Report on the Scottish Parliamentary Prostitution Fact Finding Trip to Sweden “Detective Inspector Simon Häggström, Expert, National Operations Department Swedish Police Authority, has been implementing the Sex Purchase Act for 11 years. Originally working in Stockholm, he now works for the National Operation Trafficking Unit and travels all around the country. He said: ‘A lot of countries think you should go for traffickers but not those in voluntary prostitution. But we say that’s impossible. Who is a victim?’ He showed us photos of website advertisements for escorts and continued: ‘Look at the photos, they all claim the same thing, ‘independent escort, available 24/7.’ He related how he had visited Romania to see for himself the place from where so many young women are trafficked and he showed us photos of the run-down estates, describing them as utterly bleak. He told us: ‘The pro sex trade lobby have a loud voice, but they represent a tiny minority. Organised crime, on the other hand, is making a fortune out of men paying on a regular basis for sex. Although the law is gender-neutral, in 20 years there has not been a single case of a woman buying sex. It’s a male problem, and we need to address that’.” Link to the full article in the next tweet

‘Young men who see women as objects are more likely to be violent towards their partners: new research’. I know, this is obvious, and you would think we shouldn’t need research to show this. But perhaps we do need research to show that what so many women have been shouting for decades is absolutely right: Treating women as objects (e.g. in porn and prostitution) increases male VAWG. If the government is serious in its aim of halving male VAWG, it must challenge the demand for prostitution by introducing the Nordic Model. “Objectification can involve men judging their partner’s value in her physical appearance, seeing her as a possession, or denying her agency and autonomy. The common thread is a subtle or not-so-subtle form of dehumanisation.” Link to full article in the next tweet.

If you haven’t already listened to this, we highly recommend it. It’s a conversation with @heinzsight2020 about her experiences in prostitution, and how & why she's now channeling her trauma into speaking about & activism against the sex industry. subjecttopower.com/buy-one-b…

“Further misconceptions come through the social and cultural environment that permits and even valorises the prostitution industry and its ever expanding spinoffs and online portals which present men and boys with an endless catalogue of young women who are apparently sexually available and willing or even desperate to fulfil their every whim, while simultaneously defining this as a great job for women, through the use and acceptance of the “sex work” terminology. This is highly misleading, just like when the big porn sites promote dangerous and violent practices to get more clicks, thereby suggesting to children and young people that sexual violence is what sex is. What men are buying in prostitution – and in webcamming and “intimate” content on OnlyFans etc – is not healthy, mutually satisfying sexual intimacy but rather the control of sexual activity. It is sex on the man’s terms with little or no consideration of the woman’s wishes, feelings or enjoyment – while she is obliged to pretend that it is pleasurable and that he is a stud– or she won’t get paid or risks reprisals from the brothel, the website, the agency, or her boyfriend/pimp, if not from the punter himself. It is impossible to overemphasise how confusing this is for everyone, but not least for boys and young men. Reviews that sex buyers post on punter forums and elsewhere about their encounters with prostituted women demonstrate this confusion and make it clear that men routinely continue with the sexual activity even though it is obvious to the reader that the women they paid were unwilling, subject to threats or coercion, intoxicated, or otherwise lacked autonomy. In other words many men have little shame that what they are indulging in and publicly describing is in fact sexual assault under UK law…” Link to full article in the comments/next tweet.