (2003) by a majority of one vote; and when it 
801became official that the legalised regime in the Netherlands had been an 
802unmitigated disaster (the same year). 
803
804An increasingly popular response to the question ‘What should we do 
805about prostitution?’ is to decriminalise the entire market, and remove all 
806specific laws relating to the sex trade. It is also argued that prostitution should 
807be treated as any other job. Under this regime, third party profiteering from the 
808sex trade should be freely allowed and this approach is advocated by the Joint 
809United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Open Society and Amnesty 
810International. 
811
812The difference between the decriminalisation and legalisation of 
813prostitution is that in a decriminalised context, prostitution is treated like any 
814other business and subjected to same of the same regulations. Alternately, the 
815legalisation of prostitution means that the State ‘recognises prostitution as a 
816lawful activity’ but requires the licensing of brothel prostitution and may retain 
817criminal laws against other forms of non-brothel prostitution, such as street 
818prostitution. 
819
820What unites full decriminalisation and legalisation is that neither regime 
821would result in either a reduction or an end to the sex trade, but sets in stone 
822the notion that prostitution is an inevitability, and that there will always exist 
823both a supply and demand. They also make pimping, brothel keeping and sex 
824buying legal. 
825
826
827The Nordic Model 
828
829This law was first introduced in Sweden in 1999. It is a set of laws and 
830policies that criminalises the demand for commercial sex, and decriminalises 
831those selling sex. The Nordic model has two main goals: to curb the demand 
832for prostitution and promote equality between women and men. 
833
834The Nordic Model has since been adopted by Norway, Iceland, Canada, 
835South Korea, Ireland, Northern Ireland and France. Governments in Israel, 
836Latvia and Lithuania are considering the law, and in 2014 the European 
837Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed 
838recommendations that the law should be implemented as the best way to tackle 
839European prostitution. 
840
841Myths about the sex trade include saying that prostitution is necessary, 
842inevitable and harmless. I will show clear evidence that these beliefs, 
843propagated by the ‘sex workers’ rights’ movement, are based on misguided 
844neoliberalism and fallacious mythology. 
845
846
847My Research 
848
849During my research I conducted around 250 interviews in 40 countries, cities 
850and states. I talked to survivors of prostitution, current ‘sex workers’ rights’ 
851activists, pimps, sex buyers, brothel owners, AIDS activists, lesbian, gay, 
852bisexual and transgender groups, police officers and feminists opposed to 
853prostitution. I interviewed regular members of the public who knew very little, 
854if anything, about the sex trade. All of these people had a strong opinion. 
855
856I went where my views put me firmly in the minority. At an academic 
857conference on prostitution policy and laws in Vienna, Austria, entitled 
858‘Troubling Prostitution’, I was one of only four delegates out of 185 who 
859appeared to be troubled by it at all. The other 181 held the view that all 
860aspects of the sex trade should be decriminalised. 
861
862In Leeds, UK, I spend a freezing cold evening close to the ‘managed area’ 
863on which Daria Pionko, a 21-year-old prostituted woman, was fatally 
864wounded. As we go to press, a 24-year-old man believed to be her pimp is 
865awaiting trial for her murder. I spoke to residents, police officers, other 
866journalists and the women themselves. No-one tells me ‘yes’ when I ask if such 
867zones will reduce the danger to those operating within them. 
868
869I visit legal, state-sanctioned brothels in the USA, Germany and the 
870Netherlands. At the Porn Awards in Los Angeles I meet Siouxsie Q, founder of 
871The WhoreCast: Sharing the Stories, Art and Voices of American Sex 
872Workers , and the next morning, in a cafe in Hollywood, I talk to a man who is 
873a former victim of sex trafficking. 
874
875In Vancouver, Canada, I am taken on a tour of the deprived Downtown East 
876Side by Courtney, a young Indigenous women who works for a rape crisis 
877centre. Hundreds of Native women and girls disappeared from this area, some 
878of whom were murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton, who fed his victims’ 
879body parts to the pigs on his farm. 
880
881In Gujarat, India, I travel to a village built on prostitution and meet a man 
882who is pimping his wife, sister, aunt and mother. 
883
884In Dubai, UAE, I discover that what is supposed to be a shelter for 
885trafficked women is, in my view, a holding pen run by the government until the 
886victims can be deported back to their home countries. 
887
888In Sweden, where women’s bodies are not for sale, I share home-cured 
889
890
891salmon with Carina, a ‘sex workers’ rights’ activist who tells me she is so 
892appalled at the views of feminist abolitionists that ‘I could never even speak 
893that word “feminist” from my mouth’. 
894
895In Istanbul, Turkey, I speak to men queuing outside one of the city’s legal 
896brothels, but am warned off by security who tell me that ‘only men are allowed 
897here’. 
898
899At the central police station in Bergen, Norway, is the very first Exiting 
900Prostitution unit. I am shown around by police officer Jarle Bjorke who goes 
901into schools and asks the students, ‘Is it a human right to buy somebody else’s 
902body?’ Norway criminalised the purchase of sex in 2009, and Bjorke tells me 
903that understanding how this came about is simply a matter of the citizens 
904‘knowing right from wrong’. 
905
906At Den Haag, the Dutch Parliament, I meet the abolitionists who are finally 
907able to speak out against the sex trade in the Netherlands. I am told that 
908hostility from so-called feminists towards anyone who criticised the sex trade 
909prevented any debate on the topic. 
910
911During a trip to Cambodia, I hear from some of the prostituted women who 
912live on a disused railway line in Phenom Peng with no water or sanitation. 
913With them is a board member of Women’s Network for Unity (WNU), a local 
914NGO that is funded to present the women as ‘sex workers’ rights activists’. 
915
916In Northern Ireland, undoubtedly the most devout part of the UK, I hear the 
917story of how the abolitionist law, introduced by the Democratic Unionist 
918Party’s Lord Morrow, was enacted by 81 votes to 10. 
919
920Boston, Massachusetts, is home to a vibrant abolitionist movement. I have 
921brunch with fast-talking Donna Gavin, Sergeant Detective and Commander of 
922the Boston Police Human Trafficking Unit, who tells me that the pimps 
923targeting young, vulnerable women are becoming more brutal and sadistic than 
924ever. 
925
926I tour the legal brothel site in Zurich, the business capital of Switzerland, 
927and interview passers-by in sight of the drive-in brothel. 
928
929A group of feminist abolitionists in Seoul, South Korea, take me on a tour 
930of the indoor red light district in Cheongnyangni, where I see men of all ages 
931going in and coming out of window brothels. It is 5 p.m. Perhaps they were 
932popping in for a quick one after work. 
933
934A tuk tuk driver in Phnom Peng drives me around the prostitution sites, 
935where I talk to British sex tourists, the young women they are buying, and 
936groups of prostituted women in the park, identifiable by black face masks. 
937
938
939In a suburb of Amsterdam I stay the night at the Happy House B&B and 
940have dinner with Xaviera Hollander, who co-authored a book entitled The 
941Happy Hooker based on her experiences as a prostituted woman turned pimp. 
942During dinner, I asked Hollander, a passionate believer in legalisation, if she 
943thought pimping could ever be eliminated from the sex trade. ‘The average 
944hooker, the most simple-minded hooker who sits behind the window and just 
945plies her trade’, says Hollander, ‘is like a sheep and will follow the orders of 
946her pimp’. 
947
948I discuss the links between ‘queer politics’ and prostitution in Paris, 
949France, and problems with implementing the abolitionist model in Norway. 
950
951During my time with survivor abolitionists in New York City, Los Angeles, 
952Minnesota, Boston, Munich, Sweden, Montreal, Vancouver, Cambodia and the 
953UK, I chart a social justice movement and come to understand how we have 
954come to misunderstand the global sex trade. 
955
956At the High Court in Northern Ireland, which also criminalised paying for 
957sex in 2015, I listen to the arguments put forward by a QC in a judicial review 
958of the law, brought by Laura Lee, a ‘sex workers’ rights’ campaigner who 
959campaigns for blanket decriminalisation of the sex trade. 
960
961
962The Chapters 
963
964Chapter 1 explores the origins and rise of the modern-day abolitionist 
965movement. We meet the activists, politicians, police officers and the survivors 
966of the sex trade who have come together in an attempt to dismantle the sex 
967trade. I explore the emergence, from 1985 to the present day, of the movement. 
968
969In Chap. 2 we meet the ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby, and look at its origins 
970and key figures. I outline its key arguments and tactics, and the aims and 
971objections of the people—many of whom are involved in the sex trade—who 
972campaign for full decriminalisation. I meet Xaviera Hollander, whose 1971 
973memoir popularised the notion that prostitution is fun. 
974
975Chapter 3 focuses on what I refer to as the ‘sanitisation’ of the sex trade, 
976where language has lost all meaning thanks to the pro-prostitution lobby, so 
977that pimps become ‘managers’, prostituted women become ‘sex workers’ and 
978rape is an ‘occupational hazard’. 
979
980In Chap. 4 , the consequences of legalisation and decriminalisation of the 
981sex trade come under scrutiny. During visits to Australia, Nevada in the USA, 
982Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands (all with legalised regimes) I 
983explore the implications of legalisation for the women, the sex buyers, pimps, 
984brothel owners, police and the public. 
985
986Sex buyers come under scrutiny in Chap. 5 . Despite increased attention, 
987the punters are still largely invisible in the media, academic research, law 
988enforcement and campaigns against harm in the sex trade. I outline the views of 
989both the ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby as well as the feminist abolitionists, and 
990talk to the men who pay for sex and the women they buy. 
991
992Chapter 6 tackles the role of the liberals and human rights organisations 
993pushing for full decriminalisation of the sex trade. I explore the reason that 
994women have been left out of the human rights debate when it comes to male 
995sexual access. 
996
997The HIV/AIDS industry and its support for the pro-decriminalisation lobby 
998is examined in Chap. 7 . Since the 1980s, service provision, policy, legislation 
999and opinion have been shaped by the approach and funding of the HIV 
1000community. I will explain the links between a number of the key players in the 
1001‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby and the AIDS world, as well as the main funders 
1002behind it. 
1003
1004
1005Chapter 8 is an examination of the way that some criminals involved in the 
1006global sex trade utilise and co-opt the language of the ‘sex workers’ rights’ 
1007movement. Using examples from the Republic and North of Ireland, this 
1008chapter looks at ways in which pimps invade the movement against the laws to 
1009criminalise demand. 
1010
1011Chapter 9 considers the reason why the majority of academics within the 
1012UK, US and elsewhere have formed the view that the abolitionist view of the 
1013sex trade is counter to the campaign for the human rights of ‘sex workers’, and 
1014examines the influence of the academy on pro-prostitution policy. 
1015
1016In recent years, prostitution has been increasingly portrayed as a sexual 
1017identity, with the claim made that those involved in the sex trade are part of the 
1018‘queer community’. In Chap. 10 I examine the conflating of prostitution and 
1019LGBTQQI 4 rights and identity, and ask how and why it began and which side 
1020of the debate this conflation best serves. 
1021
1022Chapter 11 charts the survivors of the sex trade. The 50 women (and two 
1023men) interviewed are all campaigning for an end to prostitution, and many are 
1024expert trainers, service providers, writers and educators. 
1025
1026It should be clear to the reader that I do not pretend to come to this topic 
1027without a point of view. For the past 35 years I have campaigned to end male 
1028violence towards women and girls, and I see prostitution as one way that men 
1029exert their control over us. But I have learned a great deal in gathering the 
1030material and data for this book. It is right and proper that we continue to learn 
1031from each other, and shift and expand our views and beliefs. 
1032
1033
1034Contents 
1035
10361 The Abolitionist Movement 
1037
10382 The ‘Sex Workers’ Rights’ Movement 
1039
10403 Sanitising the Sex Trade 
1041
10424 Realities & Consequences of Legalisation 
1043
10445 The Invisible Man 
1045
10466 Human Rights and Wrongs 
1047
10487 Aiding the Fight for Legalisation: AIDS & HIV 
1049
10508 Fighting for Rights, or Parasites? 
1051
10529 Sex Trade Academics 
1053
105410 A Queer Defence of the Sex Trade 
1055
105611 Surviving the Sex Trade 
1057
1058Conclusion: The Way Forward 
1059
1060Bibliography 
1061
1062Index 
1063
1064
1065Footnotes 
1066
1067
10681 
1069Cusic, L., Brooks-Gordon, B., Campbell, R., Edgar, F. (2011.) ‘Exiting’drug use and sex work: 
1070Career paths, interventions and government strategy targets . Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http:// 
1071www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09687631003776901?src=recsys&journalCode=idep20 . 
1072
10732 
1074Scot-pep.org.uk. Promoting safety and rights, fighting for social justice and inclusion . Retrieved 
107515 June 2017, from http://www.scot-pep.org.uk/ . 
1076
10773 
1078Speech at the Massey College Fifth Walter Gordon Forum, Toronto, Ontario, in a symposium on ‘The 
1079Future of Feminism,’ 2 April 1995. First published by Massey College in the University of Toronto, 2 
1080May 1995. Copyright © 
10811995, 1996 by Andrea Dworkin. 
1082
10834 
1084The ‘alphabet soup’ has now extended to ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and 
1085intersex’. 
1086
1087
1088© The Author(s) 2017 
1089Julie Bindel, The Pimping of Prostitution, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55890-9_1 
1090
1091
10921. The Abolitionist Movement 
1093Julie Bindel1 
1094
1095
1096(1) London, UK 
1097Julie Bindel 
1098Email: juliebindel@yahoo.co.uk 
1099Andrea Dworkin once mused, ‘Surely the freedom of women must mean more 
1100to us than the freedom of pimps’.1 To many, prostituted women do not matter at 
1101all. 
1102
1103In this chapter I chart the growth of an exciting and vibrant abolitionist 
1104movement. It is a movement with many obstacles to overcome, and I outline the 
1105barriers and hostility its members face from the sex trade apologists. It will 
1106document the true face behind the international campaign to deregulate an 
1107abusive and dangerous industry. It asks why the liberal left is so supportive of 
1108the sex trade, when it is a trade built on inequality and the disenfranchisement 
1109of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable women and children. 
1110
1111Through the voices of survivors and other feminist abolitionists from 
1112numerous countries and states, you will hear about the ordinary, everyday 
1113common practices and experiences of prostitution, and the reasons why 
1114prostitution and the entire global sex trade must be abolished before women 
1115can live as equal citizens in this world. 
1116
1117
1118The Beginnings 
1119
1120The abolitionist movement began in 1860 when Josephine Butler , a social 
1121reformer feminist activist, saw the plight of young, homeless girls and women 
1122being sold to men for sex. Butler was appalled. As a child she had learned 
1123about social injustice from her father, John Grey , who was a supporter of the 
1124abolition of slavery. Butler’s main achievement was her successful campaign 
1125to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts : a brutal piece of legislation that 
1126permitted police to round up women in military towns whom they believed to 
1127be involved in prostitution in order to test them for venereal diseases. 
1128
1129Some women were locked up in hospitals for three months until they were 
1130cured. Butler said that these acts ‘removed every guarantee of personal 
1131security that the law has established’,2 and questioned why it was women who 
1132were tested when in fact it was women who were the victims of venereal 
1133disease, and it was men who were ‘the cause of the vice and its dreadful 
1134consequences’.3 
1135
1136Butler was ahead of her time in that she firmly placed the blame for the 
1137abuse of the women in prostitution, and for the existence of the sex trade, on 
1138the shoulders of men: something that many feminists today are reluctant to do. 
1139Butler was clear that prostitution was male sexual slavery of women and she 
1140attacked the pimps and profiteers, as well as the State that allowed the sex 
1141trade to flourish yet also blamed the women for the spread of sexually 
1142transmitted infections. 
1143
1144Butler has been accused of anti-sex, Christian moralism, and written off as 
1145a ‘rescuer’and patronisingto working-class women. Inreality, Butler is an 
1146important figure who advocated on behalf of prostituted women whom much of 
1147society considered to be worthless and ‘scum’. Not only did Butler take 
1148women into her home who were in the direst need, but she also challenged 
1149men’s right to sexual access to prostituted women and children. Butler was 
1150clear that prostitution hinders women’s human rights, and that men are to blame 
1151for the existence of prostitution. 
1152
1153During her life Butler achieved huge social and legal reforms at a time 
1154when women did not even have the right to vote. She travelled all over the 
1155USA and much of Europe, inspiring individuals, stimulating local organisations 
1156into action and addressing meetings, from small gatherings of women to public 
1157meetings attended by hundreds of working-class men.4 
1158
1159
1160The abolitionists of today stand on Josephine Butler’s shoulders and are, in 
1161turn, accused by the ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby and advocates of 
1162decriminalising pimping of being moralistic, anti-sex man-haters. The feminist 
1163abolitionist movement is made up of many survivors of prostitution and other 
1164forms of male violence, as well as women, and some men, who recognise the 
1165harm the sex trade causes to wider society. 
1166
1167What is clear is that the abolitionist movement is global and it is growing. 
1168Despite the lack of funding and support the movement receives compared to the 
1169‘sex workers’ rights ’ lobby (which, as we will see in Chap. 7 is awash with 
1170AIDS/HIV prevention money), the abolitionist movement is gaining ground and 
1171finally being taken seriously by a number of policy and lawmakers around the 
1172world. As the evidence continues to mount on the disaster caused by 
1173legalisation and decriminalisation of the sex trade, so do the benefits and 
1174successes of the Nordic Model —legislation first introduced in Sweden in 
11751999 that criminalises paying for sex and decriminalises selling sex. Although, 
1176as I show in Chap. 9, academia is dominated by pro-prostitution scholars and 
1177doctoral students, a number of brave and robust academics across various 
1178countries and disciplines are daring to carry out and publish credible research 
1179on the negative consequences of prostitution and legalised prostitution 
1180systems.5 
1181
1182
1183Links to the Movement to End Male Violence 
1184
1185The other side were claiming prostitution is not all about violence, and it 
1186
1187can be very empowering for women and certainly a better job than 
1188
1189working at McDonalds . So I said to them, ‘Well at least when you work 
1190
1191at McDonalds you’re not the meat’. (Evelina Giobbe 2015) 
1192
1193Abolitionists argue that the only effective way to tackle any trade that is 
1194built on vulnerability, exploitation and desperation is to support those 
1195desperate enough to sell sexual access to themselves and ensure that those 
1196creating the demand pay the price . There is as little room for pimps to be 
1197reclassified as respectable businessmen—which they are under the New 
1198Zealand model where the sex trade is decriminalised—as there is for police 
1199officers to consider it a mere perk of the job to have sex while investigating 
1200activities in a brothel. 
1201
1202‘I started talking about the similarities between the Left and Right’, Evelina 
1203Giobbe , sex trade survivor and founder of Women Hurt in Systems of 
1204Prostitution Engaged in Revolt (WHISPER ),6 told me. ‘They both want 
1205control over and access to women’s bodies. The Right Wing does it through 
1206marriage and the Left Wing does it through prostitution and pornography. You 
1207can marry it, you can buy it—and we’re it.’ 
1208
1209There is a cost to those survivors who name prostitution as male violence 
1210towards women. Prostitution is not some unusual but generally harmless 
1211activity, such as collecting rare insects or mountain climbing, as much of the 
1212Left would have it. Rather it is both a cause and a consequence of women’s 
1213oppression, situated firmly within the patriarchy . Women have long been 
1214punished for naming male violence and for insisting we examine and campaign 
1215against it as something institutionalised and normalised, instead of seeing it as 
1216the actions of individual, atypical men. 
1217
1218When women first named domestic violence as a tactic to shore up and 
1219maintain male supremacy over women and their children, they were duly 
1220punished. Those who do the same with child sexual abuse , rape, sexual assault 
1221and forced marriage are accused of lying, manipulation and man-hating. The 
1222upholders of male supremacy define sexual violence as pleasurable sex. 
1223
1224In 2005 I appeared on a popular daytime TV programme to debate the 
1225UK’s appallingly low conviction rates for rape. Immediately after the 
1226
1227
1228broadcast I went to my local bank to deposit a cheque. A man asked if I was 
1229the woman he had just seen on TV. When I told him yes, he screwed up his face 
1230and told me I was ‘too ugly to rape’. A young female bank clerk who 
1231overheard this sought to reassure me that the man was talking rubbish, as I was 
1232‘very pretty’—which goes to show how much we internalise the need for male 
1233approval. The stigma that is imposed on women accused of denying men sexual 
1234pleasure is debilitating and humiliating. But despite this, the women who can 
1235best testify to the truth about prostitution continue to speak out. 
1236
1237Nowhere is the conflation of sexual desire and sexual abuse more 
1238prevalent than in the debates on prostitution. Abolitionists are routinely 
1239accused by the pro-prostitution lobby of hating men, sex, orgasms and the 
1240female body. Abolitionist criticism of the sex trade has been rationalised by 
1241the pro lobby as a reaction to a failure to acquire ‘a good fuck’. I have watched 
1242sex trade survivors give talks about prostitution to large audiences, and then 
1243receive intrusive questions about their sexual orientation, sexual history and 
1244sexual behaviour. The implications were obvious: were they frigid, sex-hating 
1245prudes? Because prostitution is rewritten as sex by the apologists, speaking out 
1246against the sex trade is cast as speaking out against sexual pleasure. Often they 
1247are accused of ‘hating sex’ due to their ‘bad experiences’ of prostitution, as 
1248though this is an unusual response to years of unwanted sex. 
1249
1250
1251The History 
1252
1253‘We are speaking out because we are sick of the myth of the Pretty Woman 
1254version of prostitution’, Janette Westbrook , survivor activist and SPACE 
1255member told me in 2014. ‘For too long the happy hooker stereotype has 
1256dominated.’ 
1257
1258The contemporary survivor movement began in earnest 30 years before 
1259Westbrook and I met in New York. WHISPER , founded in 1985 in the USA, 
1260was a direct challenge to the notion that prostitution is either a free choice or 
1261labour. 
1262
1263‘I am 65 years old. I was literally sold into prostitution—it’s called 
1264trafficking now’, says Giobbe . ‘I was sold to a pimp as a 14-year-old kid that 
1265ran away from home. I was gone for two days. Kids who run away from home 
1266are not thinking their whole lives; they’re just escaping a moment in time. 
1267
1268‘A man was very nice to me and listened to my sad story. He said I have to 
1269meet a friend of mine, he took me to the man’s house. I was really an innocent 
1270and the man who brought me there left. The other man said “You’re mine, I 
1271bought you, you’re going to be a prostitute”. I looked at him incredulously and I 
1272said “no” and turned around to leave and he beat me half to death and that was 
1273the beginning.’ 
1274
1275Had Giobbe not gone to a Women Against Pornography meeting in 1985, 
1276the modern abolitionist movement may have taken rather longer to garner 
1277support. The ‘sex workers’ rights ’ movement, as we will see in Chap. 2, was 
1278already in full swing. 
1279
1280‘Oh my God, they were everywhere’, says Giobbe. ‘The big push was 
1281Margot St James and COYOTE (a pro-prostitution lobby group founded in the 
1282USA in 1973, standing for Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics7). They were the 
1283first and last word on prostitution, anywhere. Literally, their arguments, word 
1284for word—is exactly what you’re hearing from Amnesty [AI] today.’ 
1285
1286Giobbe describes the panel session at the conference that was made up of 
1287pro-sadism and masochism (S&M) and prostitution activists and Women 
1288Against Pornography members. ‘The audience were like the bride’s side of the 
1289family and the groom’s side of the family’, she says. ‘There were the liberals, 
1290and there were all leathered out S&M girls and there were the feminists, like 
1291regular people. I was looking for a seat and I had a sharp haircut and the 
1292leather jacket, so they see me and think I’m one of them. These women are 
1293
1294
1295making room for me to sit down, so I go and sit down. 
1296
1297‘Somebody was going on and on about the whole argument for 
1298decriminalisation, and [saying prostitution is] a job, and finally I raised my 
1299hand and the chair called on me to speak. I got up and just said, “That’s a total 
1300lie. I was in prostitution and that’s not true”. Everybody who knew me looked 
1301at me and was stunned. No one had any idea that this woman from Queens , this 
1302housewife, had been in prostitution.’ 
1303
1304WHISPER was born. ‘That was sort of the beginning. Afterwards women 
1305came over to me during the conference and told me they had been prostituted. I 
1306was like, “Wow!” Suddenly I wasn’t alone. I was collecting phone numbers 
1307from everybody who told me they had been prostituted. I said, “We should 
1308have a newsletter’” I made up the name WHISPER when I was on the bus.’ 
1309
1310The hostility from the ‘sex workers’ rights ’ activists began immediately 
1311when WHISPER was founded. ‘So every conference we went to, except the 
1312ones we planned, we would have to get on these panels with [‘sex workers’ 
1313rights’ activists]. They would make fun of us’, says Giobbe . ‘Somebody called 
1314us WHIMPER once—actually it was pretty clever but I was pissed off. They 
1315said we didn’t care about protecting women, that prostitution was a choice and 
1316we were infantilising them, that we wanted to keep it criminalised.’ 
1317
1318The ‘WHIMPER ’ slur is a topical one used against feminists who 
1319campaign to end male violence. We are accused of creating a ‘victim mentality’ 
1320and inventing or exaggerating the prevalence and effects of sexual abuse. Laura 
1321Agustin , ‘sex workers’ rights ’ activist and author of Sex At The Margins , 
1322claims that: ‘Victims become passive receptacles and mute sufferers who must 
1323be saved, and helpers become saviours, a colonialist operation warned against 
1324in discussions of western feminism’s treatment of third-world women and now 
1325common in discussions of migrant women who sell sex’.8 
1326
1327‘When I was in prostitution I would always say, “I’m fine, I love what I 
1328do”. I had to or I would have gone mad’, says Giobbe . ‘It is only when we get 
1329out, if we are lucky enough to get out alive, we can admit the hell, the horror of 
1330what was happening to us.’ 
1331
1332According to Giobbe, in the early days of the modern abolitionist 
1333movement, activists would point to men’s demand for prostitution as the root 
1334cause of the problem, but had no blueprint for a solution. ‘We didn’t have the 
1335knowledge that people have now with the Nordic model ’, says Giobbe . ‘We 
1336didn’t know how to put that together. How do you do that without 
1337decriminalisation? So we would say “women don’t deserve to go to jail”. This 
1338
1339
1340whole industry is driven by men’s demand for unconditional sexual access to 
1341women based on their social, economic and gender power—in other words 
1342patriarchy .’ 
1343
1344Giobbe found that women both inside and outside of the women’s 
1345movement preferred to hear the arguments from the ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby 
1346rather than the feminist abolitionists . ‘If you want to stop prostitution and you 
1347want to stop the men who are driving it, the johns, then all you have to do is 
1348look across the breakfast table. Women don’t want to do that. So I think women 
1349—regular women, not prostituted women—women with not a lot of 
1350knowledge, just step back. They have to believe that this is a choice , or they 
1351would have to believe that men are rapists.’ 
1352
1353Soon after WHISPER was founded, several other groups began to emerge. 
1354In 1988 the Coalition Against Trafficking of Women9 was set up. It was the 
1355first global feminist abolitionist organisation, and has affiliations in countries 
1356including the Philippines , Bangladesh , Indonesia , Thailand , Venezuela , 
1357Puerto Rico , Chile , Canada , Norway , France and Greece . 
1358
1359SAGE (Standing Against Global Exploitation), a resource, advocacy and 
1360counselling centre for women in prostitution, was founded in 1992 by Norma 
1361Hotaling , a survivor of child sexual abuse and street prostitution. In 1989, 
1362after a short spell in prison during which she detoxed from heroin, Hotaling 
1363had begun to support other women suffering drug abuse and associated 
1364violence. 
1365
1366The abolitionist movement in the 1980s was indivisible from the feminist 
1367anti-male violence movement, with little or no interference from the religious 
1368right, or conservative moralists. Just as the wider feminist movement sought to 
1369end male violence rather than contain or make it more palatable, the 
1370abolitionist movement sought the end of the sex trade. To achieve this, men had 
1371to be deterred from paying for sex and women assisted out of prostitution. 
1372
1373
1374More Than Condoms and Needles 
1375
1376Since the 1980s, when money designated for HIV/AIDS prevention became 
1377channelled towards services for those involved in prostitution, harm 
1378minimisation was the predominant service provided. Clean needles, condoms 
1379and STI testing was usually all the women accessing such services could 
1380expect. 
1381
1382In 1996, Breaking Free10 was founded in Minnesota, USA, by sex trade 
1383survivor Vednita Carter . Based in St Paul, the capital and second most 
1384populous district, Breaking Free provides support, counselling, exiting 
1385services, education, housing and a range of other services for women who are 
1386escaping, or who are at risk of prostitution. 
1387
1388Breaking Free is a good model of a service dealing with the range of issues 
1389facing women who are being, or had previously been, prostituted. A sizeable 
1390percentage of the client base is young African-American women, who are 
1391particularly at risk of sexual exploitation in North America. Carter, herself 
1392African-American, is also a member of SPACE International. As I write, 
1393Carter, now in her early 60s, has stepped aside as executive director of 
1394Breaking Free and is president of its board, giving talks and appearing at 
1395public events in order to speak about the sex trade and the abolitionist 
1396movement. 
1397
1398Carter, who I have met on a number of occasions at abolitionist and other 
1399feminist events, is clear that services need to be directed towards women at 
1400various stages of their exiting progress. ‘I want women to know that they will 
1401not be turned away just because they’re not ready that minute to exit. It can be a 
1402long, complicated process’, she says. ‘If we let those girls down, and if they 
1403feel judged in any way because they’re not making that easy transition into 
1404another life, we will lose them. In particular, African-American girls need to 
1405know they have a place to go. They are so marginalised, and often seen as 
1406‘choosing’ the life, because to many white folk that’s the way they view these 
1407girls and their lack of opportunities.’ 
1408
1409Rae Story is a survivor who exited in 2015, and is a feminist and socialist 
1410activist. Story has been prostituted in a number of countries, including under 
1411legalised, decriminalised and regulated regimes. For her, one of the most 
1412important aspects of an abolitionist movement is the provision of specific 
1413support and exiting services for women in prostitution. Many abolitionists are 
1414
1415
1416rightly concerned about the dominance of faith-based service provision in a 
1417number of countries. This is not to say that some of those services are not 
1418really well run, or that in any way they require women to either practise 
1419religion prior to leaving prostitution, or to adopt religion once they are 
1420involved in those services, but feminist-run exiting services are very specific 
1421in that those running them are often sex trade survivors themselves, and are 
1422required to be experts in the cause and consequences of male violence towards 
1423women. Therefore, the women themselves will never be blamed, judged or 
1424held responsible for what happened to them, and the responsibility will be put 
1425firmly on the men who perpetrate the abuse. 
1426
1427‘We need temporary shelters, free counselling, support and advocacy with 
1428welfare and disability benefit for those of us suffering with mental health 
1429issues as a result of prostitution’, says Story , ‘as with women who are trying 
1430to exit domestic violence’. 
1431
1432When Story tried to leave the sex trade the first time around, she had to 
1433make a choice between prostitution and homelessness. ‘I shouldn’t have to 
1434make that choice’, she says. ‘Another friend was trying to get [benefits]. She 
1435got into prostitution because her mental health made it hard to find work. So 
1436[we need] support services specifically for prostitutes to help them make that 
1437transition.’ 
1438
1439
1440The Origins of the Law to Criminalise Punters 
1441
1442Although the second wave abolitionist movement (if we count Josephine Butler 
1443as leading us into the first one) was established some years before the 
1444introduction in Sweden of the law to criminalise demand, in 1999 this law 
1445broke new ground and helped to galvanise the movement. A number of 
1446feminists had been fighting for the introduction of this law for many years 
1447because they saw prostitution as simply another form of men’s violence 
1448towards women. The unsolved murder of Catrine da Costa ,11 a street-
1449prostituted young woman found decapitated near to the notorious street 
1450prostitution zone in Stockholm, gave a further push to the campaign to focus on 
1451sex buyers . 
1452
1453The arrest of two seemingly respectable men for da Costa’s murder 
1454provoked the women of Sweden to organise against the sex trade. They 
1455marched through the city centres; circulated petitions; and appeared on 
1456television programmes protesting against the ill treatment of women, 
1457particularly vulnerable females such as da Costa . The case led to a change in 
1458the law on prostitution and the act of paying for sex has been criminalised 
1459since 1999. 
1460
1461According to the Swedish-based journalist and feminist activist Kajsa Ekis 
1462Ekman : ‘I think the important thing was that if the goal of Sweden is to have 
1463equality between men and women, then prostitution is an obstacle to that goal. 
1464It wasn’t [the intention to claim that the women were] all victims, with the 
1465government saying “we’re going to save them”. That’s what’s been distorted in 
1466the international press’. 
1467
1468I first met the Swedish feminist and lawyer Gunilla Ekberg in the late 
14691990s. Prior to this she had played a pivotal role in promoting the benefits of 
1470the Nordic model and is credited with being a key figure in the campaign to 
1471introduce Sweden’s groundbreaking legislation in 1999, which decriminalised 
1472selling sex and criminalised the purchase and attempted purchase of sex. I met 
1473Ekberg in Malmo, Sweden, to ask her about how the law to criminalise the 
1474punters came to be. ‘It is different in Scandinavia than other countries because 
1475there’s been a Labour democrat rule since the 1930s until the 1980s so, if you 
1476wanted to change something, you had to interact with party politics’, says 
1477Ekberg . ‘Also [we have] an open democracy—everything is public. It’s very 
1478easy to get in contact with the government, you can meet them easily, it used to 
1479
1480
1481be you can call them and say can we meet?’ 
1482
1483Margareta Winberg was the Deputy Prime Minister in Sweden from 2002– 
14842003, and a Social Democrat Party member of Parliament from 1981–2003. 
1485She is currently Swedish Ambassador to Brazil. I asked her to tell me the story 
1486of how the law to criminalise sex buyers was passed by the Government. 
1487
1488According to Winberg, discussions within her party about criminalising 
1489demand had been going on since the beginning of the 1990s. Many of the 
1490politicians were split on the issue, and some research on the potential benefits 
1491of this law had taken place. Winberg was chair of the women’s movement 
1492within the Social Democratic Party at that time, and presided over debates 
1493about whether or not the buyer and the seller should be criminalised, or 
1494whether the problem lay solely with the punter. 
1495
1496In 1993 the item was listed at the Social Democratic Party Congress (SDP) 
1497for discussion. Wynberg was the chair but thought that the item would not come 
1498up until much later in the evening. Having gone into her office to get a cup of 
1499coffee, she was surprised when a colleague came running in shouting: ‘We 
1500have just criminalised the buyers!’ 
1501
1502‘There were no abstentions’, says Winberg . ‘After that we made a huge 
1503strategy on how to get it to pass as a law. We prepared lots of people, 
1504including men, because as you know men talk to men and men, at that time at 
1505least, men also talk to most of the women. They stood up and talked in favour 
1506of criminalisation. We had at that time … it must have been between 1995 and 
15071998. Eventually, we succeeded to convince the congress to criminalise the 
1508buyers.’ 
1509
1510Sven Axel Mansson , now Professor of Social Work at Malmo University, 
1511was a radical social worker at the time the law was being debated in Swedish 
1512Parliament. Since becoming an academic, Mansson has conducted a number of 
1513research projects into the commercial sex trade, in particular focusing on men 
1514who buy sex . We met at a conference on demand in Den Haag , Holland. I 
1515asked him to give me his perspective on the history of the law. According to 
1516Mansson, at the time that the abolitionist law was being debated, there was no 
1517viable pro-prostitution lobby in operation in Sweden . Alongside that, the law 
1518was compatible with the socialist view that those most in need should be taken 
1519care of by those with more privilege, and was ideologically in sync with the 
1520feminist principles that located prostitution as men’s violence against women. 
1521
1522‘The SDP women developed a fantastic sexuality manifesto in 1984 that 
1523talked about prostitution as harmful, so that [attitude] funnelled into most of the 
1524
1525
1526parties’, says Mansson . ‘There was this anti-violence package that then was 
1527voted through the Parliament in 1998. That included different legislative 
1528measures and money and monitoring and focusing on the women’s movement 
1529and the shelters and in the mix was the law. So it was indicated from then that 
1530the law is part of Violence Against Women.’ 
1531
1532For Kajsa Ekis Ekman , the law criminalising demand was never about 
1533condemning or protecting individual men or women, but about the type of 
1534society that is desirable to live in: ‘It wasn’t about the individual prostituted 
1535woman and how she felt. That’s how we avoided that debate. We had the 
1536debate prior to the law. We said, “It’s not about you, it’s about the whole of 
1537society. Do we want this in the whole of society?” That’s how we did it’. 
1538
1539Janice Raymond , author of Not A Choice , Not A Job: Exposing the Myths 
1540about Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade 12 and long-time feminist 
1541activist, became co-director of the Coalition against Trafficking in Women 
1542(CATW) in 1994. She has been involved in the abolitionist movement since the 
1543late 1980s, having attended the founding conference of CATW in 1988, and 
1544making the connections between sexual and reproductive trafficking 
1545(surrogacy). 
1546
1547Raymond said: ‘The Swedish law was a real milestone, a sea change in 
1548just shifting viewpoints in the media because then the media had to talk about 
1549the demand, and then when Norway passed it and Iceland passed it and then 
1550South Korea—which everyone just ignores—passed it also … those were 
1551again milestones so I think that my outlook at this point is really optimistic. I 
1552think we’ve come a long way, baby. I don’t think we appreciate that enough or 
1553capitalise on it enough’. 
1554
1555Julia Tiberg is a member of PRIS (Prostitutes Revenge in Society),13 an 
1556organisation in Sweden made up of women who have had experience of the sex 
1557trade. Most members are survivors, with some currently still involved. Its aims 
1558include developing exiting services, educating the general public about the 
1559harms of prostitution, and increasing penalties for sex buyers . 
1560
1561PRIS was founded in response to the pro-prostitution movement in 
1562Sweden, to add another voice. Talking to Tiberg via Skype, she says that much 
1563of the research produced by Swedish academics is critical of the law 
1564criminalising demand, and is uncritical of the sex trade. ‘This research is 
1565supposedly based on the experiences of women who have left the sex trade’, 
1566she says, ‘but as far as we can see, they haven’t spoken to one survivor. They 
1567merely interview their pro-prostitution friends.’ 
1568
1569
1570For Tiberg , the most useful direction the abolitionist movement could go in 
1571would be to form a European network for better communication. ‘I would 
1572invite psychologists, survivors, feminists, police officers … in other words 
1573anyone working against prostitution and for abolition.’ 
1574
1575
1576An International Focus on Demand 
1577
1578Norma Hotaling , founder of SAGE , devised a programme that was to become 
1579known as the John’s School ; a programme aimed at educating sex buyers about 
1580the harms of prostitution, which came to be replicated across scores of cities 
1581in the USA and Canada . Charges against first offenders were dropped if they 
1582paid a fee and attended a one-day course, including sessions run by former 
1583prostitutes, on the realities of the sex trade. Most of the fees went to help 
1584women attend the SAGE programme. 
1585
1586I remember meeting Hotaling at the 1996 Brighton conference and the 
1587impact it had on me. Hotaling told me how, after a stint in prison during which 
1588she detoxed and decided to exit prostitution, she adopted a homeless dog. ‘The 
1589unconditional love between me and that dog was the first time I ever felt safe’, 
1590she said. 
1591
1592For many of the delegates at the Brighton conference, hearing Hotaling 
1593speak as a proud survivor and activist, who had been in the worst possible 
1594position in life and went on to create such an inspirational service for 
1595prostituted women, was a turning point. Prior to that conference, women in the 
1596UK and elsewhere in Europe were reluctant to tackle the contentious issue of 
1597prostitution head on. The ‘sex workers’ rights ’ movement was well underway, 
1598well funded and, unsurprisingly, supported by a number of high-profile liberal 
1599and leftist men and women. 
1600
1601Fiona Broadfoot , a British survivor of the sex trade, was also at the 
1602Brighton conference . In the months leading up to the event, I was employed as 
1603its press officer and given the role of coordinating workshops on pornography 
1604and prostitution. One day, as I sat in the office at Bradford University’s 
1605Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations Unit, a heavily pregnant woman walked 
1606in and asked if I was Julie Bindel. She seemed nervous and was holding some 
1607A4 pages. When I confirmed that I was the person she was looking for, 
1608Broadfoot introduced herself, saying she had set up and ran a telephone 
1609support service for women wishing to leave prostitution called ‘Street Exit’. 
1610Broadfoot handed me the paper she was holding and told me, ‘It’s my story’, 
1611asking me to read it and get in touch with her. As she was leaving the office, 
1612Broadfoot said she wanted ‘a chance to help other women like me’. 
1613
1614As I read Broadfoot’s story, I realised how rare it was to meet someone 
1615like her in the women’s movement. I had met other women who had survived 
1616
1617
1618the sex trade, but no-one who had been willing to speak out publicly about 
1619their experiences, or who was spending their time helping other women. 
1620
1621When Broadfoot was living at home with her parents aged 15, she was 
1622targeted and groomed into prostitution by the man she believed was her 
1623boyfriend and taken to work on the streets and in hotels. If Broadfoot refused, 
1624the pimp beat her: ‘I was a child. I was terrified. I had no choice ’. 
1625
1626During the 15 years she was prostituted, Broadfoot experienced horrific 
1627violence, abuse and humiliation at the hands of her pimp and punters. ‘I was 
1628once driven 70 miles out of London by a punter who held me in a semi-derelict 
1629house and raped, beat and tortured me for an hour’, she wrote. ‘I got away 
1630from him by spraying perfume in his face and running naked into the street.’ 
