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Photo Credits:-

Prostitution sign
(13smok, Pixabay)

XXX neon signs
(geralt, Pixabay)

Victims of Trafficking by Sex and Type
(Equality Now)

Prostitution is Unequal
(Nordic Model Now! infographic)


The five legislation models of prostitution law (Wikipedia)

Countries of the world, shaded according to type of prostitution law
(Wikipedia)

Nordic Model
(
Nordic Model Now! infographic)

Priya has just saved many Indian trafficked girls, but then this happens
(Priya and The Lost Girls by Ram Devineni, 2019)

What does the homicide data tell us?
(Nordic Model Now!)

Why the Nordic Model? (Nordic Model Now! infographic)

Percentage of the population in prostitution in six countries
(Nordic Model Now!)

World map of sex tourists for females, where come from, where go (Wikipedia)

Female Icons
(Max Dashu, 2008, via Suppressed Histories; fair use, educational)


A still from the 2011 documentary Scarlet Road (fair use, educational)

A triangular road sign with a red border and yellow background. In black silhouette, a prostitute has one leg raised against a lamp post. Sex Trafficking, Work, Therapy

PWP addresses sex trafficking, prostitution, sex work, sex therapy, sacred sexuality.

Contents
Overview

In terms of suffering, the group most affected by sex trafficking and sex work are the trafficked (defined below), the prostituted, those coerced into it.
These people are being raped multiple times every day. Perhaps 10,000 times every year. For decades. Perhaps starting when children.
Therefore, the most important matter is to minimise this suffering.
We need to reduce/stop this sex trafficking.
We must stop buying and selling women’s bodies. And men’s bodies.
We need to support these people into a new, safe, economically secure life.
At present, this calls for the Nordic Model (see below), also called Neo-abolitionism. It criminalises users and pimps and businesses. The selling of sex remains legal.
This is a compassionate approach.

A second group of sex workers claim to 'choose' sex work as their work.
They want it to be like any work: a way to earn money, the opportunity to unionise, etc.
Often, they call for Decriminalisation or Legalisation (see below).
But when economic hardship and capitalism are removed from their situation, will they still 'choose' to do it?
PWP asserts few will.
If they still want to dedicate their life to working with sexual energy, they can be sex therapists and work with sacred sexuality.

The 
user of prostitutes must be taught how to overcome the love of power with the power of love. We can see this will be very challenging as many politicians and people also need to follow this path. This applies not only to actions, but also feelings and thoughts.

As a society, we must find non-violent ways to dissipate sexual urges.
We must destigmatise kinky yet legal sexual tastes.
We must heal human loneliness. Tribes use: community, dance, singing, storytelling, meditation (marrying oneself, daily connection with the Higher Self).
We must stop this drug-heavy world, as drug dependency is a reason some turn to prostitution. T
he apparent void and harshness of life is escaped through drugs. This is interlinked with other issues, like loneliness and economic hardship. God is/replaces the drug. Love is/replaces the drug.

Sexual therapy and sacred sexuality must be ennobled. They must be recognised as important ways to heal the human soul.


Neon signs of a yellow/lime woman, a yellow arrow, and three letters 'XXX' in red.

Top of Page

Definitions & Premises

"Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation." (Adapted from Wikipedia, accessed 8 July 2024)
Trafficking happens within countries, not just internationally.
Trafficking does not have to mean that you are abducted.
Humans are things to be used and abused for profit.

A bar chart showing victims of trafficking by sex and type. Under sex trafficking, 96% are women and girls.  The source is 'UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2016' via Equality Now.
(Adapted from Equality Now, undated, accessed 11 October 2017)

Prostitution is deeply intertwined with sex trafficking.

Key trafficking facts:-
- Most pimping fits the international definition of sex trafficking.

- Most (~90%) women in prostitution have a pimp.

- Human trafficking is the third largest international criminal industry.
- In Europe 80% of human trafficking is sex trafficking.
- 97% of sex trafficking victims are female.
- Countries with legal prostitution have more sex trafficking.
(Adapted from Nordic Model Now!, posted 14 August 2019, accessed 26 July 2024)

The term ‘sex work’ - rather than ‘prostitution’ - normalises dysfunctional things like patriarchy, capitalism. It is the mantra of and championed by the pimp lobby.

