Sophie Walker on criminalising the men who buy sex in the Guardian

[QueenOfQuacks]

"Let’s criminalise the men buying sex, and spare the women they exploit"

link

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I didn't know you could buy sex in the Guardian

Good article though.

[EmpressOfSpartacus]

Excellent article.

Now if WEP would just go one step further and put sex before gender....

[QueenOfQuacks]

Yes apols for poor grammar.

Though I suspect the Guardian is full of men who buy sex tbh.

[Baroquehavoc]

I agree with the article. Julie Bindel has written well in the subject.

It's amazing how many men in the comments aren't agreeing.

[LassWiADelicateAir]

Scotland had a private member's bill by Labour MP Rhoda Grant to introduce the Nordic model but it went nowhere.

Jean Urquhart then ran a consultation with a view to full decriminalisation which thankfully seems to have gone nowhere.

Latest was this from last year which seems to have gone no further. I might follow that up although neither my MP or MSP are SNP.

inews.co.uk/news/politics/snp-backs-changes-scotlands-prostitution-laws/

[QuentinSummers]

Well done Sophie.

[PhilODox]

You haven't said how you feel about her stance, queenofquacks.

[Teateaandmoretea]

I agree with her.

All of this 'you'll never do away with it'... the same can be said about lots of heinous crimes but it doesn't mean that modern society should accept them. All the 'what about the poor widower' etc... No one has a right to sex with another person!!!!!

[ArcheryAnnie]

Good for Sophie on this.

[Vicky1990]

What about women who buy sex.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

Great article, good to see this in the Guardian.

[Ereshkigal]

Great article. Brava Sophie. I imagine she'll get some shit for it.

[AwkwardSquad]

The comments are bloody depressing. So many —men— people seem to believe that there is such a thing as a ‘right’ to sex.

[AwkwardSquad]

Hmmph. First and last attempt at strike through. Serves me right, it’s annoying AF anyway. Bah.

[LassWiADelicateAir]

What about women who buy sex

I would have just as much contempt for them as I have for male punters. Assuming that other than the older women who apparently go on sex tourism trips to Gambia I'm not sure they exist.

I suspect if women who buy sex exist it is probably in the context of some sort of "sugar mummy" relationship rather than visiting a brothel. Still wrong.

[LorelaiVictoriaGilmore]

Great article. Couldn't agree more.

[QuarksandLeptons]

Brilliant article from Sophie Walker. Despite some of the failings of the WEP, I think they are doing great work.

Thanks Lass for that information. I must get in touch with my MP.

[HerFemaleness]

It's amazing how many men in the comments aren't agreeing.

I'm not. I thought right wing sexism was bad but it's nothing compared to the virulent misogyny you get from right on lefty blokes.

[Emmags0309]

I was reading the Amnesty International policy on decriminalisation. I can understand the arguments for decriminalising the selling of sex but the arguments for decriminalising the buying of sex seem so pathetically weak. Then I found out from Mumsnet about how AI’s draft policy was proposed by an AI member who runs escort agencies in the north east. That explains a lot.

I can understand many of the points being made by mumsnetters about the transgender debate but legalising the actions of punters and pimps will be much worse for women’s rights. It would be a disaster, but i can imagine it happening. It’s scary.

In my experience, in social situations, it is much more acceptable to talk about this issue than the gender issue. We can make people aware of it without making them angry or dismissive. I’m talking to people now. I don’t want to fall asleep on this issue and wake up in a time when feminists are being abused and deleted for saying that men don’t have the right to abuse women.

[QueenOfQuacks]

I agree with her completely and am impressed at the leader of any party being willing to take this stance so publically and clearly.

I posted in massive hurry while trying to organise some reluctant children into bed hence poor grammar and lack of detail!

[LassWiADelicateAir]

Thanks Lass for that information. I must get in touch with my MP

I've emailed the SNP via the general contact address on the party website. I'll let you know what response I get.

[2rebecca]

I wondered if Soul Mates had introduced a prostitution section when I read it.
I would have zero respect for a man who paid for sex. I don't understand how civilised societies can consider this an OK thing to do. Ok some men can't get partners but there's always masturbation, and it is all about power.
Prostitution is one issue that makes me think gender isn't all socialisation though as very very few women would pay for sex or get turned on by a man they knew was only there because you had paid him to be. Passionless, sex as a shopping item sounds yuk and boring.
I should probably say sex rather than gender though as I suspect transwomen are more in to prostitution than transmen as well and it's more a genetic thing, plus it being more acceptable for men to buy sex and women are more prepared/ desperate to sell themselves and be degraded.

[2rebecca]

Started reading the comments and got depressed.
You'd think only men had disabilities. Buying a woman for a disabled man as a "treat" like buying a bottle of champagne is so dehumanising and depressing.
It's the "right to have sex" and sex as a bodily function like eating argument. All men should have the right to a woman's body. Makes me hate men, tries to calm down before going to bed with husband who says he's never visited a prostitute.

[NotTerfNorCis]

Lots of men in the comments arguing that you can't get rid of something by criminalising it, so why bother.

If that's the case, why do we have laws at all?

Not one woman can be free and equal to men so long as any woman is sold by and to them. As long as we normalise the idea that “some” women can be ordered and thrown about like a product from Amazon, then all women live in a world where the threat of violence keeps us in our place.

Yep.

[QuarksandLeptons]

Rachel Moran is another amazing woman lifting the veil on the abuse of women via prostitution.

www.pri.org/stories/2015-10-01/after-seven-years-dublin-sex-trade-rachel-moran-says-prostitution-always-abuse