1631
1632Eventually, Broadfoot was rescued by two passers-by who gave her 
1633clothes and drove her back to London. ‘My pimp told me to wash the blood 
1634away, stop crying and get back to work’, Broadfoot wrote. ‘He said getting 
1635back on the streets was like riding a horse after a fall, and that unless I get back 
1636up there I would never ride again.’ 
1637
1638Broadfoot did as she was told. Eleven years later, in June 1995, Broadfoot 
1639saw a mugshot of her 17-year-old cousin Maureen Stepan flash up on her TV 
1640screen. Stepan, also prostituted and addicted to heroin, had been brutally 
1641murdered by a punter. Broadfoot left the sex trade, vowing to raise awareness 
1642among the general public about the realities of prostitution. 
1643
1644At the Brighton conference , which was the beginning of her public 
1645activism, Broadfoot spoke at a workshop with Andrea Dworkin and another 
1646woman called Irene Ivison . 
1647
1648Ivison, a middle-class peace activist who described herself to me as ‘a bit 
1649like a mother out of an Enid Blyton tale’, had met Broadfoot at a meeting in 
1650Bradford about prostitution. A few months before the Brighton conference , 
1651Ivison had set up the Coalition for the Removal of Pimping (CROP). Three 
1652years earlier, Ivison’s daughter, also called Fiona, had been murdered at the 
1653age of 17 by a punter, having been pimped into prostitution by her older 
1654‘boyfriend’. Ivison had spent the previous three years battling with police and 
1655social services to try and stop the abusive relationship in which her daughter 
1656had been involved since the age of 14, but no-one intervened. It was only after 
1657her daughter’s death that Ivison learned Fiona had been prostituted three weeks 
1658before her murder. In 1997, Ivison’s book about her daughter, Fiona’s Story,14 
1659was published. It won praise from professionals and activists in the area of 
1660child protection and criminal justice. 
1661
1662
1663The 1996 Brighton conference gave birth to the UK-based survivor-led 
1664abolitionist movement in the UK. In 1997, Jalna Hanmer , the director of the 
1665Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations Unit, whose brainchild the Brighton 
1666conference was, asked me to work with her in organising the first UK-based 
1667conference that named prostitution as violence against women and girls, at 
1668which several survivors attended and spoke, including Emma Humphreys . 
1669
1670The media went berserk with excitement, because tackling the punters 
1671provided a fresh angle on reporting prostitution-related stories and events. The 
1672BBC shadowed the organisers in the build-up to the first course, and in 
1673December 1998 it aired a 50-minute documentary on the scheme.15 National 
1674newspapers such as the Guardian, Independent and Observer ran in-depth 
1675pieces on it, and it was regularly featured in local newspapers and radio 
1676programmes. 
1677
1678There was also an immediate and massive backlash to the scheme from the 
1679‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby as soon as word got out about our plans, which was 
1680a full year before the first course was held. I detail this backlash and its 
1681ramifications in Chap. 5, ‘The Invisible Man’. 
1682
1683
1684The Opposition 
1685
1686The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) was extremely active during the 
1687following years, while the abolitionist movement was less active and received 
1688no funding whatsoever. However, one feminist organisation provided the space 
1689and resources from which to conduct research, influence policy, and campaign 
1690against the efforts to decriminalise the entire sex trade and to rewrite 
1691prostitution as work. Eaves Housing for Women 16 began life as a 
1692homelessness action in the 1970s, and had provided housing for me when I 
1693moved to London in 1987. Denise Marshall became chief executive of Eaves 
1694in 2000 and was a staunch abolitionist. Within Eaves, Marshall set up the very 
1695first support and housing service for women trafficked into the UK. 
1696
1697In 2004 I made the decision to leave academia , and had just submitted my 
1698final piece of research on behalf of The Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit 
1699at London Metropolitan University , which examined the links between lap 
1700dancing clubs and prostitution. Marshall contacted me and asked if I would 
1701agree to be employed on a part-time consultancy basis at Eaves for a period of 
1702no more than six months. The government had recently published a consultation 
1703document on the sex trade and Marshall wanted me to write the response on 
1704behalf of Eaves. I readily agreed: it was going to be difficult transition area 
1705between leaving a full-time position and breaking into freelance journalism 
1706full time. Marshall asked if I would help build up the research and policy side 
1707of Eaves. The main focus for Eaves until then had been running the services for 
1708trafficked women. The majority of the funding was for this, and for services 
1709such as housing legal support and counselling for women experiencing other 
1710forms of male violence. 
1711
1712I remained a consultant at Eaves for 11 years. During that time, I, along 
1713with others, conducted several pieces of research on various aspects of the sex 
1714trade. Marshall and I shared the same outlook: we did not want to focus only 
1715on the horrors of international pimping, or trafficking as it is more widely 
1716known, and believed it to be crucial to look at local sex markets to highlight 
1717the fact that the only difference between international and local pimping is that 
1718some women are pimped across borders, and others are not. 
1719
1720Sex trafficking is an embarrassment to the pro-prostitution lobby in the 
1721same way that lung cancer is to the tobacco industry. Despite claims to the 
1722opposite, feminist abolitionists do not ‘rely’ on scaremongering about the 
1723
1724
1725numbers of trafficking victims, or exaggerate the extent of the abuse and 
1726violence they endure. 
1727
1728Rachel Moran , a sex trade survivor from the Republic of Ireland, author of 
1729the best selling political memoir Paid For: My Journey through 
1730Prostitution,17 and founder of SPACE International (Survivors of Prostitution 
1731Abuse Calling for Enlightenment)18 is opposed to the idea of presenting all 
1732prostitution as sex trafficking: ‘It’s a wrongheaded political strategy. I’d never 
1733get on board with that. To begin with, it suggests that prostitution itself is not 
1734the problem. Prostitution is exactly the problem’. 
1735
1736From the moment I arrived at Eaves, both Marshall and I were on the 
1737receiving end of hostility from the pro-prostitution lobby . Every piece of 
1738research we published was publicly criticised by academics and service 
1739providers who did not like our focus on the dangers inherent to prostitution. 
1740However, Eaves became the engine room from which the London abolitionist 
1741movement would flourish. In 2005, I invited the writer and campaigner Andrea 
1742Dworkin to speak at an evening event at Eaves. The room was packed with as 
1743many women standing as there were sitting, all listening to Dworkin speak of 
1744the early campaigns against the normalisation of prostitution. 
1745
1746‘It was only at that meeting, hearing Andrea speak, that I realised there 
1747wasn’t actually an abolitionist movement in the UK as such’, said Marshall to 
1748me in an interview a year after Dworkin’s visit.19 ‘Yes there were events, 
1749research, protests and various things that were more endemic to the anti-
1750violence against women’s movement, [but] there was nothing coordinated. 
1751There was no umbrella movement. Like the anti-rape movement, we needed an 
1752abolitionist movement that had its own identity and direction.’ 
1753
1754As with the campaigns against domestic violence, rape and child sexual 
1755abuse , survivors lead the way in setting up such organisations and movements. 
1756As a rule, feminist activists tend not to be ‘do-gooders’ as many liberals tend 
1757to be. The very women who experience the oppression of male sexual violence 
1758are the ones who then lead the fight to end it. 
1759
1760Sex Trade 101 20 was founded by Natasha Falle and Bridget Perrier in 
17612007. Both women are survivors of the sex trade and Bridget Perrier is Native 
1762Canadian. I meet Perrier in New York City at a SPACE International members 
1763meeting. Perrier is full of energy and verve, and passionately proud of her 
1764Indigenous culture. Having been abused into prostitution as a child, Perrier 
1765eventually was given support to leave and attend college. Having volunteered 
1766for a Native organisation that helped abused women, Perrier was nominated 
1767
1768
1769for The Woman of Distinction Turning Point award in 2006 by the local 
1770YWCA . 
1771
1772‘This is when I knew I was an activist’, says Perrier . ‘I won the award. I 
1773was recognised for my good behaviour, finally. I knew that I still was different 
1774from those women even though I idolised a few of them. I’d written this speech 
1775and it took me months. I’m the only one in Toronto YWCA woman of 
1776distinction alumni that ever received a standing ovation in the middle of her 
1777speech. They would say “What did you do?” and they’d hear “Bridgett Perrier 
1778escaped from the clutches of prostitution”. If they had only seen me when I was 
1779back in that place, they would never have given me the award’. 
1780
1781‘In my speech I said that my award was for every prostituted woman who I 
1782knew that was murdered and I said their names, so the first minute was names 
1783from across Canada . The Mayor of Toronto was in tears, he didn’t know what 
1784the hell to do. I could see the YWCA staff running back and forth and looking 
1785at their speech that they had. They couldn’t turn on the music or do anything 
1786because the audience was captivated. That day I knew, they wouldn’t 
1787remember Bridget Perrier the bad girl, they would remember Bridget Perrier 
1788the woman that beat the odds.’ 
1789
1790Perrier met up with Natasha Falle at another meeting, and they made an 
1791instant connection. ‘I ran into her at the organisation where she was running a 
1792diversion programme’, says Perrier. ‘It was like it was meant to be. Later, 
1793Natasha called me up and said, “I have an idea”. She told me her vision for 
1794Sex Trade 101 . We wanted only survivors in management positions.’ 
1795
1796
1797Removing the Mask from the SWR Movement 
1798
1799A number of survivors and other abolitionists have long suspected that those 
1800prominent in the media and the ‘sex workers’ rights ’ movement who claim to 
1801be involved in the sex trade are fudging the truth. The pro-prostitution lobby 
1802includes pimps, brothel owners and other third-party exploiters in their use of 
1803the term‘sexworker’—theydo so because intheir view facilitating 
1804exploitation is a viable job, and if in fact it were it would be technically 
1805correct for those profiting from prostituted women and men to label themselves 
1806as such. 
1807
1808It turns out the suspicions of survivors and others were right. It has been 
1809proven that pro-prostitution lobbyists blatantly lie about their role in the sex 
1810trade during debates and other events. 
1811
1812Janice Raymond , the feminist academic and leading abolitionst, recalls an 
1813article written by survivor, activist and scholar Jane Anthony , who published 
1814an article in Ms 
1815Magazine 
1816in 1992 entitled ‘Prostitution As ‘Choice ’,21 in 
1817which she examined the membership of COYOTE . 
1818
1819‘Jane was the first person to look at who actually was in prostitution in that 
1820organisation. She found a book written by Valerie Jeness ,22 a pro-sex work 
1821academic. It reveals that nobody in COYOTE had been in prostitution, 
1822including Priscilla Alexander and Margot St James , other than taking dinners 
1823from boyfriends in college. 
1824
1825‘So Jane took a lot of that evidence that was in the Jeness book and wrote 
1826about it from the viewpoint of a survivor who really understood what was 
1827happening here and how these organisations that claimed to represent women 
1828and prostitution were actually professional, institutionalised, public relations 
1829groups for legalising prostitution.’ 
1830
1831In her article, Anthony explains that that pro-prostitution ideology, often 
1832considered sexual liberalism, ignores the fact that women’s choices are 
1833restricted by patriarchy , and therefore inadvertently trivialises prostitution. 
1834Anthony also calls into question those who see prostitution as a form of 
1835empowerment for women: 
1836
1837COYOTE claims to be not only representative of prostitutes’ voices, but 
1838
1839constituent of them as well. Indeed, one of COYOTE’s by-laws is that 
1840
1841only active prostitutes can vote on organisational issues.23 
1842
1843
1844By the end of 1974, COYOTE boasted a membership of over 10,000 
1845(Matzger 1975; Reinholz 1974), and by 1981 COYOTE leaders claimed 
1846to have 30,000 members, 3 percent of whom were active prostitutes. 
1847Consistent with these reports, both the mainstream and the so-called 
1848alternative media have presented the prostitutes’ rights movement in a 
1849way that implies the presence of prostitutes in the various organizations. 
1850The media have referred to COYOTE as a ‘self-proclaimed prostitutes’ 
1851union’, ‘a national organisation of hookers’, ‘the biggest pros group in the 
1852US’, ‘the first prostitutes’ guild’, ‘the first prostitutes’ union’, ‘a hookers’ 
1853union’, ‘a hookers’ organisation’, and a ‘prostitutes’ trade union’. Labels 
1854such as these strongly imply that COYOTE is an organisation of and for 
1855prostitutes.24 
1856
1857
1858From Liberal to Abolitionist 
1859
1860Abolitionists face bullying, slander and even ostracisation from many so-
1861called feminist and leftist organisations and friendship groups. Despite this, 
1862many are brave enough to defy the status quo and stand up for what they 
1863believe is right. For some, it means a public reversal of their position on the 
1864sex trade. 
1865
1866Meghan Murphy is a feminist activist and writer based in Vancouver, 
1867Canada . She began blogging under her site Feminist Current 25 in 2008, and 
1868went on to study for a BA and MA in Women’s Studies in Vancouver. At first 
1869Murphy was drawn towards the pro-lobby debate, but meeting survivors who 
1870were active in the abolitionist movement soon changed that: ‘The way that you 
1871learn to discuss these issues in university is with nuance and to not have an 
1872opinion and to look for empowerment as opposed to victimisation, they really 
1873push that. I didn’t realise that was what they were doing at the time, but in 
1874retrospect’, says Murphy. ‘I remember doing my BA and thinking, “I’m going to 
1875find prostitutes who are empowered when I start my research”, because that’s 
1876what [the university] encourages you to do.’ 
1877
1878Soon Murphy came face-to-face with the reality of the sex trade, after 
1879meeting survivors and other abolitionists who patiently explained how 
1880mythology around the issue is very persuasive. ‘I started learning about the 
1881issues more and I knew about the debates’, says Murphy. 
1882
1883For her blog Feminist Current, Murphy interviewed Trisha Baptie , a sex 
1884trade survivor from Vancouver, who, post-exit at the age of 28, became a 
1885citizen journalist for Orato, an online newspaper to cover the murder trial of 
1886Robert Pickton , a serial killer of prostituted women.26 
1887
1888‘I also met Cherry Smiley, an indigenous Canadian feminist abolitionist. 
1889Any doubts that I had around what I felt about prostitution were no longer there 
1890once I had talked to Trisha and Cherry’, says Murphy. ‘After learning about 
1891how Aboriginal women are over represented and how European men came 
1892over and put women in brothels, and understanding about the missing and 
1893murdered women,27 to me there was no doubt in my mind that it was about 
1894inequality and racism and poverty and about misogyny. I couldn’t understand 
1895why others didn’t see things that way. If you’re a progressive person and you 
1896care about human beings naturally you’ll see that this is unacceptable.’ 
1897
1898Sarah Ditum is a writer and feminist activist based in the UK. In 2012 she 
1899
1900
1901took part in a debate on the porn industry with Gail Dines,28 entitled ‘Is Porn 
1902Hijacking Our Sexuality?’29 
1903
1904As is clear from the following extract of her article, at the time of writing, 
1905Ditum obviously considered pornography to be potentially liberating for 
1906women: ‘There were two key things I had to understand before I changed my 
1907mind about the sex trade’, says Ditum. ‘The first is that being in prostitution (or 
1908being a prostitute or sex worker, as I would have thought of it then) isn’t a 
1909sexuality: there isn’t a group called ‘prostitutes’ who will sell sex regardless 
1910of conditions and must be kept as safe as possible.’ 
1911
1912Ditum came to understand that prostitution is always about the sex buyers ’ 
1913desires, never about the desires of the prostituted. ‘There’s a lot of cultural 
1914conditioning telling us that female sexuality is naturally submissive, and that 
1915women’s authentic desires are to do what men want them to’, says Ditum. 
1916‘That’s the nature of prostitution, and its defenders elide sexual exploitation 
1917and sexual pleasure. But tolerating what someone else pays to do to you isn’t 
1918pleasure, obviously: it’s abuse.’ 
1919
1920Another feminist who has changed her approach to prostitution in recent 
1921years is the journalist Renate Van Der Zee , based in the Netherlands . I first 
1922met Van der Zee in 2012 on a research trip to Amsterdam . I was put in contact 
1923with her by a colleague who was aware that she had recently written a book on 
1924trafficking of women into the sex trade. At that time Van Der Zee was not an 
1925abolitionist; rather she made quite a stark distinction between trafficking and 
1926other forms of prostitution. How did her shift in perception happen? 
1927
1928‘I’ve always been writing about freedom of women’, Van der Zee says. ‘I 
1929wrote a book about honour killing and articles about incest in a Moroccan 
1930family. Then I started thinking about what is the worst thing that can happen to 
1931a woman, and thought “being a sex slave and being a victim of human 
1932trafficking”.’ 
1933
1934After Van der Zee published her book on trafficking, she began to think that 
1935perhaps there was much more that she had not uncovered in the local sex trade 
1936near to where she lives in Dan Haag. ‘I was thinking, “if this is what goes on in 
1937the sex trade, I need to take a broader look at prostitution per se”. Then I 
1938started realising there is no such thing as free prostitution, it just doesn’t exist’, 
1939she says. ‘That was such a new thing for me, a totally new thing for me. Then I 
1940decided to write a book about it. In 2013, De Waarheid Achter de Wallen (The 
1941Truth Behind the Red Light District) was published, which takes a fresh, 
1942critical look at what is happening in the sex trade.’ 
1943
1944
1945Until recently, very little attention has been paid to the punters in legalised 
1946regimes, such as Holland. Van der Zee decided to correct this by writing a 
1947book on the demand for prostitution30 entitled Mannen Die Seks Kopen (Men 
1948who Buy Sex ), which was published in 2015. 
1949
1950‘There is a consensus now between policymakers and people from the 
1951shelters and even people who are pro-legalisation ‘that legalisation hasn’t 
1952worked out’, says Van Der Zee. ‘It hasn’t made the situation better for 
1953prostitutes and it hasn’t done anything in the field of stopping trafficking. 
1954Everybody agrees with that. The people who are pro-legalisation are saying 
1955what we need is to make legalisation perfect.’ 
1956
1957I asked Van der Zee what she thinks, if anything, could be done to improve 
1958legalisation so that it is effective. ‘Nothing’, she replied. ‘It is a flawed 
1959system.’ 
1960
1961When we met in 2012, Van Der Zee considered legalisation to be the best 
1962option. Today she is an abolitionist and has so far organised two conferences 
1963in the Dutch Parliament that have enabled a discussion about the failures of 
1964legalisation, the possibility of introducing the Nordic model , and creating a 
1965sea change within a culture that has been brainwashed by promises from the 
1966Government, aided by pro-prostitution groups and pimps, that legalisation 
1967would remove the problems inherent to the sex trade. 
1968
1969‘Five years ago it would have been unthinkable to have an abolitionist 
1970movement in this country, but today it is growing and on the way to thriving’, 
1971says Van der Zee , smiling widely. 
1972
1973
1974Abolitionist Feminists Living Under 
1975Legalisation/Decriminalisation 
1976
1977The same can be said for Germany . In December 2014, 
1978Kommunikationszentrum für Frau Arbeits (KOFRA), the feminist abolitionist 
1979group based in Munich, organised the international congress ‘Stop Sexbuying’ 
1980for the abolition of prostitution. The position taken by the congress was that 
1981prostitution is an obstacle to equality and prostitution is violence against 
1982women. Three hundred delegates attended, many of whom were staunch 
1983abolitionists , and some who were unsure of their position but were only too 
1984aware of the well-deserved reputation that Germany has earned in recent years 
1985of being ‘the brothel of Europe’.31 
1986
1987I had been unable to attend the Congress but a year later visited the feminist 
1988organisation that had organised it. I wanted to hear about the origins of the new 
1989abolitionist movement in Germany . 
1990
1991I travelled to Munich with Rachel Moran , who was launching the German 
1992edition of Paid For at the Women’s Centre. For Moran, the Munich Congress 
1993was one of the most important events in the contemporary abolitionist 
1994movement. Moran recalls sitting on a panel with other speakers, one of whom 
1995described the brothels in Germany that advertise deals where the buyer pays a 
1996flat rate for a burger, beer and ‘as many fucks as he can manage’. Another 
1997spoke of the case of a 19-year old, heavily pregnant woman who was hired for 
1998a gang-bang in a German brothel by six men, four of whom wore horror masks. 
1999One woman talked about women she knew who had been used by 60 men a 
2000day. ‘I tore up my speech. It had become meaningless’, says Moran. ‘I was 
2001raging and only spoke for about three minutes. I was very close to the edge of 
2002losing my temper and finished by shouting, “You’ve GOT to stop this or your 
2003country will pay for it in the annals of history!’’’ 
2004
2005Moran added: ‘You know, I’ve spoken in over 20 countries across the 
2006world and I’ve seen a lot of different reactions from audiences, and oftentimes 
2007there will be patterns in those reactions, but that is the one single time I’ve 
2008seen a quarter of the audience spontaneously burst into tears in the same 
2009moment. The German activists know the hell that’s happening in their country 
2010and it is breaking their hearts’. 
2011
2012Women attended the conference from numerous neighbouring countries, 
2013
2014
2015including those with similar laws such as Austria and Switzerland. ‘Women 
2016poured into that conference from all over Europe, but there were also a lot of 
2017German women’, says Moran . ‘This was the beginning of a new movement. 
2018The dam had burst and there was no going back from it.’ 
2019
2020Huschke Mau is one of a growing number who believe that legalisation in 
2021Germany has been a disaster. She, along with a politician and a social worker, 
2022has founded Sisters e V,32 a new anti-prostitution organisation which helps 
2023women to exit the sex trade. 
2024
2025Mau, who spent 10 years in prostitution before finding a way out in 2012, 
2026said that she struggled to find the kind of support that Sisters offers. ‘I was in 
2027an advice centre in my town, and I told them that I couldn’t stand it anymore 
2028and that I wanted to get out. And they said, “What’s your problem? It’s an okay 
2029job, why don’t you just stop going to the brothel?’’’ 
2030
2031Hydra Berlin ,33 a pro-prostitution advice group founded 35 years ago, 
2032argues that it already offers counselling for women in the sex trade. It 
2033considers Sisters to be a missionary service that ‘rescues’ women and sits in 
2034moral judgement of them. 
2035
2036Manuela Schon is one of the founding members of Abolition 2014, an 
2037organisation made up of survivors, leftist activists, members of the Green and 
2038Social Democrat parties, feminist activists and journalists. Its main activity is 
2039awareness raising, and it organises a series of public events and hosts 
2040speakers who are experts on the sex trade, geared in particular towards 
2041dispelling the myths surrounding it. 
2042
2043A feminist activist and sociologist who does counselling in her free time, 
2044Schon began to be involved in abolitionist politics through her voluntary work 
2045counselling unemployed people, in particular Roma families that had been 
2046shunned by the welfare state. ‘I could see the racism and exploitation as well 
2047as economic coercion they were subjected to’, says Schon. 
2048
2049Schon is also co-founder of Linke gegen Prostitution (members of the left 
2050party against prostitution), which she says is gaining support from members of 
2051local municipalities as well as parliamentarians. Schon has represented the 
2052organisation in Spain , Germany , Norway and other countries and tells me that 
2053the abolitionist movement is stronger now in Germany than it ever has been. 
2054Despite this progress, there is still some significant opposition within the 
2055country. 
2056
2057‘My feminist group within the German left party wrote a paper that the 
2058party did not like so much’, says Schon . ‘We got into serious problems 
2059
2060
2061because the party is very much pro-“sex work” and almost all women from my 
2062group left the party in the end, leaving only me and one other.’ 
2063
2064
2065Helping Others See the Problem 
2066
2067Autumn Burris is a SPACE International representative, and spends much of 
2068her time educating police officers, social workers and anyone else who wishes 
2069to improve their knowledge and practice in dealing with prostituted women 
2070and the men who buy them. I had got to know Burris at the SPACE summit in 
2071New York in October 2014. We meet again in Los Angeles where I was 
2072attending the Porn Awards the following year, to explore the links between 
2073pornography and the wider sex trade, as well as the growing number of queer-
2074identified women and men who were both producing and featuring in 
2075pornography. Burris has been doing this work since 1997, shortly after she 
2076exited the sex trade. I asked how she became involved in the abolitionist 
2077movement. 
2078
2079‘I was speaking at the UN [United Nations] in December 2012 on a panel 
2080in preparation for CSW [Commission on the Status of Women]’, says Burris. 
2081‘Everyone had a business card, everyone had a logo and they assumed I was a 
2082consultant [as a trainer in survivor issues]. A friend of mine had been telling 
2083me I should start to do my work on a professional basis—i.e. get paid for it. I 
2084said, “Oh no, no, I don’t want to go into business, I don’t want the 
2085responsibility”. She got really angry with me and she said, “You work 16 hours 
2086a day, and on top of that you’re paying to work”. She said “I’m going to give 
2087you some seed money and you’re going to get started whether you like it or 
2088not”.’ 
2089
2090For Burris , funding for survivors to carry out this work does not dissolve 
2091its radical edge, but rather enables women with direct experience of the sex 
2092trade to build alliances with those who can support the abolitionist movement 
2093from positions of influence. 
2094
2095‘I think the survivor movement is continuing to shift in positive ways’, says 
2096Burris . ‘When we unite as survivors and when we have allies that are 
2097supportive, respectful, inclusive alongside us, we have power and momentum. 
2098Every action I take is based on the person who’s still being exploited right 
2099now.’ 
2100
2101
2102From Prostitution, to Pimping, to Abolition 
2103
2104For the majority of women in the sex trade, there is no promotion in their so-
2105called job. In fact, the usual trajectory is downhill, as the physical and mental 
2106health consequences take their toll. Some women end up running brothels in 
2107order to stop being prostitued. Kathleen Mitchell is one such woman. 
2108
2109Mitchell escaped prostitution in 1989. Born in 1943 into a strict Catholic 
2110household, she experienced child sexual abuse , the death of a sibling and, as a 
2111direct result of that tragedy, an angry, alcoholic mother. As a way to escape her 
2112unhappy life, Mitchell married a man she did not love and who was violent. In 
21131968, she left her husband for a man who promised to take care of her. 
2114
2115‘He tells me that I didn’t deserve to live like that, I deserve to be treated 
2116well and that he would never lie to me’, says Mitchell when I meet her in a 
2117hotel in Minnesota, USA, where we are both attending an abolitionist 
2118conference. ‘I hated him at first. I didn’t like him because I had a friend who 
2119was my best friend all through school and [he got her] into prostitution. I knew 
2120he was a pimp when I met him, but then fell deeply in love with him [over a 
2121period of] three years. He was always good to me. He had other women, but he 
2122did not tell me that. For a long time I did not realise that his mother had been a 
2123prostitute.’ 
2124
2125After three years of what Mitchell describes as ‘brainwashing’, she was 
2126‘turned out’ by her boyfriend and remained in prostitution for 21 years. ‘I never 
2127got into drugs, I never got into alcohol. What I got into was a lifestyle. The 
2128lifestyle of having all kinds of money, all kinds of jewellery, to having 
2129Cadillacs, to having mink coats, to having everything that any rich person 
2130would ever buy. 
2131
2132‘I’m going to go back to the time I got raped. I came home—[the rapist] 
2133took all my money and I had to tell [my husband] that he took all my money, 
2134[and my husband] told me, “You gave my pussy away”. So not only was I 
2135raped and had all my money taken, but [my husband] was mad at me and 
2136wasn’t talking to me for two weeks.’ 
2137
2138Mitchell could take no more so began pimping. ‘Instead of turning any 
2139more tricks I went to the point of having escort services and massage parlours. 
2140There was one time I had 17 escort services and four massage parlours. I was 
2141running them and sending women out to do what I couldn’t do anymore. Did I 
2142keep the money? No, [my husband] got every dime of it. 
2143
2144
2145‘We kept having our escort service busted. So then I got charged with 
2146illegal operation of a business, operating without a license and the promotion 
2147of prostitution through Yellow Pages. [My husband] ended up getting two years 
2148in jail, and I got three years probation because I coughed [up] to it.’ 
2149
2150In 1989, having tried to go straight, Mitchell was convicted of running 
2151another brothel and spent six months in jail, during which time all of her 
2152possessions were stolen. ‘While I was there I kept watching women go in and 
2153out—the revolving door of prostitution—in and out for the same thing. They 
2154had AA and other stuff for women in jail but they didn’t have anything for my 
2155problem, which was the money and prostitution. So I started a programme in 
2156jail with the jail coordinator and we called it DIGNITY (Developing 
2157Individual Growth and New Independence Through Yourself). 
2158
2159‘It started with two or three women but we ended up with 26–30 in a 
2160group. It was just amazing. I got to know all the police down there. They all 
2161supported me. They would leave me alone with whatever. I had a lot of 
2162support from the police department and the Sheriff’s department. After I got 
2163out, I kept talking to women and did street outreach. I went to school and got 
2164my degree in counselling. When I got off probation I was the first women ever 
2165to be able go back to jail to work with the women. This programme kept going 
2166all the time I was there.’ 
2167
2168I meet Daniel Cormier at the feminist organisation Vancouver Rape Relief 
2169(VRR) in 2015. Cormier was born and raised in Quebec and became estranged 
2170from her family as a result of their anti-lesbian bigotry towards her. Still in her 
2171teens, Cornier found herself street homeless. In her early 20s, she became 
2172involved in prostitution. 
2173
2174‘Having already had a life that had taught me, through various experiences, 
2175that my body could be had by anyone who wanted it basically’, says Cormier, 
2176‘I figured like many do that I might as well pay the rent.’ 
2177
2178What kept Cormier locked in prostitution was poverty, and the lack of any 
2179support to exit. ‘Not one single person ever said to me, “What’s happening to 
2180you is not OK with me”. I remember waiting for it almost like holding my 
2181breath, every time I met a new social worker or whatever. If one person had 
2182said, “How about we talk about other options?” I think I might have exited 
2183sooner.’ 
2184
2185Eventually, Cormier decided to run her own escort agency as a way to 
2186‘leave’ prostitution. ‘Me and other women who were working in the agency 
2187decided to leave and start our own outfit. At the time my mentality was, “I can 
2188
2189
2190do this better. I can do this fairer, charging the minimum and not being an 
2191arsehole about it”. We took care of each other. After a few months it didn’t 
2192make sense to me and it was repeating the same behaviours. No matter how I 
2193spun it I couldn’t feel good about it’, says Cormier . ‘So I stopped doing that. 
2194I’m telling you this because it kept me silent for a long time. I carried a lot of 
2195shame about that and still do a little bit.’ 
2196
2197According to Rachel Moran , much was made by the pro-prostitution lobby 
2198of the fact that one of SPACE International’s first Irish members, Justine Riley , 
2199had a brothel keeping conviction between October 1999 and March 2000. 
2200Riley spent a total of 17 years in prostitution, and had started operating 
2201brothels in a brief period in order to escape being bought and sold herself. 
2202
2203‘She joined our group over a decade later, in 2012, two years after she had 
2204finally gotten out of prostitution’, says Moran. ‘Hers is a familiar story. What I 
2205find remarkable is that the people who try to smear our reputation as an 
2206organisation on the back of her conviction are the very same people who say 
2207that brothel keeping should be decriminalised. In their own view of the 
2208situation, Justine did nothing wrong, which is not a view shared by either 
2209Justine or ourselves. In an incredible example of double-speak, they are 
2210castigating her—and by extension us—for criminal behaviour that they say 
2211should not be criminalised at all!’ 
2212
2213
2214Policing and Criminal Sanctions 
2215
2216A common consensus among the pro-prostitution lobby is that feminist 
2217abolitionists are either dismissive of, or do not care about, criminal sanctions 
2218on women in prostitution, or police violence, abuse and corruption. This is a 
2219clear misrepresentation of the facts. 
2220
2221Audrey Morrissey is the Associate Director of My Life, My Choice ,34 a 
2222survivor-led organisation supporting prostituted young people in Boston , 
2223USA. ‘The very first car that I got in was with a police officer, who showed 
2224me his badge and asked me to give him a blow job. That was my first 
2225encounter’, says Morrissey. ‘I hear this story everywhere I go in the world, so 
2226I always encourage the girls to go to the police station and ask for a female 
2227officer if they are in trouble.’ 
2228
2229Bridget Perrier says: ‘I never thought I would ever align myself with the 
2230police. Now we have to train law enforcement officers. They are on the 
2231frontline, so they need to understand that women are human beings and they are 
2232not bad’. 
2233
2234The Asian Women Coalition Ending Prostitution (AWCEP) 35 is based in 
2235Montreal, Canada. I met with the group during a visit in the Autumn of 2015, 
2236and asked how they work alongside law enforcement. The group’s objective, 
2237says one member, is to force the local council and the police to fulfil their 
2238obligations to protect women and girls by enforcing the new laws. 
2239
2240‘In different cities and at different times in Canada there have been calls to 
2241create red light districts or tolerant zones’, she said. ‘There’ve always been 
2242official and unofficial city management [programmes] regarding prostitution. 
2243Arresting only the women and girls and letting it be known that if the Johns 
2244cruise women [in] specific parts of town [the industrial area and strip clubs or 
2245Asian massage parlours] they won’t have to worry about the police.’ 
2246
2247Giobbe believes that for the movement to survive against the more 
2248powerful ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby , women need to take to the streets and 
2249reclaim the old radicalism that has been replaced with fun feminism. ‘I look at 
2250what we did in the past. I remember giant Take Back the Night rallies that are 
2251now called Slutwalks , for God’s sake. I could have died when I heard that.’ 
2252
2253As I am leaving the sisterly warmth of VRR ,36 having met with and 
2254interviewed a number of survivors, Daniel Cornier tells me: ‘My dream is to 
2255have [women] live in a world where they’re not seen as a commodity. Period. 
2256
2257
2258Where every billboard doesn’t tell them to show their breasts and their bones 
2259and their midriffs and then accuse them of doing the exact thing and then tell 
2260them it’s their fault if they’re objectified. I would love that so much. I’ve 
2261actually thought of moving to Sweden . But I think it’s more important to stay 
2262put and fight for it here.’ 
2263
2264Abolitionists have a goal: to bring about an end to the global sex trade, and 
2265to inhabit a world where no woman, man or child is prostituted—a world 
2266where sex is not bought, sold or brokered. As we will see in subsequent 
2267chapters, the abolitionist movement is emerging in New Zealand , and also 
2268within those states in Australia where the sex trade is legalised. 
2269
2270Why does this sound so crazy to so many people? In Chap. 2 we enter the 
2271world of the ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby , learn its history, goals and tactics. 
2272Who are the leaders in this movement? What motivates them to campaign to 
2273normalise and decriminalise the global oppression of women and girls? 
2274
2275Footnotes 
2276
22771 
2278Speech at the Massey College Fifth Walter Gordon Forum, Toronto, Ontario, in a symposium on ‘The 
2279Future of Feminism’, 2 April 1995. First published by Massey College in the University of Toronto, 2 
2280May 1995. Copyright ©1995, 1996 by Andrea Dworkin. Reprinted from Life and Death. 
2281
22822 
2283Millar, A. (2015, April 28.) Josephine Butler: The forgotten Feminist. On Digital Victorians. Retrieved 
228415 June 2017, from http://mhm.hud.ac.uk/digitalvictorians/josephine-butler-the-forgotten-feminist/. 
2285
22863 
2287Millar, A. (2015, April 28.) Josephine Butler: The forgotten Feminist. On Digital Victorians. Retrieved 
228815 June 2017, from http://mhm.hud.ac.uk/digitalvictorians/josephine-butler-the-forgotten-feminist/. 
2289
22904 
2291Millar, A. (2015, April 28.) Josephine Butler: The forgotten Feminist. On Digital Victorians. Retrieved 
229215 June 2017, from http://mhm.hud.ac.uk/digitalvictorians/josephine-butler-the-forgotten-feminist/. 
2293
22945 
2295Bindel, J. (2010, Jul 2.) Legalising prostitution is not the answer. In The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 
22962017, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jul/02/prostitution-legalise-criminaliseswedish-
2297law. 
2298
2299
23006 
2301WHISPER became the organisation known as Breaking Free. Breakingfree.net. Retrieved 16 June 
23022017, from http://www.breakingfree.net/. 
2303
23047 
2305Coyote. Retrieved 16 June 2017 http://www.coyotela.org/. 
2306
23078 
2308Agustín, L. (2008.) Sex at the margins. London: Zed Books. p. 39. 
2309
23109 
2311Coalition Against Trafficking Of Women. Catwinternational.org. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http:// 
2312www.catwinternational.org/. 
2313
231410 Breaking Free. Breakingfree.net. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.breakingfree.net/. 
2315
231611 Bindel, J. (2010, Nov 30.) The real-life Swedish murder that inspired Stieg Larsson. On 
2317Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8157585/Thereal-
2318life-Swedish-murder-that-inspired-Stieg-Larsson.html. 
2319
232012 Raymond, 2013, Not a Choice, Not a Job: Exposing the Myths about Prostitution and the Global 
2321Sex Trade. http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Not-a-Choice-Not-a-Job,676533.aspx. 
2322
232313 Prostitutes’ Revenge In Society. Xn--ntverketpris-gcb.se. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www. 
2324xn--ntverketpris-gcb.se/start-english.html. 
2325
232614 Irene Ivison, 1997, Fiona’s Story: A Tragedy of Our Times. 
2327
232815 1998. Modern Times: Paying For It. UK, BBC2. 
2329
2330
233116 Eaves, supporting vulnerable women who have experienced violence. Eavesforwomen.org.uk. 
2332Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.eavesforwomen.org.uk/. 
2333
233417 Moran, R. (2013.) Paid For: My Journey Through Prostition, London: WW Norton & Co. 
2335
233618 Space International. Spaceintl.org. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.spaceintl.org/. 
2337
233819 Denise Marshall died in 2015 of stomach cancer. 
2339
234020 Sextrade101.com -Public Awareness and Education. Sextrade101.com. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from 
2341http://www.sextrade101.com/. 
2342
234321 Anthony, J. (1992.) Prostitution as ‘choice’. Ms. Magazine. 86–87. 
2344
234522 Jenness, V. (1993). Making it work. New York, NY: Aldine De Gruyter. 
2346
234723 Anthony, J. (1992.) Prostitution as ‘choice’. Ms. Magazine. 86–87. 
2348
234924 COYOTE, Retrieved 28 Aug 2017, from http://www.coyotela.org/ 
2350
235125 Feminist Current. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.feministcurrent.com/. 
2352
235326 Baptie, T. (2007, Dec 6.) At the Pickton trial: A personal notebook. The Tyee. Retrieved 16 June 2017, 
2354from https://thetyee.ca/Life/2007/12/06/PicktonTrial/. 
2355
235627 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/aug/05/features11.g2. 
2357
2358
235928 Ditum, S, (2012, 6 April.) Pornwars! A New Left Project debate with Gail Dines. Retrieved 16 June 
23602017, from https://sarahditum.com/2012/04/06/pornwars-a-new-left-project-debate-with-gail-dines/. 
2361
236229 Ditum, S. (2012, April 2.) Is porn hijacking our sexuality? (Part 1). Newleftproject.org. Retrieved 
236316 June 2017, from http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/porn_hijacking_our_ 
2364sexuality. 
2365
236630 Zee, R. (2015.) Mannen Die Seks Kopen. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij SWP. 
2367
236831 Schon, M (2016, May 9.) Legalization has turned Germany into the ‘Bordello of Europe’’and we 
2369should be ashamed. Feminist Current. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.feministcurrent.com/ 
23702016/05/09/legalization-has-turned-germany-into-the-bordello-of-europe-we-should-be-ashamed/. 
2371
237232 Die linke Freude an der Prostitution -Huschke Mau an die Bremer Linksjugend. On Sisters-ev.de. 
2373Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://sisters-ev.de/2016/04/21/die-linke-freude-an-der-prostitutionhuschke-
2374mau/. 
2375
237633 Hydra Berlin. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.hydra-berlin.de/startseite/. 
2377
237834 Fighting Exploitation: My Life, My Choice. On Fighting Exploitation. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from 
2379http://www.fightingexploitation.org/. 
2380
238135 Asian Women Coalition Ending Prostitution. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://awcep.org/. 
2382
238336 Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.rapereliefshelte 
2384r.bc.ca/. 
2385
2386
2387© The Author(s) 2017 
2388Julie Bindel, The Pimping of Prostitution, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55890-9_2 
2389
2390
23912. The ‘Sex Workers’ Rights’ Movement 
2392Julie Bindel1 
2393
2394
2395(1) London, UK 
2396Julie Bindel 
2397Email: juliebindel@yahoo.co.uk 
2398With or without external supporters I have 3 million sex workers behind 
2399me. (Irina Maslova , leader of the ‘sex worker movement’ Silver Rose , 
2400Russia , 2015) 
2401
2402I don’t foresee a situation where there will be no sex workers – in Kenya 
2403, in Africa, in the world – because there is demand for it. Sex is a human 
2404right, whether it’s free or there’s monetary considerations. (Penina 
2405Mwangi , Executive Director, Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support 
2406Programme , Kenya, 2015) 
2407
2408The contemporary‘sexworker’s rights’movementis made up ofa number 
2409of perspectives and positions, but the various strands have one core view in 
2410common: a passionate dislike of any legal or State intervention. This is a shift 
2411from the 1980s and 1990s, when the movement was united in supporting 
2412legalisation, such as the Dutch and German models. Today, most Sex Workers’ 
2413Rights Activists (SWRAs) oppose legalisation, with the exception of a number 
2414of activists in Germany , the Netherlands , and Nevada in the USA. But even in 
2415those areas, where the off-street sex trade is fully legalised, the system is 
2416staunchly criticised by those who wish to see an end to any regulation at all. 