Sex work emphasises money and labour/trade union. But PWP has found that it is rarely like other jobs.
Sex work is said to involve agency and be consensual. But PWP has found that it rarely is uncoerced, truly consensual.
Sex work includes: webcam / porn modelling; stripper; naked butler; pole dancing; phone sex operators; erotic dancing; erotic massage; porn film acting; peepshow performers; escort services / girlfriend experience / sugar baby; sexual surrogates [therapy]; street prostitution; indoor prostitution (brothel work, massage parlour, bar, casino); dominatrix.].
Sex work excludes: human trafficking; child prostitution.

The most common reasons why women sell sex:-
- Previous sexual abuse.
- Drug dependency.
- Economic hardship.
- Care leavers.
- Coercion.
(Nordic Model Now!, YouTube, 2m16s, posted 1 December 2020, accessed 29 June 2024)
Poverty is the greatest push factor.

Sex work is rarely a true choice. It's not like the movie Pretty Woman:-

- "Almost all prostitution is some form of survival sex." (Jessica Neuwirth, The Guardian, posted 28 July 2015, accessed 11 July 2024)
- "If prostitution is a free choice, why are the women with the fewest choices the ones most often found doing it?" (Catherine MacKinnon)
- "Nearly every prostitute that we see was a child once that was trafficked against her will and manipulated into a life. When you see it that way, suddenly you’re horrified on a whole new level." (Scott Arnold
, quoted at BBC, posted 26 October 2019, accessed 8 July 2024)

Child prostitution is always wrong. There are ~10 million child prostitutes worldwide (Wikipedia, accessed 28/6/2024).

Sex work and money are rarely a good mix.
In both sex and power, systemically men hold huge power.
Seeking sex is likely to be an act of power and privilege.
What reigns is danger, exploitation, control. Terror, violence, slavery.
When sex work is illegal, sex work = organised crime.
When sex work is completely legal, sex work = organised corporate takeover of it = Big Sex (like Big Money, Big Oil, etc.).
- "Prostitution can never be made safe." (Julie Bindel, The Guardian, posted 24 March 2015, accessed 11 July 2024)
The way out is the Nordic Model, where those seeking sex as well as Big Sex are outlawed, whilst sex workers are legal and supported to exit.
PWP further stresses the need for a Universal Basic Income and Universal Basic Services. And the ending of capitalism.

Prostitution has existed throughout human history
(~10,000 BCE on). It is often called "the world's oldest profession". But it is actually more like "the world's oldest oppression".
Prostitutes are often stigmatised by society, scorned as immoral and scapegoated as evidence of societal decay.
BUT!! - Humans have existed for so much longer than human history. In pre-history, matriarchal societies and Goddess worship were widespread. Women were revered as life-givers. Egalitarianism prevailed and prostitution did not exist. This was for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years.
In other words, prostitution is a recent invention of patriarchy, used to dominate and rape.
And so it is NOT
"the world's oldest profession".
It is more like "the world's oldest oppression".


Prostitution is "one of the most dangerous occupations in the world".
(CARE charity, cited in a 2016 report on prostitution from the UK's House of Commons Home Affairs Committee; also cited at BBC, posted 29 January 2018; both accessed 17 July 2024)

"…one nine-country study found almost seven in 10 prostituted women were suffering from PTSD…"
(Sonia Sodha, The Guardian, posted and accessed 25 August 2024)

"Women being killed is a feature, not a bug, of prostitution."
(Sonia Sodha, The Guardian, posted and accessed 25 August 2024)

Prostitution is a huge industry. Big players include: trafficking gangs; brothels; porn websites. Human trafficking is the third largest international criminal industry. The global porn industry makes nine times more than the Hollywood film industry.

"The roots of prostitution are in the assumption that men are entitled to buy women for sex, in racism, and in women’s poverty." (Prostitution Research & Education, dated 2022, accessed 16 July 2024)

“Do we really want to raise our children in the belief that they have the right to buy women for sex? Won’t we teach them [instead] to have mutually satisfying and consensual sexual relationships? Won’t we teach them that women must be respected and not paid for?” (“Heaven”, sexual abuse survivor, exploited in a brothel from age 14, quoted in an Equality Now email of 18 May 2015)

Why have sex with someone (a prostitute) that doesn't want to have sex with you? The basic answer is that it is rarely about sex. It is about violence, control, power.

