The amount of women condoning prostitution

If you legalise prostitution you will increase demand and also supply and also cost cutting. Competition in prostitution really does cut prices which means women are paid less for the exploitation of their body, and more women are trafficked since you need to sell more women in order to make the same profit. The best way to reduce prostitution is to make buying sex illegal and punishing the punters and the primps, whilst giving the women involved a way back into a life that does not involve allowing any man who can pay access to their orifices. Women on the fringe, selling dirty knickers or doing 'phone sex' are also exploited and are where they are because of a low-wage culture which is not helped by legalising prostitution nor by free movement of workers across borders - the low wages and poor conditions in other jobs is why selling their knickers pays them more.

caring about and supporting the mainly WAG in the trade doesn't mean I can't condemn the punters. The trade is repulsive, the workers are not.

Quite.

@MrsTerryPratchett and how does your "worldview" (sorry there isn't a good word in English, maybe philosophy would be better) cover those who choose sex work for the pay/effort ratio, or the convenience?
Are you still a victim if you prefer selling used panties than waiting tables or cleaning? Or choose OF because the hours fit better with your childcare needs?

I've known several women who work on the fringes of the sex industry ie not prostitution who basically did so because the numbers stacked up. I still don't think it good choice to make (for reasons I can't fully articulate except that the sex industry as a whole is damaging) but neither could I argue that they were victims of circumstance. I can't even put together a convincing argument as to why they were being exploited.

Countries such as France, Sweden and Norway - who put the onus of responsibility on the men who pay for sex and then prosecute them - seems to be a better way to go about things, with better results.

Countries such as Germany and the Netherlands have huge problems trafficking women and children and other criminality that goes with legalising/decriminalising the sex trade.

Leglalisation doesn't stop the criminality, it actually creates a market for more criminality and pimps attempt to under-cut each other and control territory.

Well according to the reports the young person in the Huw Edwards case made a huge amount of money, so clearly it does happen.

Everyone is forgetting that the young person has denied the allegations printed in the sun and has a lawyer. Nobody knows the truth except the two people involved.

Perhaps the exchange of money was blackmail? I wouldn’t hold any sympathy for a man entangled in murky affairs paying money for silence but neither would I imply victimhood on the other person.

Maybe it can’t be stopped, but we could give some signals in society that buying people /the products and services of the sex industry makes you scummy. We need to focus on the purchasers.

How trite. Prostitution damages society. Those engaged in prostitution, whether providers or punters or pimps are absolutely not the only voices with a right to be heard.

It's not about lecturing people. I have no want or need to tell women what they need to do. My power in the situation is limited to three things:

Offering women (and anyone in the sex trade) what they need to leave if they wish; housing, safety, money, safe supply, freedom from pimps and traffickers, protection, counselling, whatever.

Trying to end the precipitating factors that are common to many sex workers; trauma, ACE, reliance on unsafe supply of drugs, poverty, trafficking, pimping, CSA, abuse generally and misogyny.

Understanding that caring about and supporting the mainly WAG in the trade doesn't mean I can't condemn the punters. The trade is repulsive, the workers are not. It is useful t pimps and punters to confuse the two and behave as though feminists hate and are disgusted by the workers. In no world is that true. The punters are the issue. The pimps are the issue. Not the workers.

Why I'm allowed to hate sweat shops without hating the children that work in them, the drug trade without the indentured workers, the chocolate slavery without the child slave... but I must hate and patronise sex workers if I believe sex without free enthusiastic consent is vile. The fact is the punters are having sex they KNOW the women would not be having without the money. That's repulsive.

Maybe they are sick of being lectured and patronised by other women (and men!) who have decided what is best for them? Like any collective group these days 'we know best'

You're a bloke, right?

You have so many fucking opinions about women and you chose that meme. Look up 'irony' in the dictionary, there's a love.

Finally thought I was going mad, the whole thing is just vomit inducing male dominance and abuse of power, but yes poor him

35K over 3 years is not 'a huge amount of money'. You would struggle to like off 10K a year (admitedly theyre not payingtax but still).

Seeing as merlin likes a bit of minority rule, it might be best for the 1% who have the best sex work job ever to speak on behalf of the 99% who feel trafficked.

@MerlinsLostMarbles Easy! Women that are sex workers of course.

Who knows better? Women who are sexworkers, or women who aren't sexworkers?

People go into prostitution due to drug/alcohol/mental health or poverty.
No one who has an ounce of a better choice chooses this willingly.

Re this comment on OF Well according to the reports the young person in the Huw Edwards case made a huge amount of money, so clearly it does happen.

Reports haven't mentioned OF in this case, as far as I know, so I hope this doesn't encourage people to go on OF to emulate this! I also doubt the lad made that sort of money on OF or selling pics etc.

Agreed. I don't understand how anyone can condone prostitution.

Seedy men buying pictures off of it, but what about seedy men selling pictures on it?

Particularly when it revolves around male sexuality, and seeing what Grindr and all of that is about, I struggle to see any of the men involved as victims.

The attitudes men have towards consent and buying sex are the feminist issue, not the gender of the person they are having those attitudes towards
For some reason the men who do these things are always invisible in conversation, its the choices of the people being "done to" that are focussed on.

It's about the seedy men using them.
I want it all gone OP but men would make the world difficult another way because of their "needs". I just can't believe we progress in so many ways but theres a limit to the progress when prostitution, porn and onlyfans are okay.

IME the victims change but the entitled male behaviour looks very very similar.

I believe in the case being referenced all parties are male, so I'm not sure why most of the thread is about female sex workers, their male clients and the sexism from men.

This really should be about young men and their sugar daddies.

It is so dangerous. I've worked on a number of cases of prostitutes being murdered by a punter, even more where they have been raped or robbed. Always very sad.

Well according to the reports the young person in the Huw Edwards case made a huge amount of money, so clearly it does happen.

And, tbf, its not always about making huge amounts of money, for manyits about making enough money compared to the other things they might be doing.