2417Therefore, New Zealand , which has fully decriminalised all aspects of the sex 
2418trade (see Chap. 1 for a description of the various legal regimes) has become 
2419the preferred model. 
2420
2421Supporters of legalisation often cite the Netherlands as a shining example. 
2422
2423
2424For a number of years, beginning immediately after the sex trade was legalised 
2425there in 2000, delegations were brought from the Netherlands to elsewhere in 
2426Europe to sell the model. More recently, and especially since 
2427decriminalisation was introduced in New Zealand in 2003, the SWRAs are 
2428unlikely to admit that their side of the political fence ever supported 
2429legalisation and criticise the regime for being over-regulated. 
2430
2431Since its inception, the ‘sex workers’ rights ’ movement has been 
2432successful in identifying key issues and problems faced by women in 
2433prostitution, such as police violence and harassment, and social stigma. During 
2434its early days, as we will see in this chapter, the movement was led by 
2435socialist women who had a class, rather than gendered, analysis of 
2436prostitution, but who genuinely fought for better ‘working’ conditions and 
2437rights for the most disenfranchised women in the sex trade. 
2438
2439
2440The History 
2441
2442The term ‘sex work’ was coined in the early 1980s by Carol Leigh and was 
2443popularised by a 1987 anthology of the same name. 
2444
2445As she describes in The Prostitution Papers ,1 the feminist icon Kate 
2446Millett was at a 1971 women’s liberation movement conference at which some 
2447SWRAs became very angry with the feminists there. They became particularly 
2448enraged when a panel entitled ‘Towards the Elimination of Prostitution’ was 
2449organised including ‘everyone but prostitutes’. Things rapidly degenerated into 
2450chaos. Prostitutes had gathered their still nebulous rage against their own lives 
2451and redirected it towards the movement of women who appeared to be 
2452summarily ‘eliminating’ prostitution: aka the means of their livelihood. The 
2453argument became so heated that a physical fight broke out. 
2454
2455In the mid-1970s, Helen Buckingham 2 promoted herself as the main 
2456spokesperson for women in the sex trade in Britain. Buckingham has been 
2457described as a ‘high-class call girl’3 and claimed to have a number of regular, 
2458wealthy punters. In 1975 she was declared bankrupt by the Inland Revenue, 
2459which demanded tax from her earnings in prostitution. Buckingham argued that 
2460if she was required to pay tax, she must be allowed to work legally. 
2461Buckingham founded a group PUSSI (Prostitutes United for Social and Sexual 
2462Integration ) which later changed to PLAN (Prostitution Laws are Nonsense) 
2463and allied herself to Selma James, founder of the International Wages for 
2464Housework Campaign, which demands money from the government for 
2465women’s unwaged work in the home. Together they founded the English 
2466Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) in 1975. 
2467
2468In the early days, the ECP were abolitionists . The aims and objectives of 
2469James and her colleagues were clear: women should be paid for all labour, 
2470including housework and sex. ‘For prostitutes, against prostitution’, was its 
2471mantra. The ECP positioned itself as part of the working-class movement for 
2472more money and less work. They referred to the introduction of the kerb 
2473crawling law as ‘the new suss law’ (‘suss’ is the abbreviation for a stop and 
2474search law in England and Wales that permitted a police officer to stop, search 
2475and potentially arrest people on suspicion of having committed a crime). 
2476
2477Meanwhile, the prostitutes’ rights movement in Europe was launched in 
2478Lyon , France, in 1975, when French prostitutes occupied a church in protest at 
2479the way in which they were treated by the police. They went on strike to 
2480
2481
2482protest against the savage police repression and corruption in Lyon, which had 
2483been experiencing a wave of brutal murders of prostitutes. 
2484
2485Margaret Valentino and Mavis Johnson of the ECP provide an introduction 
2486to the volume of life stories of French women involved in the strike, and an 
2487analysis setting out the ECP position. They explain that: ‘Prostitution was one 
2488way women had been fighting to get paid for housework—by getting paid for 
2489all the sexual services all women are always expected to give for free’.4 The 
2490cause of prostitution was ‘poverty and women’s refusal of poverty’, and ‘the 
2491end of women’s poverty is the end of prostitution’. The ECP approach was 
2492abolitionist rather than celebratory. Rather than arguing that ‘sex work’ is 
2493empowering or even enjoyable, the ECP saw it as exploitation, the same as 
2494they did for all labour under capitalism. 
2495
2496COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) was founded in the USA out of 
2497WHO (Whores , Housewives and Others) in 1973 by Margo St James , who 
2498described herself as an ex-prostitute. St James was given money by the Point 
2499Foundation at Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco, and later received 
2500$1000 dollars from the Playboy Foundation. St James recruited 50 high-profile 
2501individuals to form the COYOTE advisory board, as well as prostituted 
2502women to campaign for decriminalisation. Interested parties, including 
2503students, sex buyers , politicians, media personnel, activists and 
2504representatives from other advocacy organisations were invited and 
2505encouraged to become members of COYOTE. 
2506
2507In 1976, COYOTE filed a lawsuit against Rhode Island . In the case of 
2508COYOTE v. Roberts , the argument was based on how much power the state 
2509should have to control the sexual activity of its citizens. The lawsuit also 
2510alleged discrimination on how the law was being applied. Data was submitted 
2511that demonstrated selective prosecution as the Providence Police were 
2512arresting female ‘sex workers’ far more often than their male customers. St 
2513James testified in the case. Although the case was eventually dismissed when 
2514the General Assembly changed the prostitution statute in 1980, COYOTE and 
2515St James are given credit for contributing to the decriminalisation of 
2516prostitution in Rhode Island. 
2517
2518St James attended a number of international conferences throughout the 
25191970s, promoting the view that prostitution is ‘liberating’ and should be 
2520decriminalised and viewed as ‘work’. 
2521
2522Fundraising involved an annual hosting of the well-attended Hookers’ Ball, 
2523which nabbed 20,000 attendees in 1978. Cherie Jimenez , an abolitionist 
2524
2525
2526campaigner and survivor of the sex trade, recalls the annual event. ‘For several 
2527years I remember doing the so called Hookers’ Ball’, she told me. ‘A costume 
2528party at a club in Cambridge that was also raising money for PUMA 
2529[Prostitute’s Union of Massachusetts ]. There was a bail fund for women, I do 
2530remember that. I still know some of these women, and we continue to argue our 
2531positions.’ 
2532
2533Valerie Jennes writes in her book on COYOTE 5: ‘As one newspaper 
2534stated, “It was something between the 1906 earthquake and fire, and the 
2535opening of the opera”’.6 The Chicago Tribune reported: ‘For the press it was 
2536an orgy. They filmed, photographed and interviewed anyone who was generous 
2537with her eyeshadow’.7 More locally, the San Francisco Chronicle described 
2538the events as ‘wild masquerades that drew the kind of people who really knew 
2539how to party [and that became] legendary, even though they only lasted a few 
2540years’.8 The tide was turning from politics to glamour. 
2541
2542Unsurprisingly, COYOTE soon began to be lauded by the liberal male 
2543elite. Jennes records that in the first year of COYOTE’s existence, the Seattle 
2544Post Intelligencer reported: ‘Margo is “in” socially this year. Well-to-do 
2545liberals invite her to things and seek her company’. 
2546
2547The movement had become less about workers’ rights, and more about 
2548‘happy hookers ’. 
2549
2550Former ‘sexworker’Xaviera Hollander claims creditfor coiningthe term 
2551‘happy hooker’, although it is likely it was thought up by Robin Moore , who 
2552co-authored the bestselling book of the same name about Hollander’s life. The 
2553book went on to be an international bestseller, was adapted into a 1975 film 
2554starring Lynn Redgrave, and has also been performed as a play and an opera. 
2555
2556Despite the influence of The Happy Hooker on popular culture, it is now 
2557clear that it was composed almost as a piece of fiction, with two ghostwriters 
2558orchestrating the account of Hollander’s life in the sex trade. They could not 
2559even decide if this was about a pimp or a ‘hooker’. ‘[Moore] actually hired 
2560Yvonne Dunleavy who was a famous journalist at the time. She was the one 
2561who wrote the book. They taped me, simply asking [me] questions about my 
2562life and had the chapters spewed out in three months,’ Hollander told me. ‘She 
2563wrote it, he edited it. He tried in vain to write a chapter, it was a piece of shit.’ 
2564
2565When I asked Hollander how long she had sold sex for before living off the 
2566earnings of other women, she answered: ‘I was a physical hooker for about 
2567half a year to learn the trade. I went from an L shaped apartment to a five-
2568bedroom penthouse apartment in rocket time’. 
2569
2570
2571Prostitution is ‘Work’ or ‘Labour’ 
2572
2573In 1985, 15 years before the Dutch government lifted the ban on brothels and 
2574effectively legalised the sex trade, the ‘sex workers’ rights ’ organisation Red 
2575Thread (a government-funded ‘union’ for people in prostitution) organised a 
2576congress that led to the forming of the International Committee for Prostitutes’ 
2577Rights. The draft of a World Charter for Prostitutes’ Rights was drafted and 
2578finalised at a second international congress in 1986. 
2579
2580Its ‘Statement on Prostitution and Feminism’ declares that prostitution is 
2581‘legitimate work’.9 The World Charter includes a defence of sex buyers , 
2582explaining that: ‘The customer, like the prostitute, should not … be 
2583criminalised or condemned on a moral basis’. 
2584
2585The prostitution as ‘work’ approach was spearheaded by Australian groups 
2586such as Scarlet Alliance . This was clearly an appropriation of the 
2587liberationary arguments adopted by the gay rights movement and the HIV/AIDS 
2588crisis that transformed the ‘sex workers’ rights ’ movement into an international 
2589force. Large amounts of government funding were made available for 
2590HIV/AIDS prevention projects (as we shall see in Chap. 7), and this money 
2591was used to found organisations including TAMPEP (The International 
2592Foundation: European Network for HIV/STI Prevention and Health Promotion 
2593among Migrant Sex Workers),10 the Network of Sex Work Projects and 
2594COYOTE . 
2595
2596
2597Unionisation 
2598
2599The International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW) is a lobby group that 
2600campaigns for total decriminalisation of the sex trade. 
2601
2602‘Sex work’ activists recognise that ‘downsides’ exist in prostitution, such 
2603as violence, stigmatisation, poor pay and conditions of employment, and job 
2604and employment insecurity. However, these are believed to be a result of how 
2605society views ‘sex work’ and to also be present in other areas of non-sexual 
2606employment. 
2607
2608‘Working in the sex trade is often a way for migrants to avoid the 
2609unrewarding and sometimes exploitative conditions they meet in the low-
2610skilled jobs available to them, such as: waiting in restaurants and bars, 
2611cleaning, food packaging, etc.’ said Nicolas (Nick ) Mai , a UK-based 
2612academic and filmmaker whose research on migrant ‘sex workers’ in the UK, 
2613as we will see in Chap. 7, was used to convince a number of politicians that 
2614concerns about trafficking was largely a ‘moral panic’.11 
2615
2616Pro-prostitution organisations argue that treating prostitution as ‘sex work’ 
2617would make addressing those incidents of ‘forced’ prostitution and trafficking 
2618easier. By acknowledging prostitution as a legitimate form of ‘work’, 
2619prostitutes would then have access to a range of resources to protect them 
2620(legislations, grievance processes, officially recognised unions). 
2621
2622There are a number of key tactics used by the ‘sex workers’ rights ’ 
2623activists to promote blanket decriminalisation of the sex trade and to lobby 
2624against the criminalisation of sex buyers . And today’s movement blames 
2625feminist abolitionists for the danger and abuse faced by those in prostitution 
2626and names them ‘whorephobic ’. 
2627
2628But while third wave ‘fun feminists’ get their thongs in a twist about the 
2629very idea that this multibillion-dollar capitalist industry is not above criticism, 
2630the most vocal strand of the SWRA movement in the UK and in a number of 
2631other European countries is linked to the wider anti-capitalist movement. 
2632
2633Academic, anthropologist and political activist Chris Knight is one of the 
2634founders of the IUSW. I interviewed him in 2010 when I was researching an 
2635article on the so-called union. At the time, Knight was living in a tent on 
2636Parliament Square, London, UK, as part of an anti-war protest. He said: ‘The 
2637whole point of setting the union up is to end prostitution. But there are different 
2638ways of going about that. Marx said all workers are prostitutes. If we want to 
2639
2640
2641end prostitution we have to end capitalism’. 
2642
2643Ana Lopes , an academic and another founder of the IUSW, said: ‘The 
2644name International Union of Sex Workers occurred in a discussion with Chris 
2645Knight. It had been agreed in the first meeting that the group’s main aim would 
2646be to establish sex work as legitimate work. Therefore it made sense to follow 
2647the footsteps of other workers and claim our place in the mainstream trade 
2648union movement. The word “international” came from our perception that the 
2649industry has gone global and therefore a successful mobilisation of workers 
2650should overcome national borders too’. 
2651
2652The IUSW is not an actual union, as I discovered both from whistleblowers 
2653and extensive research. Offering discounts to its members in self-defence 
2654classes and lingerie products, the IUSW is a mouthpiece for pimps and punters. 
2655The IUSW was founded in 2000, 3 years before the British-based trades union 
2656the GMB 12 endorsed it and allowed a ‘sex workers’ branch’ to be formed in 
26572003. The IUSW described itself as the campaigning wing of the sex workers’ 
2658branch, but would allow outsiders to believe that the IUSW was the actual 
2659branch within the union. 
2660
2661Such organisations are politically motivated lobby groups campaigning for 
2662total decriminalisation of the sex trade, hence the number of pimps and punters 
2663involved. There appeared to be few people in the organisation who actually 
2664sold sex for a living. 
2665
2666Douglas Fox used to be a well-known face of the IUSW. He and his partner 
2667John Dockerty run Christony Companions, one of the biggest escort agencies in 
2668the North East of England. Fox used the GMB membership as a way to 
2669legitimise his business. In fact, the GMB logo was used as a kite mark on the 
2670Christony Companions website as a way to endorse his ‘product’: the women. 
2671
2672Many members of the IUSW were academics , some doing their research 
2673on ‘sex work’. 
2674
2675According to Chris Knight : ‘Ana Lopes achieved a first in 1998/1999 then 
2676a masters degree at UCL in 2000 and said “I really want to do something with 
2677my knowledge, in particular the sex strike stuff”. When I next saw her she said, 
2678“I am a sex worker”. We made a banner and she said that if you are trying to 
2679organise a sex strike we need to get into where the commercial sex is going on. 
2680We had a sex strike in Soho [a London district which houses a large off-street 
2681sex market]. We were on a “no sweat” demonstration and Ana approached a 
2682GMB rep and he said “Let’s meet”.’ 
2683
2684The IUSW, in its heyday, was led by managers who supported the 
2685
2686
2687Conservative Party. In fact, they got money from the Conservative Party. 
2688
2689
2690
2691Cambodia: Fake Unions 
2692
2693One human rights activist working on trafficking prevention in Cambodia , who 
2694asked not to be named, told me that: ‘A group with trafficking in their title that 
2695were pro-prostitution in the early 2000s—they came and helped form the 
2696Women’s Network for Unity [WNU ] and helped them form the language. It 
2697was an outside group that came in, they worked with a lot of the groups in the 
2698region and they helped them start. Because Cambodia has built a strong protest 
2699movement, we are one of the few garment factories in the region that has a 
2700workers’ union, so they have set up a lot of their language to match the garment 
2701union workers’ rights’. 
2702
2703In Cambodia , I had arranged to meet a group of women who were 
2704members of the sex workers’ union in Phnom Penh , which had been founded 
2705by the WNU . The WNU, which has received funding by the Open Society 
2706Foundation,13 a philanthropic organisation committed to building democratic 
2707societies,14 came out of the Womyn’s Agenda for Change (WAC). Their 
2708activities in the first year of operation (2003–2004) included WNU and WAC 
2709hosting a visit by two representatives of the INSW. Two members of the WNU 
2710secretariat participated in a ‘sex workers’ rights ’ conference in Hong Kong on 
27111 May 2004 and two ‘sex workers’ were sponsored to participate in a UN 
2712conference on AIDS in Thailand . So the WAC (also funded by Open Society) 
2713had a clear pro-prostitution agenda from the very beginning. 
2714
2715Our meeting was scheduled for 8 a.m. and it had been decided that I would 
2716take with me a translator from another Cambodian women’s non-governmental 
2717organisation (NGO). On arrival at the venue, we were surprised to find that 
2718one of the board members of WNU had also decided to attend. I had received 
2719an email from her a few days before I arrived in Cambodia , asking me to 
2720submit my questions in advance so that she could reassure the women that my 
2721research would be beneficial to them. I did so, including several questions 
2722about police corruption and brutality. I assumed, on seeing the board member, 
2723who was not herself in prostitution, that she was doing some kind of 
2724‘gatekeeping’ on behalf of the women. 
2725
2726However, all became clear when the women arrived, having been 
2727‘working’ all night. They were warm, open and desperate to tell their stories of 
2728the daily violence and abuse they endure from sex buyers , and how much they 
2729hated selling sex for a living. They talked over each other, ignoring my 
2730
2731
2732questions to start with and simply offloading about how terrible their lives 
2733were. The board member would interrupt them regularly and often spoke for 
2734them. I asked: ‘What are the benefits of being in the Union?’ and was answered 
2735not by the women, but by the board member. She spoke solidly for five min 
2736about the benefits for members: for example, if the women are beaten by the 
2737police, they are given legal training on their rights; if they are arrested, the 
2738WNU will provide food during the time they cannot work; and if one of the 
2739women dies, they will help to buy the coffin. Knowing their rights ‘empowered 
2740them’, I was told. 
2741
2742The prostituted women sitting cross-legged on the floor near me looked 
2743anything but empowered. Two had babies with them, both born of sex buyers . 
2744Another was pregnantwitha buyer’s child. Atleastone was HIVpositive. All 
2745had been raped on multiple occasions. Each one told me they could get out of 
2746prostitution if only they had $200 to buy formal identification papers, because 
2747this was the only way to secure legitimate employment such as in the service 
2748industry or a factory. When I asked if the WNU could help them do this there 
2749was silence. 
2750
2751In the meantime, WNU representatives claim they have 6500 Cambodian 
2752‘sex workers ’ on their books, all fighting for ‘sex workers’ rights ’. None of 
2753the women, the translator told me, used the term ‘sex work’ to describe what 
2754theydo, or ‘sexworker’to describe who theyare. This language was used by 
2755the WNU . One of WNU’s aims is ‘to challenge the rhetoric around sex work, 
2756particularly that concerned with the anti-trafficking movement and the 
2757“rehabilitation” of sex workers’. All of the women asked where they could get 
2758help to escape the hell they were in. And while they endure this, the WNU 
2759board members and paid staff travel the region, speaking at ‘sex workers’ 
2760rights ’ conferences, distorting the voices of the exploited women. 
2761
2762The women I met in Cambodia would really benefit from linking up with 
2763the survivor-led abolitionist movement. Every single word said by these 
2764women made clear to me how much they hated prostitution. They were openly 
2765begging for alternatives, only to be talked over by the coordinator. The 
2766coordinator told me that she had been at a regional conference with other ‘sex 
2767workers’ rights’ activists . She told me that she had 50,000 ‘sex workers’ in 
2768Cambodia signed up to this so-called union. The women I spoke to did not 
2769know that they were ‘sex workers’ rights ’ activists. 
2770
2771The experience of these women had been colonised. They were being used 
2772by this NGO to promote the idea that legalisation would somehow be of 
2773
2774
2775benefit to them. The horrific tales the women told me about the violence 
2776perpetrated upon them by sex buyers stay with me to this day. But all the 
2777coordinator could speak about was the abuse and exploitation the women 
2778suffered at the hands of the male police force. There is no doubt that the police 
2779treat women in prostitution appallingly in Cambodia, as they do elsewhere. 
2780There is also no doubt that decriminalising the women selling sex would help 
2781immeasurably. But the coordinator was not interested in the stories the women 
2782had to tell of the everyday abuse within prostitution, perpetrated by pimps and 
2783punters. It was blatantly obvious that this did not suit her narrative. 
2784
2785The women had been up all night, being used and abused for enough money 
2786to be able to afford food to feed their dependents. They clearly had no idea 
2787what a survivor movement would be like. They had no concept of political 
2788activism that would put their experiences at the forefront, and that would 
2789respect their lived reality. The difference between them continuing to be 
2790abused on the streets of Phnom Penh , or in the provinces, was not just the 
2791$200 that they would need for identity papers that would allow them to apply 
2792for jobs. The biggest barrier was the NGO that was supposed to be helping 
2793them. This NGO considered the concept of ‘sex workers’ rights ’ to be above 
2794and beyond the importance of the lives of the women themselves. I asked the 
2795board member if they were planning on raising the money to help the women 
2796out of prostitution. She told me: ‘No’. 
2797
2798
2799Feminism Is All About Women Having Personal 
2800‘Choice’ and ‘Agency’ 
2801
2802As part of the My Body My Rights campaign, Amnesty International 
2803sought to develop a policy around the decriminalisation of sex work. The 
2804My Body My Rights campaign seeks to raise awareness of, and advocate 
2805for, sexual and reproductive rights. One of the guiding principles of this 
2806campaign is that people should be able to exercise autonomy over their 
2807bodies, reproductive capacities, and sexual choices . (Amnesty 
2808International Australia ) 
2809
2810Those engaging in ‘sex work’ often use ‘choice feminism’ to defend 
2811prostitution: the notion that a woman choosing to do whatever she wants is 
2812performing an inherently feminist act. In accordance with this, the abolitionist 
2813argument is anti-feminist: it is an effort to constrain the ‘free choices’ of other 
2814women who are perfectly capable of making their own decisions. Julian 
2815Marlowe, a male pro-prostitution activist who was previously involved in 
2816escorting writes: ‘[T]o suggest that prostitutes who do not see themselves as 
2817victims just don’t know any better is patronising and contradicts the very 
2818essence of feminism—the freedom to make one’s own choices ’.15 Perhaps 
2819unsurprisingly, this argument is commonly used by women prostituting in 
2820relatively independent and low-risk areas of the sex trade. 
2821
2822
2823Pimps Redefined as ‘Sex Workers’ 
2824
2825One argument which is played out on social media and in the press concerns 
2826who gets to speak for women in the sex trade or, as the pro-decriminalisation 
2827lobby puts it, ‘sex workers’ (a handy way to remove any notion that prostitution 
2828is based on the oppression of women). 
2829
2830In Norway I meet with Indian sex-trafficking abolitionist Ruchira Gupta , 
2831who has flown in from Delhi to speak at a conference on the sex trade. I ask 
2832Gupta aboutthe pro-prostitutionlobbyinIndia. ‘The term‘sexworker’was 
2833literally invented in front of our eyes. There was no poor woman or girl who 
2834thought that sex and work should go together. The pimps and brothel keepers 
2835who were on salaries began to call themselves sex workers and they became 
2836members of their own union. This is the only union in the world where the 
2837employers are members along with customers and the academics .’ 
2838
2839Valerie Jennes’s book Making It Work: The Prostitute’s Rights Movement 
2840in Perspective (1993) inadvertently exposes COYOTE founder Margot St 
2841James as being strategically dishonest about the organisation consisting largely 
2842of women in prostitution when she explains that: 
2843
2844‘COYOTE spokespeople have not taken serious or consistent action to 
2845debunk the notion that it is an organization of prostitutes. On the contrary, 
2846organizational leaders have been central in creating and promoting the image 
2847of COYOTE as an organization that is of and for prostitutes. As a 1988 edition 
2848of COYOTE Howls declared on the first page, ‘most members of COYOTE are 
2849either prostitutes or ex-prostitutes, with a few non-prostitute allies’.16 
2850
2851Whilst SWRAs often accuse survivors of lying, they themselves are not 
2852averse to usingthe tactic ofidentifyingas a ‘sexworker’while refusingto 
2853disclose in what way they were involved in the sex trade. For example, the 
2854ECPcould be usingthe hard lefttactic ofidentifyingas a ‘worker’(inthis 
2855case, at the coalface of the sex trade) as many privileged Oxbridge graduates 
2856did by taking jobs in factories back in the days of radical leftist politics. 
2857
2858Douglas Foxdescribes himselfas a ‘sexworker’butinfactis co-owner of 
2859one of the biggest escort agencies in the North East of England. By my 
2860definition, that makes him more pimp than prostitute. Fox is described on the 
2861Guardian’s Comment is Free website as ‘… an independent male sex worker. 
2862He is an activist for the International Union of Sex Workers and has appeared 
2863in a Channel 4 show called The Escort Agency. His agency has been operating 
2864
2865
2866for ten years. Most of its 20 escorts are now members of or in the process of 
2867becoming members of the IUSW/GMB London branch’. 
2868
2869I interviewed Fox, alongside the feminist writer and union activist Cath 
2870Elliott , in 2010 for an article about the IUSW. During our interview, Fox 
2871claimed he was a ‘sexworker’and nota ‘manager’. His partner Johnowned 
2872the agency, said Fox, and he simply helped out ‘as any husband or wife would 
2873do’. I asked why he had never identified himself as such previously. Fox said: 
2874‘Well it’s not selling women and it’s not pimping, it’s management. I think 
2875John’s a sex worker as much as I’m a sex worker, but I had not come out as 
2876being a frontline sex worker, i.e. speaking with and seeing clients’. 
2877
2878In another example, Melissa Gira Grant , pro-prostitution activist and 
2879author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work,17 refused to tell a 
2880Channel 4 news anchor about her involvement in the industry, despite having 
2881writtena bookinwhichshe described herselfas a ‘former sexworker’during 
2882a debate on the legitimacy of sex work as labour.18 Gira Grant, it turned out, 
2883was a stripper and webcam girl.19 
2884
2885
2886‘Trafficking Would Be Bad if It Existed but It Is a Myth 
2887Anyway’ 
2888
2889Sex law is often a front for ideology that constrains rather than liberates 
2890
2891women. What most appals me about the recent conflation of trafficking 
2892
2893and sex work in law and policy is that some feminists support the 
2894
2895confusion. These women would normally never dream of telling other 
2896
2897women how to behave, because they have fought against imposed 
2898
2899constraints in their own lives. (Melissa Dittmore , former inaugural Chair 
2900
2901of the Advisory Board of the Sex Workers’ Project ) 
2902
2903This stance draws a clear distinction between ‘sex work’ (empowered, 
2904chosen, non-violent) and trafficking (disempowered, forced, violent). It is a 
2905key argument of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW ), 
2906which presents itself as an anti-trafficking organisation but uses its platform to 
2907campaign for drawing a sharp distinction between ‘sex work’ and human 
2908trafficking. 
2909
2910Its working paper, ‘Exploring Links Between Trafficking and Gender’, 
2911argues that ‘commercial sex work is not inherently exploitative’,20 that 
2912‘policies created or actions performed in the name of anti-trafficking have at 
2913times resulted in gross human rights violations against sex workers, including 
2914economic exploitation and physical and sexual violence by law 
2915enforcement’.21 
2916
2917This paper also warns against an over-focus on sex trafficking and suggests 
2918avoiding using the term: ‘A sole focus on trafficking for the purposes of 
2919prostitution can also divert attention and urgently needed resources from human 
2920rights violations in other sectors, e.g. labour exploitation’.22 . 
2921
2922This argument ignores: the blurred lines between sexual exploitation, 
2923trafficking and so-called ‘chosen’ ‘sex work’, and the evidence that those 
2924‘entering’ prostitution do so with, at the very least, constrained choices . 
2925
2926In its submission to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on 
2927prostitution, 2016, the Sussex Centre for Gender Studies argued that: ‘Defining 
2928prostitution as violence against women erases sex workers’ rights to agency 
2929and autonomy. This places all decision-making about their lives in the hands of 
2930the state, reduces their power to act for themselves, and increases the 
2931
2932
2933likelihood they will be subject to violence (World Health Organisation 2013, 
2934Amnesty International 2015) . Since the majority of workers in the sex trade 
2935are women, this perpetuates gender inequality (GAATW 2011) ’. 
2936
2937The submission continues: ‘If all sex work is violence, there is no way to 
2938distinguish between sex workers who are working voluntarily and those who 
2939are being exploited, and sexual encounters which are consensual and those 
2940which are not’.23 
2941
2942The submission includes a defence of sex buyers : ‘Clients who believe 
2943that women are commodities and it is impossible to rape a sex worker may be 
2944more likely to be violent, exploitative and abusive than those who subscribe to 
2945ideas of sex workers’ rights (e.g. that services should be negotiated and that 
2946sex workers have a right to be safe) (GAATW 2011). O’Connell Davidson 
2947(2003)/ found that men who saw prostitution as a sector of work were more 
2948likely to be concerned about trafficking, while those who were most likely to 
2949use the services of trafficked sex workers perceived women as commodities 
2950and felt that payment signified ownership rather than exchange’. 
2951
2952Here, the author is suggesting that the abolitionist—as opposed to the ‘sex 
2953workers’ rights’ approach—can be held responsible for punters becoming 
2954violent and abusive. 
2955
2956
2957Men Who Attack and Murder Women in Prostitution 
2958Are ‘Posing as Clients’ 
2959
2960‘Decriminalise now! Stigma kills’ chanted the protesters outside the Swedish 
2961Embassy in 2013. Stigma does not kill women in prostitution. Men do. 
2962
2963In an article entitled ‘The Bloody State Gave Him The Power: A Swedish 
2964Sex Worker’s Murder’,24 Pye Jakobsson , in an interview with Caty Simon 
2965(whose blog The Virtues of Vice contains articles praising pimps and 
2966intravenous drug use), claimed that ‘stigma’ brought about by criminalising 
2967punters resulted in the murder of the ‘sex workers’ rights ’ activist Petite 
2968Jasmine . 
2969
2970Eva Marree Smith Kullander (‘Petite Jasmine ’ was the name Kullander 
2971used in prostitution) was not, in fact, stabbed to death by stigma, but by her 
2972violent ex-partner during a contact visit with the children she had lost custody 
2973of several years earlier. Kullander’s murderer was not a pimp or a punter but a 
2974domestic abuser. Kullander had not lost her children because, as the Rose 
2975Alliance25 (a ‘sex workers’ rights’ organisation based in Sweden ) claimed, 
2976she refused to accept that prostitution was bad, but because she was reported 
2977to social services for misusing alcohol and drugs.26 
2978
2979Following her death, rallies in 36 countries and six continents27 were held 
2980by‘sexworker’s rights’organisations callingfor full decriminalisationofthe 
2981sex trade and an end to the laws criminalising demand.
2982
2983In an article focussing on Kullander, Gira Grant mentions ‘Dora Özer , a 
2984Turkish trans woman who was murdered by “a man posing as a client”’.28 It is 
2985unclear why Grant assumes the murderer ‘posed’ as a sex buyer as opposed to 
2986actually being a sex buyer. This is a common tactic used by ‘sex workers’ 
2987rights ’ activists to minimise or deny the endemic violence inherent in the sex 
2988trade. 
2989
2990Writing in the Huffington Post, Kate L Gould claimed that Özer was also‘stabbed to death by stigma’, although she said that Özer was ‘murdered by a 
2991client’ as opposed to a man masquerading as one. Gould argues that the causeof Özer’s murder was the Government closing some of its 54 State-run 
2992brothels.29 
2993
2994Carol Leigh , the COYOTE spokesperson who coined the term ‘sex work’, 
2995made a video about the two murders,30 and also claims that Özer’s killer was 
2996
2997
2998‘posing’ as a client. It makes me wonder why Ugly Mugs31 (schemes that 
2999circulate information regarding violent and abusive punters to women in 
3000prostitution and advocacy services) exists if no actual punter is responsible for 
3001violence against prostituted women? 
3002
3003Since decriminalisation in New Zealand , as documented in an article by 
3004Penny White on Feminist 
3005Current,32 several prostituted women have been 
3006murdered. In Germany , there are at least 55 women who have been murdered 
3007by punters during the past 14 years, and in the Netherlands that figure is 28. I 
3008have been unable to find any evidence of a single ‘sex workers’ rights’ protest 
3009organised on behalf of these murdered women. 
3010
3011
3012‘Prostitution Is not About Gender Inequality or 
3013Patriarchy’ 
3014
3015In their research into ‘Statistics on Sex Work in the UK’,33 Nicola Smith and 
3016Sarah Kingston argue that: 
3017
3018Perhaps the most dominant stereotype of commercial sexual exchange is 
3019that only women sell sex. This was not borne out by our analysis, which 
3020found that one in three (33%) people advertising as escorts self-identified 
3021as male. In addition, 4% of escorts self-identified as trans, of whom 70% 
3022self-identified as female, 27% as male and 3% as non-binary. Just under 
302363% of total escorts self-identified as female. Our findings support those 
3024of another recent, large-scale survey, the Student Sex Work Project, that 
3025sex work does not equate to ‘women’s work’ – indeed, male students 
3026were found to be more likely than female students to engage in 
3027commercial sexual activity.34 
3028
3029The study was not about sex buyers . It was solely about one escort 
3030prostitution website’s advertising. What is advertised is not necessarily what 
3031you get. That is true in all advertising, not just in the case of prostitution. 
3032
3033They continued: 
3034
3035The site isn’t specifically/primarily geared towards LGBT/Q escorts, 
3036although it does have a partner site that is. Another recent, large-scale 
3037study found that many more sex workers are male than is conventionally 
3038assumed is the Student Sex Work Project,35 which found that male 
3039students were actually more likely to engage in sex work than were 
3040female students. 
3041
3042I emailed Nicola Smith , co-author of the report, a number of questions, all 
3043of which she politely responded to. For example, why did they choose to not 
3044name the website they relied on to gather their data? Smith responded by 
3045arguing that it was simply to protect the anonymity of those advertising on the 
3046site. 
3047
3048I asked why the authors concluded that prostitution should not be seen as an 
3049issue of women’s gender inequality, when it was known that the majority in the 
3050
3051
3052sex trade are female? I further asked if they gathered any supportive evidence, 
3053other than relying on data from one website, that rising numbers of sex buyers 
3054are women? Smith responded by saying that: ‘We do not claim that most clients 
3055are women but rather that a large proportion of people advertising as escorts 
3056on the website advertise to women, which we believe troubles assumptions 
3057that “most” clients are men’. But ‘advertising to women’ is not the same as 
3058‘women paying for sex’. 
3059
3060The report states: ‘Calls for national policy to follow a “Swedish model” 
3061of criminalisation depend upon constructions of sex workers as victimised 
3062women and their clients as predatory men. Our research directly contradicts 
3063such assumptions, and instead points to a diversity of identities and practices 
3064in the contemporary sex trade’.36 
3065
3066The aim of ‘de-gendering’ the sex trade is to argue against those of us who 
3067point out women’s structural oppression in relation to men, and to argue that it 
3068should never be included in legislation, policy or discourse about violence 
3069against women. 
3070
3071
3072Discrediting Abolitionists 
3073
3074The denunciations of decriminalisation come from a strange alliance of 
3075feminists who regard all sex workers (including porn stars and strippers) 
3076as victims of oppression and Christians who see them as drenched in 
3077depravity. Both exploit the sense that some types of sex are shameful, 
3078dangerous and intolerable – an attitude that long fuelled the persecution of 
3079gays. (Steve Chapman, 2015) 37 
3080
3081This argument positions abolitionists as prudes who are ‘anti-sex’. A key 
3082tactic of activists who use this argument is to draw comparisons between 
3083abolitionists and religious moralists. 
3084
3085For example, in an article entitled ‘If You’re Against Sex Work, You’re A 
3086Bigot’,38 ‘sexworker’Conner Habib calls abolitionists ‘anti-sexactivists ’ 
3087and compares an argument made by an abolitionist about the bodily impact of 
3088prostitution (vaginal tearing, pregnancy, disease) with a Christian, anti-gay 
3089
3090YouTuber on the damage caused to the rectum through anal sex: ‘Same gesture, 
3091same hate, same simplifications’. 
3092
3093This argument ignores the fact that feminist abolitionists ’ reasons for 
3094opposing the legalisation of prostitution are not built on flimsy moralistic 
3095grounds but on solid research on violence and coercion in prostitution. It also 
3096ignores the strong links between LGBT and feminist activism. 
3097
3098In Chap. 10, we explore the attack on abolitionists/survivors in more 
3099detail. 
3100
3101
3102The Attack on Abolitionists as Racists and Colonialists 
3103
3104
3105In a charming little piece, written by white transgender activist Paris Lees , 
3106entitled ‘Ban sex work? Fuck off white feminists’, published in that well-
3107known bastion of women’s liberation Vice 
3108magazine,39 the notion that it is 
3109desirable to end prostitution was ridiculed. 
3110
3111The slur ‘white feminism’ is now commonly used by pro-prostitution 
3112‘feminists’ to discredit abolitionists . In fact it has recently become shorthand 
3113for describing radical feminists , particularly those who campaign to end male 
3114violence towards women and girls. The implication is that those who practise 
3115‘white feminism’ are far more privileged than those who are in political 
3116opposition to them. In the past it was used by black and other minority ethnic 
3117feminists to critique feminists who failed to understand or recognise the 
3118privilege afforded to white people. It was never used against women of colour, 
3119and certainly never used by white women towards women of colour. By 
3120implication, Lees is denying the existence of survivor abolitionists and any 
3121woman of colour in the movement. This omission is particularly shocking, as 
3122well as insulting, bearing in mind the disproportionate number of women of 
3123colour who are prostituted. 
3124
3125Lees , who was raised male and, prior to his transition, was briefly 
3126involved in the sex trade, felt qualified to lecture abolitionists about how cruel 
3127it would be to ‘ban sex work’ while some women were ‘relying on food 
3128banks’. 
3129
3130There appears to be something missing from this analysis. Not only are 
3131abolitionists assumed to be speaking for women in the sex trade, they are also 
3132assumed to be white. Or, a political category that Lees has devised where 
3133‘White’ is capitalised, used as an adjective and employed to describe women 
3134of colour who dare to speak against the sex trade. Bearing in mind that the 
3135abolitionist movement is led by survivors, this seems not only patronising but 
3136also massively and embarrassingly ill informed. 
3137
3138‘Take the open letter to Amnesty International [AI] , signed by Lena 
3139Dunham , Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson last week’, writes Lees in 
3140another article,40 giving the impression that, because those three signatories are 
3141white, wealthy and successful, all signatories were. Nothing could be further 
3142from the truth. I asked Taina Bien-Aimé , Executive Director of the Coalition 
3143Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), her view of the accusation that the 
3144
3145
3146letter to AI was, as Crabapple suggested, signed by ‘many fancy white ladies’. 
3147In response, Bien-Aimé, who is of Haitian heritage and very familiar with the 
3148argument about ‘White Feminism’ in relation to the abolitionist movement, sent 
3149me a breakdown of the signatories to the letter: ‘I counted about 50 (known) 
3150Caucasian women out of 400 plus’, says Bien-Aimé. ‘The vast majority of 
3151survivors who signed are of colour. Not a bad percentage for “White 
3152Feminism”’. 
3153
3154‘Sex workers need a voice’, Lees continues in the Vice 
3155article. ‘There are a 
3156handful of current and former sex workers in the public eye – Brooke Magnanti 
3157, Stoya and Molly Smith for starters – but we’re a teensy minority.’ One small 
3158fact had clearly escaped Lees : all three aforementioned women are white. 
3159Magnanti is hardly representative of the women in prostitution: she describes 
3160herself as a former ‘high-class call girl’, has a doctorate, has written several 
3161books and has made a fortune from the television adaptation of her life in 
3162prostitution. Lees speaks from a media platform, and Smith is from a middle-
3163class background and is involved in the campaign to legalise the sex trade. 
3164
3165Another white feminist who is offended by ‘White Feminism’ is Gira 
3166Grant, who wrote in an article (in which she blamed ‘White Feminists’ for 
3167Donald Trump being elected)41 that ‘Black feminists and womanists, queer 
3168feminists, Arab feminists, disabled feminists, trans feminists, and sex worker 
3169feminists, to name just a few, have long called for white feminism’s funeral’. 
3170
3171I met Siouxsie Q , a ‘sex worker’, porn performer and journalist based in 
3172California at the Los Angeles Porn Awards in 2015. She also defines 
3173abolitionist politics as ‘white feminism’: 
3174
3175I think the problem with feminist abolitionists and sex work is that they 
3176are rooted in the white middle-class rescue industry. White Feminism has 
3177historically been something for the middle class to do, and white 
3178feminists have really tried to rescue different marginalised populations, 
3179dating back to the very beginnings of feminism, the first wave when it was 
3180linked to the slavery abolitionists . I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – we 
3181do have to acknowledge that as white people we are trying to rescue poor 
3182unfortunate brown people. It’s not quite what we know is good in the 
3183social justice – what you actually do is you go to marginalised groups and 
3184say ‘Hey, what do you need? What do you want? How can I help with my 
3185privileged resources?’ That’s not what I see with feminist abolition sex 
3186work, folks. 
3187
3188
3189Academic and pro-prostitution lobbyist Thaddeus Gregory Blanchette , 
3190anthropologist at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, also seems to 
3191think that only ‘privileged’ feminists are critical of the sex trade. In 2016, 
3192Blanchette wrote on his blog: ‘I go in and out of brothels every week, 
3193registering working conditions, talking to the women, counting clients, passing 
3194out literature. All things none of these young, white, middle class women 
3195would ever dream of doing. And I am a pimp, simply for relating to whores . 