"One study found more than half of male sex buyers understand that most women in prostitution are lured, tricked or trafficked but exploit them anyway."
(Sonia Sodha, The Guardian, posted and accessed 25 August 2024)

The users of prostitutes can be called: clients, punters, Johns.

"The men who buy sex all too often escape scrutiny. The Invisible Men project documents the nauseating way men talk online about their experience of women selling sex, very little of it printable. Research finds that men who buy sex are also more likely to abuse their partners, have a stronger preference for impersonal sex and to commit rape and other sex offences." (Sonia Sodha, The Guardian, posted 21 November 2021, accessed 16 July 2024)

"The very notion of consent disintegrates in a situation where a man is paying for sex: how can a woman meaningfully consent with someone she knows could kill her in minutes if she says no or is perceived to make the wrong facial expression?"
(Sonia Sodha, The Guardian, posted and accessed 25 August 2024)

The only way sex work can exist is as sex therapy, as sacred sexuality.
It is truly chosen, not due to any type of coercion, including psychological or financial.
Its purpose is then to h
eal, spiritualise, educate, bring Love.
Examples of this need are numerous, including the disabled and past trauma.

'Prostitution is Unequal', an infographic by Nordic Model Now!
Prostitution is Unequal (Nordic Model Now! infographic)


Legislation Models

There are five legislation models. See table below.

A table showing the five types of legislation models for prostitution law
The five legislation models of prostitution law (Wikipedia, accessed 29 June 2024)

The model that most sex workers want is either Decriminalisation or
Neo-Abolitionism (aka the Nordic Model). See Sources & Resources for more depth. Country examples:-
- Decriminalisation: Belgium; Germany; Netherlands; New Zealand; South Africa.
- Nordic Model: Canada; Northern Ireland; South Korea.

Those in favour of decriminalisation often talk of empowerment and that "sex is work". But, PWP believes:-
They speak from within a capitalist system. Give them a basic universal income and would they still do it?
Sex work is not a job like any other, as it is so often not a matter of choice, so risky.
Surely, feminism is not about empowerment and equality within a dysfunctional system (capitalism, patriarchy)? It is about a New Money System, which respects the Body, that of the woman, the human, the Earth.
 
Surely, we need to focus on the most afflicted = the sex trafficked, the prostituted? They endure huge amounts of violence from organised crime.
Legalisation creates a demand.
Legalisation also allows pimping and brothel-owning.
Full legalisation permits Big Money to move in and usurp everyone and everything for profit. More power goes to those who already have it.
Note that full decriminalisation has already happened in many societies throughout history. Prostitution was tolerated by States, as required for social order or as a necessary evil. The Church even owned brothels, as did cities and wealthy people - the Big Money of those times. This created a huge demand for prostitutes. As ever, it was dangerous, due to violence and disease.

On the other hand, the Nordic Model criminalises the buyer, which reduces demand. It also criminalises organised sex by anyone other than the prostituted. It has existed in Sweden since 1999. For now, PWP believes this is best:-
- Demand for prostitutes is reduced. This means sex trafficking and pimping is reduced.
- Using prostitutes is often not about sex but power. Abuse of power.
- Where sex is a motive in seeking out a prostitute, humans need to find other ways to meet their sexual needs, e.g. sex healers, robots, virtual reality, improve their dating skills. Improving your dating skills is rarely if ever discussed; it needs to be part of education, especially Inner Game.
- Sex workers get stigma-free and deep support to leave sex work.

A map of the countries of the world shaded according to type of prostitution law
Countries of the world, shaded according to type of prostitution law  (Wikipedia, accessed 25 July 2024)
Cyan = decriminalisation. Green =  legalisation. Dark Blue = abolitionism. Orange =  neo-abolitionism = Nordic model. Red = prohibitionism. Dark Grey = legality varies according to local laws.

"The international evidence shows that criminalising the buying of sex reduces male demand for prostitution; sex trafficking is most prevalent in countries such as Germany where prostitution is legalised; in Sweden, where sex buying was criminalised in 1997, male demand for prostitution has declined significantly, with no increase in risk for prostituted women, as the pimp lobby often argues. Male demand for prostitution is not innate. Governments shape it through legislation."
(Sonia Sodha, The Guardian, posted and accessed 25 August 2024)


