June 2022 report on the impact of the Nordic Model in Norway/Sweden/Iceland

[MargaritaPie]

I thought an up-to-date report on the Nordic Model which includes the voices of sexworkers could be helpful to the debate.

www.lse.ac.uk/women-peace-security/assets/documents/2022/W922-0152-WPS-Policy-Paper-6-singles.pdf

Author: "Dr Niina Vuolajärvi is an Assistant Professor in International Migration at the European Institute."

More info about the author:
vuolajarvi.weebly.com/
twitter.com/NiinaVu
www.lse.ac.uk/women-peace-security

"[The report] is based on over 200 interviews and demonstrates the detrimental consequences of this legal approach to sex workers and people in the sex trade."

The report talks about the harm caused to sexworkers by the Nordic Model and how a greater understanding of commercial sex is needed and that sexworkers' voices need to be included more in debates about laws.

Having read this report it appears that the lack of help for prostitutes is the problem along with the fact that most of the prostitutes are immigrants without access to services for Swedish citizens. That could be dealt with whilst still criminalising the buying of sex. The Nordic model is intended, from my observation, to reduce prostitution not facilitate it. It is the legal position of the women, who are without right to remain, that is the problem, not the law itself.

Know what happens to illegal immigrant sexworkers in Sweden who are caught selling sex? Deportation(1st link below). The Nordic Model has also created a black market in Sweden where foreign women are now under the control of pimps (2nd link).

www.swarmcollective.org/blog/the-swedish-model

hivlawcommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/FinalReport-RisksRightsHealth-EN.pdf p38

No evidence the Nordic Model reduces demand or the sex trade, but plenty of evidence it increases violence and disadvantages sexworkers in other ways.

Women in the sex trade (including both consenting sexworkers and victims of trafficking) can be helped (if they require it) under decriminalisation. The model used by NZ, parts of Australia and (as of this year), Belgium. This has strong support from a large number of human rights, health, anti-trafficking and sexworker orgs. decrimnow.org.uk/open-letter-on-the-nordic-model/

Sex trafficking exists in places where sex work is legal. That in itself should be a red flag.
Claiming that trafficked women can be helped if they need it ignores the problem of how they are supposed to access it when they are effectively held prisoner.

Sex trafficking also exists in Nordic Model countries and countries where it is illegal outright.

Trafficking can be addressed with complete decriminalisation, and IMO it is helpful to have a clear distinction between consenting sexworkers and those who are trafficked or need other help/support. This is why anti-trafficking and anti-slavery orgs such as Freedom United and the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women (GAATW) are against the Nordic Model and support complete decriminalisation.

Trafficking can be addressed with complete decriminalisation

How?

And if you mean that those prostituted should not face criminal penalties, well the Nordic Model Now supports this. Why then do you want to decriminalize sex buyers and sex traffickers? How will this help exploited women, men and children?

Sexworkers are still committing a crime in all Nordic Model countries if they work together, therefore the Nordic Model doesn't decriminalise sexworkers completely and they are also disadvantaged in other ways.

Trafficking is obviously still illegal in decriminalised countries.

Pie, you really do hate women.

'Sex worker' is a misnomer for prostituted women. Selling the orifices of your body for someone to use is not work, it is exploitation, it is rape for money. That said, the Nordic Model does decriminalise the prostitute and is intended to support exit strategies. There is no good reason to decriminalise buying sex since that is sexual exploitation of women (and also young men, of course) who are already exploited by the prostitution and pornography trade. Regulation of this very profitable industry is overdue, and decriminalising it in any aspect is not the way to do it. The pornography churned out is distorting views of what sex and sexuality is and harming especially young women, who imbibe the idea that they should look and behave like a porn star (having no idea that that woman is abused) and pushes them into accepting from lovers requirements that are degrading and dehumanising. Young men imbibe the same ideas and expect women to look and behave as though they are prostituted and bought.

They are deported from Sweden because they are illegal immigrants not because they are sex workers.