3196Of course, whores have it worse. I guess I can say I am now finally feeling a 
3197part of the stigma attached to them’.42 
3198
3199It is telling that white, highly educated men and women vilify those who 
3200campaign to end the sex trade, when the vast majority of prostituted women 
3201and girls are poor and otherwise disadvantaged. Vast numbers of Native 
3202women and women of colour populate the sex trade,43 and the 
3203survivor/abolitionist movement reflects this. 
3204
3205
3206Abolitionists Don’t Listen to ‘Sex Workers’ 
3207
3208One of the most exploitative things anti-sex bigots do is select voices of 
3209former sex workers who’ve had terrible experiences and prop those 
3210voices up as representative of the entire population, even though they’re 
3211not. (Conner Habib , ‘sexworker’and journalist) 
3212
3213This argument completely ignores the fact that most studies show the vast 
3214majority of ‘sex workers’ experience high levels of rape, sexual assault, 
3215physical violence and harassment. It also ignores the fact that many of the most 
3216vulnerable people in prostitution—children, for example—cannot safety 
3217advocate for themselves, and therefore visible ‘voices’ of sex work can never 
3218represent the true picture. 
3219
3220
3221Sex Work Is Helpful and Liberating to Women Who’ve 
3222Been Sexually Abused 
3223
3224Prostitution is described as ‘cathartic’ in that it is a way to deal with the 
3225negative effects of male violence rather than an extension of it. For example, 
3226Alison Bass in her book Getting Screwed argues that: 
3227
3228Just as sex work can be an avenue for some women to take control in a 
3229situation where they had none, some sex workers and psychologists see it 
3230as a way to triumph over tragedy. That’s certainly how Maddy Colette , 
3231the high-end escort from North Carolina, frames it. When Maddy was 17 
3232and on a vacation trip to Costa Rica with her mother, she was violently 
3233raped and left for dead … At the age of 18, Maddy went to live in Spain , 
3234and that’s where she began working as an escort.44 
3235
3236When interviewed by Bass, Maddy added: ‘My Spanish clients were 
3237paying me thousands of Euros and it was very empowering. They gave me 
3238extravagant gifts, took me out to the opera. That feeling of being in control 
3239helped me heal’.45 
3240
3241Whilst sex trade survivors routinely describe the everyday reality of 
3242prostitution as ‘violence’, ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobbyists claim that the only 
3243violence comes from the police and other state actors. 
3244
3245
3246‘The Nordic Model Puts ‘Sex Workers’ in More 
3247Danger’ 
3248
3249Frankie Mullin is a journalist with a longstanding involvement in ‘sex work’, 
3250based in the UK. I asked Mullin, who writes about the ‘failures’ of the Nordic 
3251Model ,46 why she was so against criminalising demand. 
3252
3253‘Jumpy, paranoid men make dangerous clients,’ says Mullin. ‘Picture 
3254yourself trying to arrange a meeting with someone who refuses to give their 
3255name, or trying to discuss safety or condom-use on the street with a man who is 
3256terrified being arrested. You’ll be forced to work in more isolated areas, 
3257possibly later at night. You’ll have less time to negotiate before you climb into 
3258someone’s car. Police will be watching you because that’s how they’ll catch 
3259the buyers.’ 
3260
3261In the 18 years the Nordic Model has been operational in Sweden , not one 
3262prostituted person has been killed by a sex buyer. But the argument persists, 
3263with academics such as Jay Levy, whose book, Criminalising the Purchase of 
3264Sex: Lessons from Sweden 47 giving credence to such claims. 
3265
3266‘How can women in Sweden be in more danger than they were before the 
3267law?’ asks Simon Häggström , a police inspector from the Prostitution Unit of 
3268the Stockholm Police. ‘When all she has to do is pick up the phone, even if [the 
3269punter] is rude to her, and we will arrest him because he is already committing 
3270a crime.’ 
3271
3272Many of those high-profile pro-prostitution lobbyists who speak as ‘sex 
3273workers’ are what I would call ‘tourists’. Melissa Gira-Grant for example, 
3274who is highly educated and earning her living as a journalist; Brooke Magnanti 
3275, who holds a PhD, has written several books, and worked as a scientist; and 
3276Douglas Fox , whose partner owns one of the largest escort agencies in 
3277Britain, are not representative of the sex trade. 
3278
3279The model of framing prostitution as labour, and decriminalising the entire 
3280market, would be the best model for the ‘tourists’ and is the sensible approach 
3281to take. But it would work simply because these women (and men) are 
3282atypical, privileged ideologues. They are the student revolutionary 
3283International Socialists48 of the 1960s, taking a job in a factory to be close to 
3284‘the people’. This bourgeois model does not work for those who have been 
3285drawn into the sex trade by horror and abuse rather than by ideological choice 
3286
3287
3288. And such women make up the majority of those in prostitution. 
3289
3290Their arguments work because of the very women and men making the 
3291argument—the privileged minority. This is why the public are convinced by it, 
3292because it is coming from the mouths of those who appear to have done rather 
3293well out of prostitution. The next chapter will look at the way that the pro-
3294prostitution lobby have become adept at disguising the harm and horrors of the 
3295international sex trade. 
3296
3297Footnotes 
3298
32991 Kate Millett, 1971, The Prostitution Papers. 
3300
33012 Real name, Bridget Allerdyce. 
3302
33033 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244016679474 
3304
33054 Valentino & Johnson, 1980, The dark net, p. 25. 
3306
33075 Jennes, 1974, First Annual Hookers’Ball. 
3308
33096 Cited in James, Withers, Haft & Theiss, 1977, p. 73. 
3310
33117 Keegan, 1974, Book Title Here, p. 1. 
3312
33138 Rubin, 1986, Book Title Here, n.p. 
3314
33159 Name Pheterson, Title of Book/Paper, 1989a, p. 193. 
3316
3317
331810 TAMPER: European network for HIV/STI Prevention and Health promotion among migrant sex 
3319workers. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://tampep.eu/. 
3320
332111 ICRSE (2009, May 30.) Update: ESRC releases first findings on ‘Migrants in the UK sex 
3322industry’. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.sexworkeurope.org/es/news/icrse-past-articles/ 
3323update-esrc-releases-first-findings-migrants-uk-sex-industry. 
3324
332512 A general trade union in the United Kingdom, which has more than 631,000 members. 
3326
332713 Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/. 
3328
332914 Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/. 
3330
333115 Julian Marlowe in Nagle, 2013, Whores And Other Feminists. 
3332
333316 Jenness, V. (1993.) Making it work. New York, NY: Aldine De Gruyter. 
3334
333517 Gira Grant, M. (2014.) Playing the whore: The work of sex work. London: Verso. 
3336
333718 Gira Grant, M. (2014.) Playing the whore: The work of sex work. London: Verso. 
3338
333919 Gira Grant, M. (2014.) Playing the whore: The work of sex work. London: Verso. 
3340
334120 Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, (2010). Exploring Links Between Trafficking and 
3342Gender, p. 29. 
3343
3344
334521 Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, (2010). Exploring Links Between Trafficking and 
3346Gender, p. 29. 
3347
334822 Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, (2010). Exploring Links Between Trafficking and 
3349Gender. 29–30 
3350
335123 http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/home-affairscommittee/
3352prostitution/written/29135.pdf accessed 27th August 2017 
3353
335424 Simon, C. (2013, Jul 16.) The bloody state gave him the power: A Swedish sex worker’s murder. 
3355On Tits And Ass. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://titsandsass.com/the-bloody-state-gave-him-thepower-
3356a-swedish-sex-workers-murder/. 
3357
335825 Rose Alliance. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.rosealliance.se/en/about-ra/. 
3359
336026 There is no evidence that this claim is true. 
3361
336227 Gira Grant, M. (2013, Jul 22.) Sex workers rise up after fatal stabbings. On In These Times. 
3363Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://inthesetimes.com/uprising/entry/15337/sex_workers_rise_up_after_ 
3364fatal_stabbings. 
3365
336628 Gira Grant, M. (2013, Jul 22.) Sex workers rise up after fatal stabbings. On In These Times. 
3367Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://inthesetimes.com/uprising/entry/15337/sex_workers_rise_up_after_ 
3368fatal_stabbings. 
3369
337029 Gould, K. (2013, Jul 18.) Stabbed to death by stigma. On Huffington Post, Retrieved 16 June 2017, 
3371from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/kate-l-gould/sex-workers-sweden_b_3610665.html. 
3372
3373
337430 Leigh, C.; Jakobsson, P. (2013). Jasmine and Dora 4-Ever. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https:// 
3375vimeo.com/87450331. 
3376
337731 National Ugly Mugs (NUM). Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://uknswp.org/um/about/. 
3378
337932 White, P. (2015, Nov 3.) Remembering the murdered women erased by the pro-sex work agenda. 
3380On Feminist Current. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/11/03/ 
3381remembering-the-murdered-women-erased-by-the-pro-sex-work-agenda/. 
3382
338333 http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/home-affairscommittee/
3384prostitution/written/29161.pdf accessed 27th August 2017. 
3385
338634 Sagar, T.; Jones, D.; et al. (2015, March.) The student sex work project: Research summary. 
3387Swansea University. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.thestudentsexworkproject.co.uk/wpcontent/
3388uploads/2015/03/TSSWP-Research-Summary-English.pdf. 
3389
339035 Sagar, T.; Jones, D.; et al. (2015, March.) The student sex work project: Research summary. 
3391Swansea University. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.thestudentsexworkproject.co.uk/wpcontent/
3392uploads/2015/03/TSSWP-Research-Summary-English.pdf. 
3393
339436 http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/home-affairscommittee/
3395prostitution/written/29161.pdf accessed 27th August 2017 
3396
339737 Chapman, S. (2014, Aug 26.) Outlawing prostitution is a crime. In Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 16 
3398June 2017, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman/ct-prostitution-amnestyinternational-
3399cindy-mccain-sex-workers-trafficking-rape--20150826-column.html. 
3400
340138 Habib, C. (2014, Jun 24.) If you’re against sex work, you’re a bigot. In The Stranger. Retrieved 16 
3402June 2017, from http://www.thestranger.com/features/feature/2015/06/24/22436683/if-youre-againstsex-
3403work-youre-a-bigot 
3404
3405
340639 Lees, P. (2015, Aug 10.) Ban sex work? Fuck off, white feminism. In Vice. Retrieved 16 June 2017, 
3407from http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/ban-sex-work-fuck-off-white-feminism-paris-lees-807. 
3408
340940 Ward, V. (2015, Jul 29.) Hollywood stars urge Amnesty International not to decriminalise sex 
3410trade. In The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ 
3411celebritynews/11769766/Hollywood-stars-urge-Amnesty-International-not-to-decriminalise-sex-trade. 
3412html. 
3413
341441 http://theweek.com/articles/668061/what-feminism-age-trump. 
3415
341642 Blanchette, retrieved June 2nd 2017, https://www.blogger.com/profile/09359423010378429288 
3417
341843 Nelson Butler, C. (2015.) The racial roots of human trafficking. UCLA Law Review. Retrieved 16 
3419June 2017, from http://www.uclalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Butler-final_8.15.pdf. 
3420
342144 Bass, A. (2015.) Getting screwed. US: University Press of New England. p. 75. 
3422
342345 Bass, A. (2015.) Getting screwed. US: University Press of New England. p. 75. 
3424
342546 Mullin, F. (2014, Nov 7.) British politicians need to do more to protect prostitutes. In Vice. 
3426Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/protest-sex-workers-frankie-mullin
3427
3428
3429942. 
343047 Levy, J. (2014.) Criminalising the purchase of sex: Lessons from Sweden. London: Routledge. 
3431
343248 International Socialists. On Wikipedia. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
3433International_Socialists. 
3434
3435
3436© The Author(s) 2017 
3437Julie Bindel, The Pimping of Prostitution, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55890-9_3 
3438
3439
34403. Sanitising the Sex Trade 
3441Julie Bindel1 
3442
3443
3444(1) London, UK 
3445Julie Bindel 
3446Email: juliebindel@yahoo.co.uk 
3447In the past few decades, prostitution and the sex trade have been given a 
3448serious makeover. The title of this book, The Pimping of Prostitution, is meant 
3449to convey how sanitised commercial sexual exploitation has become. The 
3450Urban Dictionary definition of pimping is ‘to make something “cool”, “better” 
3451or “awesome”’. 
3452
3453In recent years, the sex trade has been rebranded to give the impression that 
3454it is not harmful, nor even prostitution. Academics and pro-prostitution 
3455activists have begun to use terms such as ‘selling love’, ‘transactional sex’ and 
3456‘compensated daters’. Those who support the sex trade use terminology that 
3457masks the reality of what it actually is: one person, almost always male, having 
3458sex with another person, almost always female, without mutual desire. The sex 
3459buyer knows that the woman he is buying does not want to have sex with him, 
3460otherwise he wouldn’t have to pay her. 
3461
3462I have only ever heard survivors of the sex trade speak about the actual sex 
3463of prostitution. The pro-sex trade lobby dresses it up in euphemisms, using a 
3464narrative more appropriate for a description of labour rather than a sexual act 
3465performed upon a person. 
3466
3467The pro-prostitution lobby rarely speaks about regular prostitution: where 
3468a buyer hands over cash to a woman in order to gain access to the inside of her 
3469body for one-sided pleasure. Nor did they speak about the actual sex. I have 
3470only ever heard survivors, or those still in prostitution but wishing to get out, 
3471talk about what the sex is like in reality. 
3472
3473
3474Unlike the pro-prostitution lobby, whose members speak of ‘safe sex’, the 
3475other women I have interviewed recount the detail. They speak of the 
3476horrendous smell of the punters, and the pain of a dry, bruised vagina being 
3477penetrated by multiple men. The horror of having his semen or other bodily 
3478fluids anywhere near her face. His beard rubbing her cheek until she bleeds. 
3479They tell me about how their necks get sore from whipping their head away 
3480from his tongue as he tries to kiss her. About being unable to eat or drink or 
3481kiss her children, because of what she has had to do with her mouth. How her 
3482arm and elbow aches from desperately trying to get them to ejaculate so she 
3483does not have to be penetrated one more time. 
3484
3485After the 1996 Brighton conference , when I heard survivors speak about 
3486what actually happened to them in prostitution, and being extremely familiar 
3487with the abuse that Emma Humphreys had suffered during her years in the sex 
3488trade, I began to ask the so-called ‘sex workers’ rights ’ activists who spoke 
3489out to describe exactly what they did for a living. Without exception they 
3490objected to this question, despite the fact that they had insisted that this was 
3491just work like any other job. At one conference in London, I asked a speaker 
3492during the Q&A session exactly what aspect of prostitution she was involved 
3493in. I had heard from numerous people, including other pro-prostitution 
3494lobbyists , that she had worked as a receptionist in a brothel for six months 
3495some years ago, then become involved in the Red Umbrella Campaign (the red 
3496umbrella was adopted in 2005 by the International Committee on the Rights of 
3497Sex Workers in Europe [ICRSE] ‘as a symbol of resistance to 
3498discrimination’),1 before securing a significant amount of money from a 
3499charitable trust to provide ‘services’ for street-prostituted women in a British 
3500city. 
3501
3502When the pro-prostitution lobbyist asked ‘How dare you?’ in response to 
3503my question, I replied that I didn’t see why she couldn’t speak about her 
3504activities, and that I was perfectly willing to tell her about the research I was 
3505involved in and describe my work. She declined my offer. 
3506
3507In her article, ‘Webcamming: the sex work revolution that no one is willing 
3508to talk about’,2 author Rachel Stuart (who is researching a PhD entitled ‘The 
3509discourses that pertain to webcamming as a form of sexual commerce, how 
3510webcam is experienced as a form of labour by female performers’, at the 
3511University of Kent, UK) claimed that: ‘Webcamming is an easy market to enter. 
3512All it takes is a computer, a decent webcam, access to a high speed internet 
3513connection and a webcam hosting site. The hours are flexible, the working 
3514
3515
3516environment is safe and the salary can be very rewarding’. 
3517
3518Not everyone agrees that webcamming is safe. Investigative journalist 
3519Jamie Bartlett conducted in-depth research into the underworld of the Internet 
3520for his book The Dark Net. Bartlett found that the women involved in 
3521webcamming can be at risk of violence and even be driven to take their own 
3522lives. ‘[C]amming can kill’, writes Bartlett. ‘Camwhores are usually teenagers 
3523who strip for the benefit of users of the horrible website 4chan. Many are 
3524“doxed” [identified] and their names passed to friends and parents. They are 
3525subjected to cyberbullying and anybody who protests is dismissed as a 
3526“moralfag”. Some kill themselves as a result.’3 
3527
3528Bartlett describes how webcamming is becoming a hugely profitable 
3529business, thought to be worth $1 billion per annum, and comprising 
3530approximately one-fifth of the porn business. It is also becoming increasingly 
3531normalised, with around 15% of British adults under 40 having appeared 
3532naked on a webcam. 
3533
3534According to Stuart , webcamming is a good way to earn money and is 
3535largely beyond reproach. ‘Webcam performers are often highly 
3536entrepreneurial, and they harness mainstream social networking sites such as 
3537Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to build and maintain relationships with 
3538customers. It’s difficult for radical feminists to claim that a shrewd 
3539businesswoman has been victimised by her involvement in this form of 
3540pornography.’ 
3541
3542I spoke to one woman who was involved in webcamming for 12 months 
3543during her time as a mature student. ‘Jane’ had been introduced to the idea by a 
3544‘glamour’photographer, who told her thatshe could earnas muchinanhour 
3545webcamming as she could in a week working in a bar. 
3546
3547‘At first I thought I could cope’, said Jane. ‘After all, there was no direct 
3548contact with the client and I could make my own rules.’ Soon, Jane realised 
3549that she was terrified the sex buyers would be able to track her down and she 
3550found herself unable to sleep. ‘I realised I didn’t have control over what I was 
3551doing,’ she said. ‘They demanded I did things that made me feel dirty, 
3552disgusted and ashamed. They would have me acting as a really young child, 
3553pretending to be their daughter and asking me to beg “daddy” to “fuck me”.’ 
3554
3555
3556The ‘Sex Work’ Revolution 
3557
3558The sanitation project began with the introduction of the term ‘sex work’, now 
3559used by the majority of police officers, media outlets and human rights 
3560organisations. There are even those who use the term ‘juvenile sex work’ to 
3561describe sexually abused children. The sanitisation of language to describe the 
3562sex trade and activities associated with it has reached what I hope is a nadir. 
3563The term ‘forced sex work’ has become widely used among some international 
3564non-governmental organisations (including, for example, Action Aid), which 
3565strikes me as an oxymoron. If we are to take the intended meaning of ‘sex 
3566work’ (to engage in sex as labour), surely if the ‘sex’ part of sex work is 
3567forced, it is actually rape or slavery? Indeed, Action Aid’s paper on the topic 
3568is entitled ‘Position Paper on the Rights of Sex Workers’, and is written by the 
3569International Women’s Rights Team. The only ‘rights’ considered within this 
3570framework appear to be those of women to be prostituted. 
3571
3572A 1984 article4 published in The Associated Press, a Californian 
3573newspaper, with the headline ‘Cops’ Survey Finds Hookers Well Paid And 
3574Enjoy Their Work’, is a clear example of how confused and contradictory, as 
3575well as biased, much reporting is on the issue of prostitution. The article was 
3576based on the findings of a San Jose police officer with a Masters in 
3577Criminology, who had conducted a survey of 100 prostituted women around 
3578Silicon Valley . According to the researcher, Ronald Martinelli , these women 
3579‘earn $74,000 a year, enjoy their work and don’t worry about getting caught’. 
3580
3581So far, so good. However, further findings highlighted in the article 
3582contradict this rosy picture. Of those surveyed, 88% admitted that prostitution 
3583is related to other crimes, including robbery, assault and murder. The majority 
3584of the women surveyed said they prefer sex buyers who were married because 
3585married men won’t go to the police if they are robbed or assaulted. I can only 
3586assume (the report is not online, and my efforts to contact the author were 
3587fruitless) that this is because crimes against sex buyers are also rife. 
3588
3589According to Martinelli , only 2% of the women surveyed were pimped or 
3590otherwise coerced. Some 71% said that they liked their work, despite the fact 
3591that almost all of the women were children when they were first prostituted; 
359221% said they entered prostitution ‘for excitement and to meet interesting 
3593people’. 
3594
3595One of the most telling statistics that came out of the survey was that ‘only 
3596
3597
3598five percent said they entered prostitution to support a drug habit, although 
3599most said they have since turned to narcotics because of the easy availability 
3600and to help reduce the stress of their work’. A common argument that has long 
3601been used by the pro-prostitution lobby is that women enter street prostitution 
3602primarily to pay for drugs.5 Those of us who understand the harm that is 
3603inherent to the sex trade have long argued that many women turn to drugs 
3604because of the horrors they have to deal with in prostitution.6 
3605
3606So rosy were the claims by Martinelli that even ‘sex workers’ rights ’ 
3607activists took issue with some of the statements. Priscilla Alexander ,7 already 
3608a major figure in the pro-prostitution movement, and at the time that the article 
3609was published she was action coordinator for the National Organisation for 
3610Women in California,8 said that the figure of $74,000 average earnings was 
3611hugely inflated and was actually closer to $15,000 and $20,000 per annum. 
3612
3613
3614The Benevolent Pimp 
3615
3616During my interview with Thierry Schaffauser , former senior member of the 
3617International Union of Sex Workers (lUSW) , I asked what his definition of a 
3618‘pimp’ was. Along with a number of other pro-prostitution lobbyists , 
3619Schaffauser holds the view that the ‘pimp’ is a racist figment of the 
3620abolitionists ’ imagination. 
3621
3622‘Outside the [pro-prostitution] movement I would be careful about using 
3623the word pimp’ says Schaffauser. ‘The pimping laws in many countries like UK 
3624and France are a very broad definition. I know sex workers who let other sex 
3625workers use their flat when they were on holiday and when they came back, the 
3626police arrested them.’ 
3627
3628To argue that there is no such thing as a pimp means that there is no such 
3629thing as a pimped person. The same goes for trafficking. A number of 
3630academics and pro-prostitution Academics and pro-prostitution lobbyists 
3631argue that trafficking is actually migration for ‘sex work’, which means that 
3632there are no trafficked victims and no traffickers. 
3633
3634Take, for example, Laura Lee , who describes herself as a ‘sex worker and 
3635dominatrix’. Giving evidence to the Northern Ireland Assembly in January 
36362014, when it was considering whether or not to bring in the law criminalising 
3637those who pay for sex, she said: ‘In all my time working as a sex worker, I 
3638have never come across a woman whom I would deem to have been coerced 
3639or trafficked in any way’. 
3640
3641From the early 2000s onwards, it became popular among pro-prostitution 
3642campaigners and lobbyists to focus on the drug-using street prostituted women, 
3643in order to argue that ‘crack is the new pimp’.9 This argument was quite handy 
3644for the lobby because it took the responsibility away from third-party 
3645profiteers and sex buyers , and didn’t even put it in the hands of the drug 
3646dealers but rather the prostituted woman herself. Her addiction meant that she 
3647did ‘sex work’ in order to feed it. She was driven by neither a pimp nor men’s 
3648demand for prostitution sex. 
3649
3650
3651Sanitising Use of Language 
3652
3653The most effective way to sanitise any human rights abuse is to rename it. For 
3654example, as Janice Raymond points out in her book Not A Choice ,10 a pro-
3655slavery strategist in the West Indies suggested: ‘Instead of SLAVES, let the 
3656Negroes be called ASSISTANT PLANTERS and we shall not then hear such 
3657violent outcries against the slave trade by pious divines, tender-hearted 
3658poetesses and short-sighted politicians’ 13th February 2014. 
3659
3660Language is a powerful weapon in the ideological battle over prostitution. 
3661The term‘sexworker’entered popular parlance followingthe publicationof 
3662Sex Work: Writings By Women In The Sex Industry 11 in 1987. Today, in the 
3663UK and elsewhere, the term is used by police officers, policymakers, 
3664politicians and human rights organisations. Most media outlets also favour it 
3665over ‘prostitution’. The evolution of ‘sex workers’ rights ’ language has had a 
3666profound effect on how the sex trade is viewed by the general public. 
3667
3668In 2015 I attended the first international conference organised by ProsPol 
3669(‘Comparing European Prostitution Policies: Understanding Scales and 
3670Cultures of Governance’), held in Vienna , Austria. 
3671
3672Delegates had been invited to submit papers under the conference banner 
3673‘Troubling prostitution: Exploring intersections of sex, intimacy and labour’. 
3674On the flight I had read the book of abstracts in detail, my eyes growing wider 
3675as I ploughed through headings such as ‘Between Love and Work: negotiations 
3676of economic and intimate ties among sex workers and pimps’, and ‘The 
3677‘Trafficking’ of Sex Work: migration, working conditions and exploitation’. 
3678
3679At the conference I attended a number of workshops and keynote speeches 
3680that were peppered with the type of euphemisms that serve to distort the reality 
3681of the sex trade, for example: 
3682
3683
3684‘Contract breach’—rape 
3685‘Business practices’—pimping 
3686‘Facilitate disabled people’s sexual lives’—disabled men buying sex 
3687‘Occupational health risks’—violence, sexually transmitted diseases, 
3688rape 
3689‘Job amenities’—the ability to turn down undesirable clients 
3690
3691‘Affective-erotic services performed by prostitutes’—sex acts 
3692‘Third parties’—pimps 
3693‘Sex work management’—running a brothel and/or women 
3694‘Grooming gangs’—pimps who target girls under the age of 18 
3695‘International marriage community’—mail-order brides. 
3696‘Coerce’, ‘victim’, ‘trafficking’and ‘survivor’were putinscare quotes in 
3697the conference materials. 
3698
3699Millions of dollars were poured into anti trafficking initiatives but the 
3700problem did not abate. Feminists such as the Coalition against Trafficking of 
3701Women sought to raise awareness on the international stage about the vast 
3702numbers of women being exploited both within and across borders for the 
3703purposes of prostitution. It was at the beginning of the 2000s that the pro-
3704prostitution campaigners and academics began to deny that trafficking was such 
3705a big problem after all.12 
3706
3707John Davies , the convicted fraudster and suspected baby trafficker, was 
3708one of the first academics to dispense with the bother of prefacing his theories 
3709on trafficked women with ‘of course trafficking is terrible, but it is not the 
3710same as prostitution’ type of statement.13 Davies simply described the women 
3711as trafficked, prescribing them ‘agency ’ and ‘choice ’. I discuss Davies in 
3712more depth in Chap. 9. 
3713
3714Nicola Mai, a UK-based academic who studies prostitution-related issues, 
3715conducted research into the trafficking of Nigerian women into Italy and 
3716France,14 and also prescribes these trafficked women ‘agency’ and ‘choice’. 
3717
3718For example, the stories of the Nigerian women in his film Travel 
371915 tell us 
3720clearly that they have been trafficked, coerced, pimped and otherwise abused 
3721into the sex trade. However, according to Mai, this is far better than them 
3722remaining in Nigeria to face poverty and hardship. In other words, for these 
3723two academics and a number of others, in recent years even trafficking has 
3724been sanitised to the point where it is seen simply as a process that the women 
3725choose to go through, to avoid something worse at home.16 , 17 
3726
3727
3728The Myths of Health and Safety 
3729
3730Pro-prostitution lobbyists deny the harm to women in prostitution, unless they 
3731are ascribing that harm to police officers or feminist abolitionists . 
3732
3733Some of the clearest examples of the way in which risk to health and harm 
3734is sanitised by the pro-prostitution lobby is in A Guide to Occupational 
3735Health and Safety in the New Zealand Sex Industry, published in 2004 by the 
3736New Zealand Department of Labour. This document, despite being published 
3737in 2004, is still the most up-to-date version, and advertised on the New 
3738Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective website in the section ‘Business Matters: 
3739Information for Brothel Operators’. Health and safety guidelines were based 
3740on those previously prepared by the Scarlet Alliance , the Australian forum for 
3741‘sex workers’ rights’ organisations, and the Australian Federation of AIDS 
3742Organisations publicaation A Guide to Best Practice: Occupational Health 
3743and Safety in the Australian Sex Industry.18 
3744
3745The document addresses issues such as condom breakage, repetitive strain 
3746injury, violence from punters, and rape (described in the document as 
3747‘Unfortunately, incidents occur where workers are forced by clients to have 
3748sex without a condom against their will’), and ‘mopping up semen’: ‘Use 
3749disposable paper and place it in sealable plastic bag(s) for safe disposal. Is 
3750not to be directly handled; hard surfaces to be sponged with cold water and 
3751soap or detergent. Ditto for carpets and rugs; bedding to be machine washed 
3752separately in warm water and detergent and then dried.’19 
3753
3754This document outlines a number of life-threatening ‘occupational hazards’ 
3755in a way that makes clear these are common occurrences. HIV/AIDS, rape, 
3756sexual violence and other serious crimes are endemic to the sex trade. 
3757According to Prostitution Research and Education, 70–95% of women in 
3758prostitution experience physical assault during ‘work’, 60–75% are raped, and 
375995% experience sexual harassment that in other industries would result in legal 
3760action.20 
3761
3762
3763The Erasure of ‘Prostitution’ and the ‘Sex Work’ 
3764Euphemism 
3765
3766In recent years I have noticed that the word ‘prostitution’ is used far less than 
3767‘sex work’ or other euphemistic terms. One way to get a sense of the changing 
3768attitudes towards the words ‘sex work’ and ‘prostitution’ is to examine their 
3769use in the media. For this purpose, I utilised a major archive of digitised 
3770newspapers (LexisNexis) and counted the number of uses per month of the 
3771word ‘sex work’ (or ‘sex worker[s]’) and ‘prostitution’ (or ‘prostitute[s]’) 
3772from 2005 to 2015 in the UK. This included not only the major broadsheets but 
3773also other smaller newspapers, Press Association reports and a variety of 
3774other sources listed in the UK Publications category. 
3775
3776While the word ‘prostitution’ was and remains the more common phrasing, 
3777the use of the word ‘sex work’ has been increasing. In 2005, the ratio of the use 
3778of the word ‘sex work’ to ‘prostitution’ was 1:20; that is, there were 20 uses of 
3779the word ‘prostitution’ for one use of the term ‘sex work’. This moved slightly 
3780over the next few years, with the ratio rising to 1:9 in 2013. In recent years, the 
3781increase has seemed to come more rapidly with the ratio rising to around 1:6 
3782in 2014 and 2015 (January–September). 
3783
3784
3785The Girlfriend Experience 
3786
3787My first introduction to the persuasive myths about the sex trade was the 1990 
3788film Pretty Woman .21 A romantic comedy, the story goes like this: Julia 
3789Roberts, whose character is a street-prostituted woman, meets Richard Gere, 
3790who plays a rich businessman, and he takes her back to his opulent hotel. It 
3791turns out that the punter wishes to have a ‘girlfriend experience’ (GE) with the 
3792prostituted woman and there are various scenes of sipping champagne and 
3793eating strawberries. Gere parades Roberts around his similarly rich business 
3794contacts and their upper-class wives and it becomes clear that she is not one of 
3795them. But eventually they fall in love and live happily ever after. 
3796
3797The relationship between sex buyer and prostituted woman is seen as one 
3798of a knight in shining armour rescuing a down-at-heel but conventionally 
3799beautiful woman who, through no fault of her own, has ended up in dire 
3800circumstances on the street. By saving her, Gere cleanses Roberts of her 
3801‘whore’ status. Similarly, he escaped being a predatory john or a sad character 
3802who can’t get a real date. 
3803
3804In 1991 I was in Moscow , speaking to a group of 16–18-year-old girls in 
3805a high school. I was there as part of the British Council’s programme to 
3806educate those vulnerable to being trafficked into prostitution. I asked them 
3807what they would like to do as a career, and more than 50% of them said that 
3808they would like to be a prostitute. Shocked, I asked why. The most common 
3809answer, apart from the fact that they could migrate from Russia to the West, 
3810was that they could meet a man like Richard Gere and have a happy ending. 
3811
3812Nowhere are class and other social dividers more stark that in an opulent 
3813setting (such as a five-star hotel room) where one person can easily afford the 
3814bill, and the other does not even have a bank account. Sex trade survivor Fiona 
3815Broadfoot tells me that on the street ‘they [sex buyers ] make you feel like shite 
3816when they have a posh hotel room that they can buy you in. You’re the dirty 
3817whore and they have a load of money and power. At least on the street you are 
3818both looked at as scum, to one degree or another, by the residents and police’. 
3819
3820Di Martin exited prostitution in 1984 when GE was not marketed to punters 
3821as an actual distinct ‘service’. ‘The mechanics of [GE] existed in terms of 
3822being booked for two days, having to go out to dinner or the casino with them, 
3823and paraded at business events’, says Martin. ‘I even remember having to 
3824undergo a pre-interview at a restaurant in Chelsea to ensure my knowledge of 
3825
3826
3827current affairs was up to par! To me, these were the worst jobs because I had 
3828to find a way of not letting them have access to ‘me’ but also provide an 
3829engaging, charming persona that convinced him he was fascinating. 
3830
3831‘It was exhausting. This is all a way of men showcasing what they’ve 
3832bought and also a way of them pretending that they haven’t had to pay for it. 
3833Also they might be charming at dinner or at the casino but you still never knew 
3834what was going to happen at the end of the night, so [I had] prolonged anxiety.’ 
3835
3836Anja was also prostituted in the legal brothels in Germany . ‘I always tell 
3837the people how ugly it is, because they think it’s easier when a john treats you 
3838friendly like a ‘girlfriend’ but it’s much more cruel, because you have to be 
3839conscious all the time, no chance to dissociate because you always have to 
3840play a role, you always have to interact with the john. I hated it.’ 
3841
3842Huschke Mau was prostituted in Germany, including in so-called ‘mega 
3843brothels’. ‘When you sell sex you have to pretend you are someone else, you 
3844need to practise disassociation. When they come and take your hand and kiss 
3845you and cuddle you and ask you things about your private life, it feels like you 
3846have no borders around yourself’, says Mau. 
3847
3848‘I expect to get what I pay for’, a British sex tourist visiting the window 
3849brothel area of Amsterdam told me, ‘and if it’s a quick blow job, fine, but if I 
3850am paying for her to be my girlfriend, that’s what she has to be. I want her “in 
3851the moment”’. 
3852
3853Courtney was involved in prostitution for ten years in the decriminalised 
3854and legalised regimes within New Zealand and Australia . ‘The middle-class 
3855white male was the most frequent requester of “the girlfriend experience”. 
3856Upon reflection, the idea of the girlfriend experience perplexes me. When I 
3857think about myself being a girlfriend, I expect my boyfriend to court me, take 
3858me to dinner, massage my shoulders and prove that he is eventually going to be 
3859a good husband and father’, says Courtney. ‘The reality within the sex trade is 
3860very far from that. It has been the source of much pain and distrust, countless 
3861times of fighting off men who believed they had the right to violate me above 
3862and beyond, all because of a scummy $50. I wonder what they think when they 
3863meditate on the idea of a girlfriend? Has it really been reduced to the access of 
3864a sexual interaction?’ 
3865
3866The story the sex trade survivors tell are, unsurprisingly, vastly different 
3867from what we hear from the academics, pimps and sex buyers . 
3868
3869The term ‘selling love’ and the description of those selling the GE is also 
3870referred to as ‘selling love’ or ‘professional girlfriend’. These terms are being 
3871
3872
3873increasingly used among the post-modernists and anthropologist academics, 
3874and I heard it several times during that long weekend at Prostpol in Vienna . I 
3875recalled a conversation with Rachel Moran , an Irish survivor of the sex trade 
3876and founder of SPACE International. Moran was trying to explain why sex 
3877could not be viewed as a commodity to be purchased for money, and asked me 
3878to name two other things that also could not be viewed as such. I suggested 
3879humour and love. 
3880
3881But according to a growing number of academics and ‘sex workers’ rights 
3882activists ’, ‘love’ rather than ‘sex’ is on the prostitution market place. During 
3883the Vienna conference, I heard several academics and PhD candidates use the 
3884phrase ‘selling love’. 
3885
3886As Heidi Hoefinger claims in her book Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia 
3887: Professional Girlfriends and Transactional Relationships 22: ‘Although they 
3888might be stigmatised by the wider conservative Cambodian society, PGs use 
3889their own forms of discursive, emotional and sexual power in attempts to 
3890advance their mobility and secure a better future for themselves – as do many 
3891women who identify as sex workers.’ 
3892
3893In a review of The Girlfriend Experience, a drama on cable TV channel 
3894Starz, which is based on the 2009 film by Stephen Soderbergh, Brian Moylan 
3895writes: ‘The problem with Christine is that she’s a bit of a cypher. She is 
3896closed off, cold and doesn’t like to be around other people. I’m sorry, but if 
3897there is any job in the world that requires being a people person, it’s sex work. 
3898We know Christine needs the money and is vaguely interested in being 
3899transgressive, but her emotional inner life is as unknowable as a stripper’s real 
3900name.’23 
3901
3902This assumption is a direct contradiction of the testimony of prostituted 
3903women the world over. ‘I cut off from myself’, said Moran . ‘It is how we 
3904cope with the invasion of our bodies and of our souls.’ I interviewed 50 
3905survivors during the course of researching this book and every single one said 
3906variations on the same theme: they dissociate, leave their bodies, go to another 
3907place in their heads. If prostituted women were present during every encounter 
3908with a sex buyer, even less of the women would survive, and I would imagine 
3909the morgues would be overflowing with johns. But of course, Moylan’s take on 
3910the GE is that it is not really prostitution. 
3911
3912Georgina Perry , former CEO of the charity Open Doors in East London 
3913(an NHS-funded harm reduction agency ), further perpetuates the notion that 
3914hanging out for a weekend is merely a leisure activity for which one is paid. 
3915
3916
3917‘Far from being a distant underworld, sold sex is relatively common. Research 
3918shows that around 10% of men in the UK, from all walks of life, have paid for 
3919sex – a percentage that would surely be much higher if it included people other 
3920than heterosexual men, and more ambiguously transactional intimacies.’ The 
3921fact that Perry included what she considered to be ‘transactional intimacies’ as 
3922distinct from prostitution shows quite how embedded the notion of ‘selling 
3923love’ has become. 
3924
3925
3926Trafficking Denial 
3927
3928A similar view of who the baddies are exists within the discourse of ‘sex 
3929workers’ rights ’. We repeatedly hear how the trafficking of women from poor, 
3930war-torn countries is bad, but prostitution is different because the women 
3931choose it (and presumably, none of them is pimped or exploited). Pimps and 
3932brothel owners also use this cleansing excuse, such as Dennis Hof , author of 
3933The Art of the Pimp: One Man’s Search for Love, Sex and Money, and owner 
3934of a string of legal brothels in Nevada in the USA. 
3935
3936During my week with Hof in 2012, in which I visited several of his 
3937brothels, I asked him why he considers legalisation safer and better than any 
3938form of criminalisation. Hof told me: ‘The legal environment is like the 
3939world’s greatest singles bar. There is no trafficking, no rape, no HIV, no illegal 
3940activity. It’s safe here.’ In 2016, Hof announced that he is working with state 
3941legislators to discuss ways in which he can start a campaign to end trafficking, 
3942and described it as his ‘last goal in life’. ‘I hate traffickers’, Hof told me. 
3943‘They give our business a bad name.’ 
3944
3945
3946Sugar Daddies, not Punters 
3947
3948The website Seeking Arrangement 24 is one of the most popular sites used by 
3949those wishing to enter into such a deal. According to the website, there are 12 
3950females to each male looking for a ‘partnership’. ‘Sugar Babies and Sugar 
3951Daddies have on-going relationships not transactions’, reads the introductory 
3952blurb. ‘More often than not, a sugar relationship will resemble that of a 
3953girlfriend–boyfriend relationship. There are real connections and real 
3954possibilities at romance, something that is not in the realm of possibility with 
3955an escort or prostitute.’ 
3956
3957In Boston in 2015, I met a man whom I will call Philip. I contacted him via 
3958an online dating agency that specialised in linking older, wealthy men seeking 
3959‘dates’ with young, attractive women. Philip agreed to speak to me on the 
3960proviso that I made it clear that he was ‘not a john’: 
3961
3962I like sex, I like beautiful girls and I’m divorced. I am solvent. I think I’m 
3963an interesting guy, and there are young women out there who had bad 
3964dating experiences with young immature men who don’t know how to 
3965treat them. Maybe these girls find it difficult to pay their rent or their 
3966college fees, but either way this is a mutual arrangement of benefit to both 
3967sides. It is as far from prostitution as you can get – we have dinner, we 
3968have sex if we both feel like it, I pay her bills. End of story. If I wanted 
3969prostitutes I would go to brothels or on the street. I don’t, those women 
3970are different. This is a normal relationship. 
3971
3972Philip would be greatlyreassured bythe descriptionof‘sugar’contracts on 
3973Seeking Arrangement : 
3974
3975Sugar is a lifestyle choice , not a profession. A sugar baby is a woman 
3976who wants to date financially secure men who can provide her with the 
3977lifestyle she desires. She’s selective about who she dates; a prostitute 
3978isn’t picky about who she takes on as a client. The risks involved with 
3979prostitution are countless, and include exposure to crime, abuse, sexually 
3980transmitted diseases and theft of service. Many prostitutes are also 
3981subject to physical and emotional abuse, especially when involved with a 
3982pimp. And in sugar, sex is never a requirement only an aspiration. 
3983
3984
3985I meet Annabel, a conventionally attractive woman in her early 20s who is 
3986in her second year of studies at a university in the North of England. Annabel 
3987had been introduced to the world of ‘sugar babies’ by a friend who was in an 
3988‘arrangement’ with a married man in his 60s. 