Solutions

Huge non-sexual transformations in society need to take place that will eliminate capitalist/patriarchal prostitution. These include:-
  • Attachment parenting widely practised = men become emotionally more stable. Attachment parenting was how parenting happened pre-history when there was no prostitution.
  • End capitalism. Replace with a new money system. Especially Universal Basic Income and Universal Basic Services. No woman or person will have to become a prostitute or sex worker from economic need.
  • Demedicalise. Women and people will be less likely to sell sex due to drug dependency.
  • A national health system, free at the point of use. For both physical and mental health. This will support care leavers to make a strong transition into society. This will shield, succour and guide sexual abuse survivors, former prostitutes. Any sex therapy or sacred sexuality could be placed here.
  • Society needs to value truly caring work. Part of care work is sex work, sex therapy, sex surrogacy, etc. At present, caring work is hugely undervalued. The Covid-19 pandemic showed us which work was truly necessary. It was not finance or so many other bullshit jobs. It was care and public services. But the banging of pans was short-lived. No radical transformation to the selfish capitalist system occurred. No redistribution. No levelling of wages. So, we need a caring society, a Culture of Love. This will not only destigmatise care work, but also destigmatise sex care work.
  • Sacred Sexuality. An understanding of sex as a sacred act. It is not only pleasure and procreation. It also can bring us close to God.
  • Education in Inner Game prioritised.
  • The wide acceptance of BDSM with avenues for its expression (e.g. FetLife). Just like homosexuality used to be widely attacked as abnormal and now it is widely accepted as a loving choice, the same needs to apply to BDSM. Then people will not need to secretively seek out others to fulfil them.
  • A spiritualising of society. People must realise we are truly angelic. They can look at the Sun as an example of this, and see how it loves all things in a specific way. Then they can wonder how they too can burn with passion, light, warmth without necessarily being animalistic or having sex. Indeed, one day this is our destiny. 
These solutions are so radical that an interim solution is required.
For now, PWP supports the Nordic Model.

'Nordic Model', an infographic by Nordic Model Now!
Nordic Model (Nordic Model Now! infographic)


Sources & Resources
Trafficking [also see Stories from around the World]
An Indian cartoon character has just saved many Indian trafficked girls. She takes them back to their villages but are rejected.
Priya has just rescued many Indian trafficked girls, but then this happens
(Priya and The Lost Girls by Ram Devineni, 2019, p.35 of 44)


Law [also see Nordic Model; Wikipedia]
A comparison of three Mordic Model countries with two legalised and one decriminalised. Two Nordic Model countries (Norway, Sweden) have very low rates, whilst France is still low. France is comparable with New Zealand, the lowest of the other three. The other two have high rates: the Netherlands and Germany.
What does the homicide data tell us?
(Decriminalisation of the sex trade vs. the Nordic Model: What you need to know booklet,
p.21, Nordic Model Now!, posted 5 April 2022, accessed 26 July 2024)


Nordic Model [also see Law]
'Why the Nordic Model?', an infographic by Nordic Model Now!
Why the Nordic Model? (Nordic Model Now! infographic)


Wikipedia
A graph showing 'Percentage of the population in prostitution in six countries'. Three Nordic Model countries show very low percentages (under 0.05%). Decriminalised New Zealand has ~0.18%. Legalised Germany and the Netherlands have ~0.46% and ~0.14% respectively.
Percentage of the population in prostitution in six countries
(Decriminalisation of the sex trade vs. the Nordic Model: What you need to know booklet,
p.18, Nordic Model Now!, posted 5 April 2022, accessed 26 July 2024)


Stories from around the World
A black-and-white world map showing home and destination countries of typical sex tourists, those who seek females
World map of sex tourists for females, where come from, where go (Wikipedia, accessed 25 July 2024)


Stories from the Distant Past
A 2008 poster by Max Dashu showing many Goddess figurines from ancient history
Prostitution is a recent invention, dating from the start of patriarchy ~10,000 BCE.
Before, then for hundreds of thousands of years, there was no prostitution.
Women were revered as life-givers and highly respected.
Female Icons (Max Dashu, 2008, via Suppressed Histories; fair use, educational)


Sex Therapy & Sacred Sexuality
A still from the 2011 documentary 'Scarlet Road'. Rachel Wotton walking alongside Mark Manitta in his cerebral palsy electric wheelchair.
Rachel Wotton, a sex worker who sells sex to disabled clients, walks alongside Mark Manitta in his cerebral palsy electric wheelchair. A still from the 2011 documentary Scarlet Road (fair use, educational).

Also see:-

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Page last updated: 1 December 2024.