Get schools to suggest prostitution as a career, says LibDem councillor

[WinchesterWoman]

I'm not going to link to the Daily Mail but google if you want. His name is Dennis Parsons. He compares people being coerced by their families into accountancy with women being coerced into prostitution.

Weak response from Tim Farron.

It seems every party hates women. Every single party.

Blimey. All I can say is that I hope that The News Quiz has got hold of this so it can be treated as it deserves.

All those people from Eastern Europe and Asia being trafficked into Western Europe to be forced to work in accountancy firms... oh, hang on.

That comment is actually amusing; or it would be if the whole thing weren't so tragic

Financially Transmitted Diseases are a big problem for society.
not sure if that's post ironic

filthy old fucker probably had fantasies when he went to the school.
Utterly disgusting.

It is absolutely not my view that careers officers should recommend prostitution as a career.

I was at a consultative session on sex work at the Liberal Democrat conference where we were discussing, among other things, how to remove the stigma that attaches to this type of work. These sex workers can be abused and the law often has unintended consequences that can make them more vulnerable.

In my view, we are conditioned as a society to see sex work as unsavoury. I tried to demonstrate this by comparing attitudes to sex work with attitudes to accountancy. And I asked whether schools careers officers should recommend sex work to school leavers. I did not put that forward as a serious suggestion. It was meant as a rhetorical question as everyone - including myself - would consider it unthinkable. No-one in the room took it as anything other than that.

However, I do accept that my remarks were capable of misinterpretation and as Chair of the Cheltenham Liberal Democrats, the repercussions are such that I felt that I had no option but to resign that post with immediate effect.

I apologise unreservedly to anyone who has been offended by these events. This was not my intention and the coverage does not reflect my views. I am happy to meet with any groups or individuals who wish to understand my position on this important subject. www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2016-09-18/local-councillor-resigns-over-prostitution-comments/

In my view, we are conditioned as a society to see sex work as unsavoury. I tried to demonstrate this by comparing attitudes to sex work with attitudes to accountancy

What an idiotic statement.

See, it doesn't matter what you say, because the flippancy just says everything about how this issue is to you completely theoretical. It isn't touching your life in any real way because you are a priveleged male, so it is basically a detached concept. I hope rather than wasting time justifying what you now know is a ridiculous viewpoint, you actually go and meet one or two real sex workers to find out what they need in the real world. Clue: it will not be about removing the stigma or making it easier for fifty year old men to shag 16 year old girls.

Oh my God you came on here to resign

bullshit

Fabulous, the fail will be on Mumsnet all day now.

Sex work IS unsavory. Speaking as a someone who did it in my late teens.

Sex work is unsavoury. That's not my 'societal conditioning' talking, that's my carefully considered and well-explored feminism. If anything, society conditions us to see sex work as a slightly unfortunate side effect of men's desire to ejaculate, which is a right that must be upheld above all other rights.

But anyway. Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out.

I just copied it from the article- I'm not him!

Milander I'm soooooo sorry I reported my thread, the one that said it was you! I'm so sorry!

It's ok, I should have been clear, Being too rushed!

I don't understand what he's trying to claim he meant

I'll accept he's a total knob, but he clearly hasn't suggested that careers advisers suggest sex work to school kids. That bit appears to have been whipped up.

"In my view, we are conditioned as a society to see sex work as unsavoury. I tried to demonstrate this by comparing attitudes to sex work with attitudes to accountancy."

It is not the "sex work" that is unsavoury. It is the rapists who think they have the right to put their boners into women who don't want their boners in them and will only tolerate them, because they have no choice.

You can really see men's attitude to women as humans, when it comes to prostitution.

"These sex workers can be abused "

Who the fuck is doing the abusing? The punters, that's who.

Fuxache

What's needed isn't so much 'removing stigma from this sort of work' as adding a hell of a lot more stigma to the 'customers' and to the people who control the 'sex workers'. Of course its 'unsavory' - the whole idea of blokes who see other people's (mostly women/girls but also some boys/men) bodies as commodities to be hired and used. 'Unsavory' is far too mild a word for it.

Ooops Sorry Milander!

I'm having real trouble processing this. I feel like I've woken up in batshit crazyland....

Quite simple for me - he's a pervy old fuck

It would be nice for a change if Mumsnetters instead of sounding off based on second had reports from the Daily Fail if they actually listened to what the councillor said.

You can here the audio clip on the Mail website here (www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3794462/Liberal-Democrat-says-schools-able-suggest-PROSTITUTION-career-pupils.html) and you will see (or rather hear) that as Milander reported-that the content and tone was somewhat different from the Mail's report. "I did not put that (i.e that prostitution would be an option careers officers might suggest) forward as a serious suggestion. It was meant as a rhetorical question as everyone - including myself - would consider it unthinkable. No-one in the room took it as anything other than that"

So-perhaps be a little less quick onto the keyboard and not take what the Mail reports as gospel

Thanks for your input.