3989
3990‘In reality, what I was expected to do was just sex work,’ says Annabel. ‘I 
3991met Doug and it was clear from the beginning that sex was expected, and that 
3992he was road testing me before he came up with any offer as to helping me out 
3993financially. I was in massive debt and saw no other way out. I ended up 
3994sleeping with a disgusting old man for money and it made me feel so bad about 
3995myself that I ended up dropping out of my studies.’ 
3996
3997But according to Seeking Arrangement , the women brokered via its 
3998website are totally distinct from ‘prostitutes’, despite what either the women 
3999feel or the men expect: ‘You may meet hundreds of prostitutes before finding 
4000anyone to fulfil your emotional needs. Prostitutes are hired to roleplay for the 
4001evening – they’ll be whomever you want them to be, but they won’t necessarily 
4002be themselves.’ 
4003
4004
4005Mail-Order Brides 
4006
4007The mail-order bride industry is built on prostitution. It is, for the women who 
4008are purchased in this manner, potentially a lifetime of 24-hours-a-day 
4009prostitution. It is an aspect of the sex trade that has been re-marketed to look as 
4010though it is nothing more than Internet dating. 
4011
4012In Kiev, Ukraine, I met the men who are looking to buy a bride, the agency 
4013owners and the women who had signed up to them in the hope of escaping 
4014poverty and other hardships. 
4015
4016I met Bridget in Kiev, who had already been through a divorce and been 
4017left with two young children. Her husband was a violent alcoholic. Bridget 
4018told me that she made a decision to sign up to the mail-order bride website 
4019because it was a better option than selling herself in a bar or on the street. 
4020Bridget married a man from Canada , whom she had only previously met 
4021twice. She barely speaks any English. ‘I was nothing more than a full-time 
4022prostitute’, says Bridget. ‘I was expected to be on call, 24 hours of every day, 
4023and not only for sex. I had to wash his clothes, clean his toilet, clean the shirts 
4024onto which I bled when he was rough with me, and make his food and smile at 
4025him when he came in from work. In fact, I was his slave. I belonged to him. He 
4026got me cheap.’ 
4027
4028Bridget’s experience is far from uncommon. What is not that common, 
4029however, is for people to understand or to admit that the mail-order bride 
4030industry is part of the sex trade. Indeed, it is far more common to describe this 
4031industry as the marriage industry. The men I spoke to who were buying women 
4032to marry were offended by my use of the term ‘mail-order bride industry’. 
4033
4034At one of the ‘shop front’ agencies, Kiev Connections , I talk to its manager 
4035Veronica about the industry and the women on her books. It is not long before a 
4036customer turns up hoping to meet his ‘date’ with whom he has been 
4037corresponding on Skype and email for three months. Robert from Delaware in 
4038USA is in his mid-60s, and has been looking for a Ukrainian bride for 
4039four years. He tells me that Ukrainian women tend not to be tainted with 
4040feminist ideology and ‘have a little bit of better fit for what old-style America 
4041is about’. 
4042
4043I speak to Marta Gosovska , a former student in Ukraine who was paid by a 
4044marriage agency to translate letters between the men and the potential brides. 
4045‘The women were very young, very beautiful, badly educated’, says Gosovska. 
4046
4047
4048‘Almost none of them spoke English, and used only nouns and simple verbs. 
4049The men were almost all over 40, in bad physical condition, overweight. I was 
405022 and horrified that someone would want to have a relationship with such a 
4051person.’ 
4052
4053Gosovska tells me about a 70-year-old Canadian man who ‘auditioned’ 11 
4054women at the same time in his hotel room in order to choose a bride. ‘He was 
4055a desperate person wishing to find himself a housewife. Not a wife, not a 
4056partner but a housewife to look after his house and have sex whenever he 
4057wanted. Another man asked me which of the 12 women that he was interested 
4058in had children’, says Gosovska. ‘These men know the women with children 
4059are more vulnerable.’ 
4060
4061I made contact with a former mail-order bride via a support project for 
4062migrant women in North America. Kamon (not her real name) married Dave, a 
4063former Marine from Chicago, but escaped soon after she was brought from 
4064Thailand to the USA. ‘I was a dancer in a bar [in Bangkok] and the manager 
4065told me I would get lots of money from dating rich American men by joining 
4066his bride agency ’, Kamon told me over the telephone. ‘I was in trouble with 
4067money, so when I met Dave and he told me he would take care of me I did not 
4068even think, I just agreed to go home with him.’ 
4069
4070What happened next was, says Kamon, ‘my worst nightmare’. Trapped in a 
4071small town, thousands of miles away from home and unable to speak much 
4072English, Kamon became depressed, which in turn ‘made him hate me’. She 
4073continues: ‘He wanted sex when he wanted it, food when he wanted. If I cried 
4074he would shout at me, and I had to do what he told me because he said he could 
4075have me deported back to Thailand . The man I met [in Thailand] disappeared 
4076as soon as he got home’. 
4077
4078The very existence of an industry designed to market and sell human beings 
4079is exploitation and degradation. This is the case regardless of any alleged 
4080‘consent’ on the part of the woman being sold. ‘It was torture’, Kamon tells me. 
4081‘I thought it would be better than selling myself in bars, but I ended up being a 
4082full-time prostitute and slave. I weep for other women who think this is a good 
4083idea.’ 
4084
4085
4086Sex Surrogacy 
4087
4088Retraining former prostituted women as ‘sex surrogates’ gives the impression 
4089that the women are being professionally qualified to do a respectable job and 
4090that they have been exited. 
4091
4092An article in the Daily Mail pegged on the 2012 release of the film The 
4093Sessions, a real-life story about the late polio sufferer Mark O’Brien and his 
4094so-called ‘sex surrogate’ Cheryl Cohen Greene, was headlined ‘We’re not 
4095prostitutes: The sex surrogates helping real life 40-year-old virgins overcome 
4096crippling inexperience with one-on-one coaching’.25 
4097
4098‘You need a partner to resolve most sexual problems and for single men 
4099that is obviously an issue’, said Greene in the article. According to Greene, 
410010% of her clients are ‘academics or career-focused virgins who failed to 
4101concentrate on their love lives’. An average course is 12–15 sessions, with 
4102penetration happening halfway through the course. ‘I’m not a prostitute, you 
4103don’t have to pay me upfront’, says the Greene character when O’Brien says 
4104the money is on the desk. 
4105
4106Fern Arden , a sex therapist at a private clinic in Manhattan, commented in 
4107the New York Post on the general assumption that ‘sex surrogacy’ is 
4108prostitution: ‘The focus is not sex but familiarity and intimacy. We provide an 
4109environment, not for sexual pleasure but for sexual learning. People tend to be 
4110ill-informed about what a surrogate partner does. They think of it pejoratively, 
4111the same as a sex worker, but it’s not’.26 
4112
4113According to the US International Professional Surrogates Association,27 
4114surrogates must complete a two-week training programme with the society to 
4115become registered, and they must also work for a licensed sex therapist. 
4116Arden’s ‘surrogate partners’ are required to be tested for STDs at least once 
4117every two months, as are the sex buyers . 
4118
4119Kassandra , based in Nuremberg, Germany , is described on its website as 
4120a counselling centre for sex workers. According to its website, Kassandra is: 
4121‘The contact for all the people who work as prostitutes or are active in the sex 
4122trade, as well as for those who are interested in the topic sex’. Kassandra also 
4123offers training for women to become ‘sexual assistant surrogate partnerships’. 
4124The training focusses on how ‘sex workers’ can help disabled people to 
4125explore their sexuality. 
4126
4127I meet Barbel Ahlborn , who heads Kassandra . She tells me she is proud 
4128
4129
4130of the courses that Kassandra developed with Pro Familia, a family planning 
4131centre. ‘This is a unique model project for the nation’, she told me. ‘We do it 
4132as an education programme. We teach the legal conditions of sex work on one 
4133hand and also the legal basics of sexual rights for older people and the 
4134disabled’. 
4135
4136The course, according to Ahlborn , is about ensuring the rights of ‘the older 
4137people’, but says that such arrangements should never be State-funded but 
4138offered by independent ‘sexual surrogates’, many of whom are ‘former sex 
4139workers’. This argument suits those who profiteer from the sex trade extremely 
4140well. Private arrangements are more lucrative, because the pimps and those 
4141directly providing so-called sexual surrogacy can charge pretty much what they 
4142like. The idea that offering so-called training to formally prostituted women 
4143and men in order to qualify them as ‘sex surrogates’ is simply prostitution 
4144under another name. 
4145
4146
4147Brothels as Workers’ Cooperatives/Safe Houses 
4148
4149In an article for Vice 
4150magazine,28 Frankie Mullin , a pro-prostitution lobbyist 
4151who had been involved in the sex trade previously, asked so-called sex 
4152workers what their ideal brothel would look like. Various ideas were put 
4153forward by a number of women currently in prostitution, all of whom appear to 
4154be sympathetic to the ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby . 
4155
4156One woman complained about being made to work even when ill: ‘Besides 
4157the scant facilities, my main complaint about brothels is usually the 
4158management, from the services they insist you provide to the shifts they make 
4159you work. “Don’t ever tell them you’ve got thrush’, one woman warned me. 
4160“They’ll make you work anyway. Say you’ve got food poisoning or 
4161something”’. 
4162
4163The appalling reality of having to be penetrated by a punter when suffering 
4164from such a painful condition as thrush is a clue as to how abusive this industry 
4165is. Despite her justifiable criticism of what she calls management, this 
4166interviewee admits that even running brothels as a cooperative would not 
4167eliminate problems caused by punters. 
4168
4169She says: 
4170
4171Sex workers running things themselves seems vastly preferable. When I 
4172
4173consider it seriously, though, I wonder how we’d manage things like 
4174
4175finding ourselves passed over by clients for not offering certain services 
4176
4177or for charging more than other workers – or even because oppressive 
4178
4179beauty standards affect how much business we get. I get excited about the 
4180
4181possibilities but I’m brought back down to earth when I remember that so 
4182
4183many of these problems with work are problems of capitalism. 
4184
4185Another interviewee highlights the inherent dangers in prostitution. The cooperative 
4186brothel that she would design would have ‘panic buttons in all the 
4187rooms. It’s not nice to think about the bad side but we have to be realistic, and 
4188it would be such a relief to know that if anything did happen the police would 
4189be instantly alerted’. She continues: ‘The hallway the clients would walk in 
4190through would have a camera so that all the sex workers could see who the 
4191client was for safety’. 
4192
4193Brothels are sites of exploitation run by pimps for profit off the backs of 
4194
4195
4196women. However, in order to rebrand them and claim that they can be 
4197worker’s cooperatives, itis necessaryto rebrand themas ‘fair trade’and a 
4198force for good for the women being prostituted from such premises. 
4199
4200In February 2015,29 the Amsterdam College of Mayor and Alderpersons 
4201announced that they were to launch a feasibility study into what they described 
4202as ‘self-managed prostitution businesses’. The local municipality was seeking 
4203an external partner to collaborate with by giving funding towards the 
4204purchasing and letting out of five properties to house brothels. The move was, 
4205according to the Mayor’s office, driven by a desire to ‘[increase] 
4206independence and autonomy for prostitutes working in Amsterdam’. It was part 
4207of the drive to ‘stamp out abuse’ within the sex trade, and was welcomed by a 
4208number of women in prostitution. They added: ‘The goal of the programme is 
4209that prostitutes themselves acquire knowledge to run their own business and 
4210then take ‘full control of the business within a reasonable period of time’. 
4211
4212The municipality was considering working alongside HVO-Querido ,30 a 
4213charity that teaches business skills to marginalised individuals and, according 
4214to its website, ‘provide[s] care, support, guidance and shelter to young people 
4215aged 16 with psychosocial or psychiatric problems’. 
4216
4217Its website says: ‘Experienced in offering assistance to prostitutes, HVO-
4218Querido is a foundation that is dedicated to strengthening their role as 
4219businesspeople. [… It] provides a safe house for prostitutes fleeing violent 
4220pimps’. The very idea that an organisation that identifies trafficking of women 
4221into the sex trade as a major problem and human rights abuse could also 
4222consider a partnership with the local government of Amsterdam to buy brothels 
4223is shocking. Not only that, but as highlighted in another report: ‘Amsterdam is 
4224looking to offload five buildings it acquired as part of a deal with former 
4225prolific sex trade entrepreneur Charles Geertz ’.31 
4226
4227Geertz is one of Holland’s biggest pimps. He once owned dozens of red 
4228light windows in multiple buildings, which he sold to the city from 2007 to 
42292008 for an estimated €25 million amid allegations he was involved in money 
4230laundering and organised crime. 
4231
4232For all the valiant attempts at sanitising the prostitution aspect of the sex 
4233trade, and the liberal use of euphemisms to describe the realities, the majority 
4234of the survivors I interviewed told me that the misrepresentation from the pro-
4235prostitution lobby about the lack of harm and violence from pimps and punters 
4236are what angers them the most. 
4237
4238One of many examples of this is from the pro-prostitution activist Marijke 
4239
4240
4241Vonk . She writes on her blog32: 
4242
4243While sex workers and sex work activists want to talk about human rights, 
4244international law, respecting the agency of other adults and stopping 
4245violence, rescue fetishists get all flushed as they emphasise that thousands 
4246of women get raped with objects and are forced to drink buckets of sperm 
4247and they get tattoos so everyone can see they are a whore. It’s so 
4248inappropriate. They ignore and silence actual sex workers so they can 
4249enjoy their rescue-fetish unhindered. 
4250
4251Chelsea , who, when we met in Auckland , had recently escaped a legal 
4252brothel in New Zealand , said this to me in response to the harm deniers: 
4253
4254I’ve started doing something that could be seen to be very anti-feminist. 
4255I’ve stared inviting people to come prostitute with me. l’m telling all 
4256these privileged lefty academic ‘pro sex-work’ arrogant fuckers that if 
4257they think being prostituted is just ‘sex work’ and they are for it, that they 
4258can come and work with me in the brothels and get a dose of reality. This 
4259was not a choice like any other for us, it was a choice made in the 
4260absence of anything better. 
4261
4262Chelsea has hit the nail on the head. While blanket decriminalisation and 
4263normalisation of the global sex trade suits the ‘1%’,33 the consequences of 
4264removing criminal laws from pimps, punters and brothel owners are dire. The 
4265negative effects of both legalisation and decriminalisation, implemented by 
4266
4267countries that have listened to the powerful lobby of ‘sex workers’ rights ’ 
4268activists will, as we will see in the next chapter, take generations to unravel. 
4269
4270Footnotes 
4271
42721 
4273Under The Red Umbrella. In International Committee on the rights of sex workers in Europe. 
4274Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.sexworkeurope.org/campaigns/red-umbrella-campaigns. 
4275
42762 
4277Stuart, R. (2016, Dec 19.) Webcamming: The sex work revolution that no one is willing to talk 
4278about. In The Conversation. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://theconversation.com/webcammingthe-
4279sex-work-revolution-that-no-one-is-willing-to-talk-about-69834. 
4280
4281
42823 
4283Bartlett, J. (2014.) The Dark Net: Inside the digital underworld, London: Windmill. p. 303. 
4284
42854 
4286The Associated Press, 1 November 1984, ‘Cop’s Survey Finds Hookers Well Paid And Enjoy Their 
4287Work’, California. 
4288
42895 
4290UK NWSP. (2008.) Working with sex workers: Exiting. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www. 
4291uknswp.org/wp-content/uploads/GPG5.pdf. 
4292
42936 
4294Matthews, R.; Easton, H.; Reynolds, L.; Bindel, J.; Young, L. (2014). Exiting prostitution: A study in 
4295female desistance. London: Palgrave. 
4296
42977 
4298Delacoste, F.; Alexander, P. (1987). Sex work: Writings by women in the sex industry. London: Cleis 
4299Press. 
4300
43018 
4302California NOW. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://canow.org/. 
4303
43049 
4305Thompson, T. (2013, Oct 12.) Crack turns vice girls into slaves to sex. In The Guardian. Retrieved 
430616 June 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/oct/12/drugsandalcohol.drugs. 
4307
430810 Raymond, J. (2014.) Not a choice, not a job: Exposing the myths about prostitution and the 
4309global sex trade. London: Potomac. 
4310
431111 Delacoste, F.; Alexander, P. (1987). Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry. London: 
4312Cleis Press. 
4313
431412 Weitzer, R. (2005, Sept/Oct.) The growing moral panic over prostitution and sex trafficking. In 
4315The Criminologist: The Official Newsletter of the American Society of Criminology. Retrieved 16 June 
4316
4317
43182017, from http://www.bayswan.org/traffick/Weitzer_Criminologist.pdf. 
4319
432013 Bindel, J. (2016, Oct 6.) The shocking tale of John Davies, pro-prostitution academic and 
4321trafficking denier, recently jailed for fraud. On Feminist Current. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from 
4322
4323http://www.feministcurrent.com/2016/06/10/john-davies-pro-prostitution-academic-trafficking-denierjailed/. 
4324
4325
432614 Mai, N. (2016, Nov 30.) ‘Too much suffering’: Understanding the interplay between migration, 
4327bounded exploitation and trafficking through Nigerian sex workers’experiences. In Sociological 
4328Research Online. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/13.html. 
4329
433015 Mai, N. (2016). TRAVEL – The Trailer. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://vimeo.com/139963138. 
4331
433216 Mai, N. (16 April 2016) The inaugural lecture of Prof Nicola Mai, Kingston University. Retrieved 16 
4333June 2017, from http://www.kingston.ac.uk/events/item/1943/20-apr-2016-the-inaugural-lecture-of-profnicola-
4334mai-sexual-humanitarianism-migration-sex-work-and-trafficking/. 
4335
433617 Institute of Ideas. (2010, Oct 31.) Trafficking: New slave trade or moral panic? Retrieved 16 June 
43372017, from https://archive.org/details/TraffickingNewSlaveTradeOrMoralPanic31stOctober2010. 
4338
433918 Scarlet Alliance. (2008, Nov 11.) Occupational health & safety. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http:// 
4340www.scarletalliance.org.au/issues/occ-health-safety/. 
4341
434219 New Zealand Department of Labour. (2004.) A guide to occupational health and safety in the New 
4343Zealand sex industry, p. 45. 
4344
434520 Farley, M.; Butler, E. (2012.) Prostitution and trafficking: Quick facts. Prostitution Research & 
4346Education. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/Prostitution%20 
4347Quick%20Facts%2012-21-12.pdf. 
4348
4349
435021 Marshall, G. (Director). (1990.) Pretty Woman. US. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100405/. 
4351
435222 Hoefinger, H. (2014.) Sex, love and money in Cambodia: Professional girlfriends and 
4353transactional relationships. London: Routledge. 
4354
435523 Moylan, B. (2016, Jan 27.) The Girlfriend Experience: Sex work drama needs a lighter touch. In 
4356The Guardian. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jan/27/ 
4357the-girlfriend-experience-starz-sex-worker. 
4358
435924 Seeking Arrangement: Sugar Daddy Dating. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://www. 
4360seekingarrangement.com. 
4361
436225 Daily Mail. (2012, Oct 25.) ‘We’re not prostitutes’: The sex surrogates helping real life 40-yearold 
4363virgins overcome crippling inexperience with one-on-one coaching. In Daily Mail. Retrieved 
436416 June 2017, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2223134/Were-prostitutes-The-sexsurrogates-
4365helping-real-life-40-year-old-virgins-overcome-crippling-inexperience-one-coaching.html. 
4366
436726 Ridley, J. (2012, Oct 25.) Secrets of the sex surrogates. In New York Post. Retrieved 16 June 2017, 
4368from http://nypost.com/2012/10/25/secrets-of-the-sex-surrogates/. 
4369
437027 International Professional Surrogates Association. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www. 
4371surrogatetherapy.org/. 
4372
437328 Mullin, F. (2016, May 22.) Sex workers tell us what their ideal brothels would look like. In Vice. 
4374Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/sex-workers-ideal-brothels-frankiemullin. 
4375
4376
437729 I Amsterdam. (2015, Feb 5.) Amsterdam investigates feasibility of prostitutes running their own 
4378businesses. On IAmsterdam.Com. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/ 
4379media-centre/city-hall/press-releases/2015-press-room/feasibility-study-prostitution. 
4380
4381
438230 HVO Querido. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://hvoquerido.nl/. 
4383
438431 Newmark, Z. (2015, Nov 19.) Amsterdam mayor: City ready for brothel run by sex workers. In NL 
4385Times. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://nltimes.nl/2015/11/19/amsterdam-mayor-city-ready-brothelrun-
4386sex-workers. 
4387
438832 Marijke Vonk: Psychologist, Sexologist, Educator. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://marijkevonk. 
4389com/the-grim-truth/. 
4390
439133 A phrase commonly used by abolitionists to describe the ‘happy hookers’ who make up a tiny minority 
4392of prostituted women. 
4393
4394
4395© The Author(s) 2017 
4396Julie Bindel, The Pimping of Prostitution, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55890-9_4 
4397
4398
43994. Realities & Consequences of 
4400Legalisation 
4401Julie Bindel1 
4402
4403
4404(1) London, UK 
4405Julie Bindel 
4406Email: juliebindel@yahoo.co.uk 
4407“What’s being sold as a paradise is only a paradise for sex capitalists – 
4408pimps, human traffickers, brothel owners who charge extortionate daily 
4409room rates for the women – who get to act out all their violent fantasies 
4410for increasingly lower rates. The only ones NOT benefiting from all this 
4411are the women. For them, it’s a hellhole. And the government is still not 
4412listening”. (Huschke Mau , German sex trade survivor’, 2015) 
4413
4414
4415Introduction 
4416
4417Under legalisation and decriminalisation regimes, pimps have been 
4418reclassified as managers and businessmen—with some, such as Douglas Fox , 
4419calling themselves ‘sex workers’. Abuse suffered by the women is now called 
4420an ‘occupational hazard’, like a stone dropped on a builder’s toe. Sex tourism 
4421has grown faster in Amsterdam than the regular type of tourism: as the city 
4422became the brothel of Europe, women have been imported by traffickers from 
4423Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia to meet the demand. In other words, the 
4424pimps remained but became legitimate. There has been little or no support for 
4425women to exit prostitution, and the innate murkiness of the sex trade has not 
4426been washed away by legal benediction. 
4427
4428Then its lead researcher, a passionate ‘sex workers’ rights ’ activist to this 
4429day, told me she was positive about tolerance zones and legal brothels. ‘A 
4430good legal sex trade is your best instrument against an illegal circuit’, she said. 
4431The Dutch model was previously held up as the ideal model with which to 
4432regulate the sex trade. But as the Dutch experiment began to crumble, van 
4433Doorninck, along with many other cheerleaders for legalisation, began to point 
4434out the problems inherent in it and, since 2003, replace the word ‘legalisation’ 
4435with ‘decriminalisation’. 
4436
4437Van Doornick is one of many who promoted State-controlled legalisation 
4438of prostitution as the only viable option during the late 1990s and early 2000s. 
4439How things change. Today, the ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby largely denies that 
4440there was ever any support for state-controlled legal brothels. Now, 
4441‘decriminalisation’ is the buzzword and New Zealand is held up as the finest 
4442example of how to deal with the sex trade. 
4443
4444But decriminalisation and legalisation are cut from the same cloth. As I 
4445argued in Chap. 1, decriminalisation means elimination of criminal sanctions 
4446against soliciting, pimping and running a brothel. Under this system, pimps and 
4447brothel owners still operate as such but are redefined under law as managers 
4448and business owners. 
4449
4450
4451The Disaster of Legalisation 
4452
4453The evidence of the harms of legalisation and decriminalisation is clear. I 
4454visited brothels and so-called street-based ‘tolerance zones’ in Australia , 
4455Germany , Holland, Austria, North America and New Zealand , where I have 
4456interviewed prostituted women, pro-prostitution campaigners, pimps, punters 
4457and police officers. 
4458
4459Sex trade survivor Evelina Giobbe sums up the problems with legal 
4460brothels: 
4461
4462Nevada is the only state in the US with legal brothels. I call it the factory 
4463farming of sex. The number of clients women see, the lack of control they 
4464have over the choice of clients, the lack of control they have over their 
4465health regarding condoms’. They are not only preyed upon by pimps 
4466economically, they’re preyed upon by the brothel owners economically. 
4467It’s a really bad deal for women. 
4468
4469Legalisation has been a disaster. Under this regime, demand, trafficking of 
4470women and girls, and the illegal brothel sector have increased. There is no 
4471evidence of a decrease in violence, HIV rates or murders of women in legal 
4472sex trades, but there is evidence that the rights and freedom promised by 
4473lobbyists for legalisation and decriminalisation were transferred to the brothel 
4474owners and sex buyers . In this chapter, we will hear from the women 
4475prostituted in countries before and after the introduction of legalisation and 
4476decriminalisation, and look closely at the evidence that contradicts the positive 
4477spin by the pro-prostitution lobby . 
4478
4479
4480Holland 
4481
4482For years, the Dutch argued that legalising brothels was a solution to the 
4483myriad problems associated with the sex trade. The logic was to make it a job 
4484like any other. Supporters claimed that once the women were liberated from 
4485the underworld, the criminals would drift away. 
4486
4487Since 2000, the legalised window brothels of De Wallen have attracted 
4488customers from all over the world. But in 2007, the then mayor of Amsterdam , 
4489Job Cohen , admitted that legalisation had been a failure. ‘We want in part to 
4490reverse it’, said Cohen, ‘especially with regard to the exploitation of women in 
4491the sex trade. Lately we’ve received more and more signals that abuse still 
4492continues’.1 
4493
4494Now, politicians, police, citizens and the women in prostitution themselves 
4495are admitting that legalisation in the Netherlands has been an abject failure. 
4496Contrary to government promises, trafficking into the Netherlands has 
4497massively increased, the street scene remains, and pimping and drug dealing 
4498are rife. 
4499
4500Karina Schaapman , Amsterdam councillor and sex trade survivor, said in 
45012005: 
4502
4503Legalising prostitution was infused with the idea of the articulate 
4504
4505prostitute, who should get rights and better working conditions. But that 
4506
4507image is incorrect … Two-thirds of prostitutes are foreign, most often 
4508
4509illegal and nobody is registering them. The Amsterdam police has a 
4510
4511portfolio with 76 violent pimps operating on De Wallen . Often they stand 
4512
4513at the corner, counting the customers of ‘his’ woman to subsequently 
4514
4515collect the money. It is very difficult for the police to get a case.2 
4516
4517One newspaper report from 2006 quotes Lodewijk Asscher , recently 
4518appointed chief of Amsterdam’s ruling Social Democrat Party: ‘If we have a 
4519choice of losing a tourist attraction or helping to end the abuse of women, I 
4520would rather lose the tourist attraction. It should not be closed immediately 
4521but, if there is no reform, we should gradually try to diminish it’.3 
4522
4523Rather than afford better protection for the women, legalisation led to an 
4524increased market. The industry has not been contained but has spilt out all over 
4525Amsterdam, including on-street. Rather than be given rights in the ‘workplace’, 
4526
4527
4528pimps are as brutal as ever. Pimps are reclassified as businessmen. Abuse 
4529suffered by the women is now called an ‘occupational hazard’. Support for the 
4530women to leave prostitution becomes almost non-existent. 
4531
4532In 2012 I interviewed elderly twins Louise and Martine Fokkens who had 
4533each been involved in prostitution in Amsterdam for 50 years. Although 
4534legalisation is supposed to benefit those involved, the sisters told me: ‘There 
4535are few Dutch women and no sense of community these days. There is no point 
4536working just for tax. That is why the girls are working from the Internet and 
4537from home: you are less likely to be spotted by the taxman. The vultures, the 
4538organised criminals, came in 2000. They thought, “Ah, it is legalised. Now we 
4539are OK”’. 
4540
4541As I walked around the city with the twins, male tourists stopped us 
4542wanting photographs with the twins. These women, both of whom had been 
4543abused into prostitution by violent men, were objects of amusement. Louise 
4544had been beaten onto the streets by her husband when she was in her early 20s 
4545and Martine also experienced domestic violence. 
4546
4547I booked a personal tour guide around De Wallen one evening. My guide 
4548told me he decided to start a business showing tourists around the prostitution 
4549area because he ‘liked porn’ and therefore it should be familiar to him. I asked 
4550about pimping and exploitation in the area. He told me: ‘Some people call the 
4551brothel owners or the building owners the new pimps because they ask about 
4552€4000 a month for one window in the most popular areas’. 
4553
4554
4555Turkey 
4556
4557There are approximately 30 legal, state-run brothels in Turkey . Although 
4558almost half have been closed down in recent years, the sex trade is thriving. I 
4559visited Zurafa Street, where there are several legal establishments. There was 
4560a gate with an armed security guard standing beside it who would not let me 
4561enter. ‘Men only’, he said. The prostituted women in Turkey’s legal brothels 
4562are highly stigmatised, despite the legality, and there are far more that operate 
4563illegally (100,000) than legally (1500). 
4564
4565Banu Helvacioglu is a senior academic in the Department of Political 
4566Science at Bilkent University, Ankara, and grew up in the 1970s near the red-
4567light district of Bent Deresi province in Ankara. He explains: 
4568
4569I was a teenager when I found out from the boys in my school about the 
4570state-run brothels. To my knowledge these state-run brothels implied a 
4571legal way for both the sex workers and their customers. The rumour in the 
45721970s had it that the sex workers in those brothels were registered in the 
4573system as legitimate prostitutes with regular health check-ups. 
4574
4575Coming from a sheltered middle-class family background implied that 
4576it was inconceivable to even imagine who the customers and the sex 
4577workers were. Out of curiosity I visited the neighbourhood with a group 
4578of friends from school. My outlook to both prostitutes and the underlying 
4579morality in Turkey [that prostitution is evil] changed after that visit. Mind 
4580you, around the same time I was part of a left-wing revolutionary 
4581movement. From that perspective I saw prostitution as part of a larger 
4582problem of exploitation. 
4583
4584
4585USA 
4586
4587Dennis Hof , who we’ve met before, is a famous pimp, often seen on TV in the 
4588HBO series Cathouse , a puff piece for the legal sex trade. Hof is author of 
4589The Art of the Pimp: One Man’s Search for Love, Sex, and Money.4 Owner of 
4590the Love Ranch in Nye County and the famous Moonlight Bunny Ranch, a few 
4591miles outside Carson City in Reno, and other sex businesses, Hof claims he is 
4592a passionate anti-trafficking activist. According to Hof, there is no rape, no 
4593trafficking, no HIV and no illegal activity in brothels operating under 
4594legalisation. 
4595
4596In Hof’s brothels the women are not allowed to smile, flick their hair or 
4597appear to be doinga ‘hard sell’, lestitbe ‘unfair’to the competition. The sex 
4598buyers are ordinary-looking men, all ages, and in the main presentable enough 
4599to be able to pick up a woman in a normal bar. Hof argues that legalising 
4600brothels prevents the spread of the illegal industry. 
4601
4602However, illegal brothels are on the increase in Nevada , as they are in 
4603other parts of the world where brothels are legalised. Nevada’s unlawful 
4604prostitution industry, according to research by the US Government, is already 
4605nine times greater than the state’s legal brothels. 
4606
4607Hof’s Love Ranchbrothel is anhour’s drive fromVegas. The buildingis 
4608surrounded by high walls covered by barbed wire. I speak to a number of 
4609women, most of whom live in the brothel for weeks or months at a time, often 
4610not seeing a customer for days. 
4611
4612Lance Gilman is a multimillionaire property dealer who owns two 
4613brothels, including the Mustang Ranch , which Gilman proudly tells me is 
4614modelled on a prison and used to refer to the women as inmates. Gilman’s 
4615partner Susan Austin runs his brothels. ‘As soon as you legalise, it turns the 
4616predators loose’, Gilman tells me. ‘You have to regulate. We have a stable of 
46171000 [women]. If Susan didn’t run this place with an iron fist it would get out 
4618of control.’ As with most other legal brothels, the women are not allowed out 
4619unless the manager gives them permission and they are accompanied by an 
4620assistant pimp. 
4621
4622Legal pimps are also not averse to selling-learning disabled women. At the 
4623Mustang Ranch I briefly met Sindy , although Austin told me I was not allowed 
4624to interview her. Austin described Sindy to me as a ‘nine-year-old trapped in 
4625an adult body’. According to Austin, Sindy grew up in foster care and was sold 
4626
4627
4628to the brothel by her boyfriend’s father, while the boyfriend was serving a 10year 
4629prison sentence for possession of child abuse images. Sindy, who was 22 
4630when I met her, had been with the boyfriend since she was 12 years old. Austin 
4631had taken over managing Sindy’s money for her and said she ‘refused’ to send 
4632the cheques to the boyfriend’s father. Many of the women in legal brothels are 
4633double pimped, with the brothel owner sending the prostituted women’s 
4634earnings directly to the person who brought them to the brothel. 
4635
4636Austin tells me: ‘I called the girls to a meeting and told them, we’re raising 
4637a child but she’ll never grow up. When Sindy parties [services a sex buyer], 
4638one of the girls will go and sit in the bathroom next door, to make sure the man 
4639doesn’t take advantage of her when he realises what he has’. I ask why, if 
4640Sindy is learning-disabled and vulnerable, Austin is pimping her at all'. Austin 
4641tells me she has made a pactwiththe other womento ‘lookafter’Sindy, 
4642‘otherwise she would end up on the streets of Florida’. There appear to be no 
4643laws in Nevada against pimping a learning-disabled young woman and why 
4644should there be? After all, under legalisation it is just a job. There are a 
4645number of sex trade survivors I have interviewed who tell me they used to be 
4646in favour of legalisation before they came to terms with the reality of that 
4647regime. 
4648
4649‘When I was in the industry I argued pro-legalisation and claimed that it 
4650did no harm’, says Haley, a sex trade survivor and abolitionist I met in 
4651Minnesota . ‘Now I can see there’s a ton of harm being done and they’re 
4652capitalising on the harm done to me as a child.’ 
4653
4654
4655Germany 
4656
4657In Germany the situation is dire. There are approximately 400,000 women in 
4658prostitution here, and it is estimated that around 1.2 million men buy sex every 
4659day. This is a lot when you think the population of the country is 80 million. 
4660
4661Helmut Sporer , Detective Chief Superintendent of the Crimes Squad, 
4662Augsburg, is a vocal critic of legalised prostitution. 
4663
4664[Legalisation] has led to a massive reduction of the legal standing of the 
4665
4666women. What has developed is a legally instituted relationship of 
4667
4668precedence and subordination that is being exploited by the profiteers in 
4669
4670the red-light business. If you want to call it like that, it is a new form of 
4671
4672slavery under state supervision. Those making the law wanted to integrate 
4673
4674prostitution into normal, regular forms of work. Prostitution was to 
4675
4676become a job like any other, with an official boss, a working contract and 
4677
4678even a trade union. Of course this could not work out. 
4679
4680The pro-prostitution lobby is the loudest in Germany because the sex trade 
4681there is very big business. There are the mega brothels on the one hand and 
4682Eastern European street prostitution on the other. According to the feminist 
4683abolitionists I met in Munich and Berlin , police would raid the smaller 
4684apartments in which two or three women sold sex without a pimp. 
4685
4686There are around 3000 red-light establishments in the country and 500 
4687brothels in Berlin alone. Aside from a flurry of publicity exposing the inner 
4688workings of the ‘mega brothels’ since the 2006 World Cup held in Berlin, there 
4689has been far less media exposure of the legal sex trade in Germany compared 
4690to Nevada in the USA, and the Netherlands . Although sex tourism certainly 
4691exists in Germany, it is incomparable to that of the window brothel area of De 
4692Wallen , Amsterdam . This is the reason why the legal sex trade and all its 
4693horrors has not yet captured as much attention from anti-legalisation 
4694campaigners. However, the feminist abolitionist movement in Germany is 
4695gaining ground. 
4696
4697There are 180 brothels in Munich. This figure does not include the 
4698apartments from which many women are prostituted. The German prostitution 
4699law says if a city in Germany has more than 50,000 residents the city must by 
4700law declare some zones open for prostitution, whether they like it or not. 
4701
4702
4703Inge Kleine , a German feminist campaigner against the sex trade, says: 
4704
4705There are cities who say we don’t want it and quite a few cities say ‘OK, 
4706some prostitution but we don’t want these brothels because we can see 
4707the exploitation’, The city does not have the right to say ‘no’. If there’s an 
4708area and somebody wants to build a brothel, you need a good reason to 
4709ban it. 
4710
4711They [‘sex workers’ rights ’ activists ] tried to sell it to feminists that 
4712our laws would break up these enterprising businesswomen, and said that 
4713allowing the women to work together in this way would get rid of the 
4714mega brothels. The image was of a small group of happy hookers working 
4715for themselves. 
4716
4717Laufhaus Caesars World is a massive brothel situated between restaurants 
4718and apartments on a busy main road. A cash machine sits just outside the main 
4719entrance, and looking up I see dozens of windows with blinds pulled down and 
4720some with red curtains drawn. I am told by an assistant pimp that I cannot take 
4721photographs of the entrance to Caesars World because the owner is ‘having 
4722trouble with the tax man’. He tells me: ‘I don’t walk into these women’s rooms 
4723because they rent them and what they do behind closed doors has nothing to do 
4724with me. It would be up to them to pay the taxes. It is wrong of the tax office to 
4725want him to control what the women do in private’. 
4726
4727I see a young woman wearing a long coat over her shorts and bikini top 
4728coming down in the lift with a large suitcase. ‘She lives here but is now 
4729visiting her family’, says the assistant pimp, unhooking the chain and removing 
4730the padlock that secures the lift so that the young woman can get out. 
4731
4732We have been in the entrance of the brothel for 10 min and during that time 
4733have seen about a dozen men come in and out. It is 4 p.m but there are discount 
4734rates before 5 p.m. 
4735
4736I am invited into the office and shown the security cameras that monitor 
4737each of the four corridors. There are women in bikinis perched on stools 
4738waiting to be picked out by one of the many sex buyers I see prowling up and 
4739down, deciding whom to buy. There is no menu for the services on offer in this 
4740brothel. Once the men pay their entrance fee to the pimps, the women are left to 
4741negotiate with the sex buyer. 
4742
4743Caesars World is the oldest brothel in Munich having been operating for 
474430 years. I ask manager Jörn Gruber , also known by the prostituted women as 
4745
4746
4747‘Betreiber’(brothel owner), ifhe would describe himselfas a pimp. ‘I’mnota 
4748pimp. I have a business and I pay €1 million a year in tax’, Gruber tells me. I 
4749am told that condom use is compulsory (the German government removed the 
4750requirement in 2002), and drugs, alcohol and pimps are banned. The daily 
4751room rent is €165 for 24 h, and the minimum charge per sex buyer is €30. 
4752‘What the girls do for €30’, Gruber says, ‘is up to them’. At the minimum rate, 
4753the women have to ‘service’ six punters a day before seeing a cent in profit. 
4754
4755Further down the road in Munich, next-door to a trattoria, I see another 
4756brothel. It is a huge building with hearts and flowers in the red windows. 
4757There are 100 small rooms on each of the three floors. The first floor is, 
4758according to the menu on the wall and doors, all Asian women selling sex. On 
4759the second floor it is ‘kink’, with code words for urination on people’s faces. 
4760The third floor advertises ‘transsexual and transvestite’ services. The owner, I 
4761am told, is very rich and a regular donor to AIDS and HIV charities. 
4762
4763
4764New Zealand 
4765
4766The application form for opening a brothel in New Zealand is just two pages 
4767long: three pages shorter than the form those wishing to adopt a dog or cat from 
4768the Battersea Dog and Cat Home in London, UK. 
4769
4770As Chelsea , a young women I met in Aukland, who was prostituted in the 
4771decriminalised brothels of New Zealand, tells me: 
4772
4773If you work on the streets, your pimps are the gangs. If you work in a 
4774
4775brothel, your pimps are businessmen. What happens is that we’re treated 
4776
4777like employees when it suits them so when he tells us when we can work 
4778
4779and what we have to do when it suits them. We’re treated as independent 
4780
4781contractors when it comes to tax. So we occupy this nowhere land and 
4782
4783that means we have no rights, no protection and there’s nothing we can do 
4784
4785about it. 
4786
4787As explained in Chap. 3, New Zealand became the first country in 2003 to 
4788decriminalise its sex trade under the Prostitution Reform Act (PRA) . Tim 
4789Barnett began to campaign involved with the PRA shortly after he won his first 
4790campaign for decriminalisation when he became an MP in 1996, alongside the 
4791New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC) , a government-funded body set 
4792up to reduce HIV/AIDS among women in prostitution. 
4793
4794Barnett is quoted as saying that decriminalisation has led to a huge 
4795improvement in cooperation between those in prostitution and the police, 
4796which has resulted in murders being solved and corrupt police officers, dodgy 
4797brothel owners and traffickers being exposed. The NZPC claim that 
4798decriminalisation protects the rights and well-being of women in prostitution, 
4799and allows them to report violence without fear of action by the police. 
4800
4801The ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby , keen to embrace a new model now that 
4802legalisation is recognised as a failure, needs to convince sceptics that 
4803decriminalisation is significantly different. In an article entitled ‘The 
4804difference between decriminalisation and legalisation of sex work’,5 there is a 
4805crucial distinction between these two terms that is frequently blurred in the 
4806debate around the different models. Writer and ‘sex workers’ rights ’ activist 
4807Frankie Mullin claims that: ‘It is decriminalisation not legalisation for which 
4808sex workers around the world are fighting’, arguing that: ‘Some clarification: 
4809
4810
4811under legalisation, sex work is controlled by the government and is legal only 
4812under certain state-specified conditions. Decriminalisation involves the 
4813removal of all prostitution-specific laws, although sex workers and sex work 
4814businesses must still operate within the laws of the land, as must any 
4815businesses’. 