Swedes feel very strongly that women are not pieces of meat for men to buy to stick their dicks in. The chances of it being decriminalised are zero.

Totally agree with you. That the deportation is of illegal immigrants is hard to discover in the report cited, which made me think it was biased towards prostitution being work like any other etc.

This. I don't know why anyone still engages.

Prostitution is a dreadful trade, and bought consent isn't consent. I've spent 30 years working in homelessness/housing and have never met a sex worker who wasn't trauma-impacted. Pretending to want legalisation for the workers is just a lie.

Please don't reply to me or @ me Pie, the thought makes my skin crawl.

"the Nordic Model does decriminalise the prostitute"

No it doesn't, sexworkers are still committing a crime if they work together in all Nordic Model countries. Under decriminalisation sexworkers would face no criminal penalty for working together. Other disadvantages of the Nordic Model include women being evicted or losing custody of their children (selling sex is seen as a form of "self-harm" in Sweden which means sexworkers can be investigated by Social Services).

"There is no good reason to decriminalise buying sex"

Plenty of valid reasons (safer, less violence, less spread of STDs, less stigma towards sexworkers, better rapport with the police), hence the large amount of strong support for complete decriminalisation from sexworkers, human rights, health, anti-STD, anti-trafficking orgs etc. Many of these have previously supported the Nordic Model but switched to supporting decriminalisation after learning more.

"to want legalisation for the workers"

Decriminalisation is different from legalisation.

"Swedes feel very strongly that women are not pieces of meat for men to buy to stick their dicks in"

Rather disgusting terminology you chose there IMO. The moral aspect of sexwork is debatable, there are many people who think consenting adults should decide for themselves rather than have others decide for them.

You don't like the laws in Sweden? Don't come here. Simples.

There's a Swedish sexworker NGO Rose Alliance who don't like the Nordic Model either as it increases harm and violence towards them.

Anyway funny you mention that, I will be visiting Copenhagen later this year and intend to take a day trip to Malmo, Sweden from there :)

The sex trade has an effect on both the individuals involved and on wider society. That effect is entirely negative. Ignoring the effect doesn't make it disappear.

It's not the Nordic model that causes violence against sex workers, its men. Let's name the issue. Male violence. Male entitlement.

All your arguments about how we legislate prostitution ignore the fact it's predicted on causing harm to women. You're just arguing about how much.

Maybe men should stop trying to make rape legal and only have sex when there's clear, free, enthusiastic consent. Or wank.

Prostitution is violence against women.

Both a cause & consequence of male violence against women.

If a woman is hungry we should help to put food in her mouth. Not dick.

"Maybe men should stop trying to make rape legal"

I don't think anyone is trying to "make rape legal", and anyone who is must be very disturbed indeed.

In decriminalisation NZ for example a sexworker was awarded a 6 figure compensation sum for being sexually harassed. Proof that sexual crimes are taken seriously under complete decriminalisation.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/14/new-zealand-sex-worker-wins-six-figure-sexual-harassment-payout

''Studies of men who buy sex (punters) show that they are significantly more likely than other men to rape and engage in all forms of violence against women. A US study found that punters were nearly eight times more likely to rape than other men.
Research has long found that violence against women is associated with men believing they are superior and entitled to sexual access to women. So it’s not hard to see why buying sex makes men more prone to violence when we think about the reality of prostitution.''
nordicmodelnow.org/facts-about-prostitution/fact-buying-sex-makes-men-more-prone-to-violence-against-women/

It's not the Nordic model that causes violence against sex workers, its men. Let's name the issue. Male violence. Male entitlement.
Thanks, Terry.

Klockrent, Fladdermus!

MargaritaPie has a long and sustained history of promoting prostitution on these boards, that speaks of a more than abstract attachment to the idea. Whether it’s an entrenched fantasy about the delights of “sexwork”, or whether they themselves enjoy exploiting prostituted women is unclear. But whichever way, the repeated fixation with assuring us that “sexwork” is empowering and wonderful — or ought to be, if only those mean funsucking feminist women would leave it all well alone! — is tediously dogged in the extreme.