4816
4817But there are major regulations found in the PRA of New Zealand , such as 
4818it being an offence to buy sex from a person under 18; and brothel owners and 
4819other pimps are required to adopt and promote ‘safer sex practices’. Brothel 
4820inspections are mandatory, and brothel owners as well as sex buyers can, in 
4821theory, be fined $2000 if they fail to promote or practise ‘safe sex’. Penalties 
4822for failing to follow regulations could result in a maximum prison sentence of 7 
4823years, and/or a fine of up to $10,000. The framework for regulation does exist, 
4824as we shall see, but it’s about as useful as a burst condom. 
4825
4826
4827Brothel Inspections Under the Prostitution Reform Act 
48282003 (PRA) 
4829
4830In 2014 a request was made by a local anti-prostitution activist under the 
4831Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information that would enable an 
4832examination of the application of the sections of the PRA 2003 relevant to the 
4833inspection of ‘sex worker premises’ for the period from the inception of the 
4834PRA 2003 until December 2013. This request included data on the number of 
4835inspections undertaken and each of the reports made by the NZPC to the 
4836Government as a requirement of their contract. 
4837
4838A number of countries, including the UK, are tempted to implement the 
4839New Zealand model of blanket decriminalisation of the sex trade, as lobbyists 
4840have long argued that this is the only way to keep the women safe. But when 
4841criminal sanctions are removed from sex establishments, it becomes the 
4842responsibility of health officials to carry out inspections. I have access to data 
4843on New Zealand obtained via the OIA which shows that, aside from 12 
4844inspections that were conducted in 2003 in the first few weeks of the new 
4845legislation, only 11 inspections occurred across the whole of New Zealand 
4846until January 2015. 
4847
4848Considering the estimated size of the prostituted population, the limited 
4849number of inspections already suggests that the Government is failing in its 
4850duty under the PRA 2003. 
4851
4852However, a closer examination of the results of the OIA 1982 request 
4853highlights some very important issues that further evidence this failure. The 
4854CSOM 2007 report indicates there is limited interest in resourcing inspections 
4855under this part of the legislation. For example, despite suggestions from staff in 
4856the Department of Labour that all premises should be inspected, it was not 
4857considered a health priority and it was felt that resources would need to be 
4858directed away from other health programmes to provide inspections under the 
4859PRA 2003. This has resulted in a largely reactive approach where inspections 
4860are triggered as a result of complaints. The OIA data also indicates that the 
4861ministries have no intention of reallocating funding or priority to PRA 2003 
4862inspections. 
4863
4864The current inspection regime is driven by complaints, of which there have 
4865been very few: eight in the data provided by DHBs for the decade plus two 
4866made by NZPC . Complainants, who were usually sex purchasers, were almost 
4867
4868
4869all anonymous and rarely provide sufficient detail for useful follow up. As a 
4870result, none of the complaints registered has led to a successful prosecution. 
4871Indeed, the only prosecution for failing to adopt safe sexual practices under 
4872resulted from a client’s confession to the police. 
4873
4874Sabrinna Valisce , a survivor of prostitution and now campaigner for the 
4875Abolitionist model, was a volunteer for the NZPC over a 24-year period, and 
4876was involved in the campaign to decriminalise the sex trade. ‘I thought it 
4877would give more power and rights to the women’, she told me when we met in 
4878Melbourne at an abolitionist conference, ‘but I soon realised the opposite was 
4879true’. 
4880
4881Valisce quickly noticed that the new regime benefited the punters and 
4882brothel owners but not the women. What used to be viewed as sexual violence 
4883is now seen as occupational hazards when such crimes are perpetrated by 
4884punters and pimps in licensed establishments. ‘After decriminalisation was the 
4885first time I ever saw a brothel owner come into NZPC itself’, says Valisce. 
4886‘He got condoms and lube and dental dams and sponge supplies for the girls. 
4887Never had we seen that prior to decrim, so that told me they weren’t afraid of 
4888us anymore.’ 
4889
4890In what way, I ask Valisce , did brothel owners gain postdecriminalisation? 
4891‘They got more power. The brothel owners choose their 
4892prices, they say all inclusive, they don’t say what all inclusive means so that 
4893can mean anything’, says Valisce. ‘So clients would go into the room, see a girl 
4894and she would have to deal with them wanting to do anything and everything.’ 
4895
4896During the time she was involved in prostitution, Chelsea visited the New 
4897Zealand Prostitutes Collective6 to find out her rights, but discovered that all 
4898that was on offer was condoms at a discounted price. ‘That’s what lures you in 
4899and when you’re there they groom you and make out it’s the greatest thing ever 
4900and they lie to you and it’s horrible’, says Chelsea. ‘I had this new workers’ 
4901pack, which is full of propaganda. They’ll say how to stay a happy hooker and 
4902talk about burn-out syndrome. But it’s not burn-out syndrome, it’s a normal 
4903response to ongoing sexual abuse.’ 
4904
4905According to a government report, New Zealand senior police officials 
4906have admitted that policing of organised crime in legal brothels is ‘patchy’ and 
4907the regulation of brothels is ‘often woeful’.7 One investigator noted that 
4908because of decriminalisation, police were not required by law to investigate 
4909the goings-on, and organised criminals infiltrated the off-street sex trade. 
4910
4911The UK Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC ) report of July 2016 
4912
4913
4914refers to the main conclusions from the PRA Committee report of 2008, the 
4915evaluation report 5 years after the legislation was introduced. It claims that 
4916decriminalisation had little impact on the number of people working in the sex 
4917trade; has safeguarded the rights of those under the age of 18; the rights of 
4918adults not to be forced to engage in prostitution, including the right to refuse a 
4919particular client; and the right not to be subjected to exploitative or degrading 
4920employment practices. Of those interviewed and able to comment, the majority 
4921of women in prostitution are, according to the report, more likely to report 
4922incidences of violence to the police. 
4923
4924Phil Hubbard, Professor in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at 
4925the University of Kent, UK, describes himself as an ‘international expert on the 
4926regulation of the sex trade’.8 In his submission to the HASC , Hubbard claims 
4927that: ‘Decriminalisation, where it has been carried out (e.g. New Zealand ), 
4928has helped reduce the stigma attached to sex work, allowed workers to operate 
4929legitimately alone or in collectives and encouraged them to report instances of 
4930rape or violence to the police’. 
4931
4932
4933Racism and Colonialism 
4934
4935The global sex trade is built on racism and colonialism, as well as misogyny. 
4936But racism is rarely mentioned, except for those accusing abolitionists of being 
4937racist for using the term ‘pimp’ to describe actual 
4938pimping, because, as the 
4939pro-prostitution argument goes, ‘pimp’ is nothing but a ‘racist trope‘.9 
4940
4941Abuse of Indigenous women under legalisation and decriminalisation is 
4942rife, particularly in Australia and New Zealand . 
4943
4944Evelina Giobbe was one of the women who took part in the original 
4945comfort women protest with Dr Moon Kim .10 ‘We picketed the Mitsubishi 
4946Bank for a year and then organised all of the Korean elders and brought a 
4947comfort woman survivor and had this giant march. It was phenomenal’, says 
4948Giobbe. ‘All these elderly people who remembered that era and then young 
4949prostituted women like us and the comfort women were amazing and 
4950absolutely understood that we were sisters, they weren’t freaked out by us and 
4951we weren’t freaked out by them. It was an amazing time in history.’ 
4952
4953Courtney, an advocate for women abused in prostitution, based in 
4954Vancouver, Canada , says: ‘The sex trade is built on racism and colonialism as 
4955well as misogyny. For Native women and African-American women, and all 
4956women and girls of colour, it is yet another way in which the white man takes 
4957what he wants from our communities, our cultures and our souls’. 
4958
4959For Melissa Farley , founder of Prostitution Research and Education11: 
4960‘Prostitution is one specific result of colonisation, stemming from the 
4961homelessness, land and economic dispossession, lack of educational and 
4962employment opportunities, and cultural and physical assaults that Indigenous 
4963people have suffered’. Farley found in one study12 that 65% of Maori 
4964respondents reported a history of homelessness, compared to 16% of non-
4965Indigenous women.[5] 
4966
4967Advertising of sexual services is often reliant on racist and colonialist 
4968stereotypes. For example, research by the Asian Women for Equality Society 
4969based on analysis of 1472 online advertisements for prostitution shows that 
497090% used racist tropes regarding Asian women as a selling factor. The women 
4971were ‘branded and packaged as submissive, exotic, newly immigrated, fresh 
4972off the boat, young and experienced—this is what men are looking for in Asian 
4973women’.13 
4974
4975
4976The Sex Buyers Under Decriminalisation and 
4977Legalisation 
4978
4979One group that both regimes benefit is the sex buyers . Under legalisation and 
4980decriminalisation, sex buyers are de-stigmatised and enabled in their pursuits 
4981to purchase women at their will. 
4982
4983Research I conducted with Farley in 2009 on sex buyers found that in 
4984addition to buying sex in the UK, almost half (49%) of the 103 men 
4985interviewed had bought sex outside the UK, having travelled to 42 countries on 
49866 continents between them. The most popular destination was Amsterdam . A 
4987number of men mentioned that they specifically travelled to the Netherlands or 
4988New Zealand because prostitution was legal there. Noting the frenzied pace of 
4989the Dutch sex trade, one man commented: ‘Amsterdam was like going through a 
4990turnstile into a fairground ride: 2 min and you’re out. The idea that the women 
4991had been with five men in the last hour or 20 men in a day was a big turn off’. 
4992
4993After one man returned to London, UK, from a trip visiting Prague in the 
4994Czech Republic for a ‘lads’ weekend’, his view of prostitution changed and he 
4995no longer thought it problematic for men to pay for sex. Later, he went to 
4996Amsterdam on a tour arranged by the same travel agent/pimp: ‘I was with a 
4997different group of lads. They hadn’t paid for sex before so I felt like a veteran 
4998and had no hesitation’. 
4999
5000Comments from the sex buyers who had paid for sex during a visit to 
5001Amsterdam speak volumes about how legalisation sanctions their behaviour: 
5002
5003
5004‘Selecting and purchasing has something to do with domination and 
5005control.’ 
5006‘It’s like going for a drink, you are not doing anything illegal.’ 
5007‘It is like putting your washing in a washing machine.’ 
5008
5009Street Prostitution and Zoning 
5010
5011Legalisation does not reduce street prostitution. There has been a significant 
5012increase in outdoor prostitution in towns such as Utrecht in the Netherlands , 
5013along with increased numbers of men buying sexual access to women. 
5014
5015Meanwhile, the so-called ‘managed zone’ in Leeds in the UK has been a 
5016disaster. Established in Holbeck , an impoverished area of south Leeds in June 
50172014, the zone was made permanent in January 2016. It was declared ‘a 
5018success’14 despite the brutal murder of Dario Pionko , a prostituted woman15 
5019only weeks before local councillors declared its permanence. The decision 
5020was taken following the completion of a report, commissioned by the local 
5021authority by pro-decriminalisation campaigner and academic Teela Sanders . 
5022Sanders said of the abolitionist law: ‘Putting limits on private morality with 
5023regard to the legitimate purchase and provision of consensual commercial sex 
5024is evidence of a state seeking to control sexuality rather than to preserve 
5025diversity, difference and freedom’.16 It is clear from Sanders’s executive 
5026summary report that there are significant problems regarding safety, policing, 
5027litter and lack of support from residents and business owners, despite the 
5028positive spin by the author. 
5029
5030In a report by BBC Radio Leeds in March 2016, one of the prostituted 
5031women operating within the zone was asked whether she now felt safe: ‘No. 
5032Because once you’re in a car police can’t do anything to help you anyway. 
5033We’ve got a managed area but we haven’t got somewhere we can go and do it 
5034discreetely out of the way of everybody’.17 
5035
5036The locals call it ‘pimp paradise’.18 A report in a local newspaper in 
5037February 2016 claimed that most of the residents were opposed to the managed 
5038area and felt it wasn’t working.19 Complaints included: being repeatedly 
5039woken at night; the women selling sex outside of the designated hours of 7 pm– 
50407 am; children being propositioned in the street; gardens being broken into; and 
5041residents being harassed by sex buyers .20 
5042
5043I spent time on the ‘tipplezone ’ [tolerance zone] in Utrecht in the 
5044Netherlands in 2004 and 2014. Police told me the women often report violent 
5045attacks. ‘I am recommending that the cubicles are painted different colours, so 
5046a woman could say, “I was raped in the red cubicle”, which would make DNA 
5047testing easier. Imagine looking for DNA among all this’, the police officer on 
5048
5049
5050duty told me, pointing to the mountain of semen-soaked articles covering the 
5051ground. 
5052
5053Two independent studies found that 50–90% of women involved in 
5054prostitution in Utrecht’s official red-light zone were being forced to work in 
5055prostitution. Following these studies, CCTV surveillance was launched in the 
5056local prostitution zone to curb violence against women, women’s trafficking 
5057and other sex-and-drugs-related crimes. 
5058
5059Utrecht’s Mayor Aleid Wolfsen said of the zone: ‘We need to know which 
5060women are being forced to work as prostitutes or if women are abused or 
5061exploited. Filming the area, and knowing which pimps are connected to which 
5062women, will increase our opportunities to help the women’.21 It would, of 
5063course, be impossible to implement the sex-buyer law in any jurisdiction with 
5064an official tolerance zone. 
5065
5066Nowhere else in the world is street prostitution legal because people do 
5067not want it in plain sight. Where there is a street sex trade, women are accosted 
5068on their way home by punters, and often condoms, drug paraphernalia and 
5069pimps are visible. But in 1996 the Netherlands decided that street prostitution 
5070was a decent way to earn money and created several ‘tolerance zones’ for men 
5071to safely rent a vagina, anus or mouth for a few minutes. Cars even drive into 
5072cubicles. And this being the Netherlands , there is also a special section for 
5073cyclists. 
5074
5075The day after the Amsterdam zone opened, more than 100 residents took to 
5076the streets in protest. It took 6 years for the mayor to admit in public that the 
5077experiment had been a disaster. Zones in Rotterdam , The Hague and Heerlen 
5078have shut down in similar circumstances. 
5079
5080
5081Managed Leads to Murder 
5082
5083In December 2015, a 24-year-old street-prostituted woman Daria Pionko was 
5084murdered22 by a sex buyer named Lewis Pierre. Pierre carried out a brutal and 
5085sustained attack on Pionko , whose body was discovered on the so-called 
5086‘managed zone’ in Leeds in the UK. The zone had been under a vast amount of 
5087scrutiny since its inception in 2014 by Leeds City Council. Following the 
5088murder, the policy which led to the zone was reviewed, because it had hardly 
5089
5090resulted in safety for the women—one of the key aims. Not only has a woman 
5091been murdered, on the zone itself, but there have been other reports of serious 
5092sexual assaults, including rape.23 , 24 However, despite these attacks, Leeds 
5093City Council has since declared the zone to be ‘a success’.25 
5094
5095Talking about the murder, Georgina Perry , Chair of the UK Network of Sex 
5096Work Projects (UKNSWP) scheme National Ugly Mugs and a vocal 
5097campaigner for decriminalisation of the sex trade, said: ‘The rise in the 
5098murders of migrant sex workers has been very dramatic but unsurprising’, in an 
5099interview with the Guardian newspaper.26 ‘Migrant sex workers are very 
5100fearful of authorities. Very often they have come from countries where police 
5101are overtly abusive to them and they expect the same treatment here.’ 
5102
5103Why the treatment of migrant women involved in prostitution is relevant to 
5104how safe or unsafe a managed zone is I am unclear. Pionko had attempted to 
5105call the police during the attack but was unable to make contact. 
5106
5107In her report, Teela Sanders recommended that the scheme remain in place. 
5108Other local areas within the UK are now looking to adopt a similar model of 
5109regulating street prostitution. 
5110
5111It would appear that whatever complaints from residents and passers-by 
5112there are about street and off-street prostitution, the arguments about a 
5113woman’s ‘right’ to sell sex (as opposed to the ‘right’ of men to buy), often rise 
5114to the top.27 
5115
5116Barbel Ahlborn from the pro-prostitution ‘sex work’ project Kassandra in 
5117Nuremberg, Germany , told me that ‘sex workers’ there are against managed 
5118zones because it restricts where women work, and that not allowing a woman 
5119to sell sex from her apartment is discriminatory. But anyone who wishes to turn 
5120a residential property into a business needs to apply for a licence to do so. It 
5121would appear that legalisation is unpopular among many ‘sex workers’ rights ’ 
5122
5123
5124activists because they do not want any regulation whatsoever. This contradicts 
5125the mantra that sex work is regular labour and should be treated as such. It also 
5126ignores the reality that most people do not wish to live or work where sex is 
5127being sold.28 
5128
5129
5130Decriminalisation/Legalisation Increases Trafficking 
5131
5132Pro-prostitution activists claim that in order to destigmatise prostitution, 
5133language should reflect the status of prostitution as ‘work’. Jo Doezema , a 
5134vocal member of the NSWP29 (The Global Network of Sex Work Projects 
5135—which campaigns for prostitution to be redefined as work and for all laws 
5136pertaining to prostitution, including pimping, to be abolished), believes: ‘To 
5137label a woman “abused” or “trafficked” means to dis-empower her. She has 
5138the right to define as a sex worker, or even a migrant sex worker, and no-one 
5139has the right to define what she is except her’.30 
5140
5141A 2012 article in the journal World Development by the scholars Seo-
5142Young Cho , Axel Dreher and Eric Neumayer concluded that ‘countries with 
5143legalised prostitution have a statistically significantly larger reported 
5144incidence of human trafficking inflows. This holds true regardless of the model 
5145we use to estimate the equations and the variables we control for in the 
5146analysis.’31 
5147
5148Legalisation also has an impact on returning trafficked women. If the 
5149country they return to, dishonoured and stigmatised because they have been 
5150prostituted, has a thriving sex trade of its own, it has implications for the longterm 
5151recovery and reintegration of trafficked women. There is evidence from 
5152some non-governmental organisations of returning women being targeted by 
5153local pimps and put to work in local prostitution. Where there is monitoring of 
5154local sex industries, traffickers will consider it unsafe to bring women in, such 
5155as is the case in Sweden . The majority of funding for return and reintegration 
5156programmes goes to the International Organisation for Migration. They are 
5157very good at the return, but seemingly poor at the reintegration because they 
5158refuse to engage with issues of prostitution, deeming it different from 
5159trafficking. 
5160
5161Mia, a survivor of sex trafficking who was brought to the UK from Vlora, 
5162Albania , told me that she was re-trafficked back to the UK only three weeks 
5163after being returned home. Mia had been rejected by her community once it 
5164was discovered she had been prostituted. ‘My father told me I was dead to 
5165him. My brothers were warned to have nothing to do with me. I ended up 
5166working in prostitution in Tirana [Albania’s capital] because I was 
5167unmarriageable and had a black mark against my reputation’, she says. ‘But 
5168there were men who came back from being forced to work in factories, and 
5169
5170
5171they were welcomed back and seen as heroes.’ 
5172
5173The sex trade in the Netherlands has significantly expanded since 
5174legalisation. Job Cohen , then Mayor of Amsterdam , said in 2007: ‘Since the 
5175legalisation in 2000, things have changed. The law was created for voluntary 
5176prostitution but these days we see trafficking of women, exploitation and all 
5177kinds of criminal activity.’32 
5178
5179Women’s organisations in New Zealand talk about increased numbers of 
5180young women from the Pacific Islands being involved in prostitution. They 
5181also report there are more gangs involved in the management of brothels and 
5182there is more crime and danger associated with it. What is often ignored by 
5183those claiming that New Zealand has adopted the best model in dealing with 
5184prostitution is that it is a destination country for trafficking. In 2015 a woman 
5185was convicted for recruiting women from Thailand to work in a massage 
5186parlour.33 In 2004 the US State Department identified New Zealand as a 
5187trafficking destination country. However, the first conviction took another 
518812 years to secure.34 
5189
5190
5191Evidence from Governments and Police 
5192
5193The Dutch government hoped to play the role of the honourable pimp, taking its 
5194share in the proceeds of prostitution through taxation. But only 5% of the 
5195women registered for tax because no one wants to be known as a whore, 
5196however legal it may be. Illegality has simply taken a new form, with an 
5197increase in trafficking, unlicensed brothels and pimping; with policing 
5198completely out of the picture, it was easier to break the laws that remained. To 
5199pimp out women from non-EU countries, desperate for a new life, remains 
5200illegal. But it has never been easier. 
5201
5202Legalisation has imposed brothels on areas all over the Netherlands , 
5203whether they want them or not. Even if a city or town opposes establishing a 
5204brothel, it must allow at least one: not to do so is contrary to the basic federal 
5205right to work. To many Dutch, legality and decency have been irreconcilably 
5206divorced. It has been a social, legal and economic failure, and at last the 
5207madness is coming to an end. 
5208
5209
5210Violence and Harm 
5211
5212In Melbourne , Australia , many restaurants ban doggy bags because of food 
5213safety35 but its government defends legal brothels. It would appear that the 
5214harm when done to women prostituted in countries where it is not considered a 
5215crime to pimp women and run brothels is socially tolerable. 
5216
5217Chelsea , who was involved in brothel prostitution in New Zealand , exited 
5218the sex trade in 2016. She argues that decriminalisation results in women 
5219facing additional barriers if they try to leave: ‘I don’t think [decriminalisation] 
5220made any difference [to the women] because the boss still does everything in a 
5221really dodgy manner’, Chelsea told me when we met just prior to her exiting. 
5222
5223‘[The managers] prioritised the men [customers] because that’s where the 
5224money’s coming from. That means if the clients are not happy and he goes 
5225down and complains about you he gets his money back and you get nothing. 
5226[Management] don’t believe you if you [complain about clients too much] so 
5227you have to save it for the really horrible ones.’ 
5228
5229I met Ne’cole Daniels , an African-American and member of the 
5230abolitionist organisation SPACE International, in 2015 at a conference in 
5231Minnesota in the USA. Daniels is clear that prostitution is abuse, and therefore 
5232legalising or decriminalising it is simply enabling that abuse: 
5233
5234Legalisation is saying that it’s OK not just to purchase me, but to do 
5235
5236whatever the hell you want to with me. We know there are those tricks 
5237
5238who don’t give a damn, whose sick fantasy is to want to hurt someone in 
5239
5240this industry. They can’t do it to their wives but they can do whatever to 
5241
5242us. [The sex trade is] like racism. They are saying that some of us are 
5243
5244worth less than others. 
5245
5246During my visit to Laufhaus Caesars World in Munich in Germany , I ask 
5247the manager Jörn Gruber about safety for the women. The security system, in 
5248my view left something to be desired. ‘When the girls have a problem, the 
5249other girls can hear it and make a sign on the camera’, says Gruber. ‘But they 
5250have to come out of their rooms to make a sign.’ 
5251
5252Despite having told me that there have been several occasions in which 
5253security guards have been required to intervene in ‘negotiations’ between the 
5254women and the sex buyers , Gruber soon switches his story when I ask how 
5255
5256
5257many of the women have pimps outside of the brothel, and if the pimps bother 
5258them at ‘work’. I am told the vice police come to the brothel once a month and 
5259interview the women in their rooms, asking if they have been trafficked or 
5260abused. 
5261
5262‘We have never had problems with violence here’, says Gruber. And no 
5263boyfriends [pimps] are allowed in. If I catch them they are banned and if a girl 
5264lets him in she’s also banned. If they leave here because they get chucked out, 
5265they can go to a house that will accept pimps.’ I ask if there are many brothels 
5266in Munich that do accept pimps and Gruber confirms this. ‘The men who come 
5267in here do not come with the intention of harming the women. And if they do 
5268think this is a place they can hurt the women they are in the wrong place and 
5269they must go to [names a nearby brothel] if they want to do things like that.’ 
5270
5271A number of countries, including the UK, license so-called massage 
5272parlours or saunas, in the full knowledge that they are being run as brothels. 
5273One of the cities where Fiona Broadfoot was prostituted in was Edinburgh in 
5274Scotland, where, at the time, police and local authorities took what they called 
5275‘a pragmatic approach’36 to licensing sex establishments. 
5276
5277The editorial in The Scotsman on 27 March 1995 claimed: ‘Edinburgh’s 
5278licensed saunas are starting to rank with the Festival and the Castle as tokens 
5279of the city’s fame abroad. Liberal opinion everywhere is impressed with the 
5280Old City’s robust policy of seeking to regulate what it cannot eradicate and to 
5281move the sex trade off the streets and into safe, controlled environments… Our 
5282own view is that the council’s policy is indeed enlightened and also that it is 
5283right. Prostitution on the streets of Edinburgh is as old as the streets themselves 
5284and there is no evidence in Edinburgh, or anywhere else, that it can be 
5285prosecuted or persecuted out of existence.37 
5286
5287I asked Broadfoot if there were any benefits from her being prostituted 
5288from a decriminalised (licensed) brothel: ‘No, it was far worse because there 
5289were a lot of trafficked women there—the guy had you working 24/7—he 
5290requested that we wash men’s penises in the sink and have sex without 
5291condoms, which of course the majority of us never did’, she told me. ‘But there 
5292were some desperate women because they were highly drug addicted. They 
5293were injecting in the basement. A lot of drug misuse going on in the basement 
5294because they need the fix to cope with the day.’ 
5295
5296Even some pro-prostitution activists are critical of many of the 
5297consequences of legalisation. At Kassandra , in Germany , Bärbel Ahlborn is 
5298the coordinator. I asked Ahlborn if the women are safer since 2002: ‘I think it 
5299
5300
5301would be good if everybody who offers sexual services had a clear idea of 
5302their role. I’m telling the customer, ‘You can have this or this’ and the women 
5303decide what to offer which customer, it’s her decision. This has the 
5304precondition that she knows it’s a business’. 
5305
5306The reality is that when you decriminalise or legalise pimps and sex buyers 
5307there is always a massive expansion of the sex trade. Multi-storey brothels are 
5308only ever built under legalisation, as even the police, who often turn a blind 
5309eye to the off-street sex trade, have to take action against such blatancy if it is 
5310staring everyone in the face. 
5311
5312
5313Criminal Activities of Legal Pimps 
5314
5315Below are examples of the failures of the New Zealand system in removing 
5316abuse, exploitation and trafficking from its sex trade since decriminalisation 
5317was introduced: 
5318
5319
5320The 2008 New Zealand government report briefly mentions that ‘a 
5321majority of prostituted persons felt that the decriminalisation act “could 
5322do little about violence that occurred”’.38 
5323The Committee further reported that abusive brothels did not improve 
5324conditions for prostituted individuals; the brothels that ‘had unfair 
5325management practices continued with them’ even after the 
5326decriminalisation.39 
5327There have been several murders and attacks of women in prostitution 
5328since decriminalisation. For example, in 2009 a Christchurch police 
5329officer was convicted of forcing a woman to have sex with him by 
5330threatening to arrest her if she did not comply.40 
5331In 2010, during a 6-week operation in downtown Auckland , the police 
5332identified at least 13 girls between the ages of 12 and 15 being 
5333prostituted. Most of them were being exploited on one street, which is 
5334known as a ‘young red-light area’. 
5335In 2010 a brothel-keeper operating in New Plymouth, was convicted of 
5336six underage sex and prostitution charges relating to one 15-year-old 
5337girl.41 
5338There have been several cases of Malaysian women’s passports being 
5339taken away from them by pimps. One woman said she had ‘paid $5600 to 
5340come to Auckland , and made to work 16-hour shifts with few breaks on 
5341most days’. Another said she had ‘been lured here with a $4500 cash 
5342offer, plus airfares, but was later told that it was a loan she had to 
5343repay’.42 
5344In 2011 a senior US government official claimed that underage girls were 
5345being subjected to sex trafficking, and described New Zealand’s way of 
5346defining human trafficking as ‘misplaced’.43 
5347
5348In 2013 a number of exited women testified to the New Zealand 
5349Parliament’s justice and electoral committee about the harms of 
5350prostitution and argued in favour of the Nordic model . That same year, 
5351the New Zealand government dismissed a US State Department report that 
5352stated that New Zealand had become a ‘destination country for foreign 
5353men and women subjected to forced labour and to an extent, a source 
5354country for underage girls subjected to sex trafficking within the country’ 
5355(see footnote 44). 
5356A report from 2014 says that the police are dealing with reports of 
5357women in prostitution experiencing violence on about a monthly basis in 
5358Christchurch (see footnote 45). 
5359There is evidence of an increase in migrant women being prostituted in 
5360New Zealand , but the government does not consider this an indicator of 
5361trafficking. In 2015, two South Korean women and their pimp, in the country on 
5362short-term temporary visas, faced several charges in Auckland including the 
5363failure to adopt safe-sex practices. It is alleged that over a 20-day period 
5364between 28 October and 19 November 2015, one of the women had 196 
5365customers, including 58 customers that she gave unprotected oral sex, and six 
5366who paid extra to ejaculate in her mouth. 44 
5367
5368It was not until it became clear that legalisation of the sex trade in 
5369countries such as the Netherlands had been a failed social experiment45 that 
5370New Zealand began to be routinely hailed as the ‘gold standard’ model for 
5371other countries to follow.46 
5372
5373‘There is a consensus now between policymakers and people from the 
5374shelters and even people who are pro-legalisation, that legalisation has not 
5375worked out’, says Renate Van Der Zee . ‘It hasn’t made the situation better for 
5376prostitutes and it hasn’t done anything in the field of stopping trafficking. Even 
5377the pro-prostitution lobby agree that that legalisation hasn’t worked out as was 
5378hoped.’ 
5379
5380
5381Exiting Services 
5382
5383Another failure of legalisation and decriminalisation, as evidenced by the 
5384Netherlands , Germany and New Zealand , is that once prostitution becomes 
5385viewed and framed as a regular job, the impetus to provide any exiting 
5386services disappears. 
5387
5388Rachel Moran has visited countries with legalised prostitution and spoken 
5389to a number of the women in prostitution in legal brothels. ‘Some of what they 
5390have told me hurts me more deeply than anything I’ve heard from regimes 
5391where prostitution is not legally sanctioned. The first thing that happens in a 
5392nation like that is that there are no exit routes’, says Moran. ‘Once you socially 
5393sanction prostitution as just another form of labour, immediately you cut off 
5394your exit strategies.’ 
5395
5396The ‘sex workers’ rights ’ activists have become increasingly effective in 
5397only seeing the harm to prostituted people that is caused by police officers and 
5398criminal justice agencies. If we are to follow this logic through, it becomes 
5399clear that abolitionists who advocate the criminalisation of sex buyers are 
5400complicit in, and therefore in part responsible for, violence experienced by 
5401prostituted people wherever criminalisation of any type is in place. 
5402
5403
5404Sex Tourism 
5405
5406Rather than remove the sleaziness of the Amsterdam red-light district, sex 
5407tourism has made the area more depressing than ever: full of drunken sex 
5408tourists who act as window shoppers, pointing and laughing at the women they 
5409see. Local women pass the streets with their heads down, trying not to see the 
5410other women displayed like cuts of meat in a butcher’s shop. Men can be seen 
5411entering the brothels, trying to barter down the price. Others come out zipping 
5412up their jeans. Many of the women look very young, all of them bored, with the 
5413majority sitting on stools in underwear playing with their phones. 
5414
5415In 2005, Thomas Cook ,47 Britain’s longest running tour operator, launched 
5416night-time tours around Amsterdam’s red-light district.48 The excursions 
5417included a talk about the ‘system’ from a woman who had previously worked 
5418in legal prostitution, and was open to children of any age. In fact, Thomas 
5419Cook offered free tickets for children under the age of 3. The Thomas Cook 
5420press release described how the 2-hour tour would take visitors ‘deep into the 
5421famous red-light district, offering a fascinating insight into the oldest 
5422profession in the world’. I have called Thomas Cook to ask if they still run the 
5423tours (it received a number of complaints from feminist and human rights 
5424organisations back in 2005) but have been unable to get a clear response. 
5425
5426There is much evidence that the expansion and normalisation of sex 
5427establishments—including lap dance clubs, brothels and sex shops in city 
5428centres—often leads to that city being marketed by tour operators as suitable 
5429for stag weekends and sex tourists.49 One notable example of this phenomenon 
5430is Tallinn , the capital of Estonia . Government officials have made a 
5431commitment to stop Estonian women being trafficked but are also capitalising 
5432on the revenue from sex tourism. There are at least 5000 women in prostitution 
5433in Estonia, the majority of whom are in Tallinn . The number of brothels is 
5434rising to meet the demand of the men on stag weekends. There are growing 
5435numbers of strip clubs in the Old Town and, as in Amsterdam , taxi drivers are 
5436paid by the criminals who run these places to take stag groups to brothels. 
5437Women from the poor, depressed areas in the North East of Estonia , mainly 
5438Russian-speaking ethnic Estonians, are being trafficked into Tallinn to meet the 
5439increasing demand. 
5440
5441Further evidence from press and research reports on the growth of sex 
5442tourism suggests that legalisation is a major driver in the sex tourism business. 
5443
5444
5445For example, Riga This Week,50 a magazine advertising the tourist scene in the 
5446capital city of Latvia and widely available in hotel rooms and bars, contains 
5447scores of adverts for erotic massage, strip joints and escorts. 
5448
5449
5450Tax, Registration and Safety/Health 
5451
5452In 2015, Hermann Müller, who owns the Pasha brothel in Salzburg, Austria, 
5453placed an advertisement on his website offering: ‘Free Entrance! Free Drinks! 
5454Free Sex! Effective immediately’ Müller was protesting against supposedly 
5455unfair levels of tax. He claimed that officials were over-zealous in checking up 
5456on him and that he had paid €5 million in taxes over the past decade. Müller 
5457runs several licensed brothels in Germany and Austria, where prostitution is 
5458also legal. Profits from his other establishments would be used to cover the 
5459losses from the stunt, he said. 
5460
5461Muller’s complaint was that the officials visited his premises every 
546214 days but did nothing about unlicensed, illegal forms of prostitution in the 
5463city. According to Muller , sex buyers were ‘queuing round the block’ for the 
5464‘summer special’ and he ‘turned away hundreds of disappointed customers’. 
5465
5466Section 8 of the New Zealand PRA requires operators of businesses of 
5467prostitution to adopt and promote safer sex practices. Section 9 requires ‘sex 
5468workers’ and clients to adopt safe-sex practices.51 One prosecution for failing 
5469to adopt safe-sex practices in breach of Sect. 9 has been successfully 
5470undertaken. This was as a result of a confession made to police. The offence 
5471carries a maximum penalty of a $2000 fine. The offender, a client, was fined 
5472$400.52 
5473
5474In June 2004, the Occupational Safety and Health Service of the 
5475Department of Labour issued A Guide to Occupational Health and Safety in 
5476the New Zealand sex trade (the OSH Guide). Only 30% of ‘sex workers’ 
5477surveyed by the Christchurch School of Medicine (CSOM) reported that they 
5478had read the OSH Guide. In normal businesses, at least one person in 
5479management is required to understand all OSH requirements.53 
5480
5481The 2007 CSOM report found that ‘almost all public health services have 
5482taken a largely reactive approach to implementation of the public health role 
5483under the PRA’54; that is, they have failed to implement regular inspections. 
5484Medical officers describe feeling intimidated by managers of brothels,55 and 
5485almost all complaints made are anonymous. Medical Officers of Health told 
5486CSOM that this made it very difficult to take action unless adequate detail was 
5487supplied to them. None of the complaints that had been investigated by 
5488Medical Officers of Health resulted in a prosecution.56 
5489
5490
5491A Drive to Remove All Regulation 
5492
5493Ana is a survivor of the sex trade who was prostituted in the Netherlands . She 
5494says: 
5495
5496They say that here, even though we have legalisation, it’s never enough. 
5497
5498We have had legalisation for a few years and they’re trying to get rid of 
5499
5500the regulations again. I’m sorry but I’m not going to fight this fight just to 
5501
5502squabble about regulations, because I do see that regulation is harmful in 
5503
5504a legalised country. It’s pointless. They want decriminalised, unregulated 
5505
5506prostitution. Unregulated decriminalisation is a free for all it’s; like an 
5507
5508approval stamp on sexual abuse, like we approve of sexual abuse. 
5509
5510In December 2015 I visited Nairobi in Kenya to research the vibrant ‘sex 
5511workers’ rights ’ movement. I arranged to meet several individuals, including 
5512activists and academics, but the only person to keep our appointment was 
5513Peninah Mwangi , Director of the Bar and Hostess Association. Mwangi 
5514seemed surprised when I told her my position on the sex trade but did not cut 
5515our interview short. As I travelled to Nairobi I was alerted to a tweet from a 
5516‘sex workers’ rights’ activist ‘warning’ their allies in Kenya that I would soon 
5517be in town. I am not sure what the tweeters thought I would be doing, but it 
5518didn’t warn off any of my other interviewees. 
5519
5520Mwangi told me that she was part of a delegation to New Zealand as part 
5521of the Global Network of Sex Work Projects in the early 2000s. ‘Legalisation 
5522would never work for our country because we are understaffed in terms of 
5523police officers. We don’t expect them to be able to police sex work 
5524successfully or to be able to get civil servants—they’re not even doing a good 
5525job with traffic! So I can’t imagine what they would do if sex work was 
5526legalised and there was a way that we should report to them that they should 
5527check.’ 
5528
5529
5530Cultural and Normative Harm 
5531
5532The government in the Netherlands has clarified that it is legal for driving 
5533instructors to offer lessons in return for sex, as long as the students are over the 
5534age of 18.57 This could only happen under legalisation. There are other 
5535examples of how the legal acceptance of buying and selling women’s bodies 
5536permeates culture. 
5537
5538In March 2016, the New Zealand TV channel Newshub reported on The 
5539Kai Kitchen ,58 a charity in the small town of Hawere in Taranaki that provides 
5540food for homeless and hungry children in the area. The story was pegged on the 
5541announcement that a local brothel hosted an open day during which visitors 
5542were asked to give a donation to the charity. ‘It’s just part of Hawere and 
5543we’re all pretty cool about it’, said one male visitor. 
5544
5545Aspokesperson for The Kai Kitchen said: ‘I think [the brothel owner’s 
5546initiative] is fantastic. It’s obviously created a lot of interest; we are grateful 
5547for all the donations that are coming in’. The fact that a brothel owner can be 
5548an ambassador for a children’s austerity charity speaks volumes about how 
5549removing criminal laws makes even prostitution appear to be harmless and 
5550respectable. 
5551
5552
5553The Village Built on Prostitution 
5554
5555Legalisation and decriminalisation of the sex trade have led to a normalisation 
5556of prostitution. The fact that Wadia , a village in the conservative state of 
5557Gujarat in India is able to exist purely on the proceeds of prostitution is 
5558testimony to this. Men come to the village from as far afield as Ahmedabad , 
5559Pakistan, Rajasthan, and Mumbai to buy sex, with rates beginning at Rs. 500 
5560(£5). 
5561
5562The 600 inhabitants of Wadia are descendants of the nomadic z community. 
5563Saraniya men once worked for the army, which ruled over the region prior to 
5564India’s independence from Britain in 1947. Ever since realising how much 
5565money could be made from the sex trade, the majority of men in Wadia have 
5566continued soliciting buyers for their sisters, daughters, aunts and mothers. 
5567
5568I visited Wadia at the end of 2015. The village is 4 hours’ drive away from 
5569Gujarat’s main city, Ahmedabad . I had been warned that it is unsafe for anyone 
5570to travel alone near Wadia . On the final stretch of road before we reach the 
5571village, the car is surrounded by a group of young men, one of whom asks the 
5572driver why we are heading to Wadia and whether we are carrying any 
5573weapons. 
5574
5575The village is off a narrow road and consists mainly of huts made from 
5576wood and plastic sheets, with a central area consisting of a ramshackle store 
5577selling chai and basic provisions, at which the men and male children gather. 
5578My translator tells me that each of the newly built houses is a brothel and the 
5579old huts are the family homes. ‘Ninety-nine percent are prostitutes’, he says. 
5580‘The man with the white handkerchief, big broker (pimp). His wife, mother, 
5581sister, daughter, all prostitutes.’ 
5582
5583I am met by one of the main pimps, Amr (not his real name): a charming, 
5584good-looking man in his 20s. Amr’s English is good and he smiles at me a lot 
5585as he speaks, flashing perfectly straight, whitened teeth. The chief of the 
5586village appears soon after Amr calls him. I am not told his name. The man, in 
5587his 50s or 60s, is dressed in white and is hiding most of his face behind a 
5588scarf. I ask Amr if the police try to impose the rule of law on the village. ‘They 
5589are corrupt’, he tells me. ‘Many are customers.’ 
5590
5591No women or girls are visible as we arrive, and when I ask if I could meet 
5592some of the women, I am told emphatically ‘no’ by the chief. I ask why. 
5593‘Because they will be scared of you’, he says. ‘They will think you are a 
5594
5595
5596police officer.’ During my tour of the village, on which I was accompanied by 
5597a reluctant Amr, I saw several women and girls dressed in pink or red saris, 
5598scurrying into their huts when they spotted me. One woman was going into a 
5599half-erected brick building with a man I assumed to be a sex buyer. 
5600
5601I asked Amr at what age the girls start selling sex and was told, ‘Not 
5602before 18’. My fixer, however, was told by Amr that the girls are sold at an 
5603average age of 12. I was told by Amr that the women like their work; the 
5604customers are never violent; there are no STIs; and that at most only one-fifth 
5605of the women in Wadia are in prostitution. Despite the obvious poverty in the 
5606village, there are also pockets of wealth. Many of the older men had expensive 
5607iPhones, and three of those I met were attending college in Ahmedabad . 
5608
5609‘The women are in [prostitution] for life’, Amr told me, as I left. ‘They are 
5610illiterate, it is all there is for them.’ Clearly, pimping is more lucrative for the 
5611men than prostitution for the women. 
5612
5613On asking my colleagues if they had heard of Wadia , I soon discovered 
5614that this tiny village had almost the same notoriety and potency as Nevada in 
5615the USA. Wadia is far away from the legalised sex industries of Nevada, 
5616Germany and the Netherlands , but it has something fundamentally in common 
5617with those prosperous nations. Where prostitution is seen as part of the 
5618economy and a job like any other, and men are given free reign to treat 
5619women’s bodies as a commodity, gender equality remains a distant dream. 
5620
5621
5622The Expansion of the Sex Trade 
5623
5624‘The NZPC denies the industry is expanding, but they are lying. There was a 
5625“mega brothel” built [in Auckland ] recently, many storeys tall. It never 
5626opened, it isn’t meant for now, it is planning for the future’, says sex trade 
5627survivor Chelsea . ‘If we don’t get the Nordic model here in time, we will be 
5628whoring for the minimum wage and may as well have just worked at 
5629McDonald’s .’ 
5630
5631One of the claims of the pro-decriminalisation lobby is that there has been 
5632no increase in the number of brothels since 2003. However, as Debbie 
5633Weisehan of Streetreach points out, there are a number of Single Owner 
5634Operated Business (SOOBS) across the country that do not need a licence. ‘I 
5635knew a brothel owner and so he didn’t want to get a licence because he had a 
5636criminal record, so he set up all these apartments, and it’s for girls who are 
5637just working for themselves. We don’t know what’s happening because it’s 
5638underground.’ 
5639
5640Ana, a young Dutch survivor I met during one of my research trips to 
5641Amsterdam , tells me: 
5642
5643I know that the illegal sector has a lot of single mothers, because they get 
5644social security from the government and it’s not that much, it’s like 70% 
5645of minimum wage and it’s not enough. A lot of these women feel forced – 
5646maybe they have a debt or feel guilty or ashamed of being poor, so they do 
5647prostitution on the side to feed their families. Of course you can’t do that 
5648legally because you wouldn’t have government support anymore. So they 
5649are forced to be in the illegal sector. 
5650
5651However, even those in favour of prostitution, such as Irina Maslova of 
5652Silver Rose , Russia , disapprove of legalisation, as she told me in 2015: 
5653
5654Definitely legalisation in Russia is not a good model and I am not going to 
5655allow this to happen. If there is a legalisation model in Russia, there 
5656would be about 300 sex workers who will probably join the official 
5657legalised industry where the rest of the people in this industry are being 
5658criminalised. I know people will not want to join the official legalised 
5659system because it will be very limiting with more severe conditions for 
5660
5661
5662them, so they would want to remain in the illegal sector and they will be 
5663
5664deemed criminals. 
5665
5666One of the consequences of decriminalisation and legalisation is the 
5667increase in demand and its further normalisation. Sex buyers that I and others 
5668have interviewed found that many men pay for sex the first time in legalised or 
5669decriminalised regimes, and feel entitled to do so because there is no social or 
5670legal deterrent. Many of the survivors tell me that sex buyers tend to have even 
5671higher expectations under decriminalisation and appear to feel ‘entitled’ to 
5672have whatever they ask for from the women they buy. 
5673
5674In the following chapter I examine the role of the sex buyers , and how their 
5675needs are routinely put before the women they abuse; the excuses and 
5676justifications made by the sex buyers and their many supporters; and how the 
5677truth about men who pay for sex is being lifted from the shadows by the 
5678survivor abolitionists and placed in full view of the general public. 
5679
5680Footnotes 
5681
56821 
5683Post, D. (2013, Sept 11.) Prostitution and sex trafficking: inescapably linked. In Fair Observer. 
5684Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/prostitution-humantrafficking-
5685inescapably-linked/. 
5686
56872 
5688Shared Hope (2007) DEMAND: Report. Shared Hope International. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from 
5689https://manualzz.com/doc/14882262/demand.-report. 
5690
56913 
5692Burke, J. (2006, Feb 19.) Threat to switch off city’s red lights. In The Guardian. Retrieved 16 June 
56932017, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/feb/19/jasonburke.theobserver. 
5694
56954 
5696Hof, D. 2014, The Art Of The Pimp. 
5697
56985 
5699Mullin, F. (2015, Oct 19.) The difference between decriminalisation and legislation of sex work. In 
5700New Statesman. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2015/ 
570110/difference-between-decriminalisation-and-legalisation-sex-work. 
5702
5703
57046 
5705http://www.nzpc.org.nz. 
5706
57077 
5708McKenzie, N.; Beck, M.; et al. (2011, Oct 10.) Legal brothels linked to international sex trafficking 
5709rings. In Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.smh.com.au/national/legalbrothels-
5710linked-to-international-sex-trafficking-rings-20111009-1lfxs.html. 
5711
57128 
5713Hubbard, P. (2016) Written evidence submitted by Professor Phillip Hubbard. Retrieved 16 June 
57142017, from http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/homeaffairs-
5715committee/prostitution/written/28708.pdf. 
5716
57179 
5718Davis, H. (2013, Feb 28.) Defining ‘pimp’: Working towards a definition in social research. In 
5719Sociological Research Online. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/11. 
5720html. 
5721
572210 January 8, 1992. 
5723
572411 Prostitution Research & Education. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://prostitutionresearch.com/. 
5725
572612 Farley, M. (2005, Jun 1.) Prostitution in Vancouver: Violence and the colonization of first nations 
5727women. In Transcultural Psychiatry. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/ 
572810.1177/1363461505052667 Transcultural Psychiatry. 
5729
573013 Discussed by the Asian Women for Equality Society at a meeting in Montreal, October 2015. 
5731
573214 Yorkshire Evening Post. (2015, Jul 31.) ‘Managed’ red light district In Leeds hailed a success. In 
5733Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/ 
5734managed-red-light-district-in-leeds-hailed-a-success-1-7388043. 
5735
5736
573715 BBC News. (2016, Jul 5.) Daria Pionko death: Lewis Pierre jailed for murder. On BBC News. 
5738Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-36713608. 
5739
574016 Times Higher Education. (2007, Jun 22.) Prostitution today: punishing the punters. In Times Higher 
5741Education. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/prostitutiontoday-
5742punishing-the-punters/209397.article. 
5743
574417 Edwards, A. (Presenter). (2016, Mar 3.) Leeds ‘managed zone’for sex workers is ‘catastrophic 
5745failure’. On BBC Radio Leeds. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/ 
5746p03lcx9p. 
5747
574818 Bennett, C. (2016, Feb 21.) Criminalise the sex buyers, not the prostitutes. In The Guardian. 
5749Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/21/sex-tradeprostitution-
5750criminalise-sex-buyers. 
5751
575219 Yorkshire Evening Post. (2016, Feb 27.) Leeds ‘managed’ prostitution zone under review after 
5753backlash. In Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.yorkshireeveningpost. 
5754co.uk/news/leeds-s-managed-prostitution-zone-under-review-after-backlash-1-7752702. 
5755
575620 Benn, H. (2016, Feb 7.) ‘Managed area’is not working. In South Leeds Life. Retrieved 16 June 
57572017, from http://www.southleedslife.com/managed-area-is-not-working/. 
5758
575921 Expatica. (2008, Oct 31.) Utrecht clamps down on prostitution. In Expatica. Retrieved 16 June 2017, 
5760from http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/Utrecht-clamps-down-on-prostitution_156388.html. 
5761
576222 Perraudin, F. (2016, Jul 4.) Man found guilty of murdering sex worker in Leeds. In The Guardian. 
5763Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/04/man-guilty-murdersex-
5764worker-leeds-daria-pionko-lewis-pierre. 
5765
576623 Gardner, T. (2015, Sept 14.) Rapist jailed for subjecting sex worker to degrading ordeal. In 
5767Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/ 
5768rapist-jailed-for-subjecting-leeds-sex-worker-to-degrading-ordeal-1-7457118. 
5769
5770
577124 Gardner, T. (2015, Nov 13.) Rapist jailed for brutal attack on Leeds sex worker. In Yorkshire 
5772Evening Post. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/rapist-jailedjailed-
5773for-brutal-attack-on-leeds-sex-worker-1-7567724. 
5774
577525 Yorkshire Evening Post. (2015, Jul 31.) ‘Managed’ red light district in Leeds hailed a success. In 
5776Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/ 
5777managed-red-light-district-in-leeds-hailed-a-success-1-7388043. 
5778
577926 Perraudin, F. (2016, Jul 4.) Man found guilty of murdering sex worker in Leeds. In The Guardian. 
5780Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/04/man-guilty-murdersex-
5781worker-leeds-daria-pionko-lewis-pierre. 
5782
578327 Clarke-Billings, L. (2016, Jan 12.) Leeds red light district made permanent fixture with ‘prostitution 
5784zone’three weeks after sex worker murder. In The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http:// 
5785www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12094301/Leeds-red-light-district-made-permanent-fixture-withprostitution-
5786zone-three-weeks-after-sex-worker-murder.html. 
5787
578828 Bindel, J.; Atkins, H. (2007) Streets apart: Outdoor prostitution in London. The POPPY Project. 
5789Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://nordicbaltic-assistwomen.net/IMG/pdf/StreetsApart__14Jun07doc. 
5790pdf. 
5791
579229 Global Network of Sex Work Projects. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from http://www.nswp.org/. 
5793
579430 Jo Doezema, 2004, Sex Slaves and Discourse Masters: the Historical Construction of 'trafficking 
5795in Women. 
5796
579731 Cho, S.; Dreher, A.; Neumayer, E. (2013.) Does legalised prostitution increase human trafficking? 
5798In World Development. Retrieved 16 June 2017, from https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/45198/1/Neumayer_ 
5799Legalized_Prostitution_Increase_2012.pdf. 
5800
5801
580232 Expatica. (2007, Sept 21.) Amsterdam buys red-light brothels. In Expatica. Retrieved 16 June 2017, 
5803from http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/Amsterdam-buys-red-light-brothels_149045.html. 
5804
580533 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11432671. Accessed 28th August. 
5806
580734 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11432671. Accessed 28th August. 
5808
580935 Santacruz, S. (2016, Apr 1.) Are restaurant doggy bags legal? In Australian Institute of Food Safety. 
5810Retrieved 15 June 2017, from https://www.foodsafety.com.au/blog/are-restaurant-doggy-bags-legal. 
5811
581236 Swanson, I. (2013, Nov 1.) End of sex saunas licensing ‘puts women at risk’. In Edinburgh Evening 
5813News. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/end-of-sexsaunas-
5814licensing-puts-women-at-risk-1-3186523. 
5815
581637 Mackay, F.; Schaap, A. (2000, Apr.) The local politics of prostitution in two Scottish cities. 
5817University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from https://ecpr.eu/Filestore/PaperProposal/ 
58188a98171c-b6bc-4424-b9c7-8fa6e5fbde80.pdf. 
5819
582038 Report of the Prostitution Law Review Committee on the Operation of the Prostitution Reform Act 
58212003, 2008, http://prostitutescollective.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/report-of-the-nz-prostitution-lawcommittee-
58222008.pdf 
5823
582439 Report of the Prostitution Law Review Committee on the Operation of the Prostitution Reform Act 
58252003, 2008, http://prostitutescollective.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/report-of-the-nz-prostitution-lawcommittee-
58262008.pdf 
5827
582840 Stuff. (2009, Dec 17.) Sex extortion ex-policeman jailed. In Stuff. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from 
5829http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3170820/Sex-extortion-ex-policeman-jailed. 
5830
583141 Humpreys, L. (2010, Aug 19.) Hastie guilty over young prostitute. In Stuff. Retrieved 15 June 2017, 
5832
5833
5834from http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/4038549/Hastie-guilty-over-young-prostitute. 
5835
583642 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/prostitution/news/article.cfm?c_id=612&objectid=10658178 Accessed 28th 
5837August 2017. 
5838
583943 http://herspace.org.au/bad-news-new-zealands-survivors/. Accessed 28th August 2017 
5840
584144 New Zealand Herald. (2015, Dec 4.) Increase in foreign sex workers in New Zealand. In New 
5842Zealand Herald. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1& 
5843objectid=11555992. 
5844
584545 Bindel, J. (2012, Oct.) Window brothels get the red light. In Standpoint. Retrieved 15 June 2017, 
5846from http://standpointmag.co.uk/dispatches-October-12-window-brothels-get-the-red-light-julie-bindelamsterdam-
5847prostitution. 
5848
584946 Scot-Pep. (2015) The New Zealand model: Protecting the safety, rights and health of sex 
5850workers. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://www.scot-pep.org.uk/sites/default/files/reports/the_nz_ 
5851model_long_version.pdf. 
5852
585347 [Thomas Cook even admitted it at the time]: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2005/nov/13/ 
5854travelnews.genderissues.observerescapesection. 
5855
585648 Bowes, G. (2005, Nov 13.) Red light tour condemned as ‘sick’. In The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 
58572017, from https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2005/nov/13/travelnews.genderissues.observerescapese 
5858ction. 
5859
586049 Journeyman Pictures. (2007, Aug 2.) Tallinn Tours – Estonia. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from https:// 
5861www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7V-gYlJNFY. 
5862
586350 WikiSexguide.com: Riga. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://www.wikisexguide.com/wiki/Riga. 
5864
5865
586651 New Zealand Government. (2003.) Report of the prostitution law review committee on the 
5867operation of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://prostitutescolle 
5868ctive.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/report-of-the-nz-prostitution-law-committee-2008.pdf. p. 23 
5869
587052 New Zealand Government. (2003.) Report of the prostitution law review committee on the 
5871operation of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://prostitutescolle 
5872ctive.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/report-of-the-nz-prostitution-law-committee-2008.pdf. p. 55 
5873
587453 New Zealand Government. (2003.) Report of the prostitution law review committee on the 
5875operation of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://prostitutescolle 
5876ctive.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/report-of-the-nz-prostitution-law-committee-2008.pdf. p. 51 
5877
587854 Abel, G.; Fitzgerald, L.; Brunton, C. (2007, Nov.) Report of the prostitution law review committee 
5879on the operation of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http:// 
5880prostitutescollective.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/report-of-the-nz-prostitution-law-committee-2008. 
5881pdf. p. 152 
5882
588355 Abel, G.; Fitzgerald, L.; Brunton, C. (2007, Nov.) Report of the prostitution law review committee 
5884on the operation of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http:// 
5885prostitutescollective.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/report-of-the-nz-prostitution-law-committee-2008. 
5886pdf. p. 153 
5887
588856 Abel, G.; Fitzgerald, L.; Brunton, C. (2007, Nov.) Report of the prostitution law review committee 
5889on the operation of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http:// 
5890prostitutescollective.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/report-of-the-nz-prostitution-law-committee-2008. 
5891pdf, p. 154. 
5892
589357 Boult, A. (2015, Dec 18.) Driving instructors ‘may offer lessons in return for sex’, Netherlands 
5894government confirms. The practice, known as ‘ride for a ride’, has been deemed ‘legal but 
5895undesirable’. In The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ 
5896worldnews/europe/netherlands/12059110/Driving-instructors-may-offer-lessons-in-return-for-sexNetherlands-
5897government-confirms.html. 
5898
5899
590058 http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2016/03/brothel-opens-its-door-for-charity.html. 
5901
5902
5903
5904© The Author(s) 2017 
5905Julie Bindel, The Pimping of Prostitution, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55890-9_5 
5906
5907
59085. The Invisible Man 
5909Julie Bindel1 
5910
5911
5912(1) London, UK 
5913Julie Bindel 
5914Email: juliebindel@yahoo.co.uk 
5915The invisible man is invisible no more – we are holding him up to face 
5916
5917the music. (Rachel Moran, 2015) 
5918
5919I pay for sex because I can. Because taking a woman out to dinner costs 
5920
5921me money, so why not? Because it is my need and she gets to feed her 
5922
5923kids. (Sex buyer, Amsterdam ) 
5924
5925I am heading to a conference at the Dutch Parliament on the demand for 
5926prostitution, I share my Easyjet flight from Luton Airport to Amsterdam with 
5927two groups of young male sex tourists, loudly bragging about how ‘pissed’, 
5928‘stoned’, ‘wasted’ and ‘fucked’ they were last time they visited De Wallen , the 
5929window brothel area of Amsterdam. 
5930
5931The conference is entitled ‘Men who buy sex : What is their 
5932responsibility?’ My friend and colleague Fiona Broadfoot is giving the keynote 
5933speech at the event. Broadfoot was pimped into prostitution aged 15, escaped 
5934the sex trade 11 years later, and for the past 20 years has been involved in the 
5935campaign to eradicate the international sex trade. Most of the delegates are 
5936sympathetic to the arguments that sex buyers should be held accountable and 
5937that legalisation of pimping and brothel owning has been a disaster. But one 
5938woman, sitting at the back of the room, showed her disagreement and 
5939displeasure as regularly as she was able to. 
5940
5941The following day Broadfoot and I go to Amsterdam and visit De Wallen . 
5942We pass several tour guides and stop by one group, being led by a young 
5943
5944
5945hipster who is speaking of the legal sex trade with very little knowledge. The 
5946group laugh at the guide’s jokes about how they would ‘all look at prostitutes 
5947together’iftheybooked his eveningwalkaround the red lightdistrict. Iask 
5948about trafficking and abuse but he simply trots out the party line in response. 
5949
5950In the narrow streets in which the window brothels are situated we see two 
5951young men approach one of the doors. As one steps inside, the other leans 
5952against the wall to smoke a cigarette. We ask if he would be happy to talk to us 
5953on the record and to be recorded on my smartphone. He agrees. 
5954
5955Alex started paying for sex when he was 12 years old. ‘It is so normal 
5956here’, he tells us. ‘In America you have it, in England you have it, but here it is 
5957different because it is legal. I come here once a month if I can afford it. I only 
5958get charged €20 because I know all the girls and I am a local, but the tourists 
5959pay €50. For everything. Most of the women have pimps or lover boys [pimps 
5960that pose as boyfriends], but who is going to do anything if they are unhappy? 
5961Nobody will.’ 
5962
5963He adds: ‘If my sister or mother did this I would be very angry.’ 
5964
5965As we are interviewing Alex, Broadfoot spots the woman who had been 
5966sitting at the back at the conference, standing in the doorway of the Prostitution 
5967Information Centre (PIC) . She is now taking photographs of us. I recognised 
5968her at the conference as Mariska Majoor , who founded the PIC in 1994 and 
5969organises commercial tours around De Wallen . Majoor was prostituted from 
5970the age of 16 until exiting the sex trade. 
5971
5972Broadfoot asks Majoor why she is taking photos. At that moment, Majoor 
5973calls Alex over and tells him we are bad people and that we ‘have no respect 
5974for men who pay for sex’. Then she speaks to Alex in Dutch, and suddenly he 
5975becomes very agitated and asks me to delete his interview, which I do. As is 
5976usual practice for journalists, I had also been making notes of our conversation 
5977in order to remind myself to ask subsequent questions. 
5978
5979At a nearby cafe we see groups of young men who are obviously gearing 
5980themselves up for a jaunt around the red-light area. I speak to two American 
5981tourists who seem to be unimpressed with the idea of paying for sex but their 
5982views, formed mainly from information they have read on a blog about 
5983legalised prostitution in the Netherlands , are that this system is safer for the 
5984women than any other. 
5985
5986
5987What the Survivors Say 
5988
5989Rae Story was involved in prostitution for a decade, in the UK, and other 
5990countries such as Australia and New Zealand . She exited prostitution in 2015, 
5991and runs the Blog, In Permanent Opposition. 1 Story, along with a number of 
5992other survivors I interviewed in Germany , Australia, Holland and New 
5993Zealand , makes the important point that sex buyers are abusive, disrespectful 
5994and often violent whatever legal regime they are paying for sex under: 
5995
5996You make money for yourself if a guy picks you, but you also spend a lot 
5997
5998of the time schlepping about as eye candy for the punters while they get 
5999
6000inebriated on expensive plonk. The FKK clubs (upmarket strip clubs with 
6001
6002saunas and prostitution services) in Germany are worse because you often 
6003
6004have to do it naked. There is no way you can protect against guys pulling 
6005
6006your hair, slapping your arse too hard, fucking you too hard, the worst of 
6007
6008all: pulling off the condom and ejaculating inside of you… other 
6009
6010‘indignities’ like dealing with rancid sperm or unwashed backsides etc. 
6011
6012Aside from women in prostitution, the best evidence of how abusive the act 
6013of paying for sex is comes from the men themselves. Over the years I have 
6014interviewed a number of men who have accessed commercial sexual 
6015exploitation. The first group was in 1999 in the North of England during the 
6016Kerb Crawler Re-Education Programme. Over the years, for both journalistic 
6017and research purposes, I have spoken to numerous male sex buyers . During the 
6018course of researching this book, I spoke to men in legal brothels, illegal off-
6019street establishments and street prostitution zones. 
6020
6021One of the most important research projects I have been involved in was 
6022part of a six-country study designed and led by Dr Melissa Farley . In 2009, 
6023Farley approached me in my capacity as research consultant at Eaves (see 
6024Chap. 1) and asked if we would assist with carrying out at least 100 
6025interviews of men who buy sex in London. There was no budget, but we raised 
6026just enough money to develop the research tools and buy a mobile phone on 
6027which we would make contact with the sex buyers . 
6028
6029We placed an advertisement in one of the free London newspapers that 
6030read: ‘Men! Have you ever paid for sex? An international research team is in 
6031London on [date] and would like to talk to you about your experiences and 
6032
6033
6034views. Anonymity and discretion guaranteed’. As soon as the advertisement 
6035went in, the mobile phone we had purchased was ringing off the hook. The only 
6036screening we did was to ensure that the men were serious, and had not rung up 
6037to get some kind of sexual kick. There were very few that were eliminated. We 
6038arranged meetings with 103 of those men throughout the given week. 
6039
6040Four of us were primed to carry out the interviews. We needed to be able 
6041to see each other during the interview process to ensure safety. Additionally, 
6042the men needed to be reassured that the team would be discreet during the 
6043interview process and that their anonymity would be guaranteed. 
6044
6045Having wandered around central London a few times trying to find a venue, 
6046I happened upon a brilliant idea. I had been invited to have a drink with a 
6047member of the Royal Festival Hall. We would do the interviews there during 
6048the day, before the crowd started to arrive for the evening events, using one of 
6049the mezzanine areas, so it would be possible to keep an eye on our 
6050interviewees as they were met by the research assistants, outside next to the 
6051Nelson Mandela statue. 
6052
6053The interviews, which took between 90 and 150 minutes each, went 
6054smoothly. That is until interview 99. This man, let’s call him John, turned up 
6055early, and the research assistant had not yet arrived at the Mandela statue. John 
6056approached the head of security, showed him the advertisement in the paper 
6057and asked where the researchers were who were talking to men about 
6058prostitution use. 
6059
6060We were immediately told to leave the venue and that the Royal Festival 
6061Hall was a ‘family facility’, which meant that the nature of our research was 
6062unsuitable. After an hour, when there was a change of shift in security, we reentered 
6063the hall and concluded our interviews. 
6064
6065The resulting report2 was published at the end of 2009 and was launched in 
6066Parliament in early 2010. After its publication I wrote about my experiences of 
6067interviewing the men and the main findings in the Guardian 
6068newspaper.3 It is 
6069not unusual for those who do research to write about their findings in 
6070newspapers, or speak about it on television and radio. It was clearly my own 
6071view of the results of the research I had been involved in, and there was plenty 
6072of research by pro-prostitution academics that would have reached different 
6073conclusions to ours. However, on publication, my editor received a long letter 
6074of complaint signed by the usual pro-prostitution academic suspects. 
6075
6076The basis of the complaint was that I was biased, and the Guardian 
6077was 
6078biased for allowing me to write the piece for their pages. I was promoting my 
6079
6080
6081own research, they said, which was biased, so how could the Guardian 
6082even 
6083pretend to be impartial? Of course, as a researcher, I had followed the ethical 
6084guidelines set down by the British Sociological Association. My Guardian 
6085article was based on my observations and some verbatim testimony from the 
6086men that I had obtained with their consent during the interviews. The 
6087complainants clearly did not like the fact that the interviewees had pretty much 
6088done the abolitionists ’ work for us. 
6089
6090
6091What the Men Said 
6092
6093As a radical feminist , I am often of accused of making the claim that ‘all men 
6094are potential rapists’. Nothing could be further from the truth: radical feminists 
6095do not believe that male babies are born pre-programmed to commit acts of 
6096violence against women, nor do we believe that girls are born to be victims. 
6097Our view is that under patriarchy , men are given power over women, and that 
6098a way of asserting that power is to be violent towards women. 
6099
6100As one of the London-based sex buyers said to me: ‘If I wasn’t able to 
6101have sex with a prostitute and was frustrated, I might have to go out and attack 
6102a real woman’. The ‘real’ woman that this sex buyer was referring to was a 
6103woman who wasn’t prostituted. I have heard the same thing said by sex buyers 
6104, by women in prostitution, pimps and by members of the public. 
6105
6106Below I have listed a number of the comments from the men in the London 
6107study. I have not deliberately picked out the worst, but have simply categorised 
6108them to show the range of problematic attitudes developed by the men who 
6109commodify sex with women. 
6110
6111Prostituted Women As Products 
6112
6113
6114‘I made a list in my mind. I told myself that I’ll be with different races e.g. 
6115Japanese, Indian, Chinese … Once I have been with them I tick them off 
6116the list. It’s like a shopping list.’ 
6117‘You get to choose, like a catalogue.’ 
6118‘Selecting and purchasing has something to do with domination and 
6119control.’ 
6120‘It’s like going for a drink. You are not doing anything illegal.’ 
6121‘Prostitutes have improved over the years. They’re younger now and 
6122better looking and cleaner.’ 
6123Prostitution is About Men’s Uncontrollable Needs 
6124
6125
6126‘I wouldn’t want it abolished. It’s a service I use.’ 
6127
6128
6129‘It’s a guaranteed showtime—you’re gonna have a great time with a girl 
6130
6131with a great body. You’re gonna enjoy the specific things you like. You’re 
6132gonna be able to shoot your load and be totally satiated.’ 
6133
6134What They Say About the Women 
6135
6136
6137‘A prostitute is like an outlet to a pressure cooker.’ 
6138‘You pay for the convenience, a bit like going to a public loo.’ 
6139‘It is just a job—why would they think otherwise? They don’t feel guilty. 
6140In the beginning they have emotions. But it becomes a routine. They die 
6141off after a while.’ 
6142‘They are girls no-one else wants to marry. So they work for sex. No one 
6143wants their wife to be a prostitute.’ 
6144‘I use ones that I’ve trained.’ 
6145Normalisation/Pro-legalisation 
6146
6147
6148‘At the end of the day, you’re horny, tired of playing with yourself, so 
6149what else can you do?’ 
6150‘It’s like having a nice meal.’ 
6151‘I’ve been decades without a steady girlfriend—it’s meant I didn’t have to 
6152enter a world that didn’t want me. When I think of the gas keys and 
6153kiddies’ shoes I’ve bought … I’m not saying I’m a philanthropist but I’ve 
6154made a difference.’ 
6155‘Maybe if men could get it [prostitution] on the NHS [National Health 
6156Service] if they are disabled, it would prevent them from raping.’ 
6157Deterrence/Ambivalence 
6158
6159
6160On his worst experience of paying for sex: ‘Very moody girl, language 
6161barrier [from South East Asia], she was being forced to do it, mechanical, 
6162having sex with her was frustrating. These things give you a feeling of 
6163waste of money. That’s when you feel guilty.’ 
6164‘They’ve chosen to do what they do to make money—they have to accept 
6165what comes with it: the good, the bad, the ugly.’ 
6166
6167On the serial killer in Ipswich: ‘I kind of felt compassion for the parents 
6168of the prostitutes killed. But if you are playing a certain game you should 
6169take all that comes with that game. I really feel that way.’ 
6170Gross Sexism/Misogyny 
6171
6172
6173‘It’s just about that moment of pleasure. Liking her was not relevant to the 
6174experience.’ 
6175‘I get sexual satisfaction for money. She may not get satisfaction, I don’t 
6176care.’ 
6177‘If she isn’t crying but says “no”, I keep on. I only stop if she is really 
6178crying.’ 
6179‘We call two girls in and have a competition to see who’s better, and ask 
6180them to rate each of our sexual performances. After we each do one, we 
6181swap, then see who has the highest rating.’ 
6182‘They are a necessary evil.’ 
6183‘I’m angry at myself for having to go and spend the money, and angry with 
6184my wife for making me go.’ Punter who says he is a ‘sex addict’ whose 
6185wife does not want as much sex as he does. 
6186‘I’ve seen pimps with the prostitutes, yelling. I’ve seen girls dragged back 
6187inside apartments. I want the people I deal with to be away from the 
6188sordid.’ 
6189‘If you go to the wrong one, you might as well be in a morgue, there’s a 
6190slab of flesh there.’ 
6191Prostitution Decreases Rape and Sexual Assault 
6192
6193
6194‘Prostitution should not be abolished. It prevents rape and should be 
6195regulated.’ 
6196‘If women could give full satisfaction to husbands and boyfriends, then 
6197men wouldn’t go to prostitutes.’ 
6198All Relationships are Prostitution 
6199
6200
6201‘There is no need to abolish prostitution. Every woman is a prostitute. 
6202Before you sleep with a woman you wine/dine, buy gifts for her before 
6203she sleeps with you. So you are spending money on her for sex.’ 
6204‘It is actually cheaper to go to prostitutes than a normal woman.’ 
6205‘It is simply commercial sex. You go to a woman who is highly sexed, and 
6206a normal woman is never as highly sexed as a prostitute. It would be 
6207wrong.’ 
6208‘The women want to do the job and men want to buy them, so everyone 
6209has a role.’ 
6210
6211The Ethical John 
6212
6213One commonly heard argument from pro-prostitution activists against 
6214criminalising sex buyers is that it will prevent the men who suspect trafficking 
6215from reporting it to the police, in case they are arrested. As Cat Stephens of the 
6216International Union of Sex Workers said at a meeting in Parliament: ‘Clients 
6217are our best defence against trafficking.’ 
6218
6219In her book Not a Choice, Not a Job, Janice Raymond outlines the various 
6220‘ethical John’ campaigns that have been implemented in certain countries. For 
6221example: ‘… the 2006 World Cup Games in Germany provided advocates of 
6222“ethical sex tourism” with another version of simply “pondering” the demand’. 
6223The National Council of German Women’s Organisations (Frauenrat) set up 
6224stalls around the football stadiums and urged male sports fans to ‘think about’ 
6225the fact that the women they might have sex with are coerced. Henny Engels, its 
6226executive director, made clear they weren’t against men purchasing women for 
6227the sex of prostitution: ‘We have nothing against prostitutes or prostitution. But 
6228we are against people trafficking and forced prostitution’.4 
6229
6230The idea that sex buyers who see evidence of pimping and trafficking in the 
6231off-street sex trade routinely report such matters to the police is risible. 
6232Between the 2004 opening of the POPPY Project ,5 the only support and 
6233advocacy service for women trafficked into the UK sex trade in London, and 
6234prior to a partial law criminalising demand being implemented in England and 
6235Wales in 2010,6 approximately 50 sex buyers contacted the organisation to 
6236report possible trafficking cases. All of the men had paid for sex with the 
6237women and gone through with it, despite their suspicions. Without exception, 
6238the men were hoping to ‘rescue’ the women and move them into their homes. 
6239
6240Our London research7 of 103 sex buyers found that 27% believed that once 
6241they had paid the buyer is entitled to engage in any act he chooses with the 
6242woman he buys. Some 47% expressed the view that women did not always 
6243have certain rights during the prostitution exchange.8 In addition: ‘Despite their 
6244awareness of coercion and trafficking, only five of these 103 men reported 
6245their suspicions to the police. They feared a loss of anonymity, especially 
6246fearing their families’ discovery of their use of prostitutes.’ 
6247
6248Additionally, our research found that 55% of the men interviewed said that 
6249they were aware that ‘most of’ the women they bought were trafficked, pimped 
6250
6251
6252or otherwise coerced’.9 This figure correlates with other research on demand; 
6253for example, a study by Anderson and O’Connell Davidson ,10 both fierce 
6254opponents of criminalising sex buyers , reports that most men who buy sex are 
6255aware of and have witnessed exploitation, coercion and trafficking, but this 
6256does not affect their decision to buy sex. 
6257
6258Prostitution apologists have been known to dismiss research conducted by 
6259abolitionists into sex buyers by claiming it is ‘biased’ and that the researchers 
6260have a ‘hidden agenda’,11 but it is clear from other research that violence and 
6261abuse are often perpetrated by the punters. Even pimps understand this. 
6262
6263During an interview with Mici, a pimp operating under the legal system in 
6264Fethiye, Turkey , I asked about his role and his view on sex buyers : ‘I think 
6265there is a certain attraction/gravitation between the seller and the sold. Some 
6266women do not like anal sex or oral sex. They do not like to engage in acts they 
6267do not like and sometimes customers force them. They are beaten up, their 
6268homes raided by thugs … sometimes two men want to fuck one woman for the 
6269price of one. Violence is always there.’ 
6270
6271There is even Dutch research12 on sex buyers that concludes that the men 
6272are rarely interested in the well-being of the women they buy. Conducted in 
62732013–2014 by the local municipality of Amsterdam and GGD ,13 a public 
6274health service with a focus on HIV/STI prevention and treatment, the survey 
6275looked at sex buyers who access prostitution via the legal window brothels. 
6276The report, entitled ‘In Conversation with the Customer’, focussing on the role 
6277of the sex buyer in tackling abuse, was presented by one of the researchers at a 
6278conference in Den Haag in 2015. 
6279
6280The delegates, largely sympathetic to the introduction of the law to 
6281criminalise demand and critics of legalised prostitution, assumed that the 
6282research was being conducted in order to highlight how criminalising demand 
6283would result in fewer men being willing to report violence and abuse to the 
6284police. 
6285
6286A total of 986 sex buyers and 195 prostituted women completed surveys. 
6287Interviews were also conducted with 11 sex buyers and 11 of the women. Just 
6288over 40% of buyers said they would be willing to report abuse. However, 
6289based on responses to questions put to the men regarding trafficking and 
6290exploitation, and the distinction between ‘free and forced’ prostitution, the 
6291researcher admitted that only 13% of the overall sample would be able to 
6292identify the abuse and spot which women are in danger. 
6293
6294
6295The most frequently mentioned factors that discourage reporting are, 
6296according to the Dutch sex buyers : lack of clear and reliable information about 
6297abuse; insufficient trust in one’s own judgement; stigmatisation by the 
6298government; and distrust regarding how abuse will be dealt with. It is 
6299interesting that even under legalisation, such a high percentage of sex buyers 
6300claim to be ignorant about how to spot a trafficked women, despite the Dutch 
6301government claiming to fund a number of public awareness and education 
6302projects on the topic.14 
6303
6304The research identified five types of ‘clients’ in relation to the role of the 
6305buyer in identifying and reporting abuse. The following, summarised extract is 
6306translated from the Dutch version of the report: 
6307
63081. 
6309The carefree client, who does not feel responsible for abuse. 
63102. 
6311The denier, who feels responsible. 
63123. 
6313Acknowledges that there is a difference between voluntary and forced 
6314prostitution. Acknowledges the problem for a small portion of the market 
6315with respect to sex slavery and under-aged girls, but does not feel 
6316responsible. Denies or trivialises the problem by: blaming the prostitute 
6317by stating that a client is not responsible for her choices . 
63184. 
6319The avoider, who sees his role as staying away. 
63205. 
6321The rescuer, who sees his role as ‘rescuing’ a prostitute. 
63226. 
6323The whistleblower, who sees his role as notifying the authorities. 
6324The Dutch research came to the following conclusions: ‘Prostitutes 
6325describe the majority of their clientele as “good clients”. Nevertheless, most 
6326prostitutes have also had experiences with unpleasant clients. In particular, 
6327these are clients who make a fuss about using a condom, clients who have used 
6328(too much) alcohol and/or drugs, clients who show little respect or who do not 
6329stick to agreements. 
6330
6331‘Prostitutes have little trust in clients as whistleblowers of abuse. They 
6332can’t imagine that clients would actually, sincerely and for the right reasons be 
6333
6334
6335interested in the well-being of prostitutes’. 
6336
6337‘In addition, prostitutes describe their clientele as much less responsible 
6338than the clients themselves describe. According to them, clients are primarily 
6339occupied with their own pleasure and sexual arousal.’ 
6340
6341Clearly, the conclusions would not make those still wedded to the ‘Dutch 
6342Model’ of legalising the sex trade very happy. 
6343
6344During the Q&A session, Majoor , founder of PIC, made it clear that she 
6345was against any encouragement given to buyers to report abuse: ‘There is a 
6346website on how to recognise signs of abuse’, she said.15 ‘I know some [of the 
6347women] are sick and tired of clients who don’t want to think whether we are 
6348forced [we] just want to earn the money and work and that’s all.’ 
6349
6350In response, the researcher asked Majoor if she thought it a ‘bad idea to 
6351have the clients help to find out where the problems are’. She replied: ‘What I 
6352know is that if you criminalise the clients you can totally forget about them 
6353reporting [abuse]. The sex workers’ organisations and alliances did a lot of 
6354research about the effects of criminalising the clients and this is worse when it 
6355comes to safety’. 
6356
6357Sven Axel Mannson,16 Professor of Social Work at Malmo University, 
6358Sweden , was at the event to present his own research on sex buyers . On 
6359hearing Majoor’s comments he said: ‘Personally, having talked to clients over 
6360the years, I am not so convinced that they will be very much help because they 
6361are in their own desires. I have also find that these men are quite 
6362manipulative’. 
6363
6364It is no surprise that the approach to punters that was pioneered in Sweden 
6365has changed hearts and minds, including those of people who were against the 
6366idea of criminalising demand prior to and during the early days of its 
6367implementation. 
6368
6369Simon Hagström is a police inspector who has been based in the 
6370Stockholm Police Prostitution Unit since 2009. I have met Hagström on a 
6371number of occasions and found him to genuinely care for the women caught in 
6372the sex trade. He, along with the vast majority of his colleagues, took some 
6373time after the introduction of the law to criminalise demand came into force in 
63741999 to fully understand its importance in tackling serious crime. 
6375
6376‘What is really important to say is that the Swedish police were strongly 
6377opposing this legislation’, says Hagström. ‘The official standpoint from the 
6378police was, “We do not want this legislation”. The Swedish police wanted to 
6379criminalise the ones selling sex because they thought, along with several 
6380
6381
6382political parties, that the law will not be efficient if you only criminalise one 
6383party.’ 
6384
6385Hagström is pleased to say that he and his colleagues were proved wrong: 
6386‘There was a lot of attention on this law. I used to think, “What is it about this 
6387law that is so controversial?”, because this is not a difficult equation. You have 
6388traffickers and pimps who want to make money. Who has the money? The sex 
6389buyers . If we remove the sex buyers there will be no money for organised 
6390crime’. 
6391
6392
6393What the Survivors Say 
6394
6395The 50 survivors I interviewed for this book, and the scores of other women in 
6396prostitution I have spoken to over the past 20-plus years, all had stories to tell 
6397of violence and abuse from punters. Whether they identified themselves as 
6398‘high-class escorts’ or were prostituted from the street, flats or brothels, the 
6399women share a core experience: not one had escaped violence while dealing 
6400with sex buyers . 
6401
6402I met Nicky in Auckland , New Zealand , in 2016. I asked if the punters 
6403were less violent under decriminalisation: 
6404
6405No. Recently I got bottled – I’ve never had that before in my life – a 
6406bottle was shoved up me and broken. And the next day I was down the 
6407Salvation Army telling them. Then I rang [a friend] and said ‘I’ve been 
6408raped’. I’ll start crying – now a police officer will say ‘How big was the 
6409bottle, what colour was the bottle?’ It doesn’t matter what colour the 
6410bottle was … it was a bottle up me. 
6411
6412I have been threatened, I have been told to get off the street. I used to 
6413always carry a weapon in a long black coat. Then I bought an imitation 
6414gun and it looked the part. Then I thought ‘no’ because I’d get done by the 
6415pigs whether it’s plastic or not. Then I put a screwdriver down my bra 
6416and now it’s just, ‘I don’t give a fuck’. 
6417
6418Sabrinna Valisce , who was prostituted in Australia and New Zealand both 
6419before and after legalisation and decriminalisation, tells me that, contrary to 
6420promises from the pro-prostitution lobby , punter violence increased in New 
6421Zealand after the 2003 change in the law. She says: ‘[In 2003] the police 
6422violence stopped overnight under decriminalisation, so on that level it was 
6423good, but the johns … within the space of a year the johns got more violent and 
6424had greater expectations. They thought they could do whatever they wanted, 
6425thought they had bought your body. I had never had someone say “I paid for 
6426your body and I can do what I want” until decriminalisation’. 
6427
6428Children abused into the sex trade often experience life-changing violence 
6429from punters. The men who buy them might find it particularly difficult to 
6430delude themselves into thinking that a girl or boy standing on a street corner 
6431looking for ‘business’ is making any kind of choice , or that this is something 
6432
6433
6434s/he is happy to do. Of all the women I have spoken to who were prostituted as 
6435children, only one survivor told me that one time a punter, on realising she was 
6436under the age of consent (16 in her country), gave her a reprieve. 
6437
6438Ne’Cole Daniels was 15 and had been turned out onto the streets by a 
6439family friend. She tells me about one incidence of violence that had a profound 
6440effect on her: 
6441
6442A man pulls up in this nice car, he looks like he has money. So I go with 
6443him and when I get to the house there are three more people there. They 
6444were all black [Daniels is African-American]. They took advantage of 
6445me. It didn’t matter that I was like a two-year-old baby. They violated my 
6446whole body. I was sodomised, I was sick and he’s trying to stick his dick 
6447in my mouth. I’m just like, ‘Lord, hurry up. I promise I won’t do it again, 
6448just let them hurry up and get through so I can get the hell out of here’. I 
6449was treated even worse than an animal. 
6450
6451During my visit to Auckland , New Zealand , I met Lisa, out on the streets 
6452looking for a punter. Lisa was sitting next to her Zimmer frame. It turned out 
6453she was in her early 50s and was disabled through a life in prostitution. I asked 
6454if her situation had improved since decriminalisation and she told me ‘no’, 
6455because in her experience the men who buy her feel entitled to do exactly what 
6456they want, in the way they would if purchasing a hamburger. ‘The only thing 
6457that would help me is a way out’, she said. 
6458
6459I use the examples above to illustrate what I have come to understand as 
6460fairly typical behaviour of sex buyers towards women in prostitution. I have 
6461heard countless stories—including from pro-prostitution lobbyists —of gang 
6462rape, beatings and stabbings, under legalisation/decriminalisation and every 
6463other legal system17. The men themselves admit to shocking attitudes towards 
6464the women they buy, and to having sex with distressed, terrified women. Some 
6465openly admit to being violent. 
6466
6467So why is there so much support for the punter from the liberal left? How 
6468is it that even the likes of Amnesty International appears to bend over 
6469backwards to protect his ‘human rights’ and to portray him as a man with needs 
6470he deserves to have met? Whenever I am discussing this issue with decent folk 
6471who should know better, they raise the issue of the disabled punter. ‘What 
6472about those men who can’t get a date the “regular way”?’ they ask. 
6473
6474
6475The Disabled Punter 
6476
6477As the various initiatives to curb demand for commercial sex have forced 
6478attention on the purchaser, the pro-sex-work lobby has acquired a new hero. 
6479The ‘disabled client’ (note the gender neutral description) is used to garner 
6480support, sympathy and to promote a view of the sex buyer as a nice, deserving 
6481individual. It is interesting to explore the type of disability these men are 
6482imagined to have by those whose sympathy is being sought. It is notable that the 
6483injured veteran and tragic young man figures keep recurring as examples— 
6484always heroic. 
6485
6486To hear the way many apologists for the sex trade describe disabled sex 
6487buyers , one could easily get the impression that selling sex to disabled people 
6488is an altruistic service, akin to meals on wheels. But the focus on this largely 
6489mythical buyer obscures both the majority of ‘undeserving’ punters and the 
6490harms done to women. 
6491
6492In spring 2015, in a stiflingly hot TV studio in Manchester, England, I am 
6493sitting next to Laura Lee , who describes herself as a ‘part-time call girl’ and 
6494‘sex workers’ rights activist’. We are waiting to pre-record an episode of 
6495O’Brien, a national UK TV programme in which we will debate the topic 
6496‘Should we decriminalise prostitution?’ 
6497
6498As the warm-up act tries to put life into the studio audience, I look around 
6499to see who, aside from Lee and a sex trade survivor I had met previously, is 
6500fitted with a microphone. There are a couple of heavily made-up women 
6501carrying whips and wearing fetish gear, and, in the front row, a middle-aged 
6502woman sitting next to a young, severely disabled man in a wheelchair. I could 
6503have written the script for what happens next. 
6504
6505Lee, who is so hostile to the abolitionist law she is mounting a legal 
6506challenge against the Nordic model introduced by the Northern Irish 
6507government in 2015 (as discussed in Chap. 8), speaks about how prostitution is 
6508a choice for most of the women involved. I speak of the failure of legalised 
6509and fully decriminalised regimes, and why I support the abolitionist law. The 
6510survivor highlights the harms caused to the women who are bought and sold. 
6511
6512The cameras then switches around and focuses on the woman and the young 
6513man in the wheelchair. Her name is Veronica. She explains that John is her son, 
6514and that his back was broken in a car accident when he was five. As John 
6515approached puberty, Veronica began to worry about how he would meet his 
6516
6517
6518sexual needs. 
6519
6520‘Should we have brothels on the high street?’ asks host James O’Brien. 
6521‘We should have brothels everywhere’, replies Veronica, before describing 
6522how she had trawled the Internet looking for help with getting her son laid, 
6523speaking to ‘sex workers, escorts, prostitutes, anyone who knew about this’. 
6524Eventually, having been told about the massive sex trade in Las Vegas , 
6525Veronica took the aptly named John to lose his virginity with several 
6526prostituted women. ‘He had a lovely time’, she says, with a cheeky twinkle in 
6527her eye. Laughter and clapping erupt from the audience. But there is more to 
6528come. 
6529
6530‘Didn’t you buy him a brothel?’ asks O’Brien. ‘So John, your mum bought 
6531you a brothel?’ 
6532
6533‘Yes’, John gloats, ‘and I lived in the basement for three years. I learned 
6534about all the different aspects of prostitution, and the dodgy side and the seedy 
6535side of it. But every man has got a different fantasy’. 
6536
6537‘He wasn’t allowed to partake with any of the girls in our brothel’, 
6538interrupts Veronica, ‘because I didn’t want a situation where we could incur 
6539exploitation. I didn’t want him to be one of these guys—“Oh, I’ve got a brothel 
6540so I’ve got rights to these women”.’ The peels of laughter coming from the 
6541audience—including from a clapping, animated Lee—mask the sounds of 
6542disgust and protest coming from the sex trade survivor. 
6543
6544This scene dramatised one of the most commonly used arguments against 
6545criminalising sex buyers . Pro-prostitution lobbyists claim that the Nordic 
6546model would, in effect, be criminalising ‘disabled people’. The argument 
6547holds that disabled people have a right to access sex, with the implied premise 
6548that their disability somehow impairs their ability to form intimate 
6549relationships. This claim is one of the clearest examples of how the sex buyers’ 
6550so-called ‘human rights’ have been placed above those of the prostituted 
6551woman. 
6552
6553The ‘sex workers’ rights’ lobby argues that when disabled sex buyers are 
6554denied recourse to prostitution, they are being denied their dignity, liberty and 
6555the right to know physical pleasure and true love. There is even a not-for-profit 
6556organisation called Touching Base in Australia , which exists to ‘foster 
6557connections between people with disabilities and sex workers, with a focus on 
6558access, discrimination, human rights, and legal issues, and the attitudinal 
6559barriers that these two marginalised communities face’. Underneath the liberal 
6560language, this is pandering presented as a social service. 
6561
6562
6563To make this argument more palatable, the ‘sex workers’ rights ’ lobby also 
6564claims that feminist abolitionists are denying the rights of sex workers to 
6565consent to prostitution and to practise their own agency . 
6566
6567
6568Persuasive Mythology 
6569
6570The myth of the sympathetic disabled punter has even been accepted by 
6571Amnesty International (AI) . In its 2014 draft policy document (leaked to me by 
6572an AI insider, and which I subsequently published in a national newspaper18), 
6573AI also takes the line that disabled men have a right to access sex via 
6574prostitution: ‘For some—in particular persons with mobility or sensory 
6575disabilities or those with psycho-social disabilities that hamper social 
6576interactions—sex workers are persons with whom they feel safe enough to 
6577have a physical relationship or to express their sexuality. Some develop a 
6578stronger sense of self in their relationships with sex workers, improving their 
6579life enjoyment and dignity’. 
6580
6581The suggestion that disabled people are considered so unattractive that they 
6582have to purchase sexual access to another human body is offensive enough in 
6583itself. Disability rights activists have long campaigned for better access to the 
6584venues where they might meet sexual partners, as well as a less prejudicial and 
6585conventional view of beauty. With the sanitisation of the sex trade by the ‘sex 
6586workers’ rights ’ lobby and their academic enablers, terms such as ‘agency ’ 
6587and ‘empowerment’ are increasingly applied to those selling sex as well as 
6588purchasing, particularly if the buyer is associated with a marginalised 
6589community. 
6590
6591Critics of the abolitionist law have found the argument about disabled men 
6592being denied sexual pleasure very useful in their campaign. However, it is less 
6593helpful to disabled people. Not only does it reinforce the problematic belief 
6594that anyone who does not fit the conventional standards of beauty and 
6595desirability is unable to access consensual sex and therefore needs to pay for 
6596it, it further suggests that disabled people’s carers are responsible for ensuring 
6597their clients’ sexual satisfaction. This is already the case in Denmark, where 
6598prostitution was legalised in 1999, and there is now an expectation that carers 
6599working with physically disabled couples should facilitate sex between them if 
6600asked—for example, the carer may be expected to insert the penis of one into 
6601an orifice of the other. 
6602
6603In the UK, a number of individuals and organisations campaigning for full 
6604decriminalisation of the sex trade use the example of disabled men and sexual 
6605access to garner support. In 2000, the pornographer Tuppy Owens set up the 
6606TLC Trust,19 a website that looks very much to me as though it is aimed at 
6607
6608
6609disabled men looking for prostitution services. The TLC website has this to 
6610say about the role of carers: ‘Health and social care professionals are often 
6611needed to support their disabled clients find a sexual service and prepare for 
6612each session. We hear dreadful stories of disabled clients being denied such 
6613support, and one sex worker reported that her client’s care team refused to 
6614wash him after a session! Please note: spunk is not disgusting or dangerous, in 
6615fact it is quite nutritious!’ 
6616
6617Advice to disabled sex buyers on the site includes: ‘Question: My care 
6618staff refuse to wash me after seeing a sex worker. Answer: Threaten to report 
6619them unless they wash you respectfully’. On the fees charged by the escort 
6620services advertised on the TLC website, it has this to say: ‘Many disabled 
6621people say you cannot afford the fees that sex workers charge. Then we find 
6622out you have been on skiing holidays, own an expensive hi-fi, or smoke 20 fags 
6623a day. Where are your priorities? Remember, sex keeps you fit, mentally and 
6624physically.’ With the mention of ‘skiing holidays’, it is clear that the escort 
6625services advertised by TLC are not only reaching out to men with significant 
6626mobility disabilities. 
6627
6628Its key message to disabled men about the sex trade is this: ‘Whatever you 
6629do, don’t feel bad about using sex workers—don’t fall for the fundamentalist 
6630feminist propaganda that all sex work is violence to women. For a start, many 
6631sex workers are men, and most sex workers chose their career because it suits 
6632them, and enjoy their work’. 
6633
6634Owens is also the chair of the Sexual Freedom Coalition (SFC) . On its 
6635website, it states: ‘We actively challenge the Home Office, governments, 
6636religion, police and press for the sexual freedom of all consenting adults. It 
6637seemed important to focus on these people who are, in fact, doing great work 
6638in bringing happiness, inspiration and a sexual education to many people who 
6639need and enjoy them, including disabled people’. 
6640
6641The TLC Trust is demanding one wheelchair-accessible brothel in every 
6642city ‘to meet the demand’, and that hospice wards should have provision for 
6643visiting sex workers. TLC even uses the example of wounded servicemen to 
6644call for an ‘NHS’ approach to the sex trade. ‘It would be a sad injustice’, its 
6645website reads, ‘if service personnel such as soldiers badly wounded in Iraq 
6646and Afghanistan were banned from the help they receive from sex workers’. 
6647
6648Bärbel Ahlborn , coordinator at Kassandra , in Nuremberg, Germany , 
6649considers the provision of sexual services to disabled men partly as a health 
6650issue. ‘Many of the disabled and older people are not able to get into contact 
6651
6652
6653with sex workers’, she says. ‘If they are asking the nurses in the homes and tell 
6654them they want to find someone offering that [then] the nurses are feeling better 
6655with providing contact with a person who knows how to handle them.’ 
6656
6657The idea that nurses are somehow responsible for assisting disabled 
6658patients to access prostitution is beyond comprehension. The majority of 
6659nurses and carers for the elderly and disabled are female. The vast majority of 
6660disabled people wishing to access prostitution services are male. Despite the 
6661pro-prostitution lobby , supported by a number of academics, insisting that 
6662prostitution is not about gender inequality, or violence against women and 
6663girls, the overwhelming majority of prostitution transactions are male on 
6664female. 
6665
6666In 2005 I debated decriminalisation of the sex trade with a senior member 
6667of the medical profession. Much of the healthcare profession appears to have 
6668been influenced by pressure groups calling for the blanket decriminalisation of 
6669the sex trade. For example, as a result of lobbying by the English Collective of 
6670Prostitutes , the nurses’ union voted overwhelmingly to decriminalise all 
6671aspects of the sex trade at its annual conference in Harrogate in 1995, with the 
6672reasoning that this would make prostituted women more likely to come 
6673forward for healthcare. 
6674
6675My opponent was Jean, a middle-aged woman who considered nursing her 
6676vocation in life. I was surprised that Jean soon shifted her argument about 
6677women’s access to healthcare onto the poor disabled men who can’t get a date. 
6678Jean gave a heart-wrenching description of a returning war veteran named Jeff, 
6679whose legs were blown off and spine permanently damaged in a roadside 
6680blast. I expressed surprise that he had a fully functioning penis in spite of such 
6681injuries and was told: ‘Perhaps he just wants a human touch’. 
6682
6683This notion that ‘love’ as well as sex is for sale is one that is becoming 
6684increasingly popular among the postmodernist ‘queer’-identifying academics. 
6685In his review of the book Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia : Professional 
6686Girlfriends and Transactional Relationships, Nick Mai , Professor of 
6687Sociology at Kingston University, argues that: ‘whereas ‘sex-for-cash’ can be 
6688seen as a practice close to prostitution, ‘sex-for-fun’, ‘sex-for-love’ and the 
6689‘sweetheart relationship’ are discursively framed practices distinguishing 
6690different sexual, intimate and economic transactions through which 
6691professional girlfriends experiment with new individualised and hedonistic 
6692ways of ‘being themselves’—sexually, socially and economically’. 
6693
6694But disabled people themselves don’t necessarily agree that they are in 
6695
6696
6697need of prostitution. I discovered the work of UK-based disabled feminist 
6698writer Philippa Willitts after reading her article ‘Nobody’s Entitled to Sex, 
6699Including Disabled People’ on the blog Feminist Current.20 Over Skype, 
6700Willitts and I discuss the argument that criminalising the purchase of sex will 
6701lead to disabled men being unfairly punished. 
6702
6703She tells me that as both a feminist and a disabled person she was keen to 
6704ensure she made the point about the isolation and prejudice faced by many 
6705disabled people on the dating scene, while critiquing the rights of men to pay 
6706for sex. ‘I wanted to challenge this assumption that [disabled people] couldn’t 
6707have sex without paying for it, and that disabled men doing so was somehow 
6708inevitable’, she says. ‘I was sticking up for disabled people on the one hand, 
6709and sticking up for women on the other hand, so didn’t feel like I was 
6710compromising either of those identities.’ 
6711
6712The rights of disabled men to buy sex clearly supersedes those of not only 
6713the prostituted women (or ‘carers’) expected to service him, but also that of 
6714disabled women campaigning to end the dual oppression of being disabled and 
6715female in a sexist, ableist society. For Willitts , challenging the misogynistic 
6716sex trade in no way contradicts her efforts in highlighting the social exclusion 
6717faced by many disabled people, which, in turn, makes it difficult to meet sexual 
6718partners. 
6719
6720She says: ‘A number of men I did not know, but who somehow came across 
6721the article, emailed me and said they were really glad to have someone 
6722represent the fact that they weren’t needy poor people with no friends or 
6723contacts, with no life’. 
6724
6725Why has the argument that disabled men routinely pay for sex become such 
6726a truism, I ask. ‘I wonder if it’s something about the fact that as disabled 
6727people we have to pay people to do things for us’, says Willitts . ‘If there’s 
6728something about the familiarity with needing assistance that removes a 
6729barrier?’ 
6730
6731A number of academics in the UK and elsewhere have expressed concern 
6732about the abolitionist model impacting on the ‘human rights’ of disabled men. 
6733In a paper published in the journal Disability and Society , the Canadian 
6734authors argue that so-called ‘sex work’ is an important avenue through which 
6735disabled people can explore sexual fulfilment, and that the criminalisation of 
6736paying for sex would adversely affect disabled people and their right to access 
6737sexual pleasure. Again, the use of gender-neutral language here is interesting. 
6738They write: ‘Research has shown that the criminalisation of clients is a barrier 
6739
6740
6741to disabled peoples’ erotic lives because the sex trade can provide a valuable 
6742avenue for sexual fulfilment’.21 
6743
6744Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon , Reader in Psychology and Social Policy at 
6745the London School of Economics, also supports the idea that prostitution 
6746services should be available on the NHS. In an interview with The Times,22 
6747she said: ‘Given that sex therapy is available on the NHS for men with penile 
6748dysfunction, for example, we could make a good case for saying that it should 
6749be provided. At the very least the health service should explore all options 
6750available to help a patient in anguish. What about the young war veteran who 
6751has fought for his country and now has no legs, difficulty in finding a partner 
6752and can’t afford a prostitute?’ At least Brooks-Gordon makes no pretence that 
6753there would be a demand for such ‘services’ from disabled women. 
6754
6755During a 2012 debate at Cambridge University entitled ‘This House Would 
6756Decriminalise Prostitution’,23 Brooks-Gordon spoke in gushing terms of the 
6757fondness prostituted women have for their disabled ‘clients’. She said: ‘One 
6758sex worker said: “This week I saw a client with spinal bifida—I had to lift 
6759him from his wheelchair, position him, undress him, and then re dress him [and 
6760put him] back in the wheelchair. I was lucky he only weighed five stone. It’s 
6761one of the reasons why more than one lady on the premises can be a good 
6762idea.” Another said: “I saw a Falklands hero who was injured [and had] no 
6763legs. [He] greeted me in his wheelchair, was an absolute gentleman. Sex [was] 
6764not possible for him [but he] derived pleasure from skin to skin [contact]”’. 
6765
6766Gail (not her real name), a PhD candidate researching her thesis on an 
6767aspect of the sex trade, spoke to me about her views on the ‘rights’ of disabled 
6768men who pay for sex, a topic on which she had been published. Gail supports 
6769the theory that the disabled punter has been deliberately chosen as a 
6770sympathetic figure, and that there is a stifling conformity and fear of criticism 
6771within pro-prostitution academia . 
6772
6773Going by the arguments in her papers, there is no doubt that Gail is 
6774sympathetic to the rights of disabled men paying for sex. I ask her why she 
6775thinks those arguing most vociferously for full decriminalisation of the sex 
6776trade have recently used the example of disabled men’s rights to buy sex. 
6777‘There’s a lot of violence from people who buy sex, and I agree that’s a 
6778massive problem’, Gail tells me, sitting outside a cafe in King’s Cross, 
6779London. ‘There’s not enough policing and protection, and working conditions 
6780are often really unsafe. [The argument that disabled men are also sex buyers ] 
6781is making the point that not all people who buy sex necessarily are evil people. 
6782
6783
6784Disabled men are a small group of all people who buy sex.’ 
6785
6786Don Kulick is a Swedish academic, currently Professor at Uppsala 
6787University, Sweden , and an influential voice against the Nordic model . In 
67882003 he published a paper entitled ‘Sex in the New Europe: The 
6789Criminalisation of Clients and Swedish Fear of Penetration’,24 in which he 
6790described buying sex as ‘a temporary sexual relationship’ and argued that the 
6791law criminalising the purchase of sex is a response to Sweden’s entry into the 
6792European Union. ‘For a variety of reasons, anxiety about Sweden’s position in 
6793the EU is articulated through anxiety about prostitution.’ 
6794
6795Kulick co-authored Loneliness and Its Opposite: Sex, Disability, and the 
6796Ethics of Engagement with JensRydström, and has compared the Swedish law 
6797against sex buyers to previous criminalisation of same-sex encounters, and 
6798explains both as coming from a ‘fear of penetration’. Loneliness and Its 
6799Opposite is a comparative study of Denmark and Sweden and, according to the 
6800cover blurb, the differing ways in which disabled people’s sexuality and 
6801sexual desire are viewed and enabled. In fact, it is almost 300 pages of 
6802propaganda against the criminalisation of sex buyers , and in support of ‘sexual 
6803surrogacy’, ‘sexual assistance’, or straightforward prostitution services for 
6804disabled men. It is rarely mentioned that the vast majority of carers are female. 
6805
6806But the central thesis is, in fact, untrue. Where the two countries differ is 
6807not on respecting and upholding the human rights of disabled people, but on 
6808attitudes to and laws curtailing sex buyers. Sweden criminalises the purchase 
6809of sex, whereas Denmark does not. 
6810
6811In Loneliness and Its Opposite, the authors suggest that sexual pleasure 
6812should be facilitated by ‘people who work with and care for [disabled 
6813people]’, which means anyone who is tasked with general caring duties, such 
6814as cooking and shopping. Should a carer therefore not only provide personal 
6815care such as assisting the client with using the toilet or washing intimate parts 
6816of the body, but also, if we are sympathetic with the argument that disabled 
6817men have a right to sexual release, facilitate orgasm? 
6818
6819Kulick and Rydström’s data gathering is based on classic anthropological 
6820fieldwork, or ‘participant observation’. Rydström spent one month living in 
6821three separate group homes for disabled people in Denmark. In Sweden no 
6822such fieldwork took place. Why? According to the authors, there was no point: 
6823‘Perhaps there is a group home, somewhere in Sweden, that has affirmative 
6824practices that facilitate the sexual lives of people with disabilities. But if such 
6825a place exists, it is a well guarded secret, unknown to or undisclosed by any of 
6826
6827
6828the professionals who work with and write about sex and disability and 
6829unknown to any of the Swedes with disabilities to whom we spoke’. 
6830
6831This leap of logic is staggering. It is clear the authors are only looking for 
6832very specific ‘affirmative practices’ regarding the facilitation of sexual 
6833pleasure, such as assistance to procure prostitution services. It might have been 
6834useful to spend time in the group homes in Sweden to ask the caring staff 
6835whether they would make a distinction between assisting someone to urinate or 
6836defecate, and assisting them to ejaculate. 
6837
6838Chapter 1 oftheir bookopens withanexample froma ‘sexeducator’ 
6839named Axel Branting. Some years ago, a paralysed woman in her 30s came to 
6840Branting for advice. The woman told Branting that she had a problem: every 
6841time her male carers lifted her out of her wheelchair, she had an orgasm. 
6842‘What’s the problem?’ asked Branting. Well, said the woman, the male carers 
6843had clearly noticed her sexual arousal and, whenever possible, handed the task 
6844of lifting her to the female carers. Feeling depressed and humiliated, the 
6845woman had no idea how to raise the issue with the carers. 
6846
6847‘And so he offered her the only piece of counsel he could think of. Turning 
6848centuries of advice prescribed to sexually unfulfilled women on its head, 
6849Branting told her that the next time one of the male assistants lifted her, “Close 
6850your eyes and pretend like you’re not having an orgasm”.’25 
6851
6852Branting had assumed the male carers were ‘afraid’ that they might be 
6853leaving themselves ‘open to accusations of abuse’. The idea that the carers did 
6854not want to be part of a one-sided sexual tryst with a client did not occur to 
6855him. The notion that this woman was entitled to ‘sexual fulfilment’ from her 
6856carers is staggering. Clearly painting her as some type of victim, the 
6857conclusion of Kulick and Rydström is that, despite the men being obviously 
6858unwilling and therefore most definitely not consenting, the disabled woman 
6859should take whatever sexual pleasure she could find, while hiding the 
6860evidence. 
6861
6862The example of a disabled woman becoming aroused and desiring ‘sexual 
6863assistance’ from male carers belies the far more common scenario, which is of 
6864course that of disabled men and female carers. The authors, whether 
6865intentionally or otherwise, have used a sanitised version to make this point. 
6866Had they provided a scenario of a disabled man being assisted by female 
6867carers, they would have had to deal with the messy reality of sexual 
6868harassment and spurting ejaculate. 
6869
6870The authors also cite the academic Dr Michelle McCarthy , author of 
6871
6872
6873Sexuality and Women with Learning Disabilities. McCarthy’s study is seen as 
6874somewhat irrelevant in terms of the arguments made in Loneliness and Its 
6875Opposite. 
6876
6877‘Sexuality and Women with Learning Disabilities is concerned primarily 
6878with sexual abuse’, write Kulick and Rydström. ‘This focus seems to be partly 
6879because of McCarthy’s particular interests and the manner in which she 
6880recruited her respondents [all of the women she interviewed had been referred 
6881to her by a group that provided sex education for adults with intellectual 
6882impairments] and partly because McCarthy says that the women she 
6883interviewed did not have very positive views of sexuality. Most of them had 
6884been victims of sexual abuse.’ 
6885
6886I asked McCarthy her views on why her study had been deemed irrelevant 
6887by Kulick and Rydström. ‘It’s true to say that all of the people came through a 
6888sex education project but the majority of women who were referred for sex 
6889education had been sexually abused. Isn’t that interesting?’ she says. ‘It could 
6890have been a sample of women who just needed sex education or advice on 
6891contraception or how to seek more sexual pleasure or whatever. As it turned 
6892out the majority had been sexually abused. I didn’t seek them out, that’s how 
6893they came.’ 
6894
6895McCarthy is clear that when sex trade apologists speak of providing 
6896‘sexual services’ for disabled people, it is actually about male privilege: ‘I 
6897have never heard of male sexual surrogates being provided to women with 
6898learning disabilities. Most of the men who work in the sex trade service other 
6899men. Where are they going to find legions of men to work with women with 
6900learning disabilities?’ 
6901
6902One of the ‘tips for sex workers’ from the Sexual Freedom Coalition shows 
6903very clearly the way that many simply assume that even the most severely 
6904disabled men will automatically want and need sex: ‘Where consent cannot be 
6905expressed because of severe disability, assumptions should not be made that 
6906sexual pleasure is not required’. This is genuinely a horrifying comment that 
6907raises the prospect of non-communicative disabled people being subjected to 
6908unwanted sexual contact. 
6909
6910Wilitts is appalled at the way that able-bodied sex trade supporters are 
6911using the example of disabled men in order to discredit the abolitionist laws. 
6912But she is also concerned that a number of disabled men have internalised the 
6913‘human rights’ rhetoric about sex. ‘Nobody “needs” sex’, says Willitts . ‘And 
6914rather than disabled men campaigning for prostituted women to service them, 
6915
6916
6917they should be focusing their attention on making spaces—such as clubs where 
6918we may meet sexual partners—more accessible. I think the disabled 
6919community needs to look at whether it’s ignoring women’s rights.’ 
6920
6921There are a number of other rationalisations put forward by those 
6922defending the right of men to pay for sex. One is that men ‘need’ more sex than 
6923do women, and therefore have no ‘choice ’ but to access it via prostitution. 
6924This is akin to the regressive, outdated view, circa 1950, that men who do not 
6925get enough sex are compelled to rape. As one sex buyer said to me in the 2009 
6926London study: ‘Prostitution is a last resort to unfulfilled sexual desires. Rape 
6927would be less safe, or if you’re forced to hurt someone or if you’re so 
6928frustrated you jack off all day’.26 
6929
6930Dr Catherine Hakim is a sociologist currently based at the London-based 
6931Institute for the Study of Civil Society, a free market research group. Hakim 
6932believes that prostitution is inevitable because of what she has termed the 
6933‘male sex deficit’. Hakim’s report ‘Supply and Desire: Sexuality and the sex 
6934trade in the twenty-first Century’ was handily published the day before AI 
6935made public its decision to support a policy of blanket decriminalisation of the 
6936sex trade in August 2015. Hakim, who has relied on secondary research and 
6937does not appear to have actually interviewed any women in the sex trade, 
6938argues that men want more sex than women and therefore it is inevitable that 
6939men will pay for sex. 
6940
6941I have debated with Hakim on the topic of blanket decriminalisation. At 
6942one event at the University of York, in 2015, I and Broadfoot debated with Lee 
6943and Hakim . The motion was ‘This house believes decriminalising prostitution 
6944would be a disaster’. Duringthe debate, whicheveryone exceptHakimagreed 
6945could be recorded, Hakim put forward her theory that prostitution will always 
6946exist because women want sex with their male partners significantly less than 
6947men do with their female partners. I cannot quote her directly here as I was 
6948unable to take notes, but this quotation from Hakim’s paper below should give 
6949a fair impression of her thesis: 
6950
6951Our gender-neutral theory of prostitution is that the ubiquity of sex 
6952
6953workers, both male and female, even in countries where commercial sex 
6954
6955is banned, and the high earnings of sex workers, both male and female, 
6956
6957are explained first and foremost by the male sexual deficit which 
6958
6959produces high male demand and relatively low female supply of sexual 
6960
6961entertainments, both professional and amateur, within and outside 
6962
6963
6964marriage. Kontula (2009) concluded that overall, male sexual desire is 
6965manifested at least twice as often as female desire, and men would like to 
6966have sex twice as often as women. This is a huge gap between supply and 
6967demand, and it is exacerbated by the fact that men generally prefer to have 
6968sex with young and attractive women (or men).27 
6969
6970I asked Hakim whether, if men had to pay women who did not want sex in 
6971order to have sex with them, was that not rape? Hakim looked blank and Lee 
6972declined to support her thesis. By arguing that women in relationships with 
6973men do not desire sex to the same degree as their male counterparts, Hakim is 
6974framing the sex of prostitution these men seek as a girlfriend substitute. 
6975
6976
6977The Protector of the Punter 
6978
6979A number of women who define themselves as feminist are against the law 
6980criminalisingdemand, manyofwhomare partofthe ‘queer’community. The 
6981‘queer’approachis examined indetail inChap. 10, butImentionithere 
6982because some of those academics and activists who claim to speak on behalf 
6983of disabled punters use this argument. For example, Siouxsie Q , a 
6984pornographic actor and ‘sex workers’ rights ’ activist based in San Francisco 
6985in the USA. I met Q at the Porn Awards in Los Angeles in 2015 and we later 
6986connected by Skype. 
6987
6988I asked Q her view on the Nordic model . ‘I don’t believe that clients are 
6989the issue’, she says. ‘It is founded completely in moral prejudice and a panic 
6990about the idiom of selling sex in any capacity. We do a job and we have 
6991clients. Do people who are hairdressers have slimy annoying clients who don’t 
6992tip sometimes? Absolutely. Does that happen in the sex trade? Sure. But does 
6993criminalising the client help? Absolutely not. That puts a contentious 
6994relationship between client and sex worker that compromises their safety, their 
6995viability, their money.’ 
6996
6997A number of self-identified feminists profess support for the sex buyer, 
6998including a number of female academics, as we will see in Chap. 9. Why is 
6999this? In her brilliant article, ‘The modern John got himself a queer nanny’ 
7000posted on the blog Feminist Current,28 Swedish journalist and feminist 
7001abolitionist Kajsa Ekis Ekman explains the phenomenon as follows: 
7002
7003The tacit agreement between the John and the pro-prostitution female 
7004academic is that she will do anything to defend his acts, while ensuring 
7005that he stays in the shadows. She will speak incessantly about prostitution, 
7006but never mention him. Her task is to make sure prostitution seems like an 
7007all-female affair. The queer academic will use the prostituted woman as a 
7008shield, blocking the John from the limelight. She will use the prostituted 
7009woman any way she can – analysing her, re-and deconstructing her, 
7010holding her up as a role model, and using her as a microphone (i.e. a 
7011career booster), thereby positioning her as ‘good’ vs the ‘evil’ feminist. 
7012
7013
7014The Keith Vaz Scandal 
7015
7016In the UK, a scandal of epic proportion hit the Home Affairs Select Committee, 
7017which overseas the justice system, and had recently been recommending law 
7018and policy on prostitution. In the Autumn of 2016, the chair of the Committee, 
7019Keith Vaz MP , was secretly filmed by a young Romanian man whom Vaz had 
7020paid for sex. During the exchange, Vaz was heard arranging for another 
7021prostituted young man to be brought to him, and pondering on who was going to 
7022‘break him in’ and ‘fuck him first’. 
7023
7024Soon after the Vaz scandal erupted, disgraced member of parliament Simon 
7025Danczuk leapt to defend his colleague, tweeting his support for Vaz. In 2015, 
7026Danczuk himself had exchanged ‘sexually explicit’ text messages with a 17year-
7027old female job applicant. Police investigated the matter (under the Sexual 
7028Offences Act 2003, the age of consent is 18 in circumstances where the 
7029accused is in a position of trust) and decided that no offence had been 
7030committed. There was strong criticism of Danczuk by many of his constituents 
7031in Rochdale , a town in the North of England, because he was best known for 
7032his campaigning work on historical child sex abuse.29 
7033
7034When the story about Vaz appeared in the tabloids, a number of abolitionist 
7035campaigners argued that the interim report that more-or-less recommends full 
7036decriminalisation of the sex trade should be declared null and void, whereas 
7037campaigners for sex trade decriminalisation conversely argued that the report 
7038should stand. 30 
7039
7040
7041The Research 
7042
7043The research, headed by Melissa Farley in six countries and based on 
7044interviews with over 700 sex buyers 31 showed very clearly that many of the 
7045men are ambiguous about paying for sex. The quotes below highlight some of 
7046the self-disgust and shame that the men grapple with: 
7047
7048
7049‘I wouldn’t encourage prostitution—it’s someone’s mother or daughter. 
7050It’s an empty experience. It sounds enjoyable at the beginning but it’s just 
7051horrible, degrading.’ 
7052‘I don’t get pleasure from other people’s suffering. I struggle with it but I 
7053can’t deny my own pleasures. In Cambodia I knocked back a lot of 
7054children, it makes it hard to sleep at night. But I don’t see the point in 
7055making a moral stance.’ 
7056‘Most of the men who go see it as a business transaction and don’t see the 
7057girl as a woman. This could impact on how a man sees women in 
7058general.’ 
7059The same research also shows that many of these punters could easily be 
7060deterred. As one punter told me, when I interviewed him for the London study: 
7061‘Deterrents would only work if enforced. Any negative would make you 
7062reconsider. The law’s not enforced now, but if any negative thing happened as 
7063a consequence it would deter me.’ 
7064
7065When it comes to prostitution and the sex trade in general, the law is often 
7066an ass. Unless the human rights approach of criminalising the punters is 
7067adopted, most countries will have laws under which the pimps, punters and 
7068brothel owners walk free while those desperate enough to be selling sex are 
7069punished. But the so-called ‘human rights’ approach of today, as we will see in 
7070this next chapter, is to support the notion that to name prostitution as abuse 
7071contravenes the human rights of the women who wish to sell sex. 
7072
7073Footnotes 
7074
70751 
7076https://www.bookdepository.com/Permanent-Opposition-Notes-from-Feminist-Underground-Rae-Story/ 
70779781326771058 Accessed 28th August 2017. 
7078
7079
70802 
7081Farley, M.; Bindel, J.; Golding, J. (2009, Dec.) Men who buy sex: Who they buy and what they know. 
7082A research study of 103 men who describe their use of trafficked and non-trafficked women in 
7083prostitution, and their awareness of coercion and violence. Eaves, London & Prostitution Research 
7084& Education, San Francisco. 
7085
70863 
7087Bindel, J. (2010, Jan 15.) Why men use prostitutes. In The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from 
7088https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/jan/15/why-men-use-prostitutes. 
7089
70904 
7091Raymond, J. (2014.) Not a choice, not a job: Exposing the myths about prostitution and the global 
7092sex trade. London: Potomac. p. 56. 
7093
70945 
7095Eaves’ POPPY Project. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://www.eavesforwomen.org.uk/about-eaves/ 
7096our-projects/the-poppy-project/. 
7097
70986 
7099The Policing and Crime Act 2009, s.14 amended the Sexual Offences Act 2003 by adding a new s.53. 
7100The new section makes it an offence in England and Wales to pay for the services of a prostitute who 
7101has been coerced into providing sexual services; the section was implemented from 1 April 2010. 
7102
71037 
7104Farley, M.; Bindel, J.; Golding, J. (2009, Dec.) Men who buy sex: Who they buy and what they know. 
7105A research study of 103 men who describe their use of trafficked and non-trafficked women in 
7106prostitution, and their awareness of coercion and violence. Eaves, London & Prostitution Research 
7107& Education, San Francisco. 
7108
71098 
7110Farley, M.; Bindel, J.; Golding, J. (2009, Dec.) Men who buy sex: Who they buy and what they know. 
7111A research study of 103 men who describe their use of trafficked and non-trafficked women in 
7112prostitution, and their awareness of coercion and violence. Eaves, London & Prostitution Research 
7113& Education, San Francisco. p. 18. 
7114
71159 
7116Farley, M.; Bindel, J.; Golding, J. (2009, Dec.) Men who buy sex: Who they buy and what they know. 
7117A research study of 103 men who describe their use of trafficked and non-trafficked women in 
7118prostitution, and their awareness of coercion and violence. Eaves, London & Prostitution Research 
7119
7120
7121& Education, San Francisco. p. 22. 
7122
712310 Anderson, B.; O’Connell Davidson, J. (2003). Is trafficking in human beings demand driven? A 
7124multi-country pilot study. Geneva: International Organisation for Migration. 
7125
712611 Harlot’s Parlour. (2010, Jan 16.) Response to Bindel-Farley-Golding research report published 
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712816/response-to-bindel-farley-golding-research-report-published-today/. 
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713012 https://www.mensenhandelweb.nl/document/rapport-ggd-amsterdam-gesprek-met-de-klant Accessed 
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7132
713313 GGD Amsterdam. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://www.ggd.amsterdam.nl/. 
7134
713514 Anon. Netherlands – 3. Implementation of anti-trafficking policy. In European Commission: 
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7138
713915 I was audio recording the event with the permission of the organisers. 
7140
714116 Professor Sven Månsson. Malmö University. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://forskning.mah.se/en/ 
7142id/hssvma. 
7143
714417 As we saw in Chapter 1 November 12, 2009 Thursday, Edition 1; National Edition. ‘Is sex for the 
7145disabled the last taboo?’ Helen Croydon. 
7146
714718 Bindel, J. (2014, Jan 24.) Julie Bindel: An abject inversion of its own principles. In Daily Mail. 
7148Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544983/JULIE-BINDEL-Anabject-
7149inversion-principles.html. 
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7151
715219 TLC Trust: For Disabled Men and Women to Find Responsible Sexual Services. Retrieved 15 June 
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715520 Willitts, P. (2014, Apr 23.) Nobody’s entitled to sex, including disabled people. In Feminist Current. 
7156Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://www.feministcurrent.com/2014/04/23/nobodys-entitled-to-sexincluding-
7157disabled-people/. 
7158
715921 Fritsch, K.; Heynen, R.; Ross, A.; van der Meulen, E. (2016) Disability and sex work: D eveloping 
7160affinities through decriminalization. In Disability & Society. 31:1. 84–99. 
7161To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2016.1139488. 
7162
716322 Brooks-Gordon, B. (2009, Nov 12.) In The Times. Retrieved 15 June 2017. 
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716523 The Cambridge Union. (2012, Sep 23.) This house would decriminalise prostitution. Retrieved 15 
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716824 Kulick, D. (2003, Jun 1.) Sex in the new Europe: The criminilization of clients and Swedish fear 
7169of penetration. In Anthropological Theory. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://ant.sagepub.com/ 
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717225 Kulick and Rydstrom, 2015, Loneliness and it’s opposite : sex, disability, and the ethics of engagement 
7173https://www.scribd.com/document/253894834/Loneliness-and-Its-Opposite-by-Don-Kulick-and-Jens-
7174Rydstrom 
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717626 Farley, M.; Bindel, J.; Golding, J. (2009, Dec.) Men who buy sex: Who they buy and what they 
7177nnow. A research study of 103 men who describe their use of trafficked and non-trafficked 
7178women in prostitution, and their awareness of coercion and violence. Eaves, London & Prostitution 
7179Research & Education, San Francisco. p. 8. 
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7181
718227 Hakim, C. (2015, Oct 15.) This house believes the legalisation of prostitution would be a sisaster. 
7183At University of York. Retrieved 15 June 2017, from https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/ 
7184public-lectures/autumn2015/prostitution-debate/. 
7185
718628 Ekman, K.E. (2016, Aug 24.) The modern john got himself a queer nanny. In Feminist Current. 
7187Retrieved 15 June 2017, from http://www.feministcurrent.com/2016/08/24/modern-john-got-queernanny/. 
7188
7189
719029 Rochdale is one of the places in England where criminal gangs have prostituted girls and young 
7191women, but evaded the law until parents, feminist activists and the girls themselves demanded justice. 
7192Much of the media and general public would bend over backwards to label what these men did to their 
7193prey anything other than pimping: it is largely known as ‘grooming’ or sexual exploitation. 
7194
719530 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/they-like-us-naive-how-teenage-girls-are-groomed-for-alife-
7196of-prostitution-by-uk-gangs-1880959.html. Accessed 28th August. 
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719831 Farley, M. (2016). Very inconvenient truths: Sex buyers, sexual coercion, prostitution-harmdenial. 
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7200logosjournal.com/2016/farley-2/. 
7201
7202
7203© The Author(s) 2017 
7204Julie Bindel, The Pimping of Prostitution, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55890-9_6