DIANE ABBOTT AND SEX WORK ARTICLE IN THE TIMES

[Mollyollydolly]

Diane tweeted about sex work
'Horrific that Durham University is offering training to students who want to be sex workers part-time. Sex work is degrading, dangerous and exploitative. Uni should have nothing to do with it'.
If you really want to depress yourself look at the responses to her tweet. I really don't understand what went wrong on the left, how is prostitution progressive? I just don't get it, some of the replies from the likes of Femi and blue tick Independent journalists make me feel sick. They sound like pimps.

Saddest of all are the young women who have been gaslight into thinking this is a good career choice. So depressing.

@MargaritaPie

*"Around 88 per cent are women

prostitutescollective.net/facts-about-sex-work-sheet"*

Results will vary depending on what criteria you use. I did a test just now on the active (logged in within the past 2 weeks) escorts on adultwork for the UK.

Female: 13,294
Male 3,325

That means as of now just over 25% of active escorts for a sample of 16,619 are male. That's 1 in 4.

Click on some of the male profiles. They're offering free services in some cases. Look at the overlap between these men and those who have submitted reviews for women.

A large number of these men are punters who have also listed themselves as escorts, only for women mind you.

I also wonder why the likes of Ellie Mae O'Hagan and Zoe Williams never go after the disgusting men who are paying to degrade women, they only go after the women who object to that degradation.

Would they be happy for their sons to pay a woman so that they can poo/wee on her, spit on her, do whatever they want to her, and be the fifth or sixth guy that day to do so? After all its 'just sex' right, their sons would 'just be accessing a service being provided'?

I agree that stigma for women exiting prostitution is harmful and is a barrier to those women's careers.
I don't think that pointing out that going somewhere private with a stranger who not only has a massive sense of entitlement but who is encouraged to request/demand things he might not ask his girlfriend or wife for is stigmatising.
I don't think that pointing out that the ability for a man to rent an underage Romanian girl to abuse in order to feel better about his manliness makes relations between the two sexes more strained is stigmatising. If your boss is a woman and she's pissed you off, if your wife has pissed you off, go take it out on a woman who can't say no... That has far reaching effects for the other women he interacts with.
What about when he selects a girl who reminds him of his daughter, or he brings home an STD to his wife?
There are no benefits to society in letting men rent women's bodies. It doesn't reduce sex crime, it adds to street crime, there's no benefit.

Also what are the safety measures we're talking about here? PP mentioned making sure someone gets home safe - firstly with the drugs that many prostituted women rely on to stave off the very high rates of PTSD they suffer, perhaps this level of organisation is unrealistic. Secondly what's the use in a phone call at home once you've been raped or beaten by a punter? It's not going to stop it happening.

You just have to look at the disaster that is Germany and compare it to Sweden where murders of prostituted women dropped to zero after the punters were criminalised. There's no evidence that "driving it underground" made anything more dangerous there.

A large number of these men are punters who have also listed themselves as escorts, only for women mind you

Quelle surprise. Thank you for looking into that extremely dubious 25% statistic.

@KimikosNightmare

A large number of these men are punters who have also listed themselves as escorts, only for women mind you

Quelle surprise. Thank you for looking into that extremely dubious 25% statistic.

Yeah, not enough eye bleach in the world but hey

There are no benefits to society in letting men rent women's bodies. It doesn't reduce sex crime, it adds to street crime, there's no benefit

I think it’s on this thread that someone countered the argument that prostitution is dangerous with the usual hackneyed piffle about "so are loads of other jobs-e.g the construction industry"

There are of course many jobs which carry risks- all emergency services, armed forces, fishing, agriculture, building and construction, social work, animal rescue
etc, etc, but the difference is these are jobs without which civilised society, our quality of life and living standards would fall apart.

@shallIswim

Dunno about training student sex workers to do it safely, but Durham has a lot of work to do in getting its male students to behave better imo. DD graduated two years ago and told terrible tales of lack of consent and rape and how the university did nothing when faced with female students seeking help. Students there need effective consent workshops. And action needs to be taken against the (mainly sports team lads) students who behave in this way

I remember Durham had a lot of issues a couple of years ago.

Shocking amount of sexual entitlement by a hefty and loud minority of boys according to DD. What shocked her most too was the way their friends didnt call it out, never mind the authorities. Much of it was centred round the sports teams - rugby, rowing etc.

I saw Rufus Hound deleted some truly ghastly tweets after he entered the conversation, seemingly thinking he was on safe ground alongside Zoe Williams. He's currently trying to make it clear that he's so, so pro women and didn't mean to give a big thumbs up to prostitution.

Men of all political affiliations have always supported “sex work”. Pimps and punters support “sex work”. If you think these are lovely liberal anti-racist types then I have got a bridge to sell you.

It’s amazing that women who would be able to spot the ‘Prince Charming’ trope in Disney movie somehow completely buy into the ‘high class courtesan’ trope.

I find it sad that students in the UK have to resort to prostitution to attend university.

And the tweets.. so many women acting like this is ok. This is not normal or acceptable.

A university is an institution of learning and leadership. In no way shape or form should the university be promoting a highly dangerous, exploitative lifestyle like this.

I know in the future where not to send my children if they ever want to study abroad. Your learning institutions basically are grooming young women to sell themselves and to be abused and exploited.

I find it sad that students in the UK have to resort to prostitution to attend university

Except they aren't, are they? Leastways not male students. Are male students universally better off/universally have more generous parents/ universally able to source infinitely better paying part-time work?

I'm sure they aren't- so why is prostitution being touted as acceptable for female students.

@MarshmallowSwede

I find it sad that students in the UK have to resort to prostitution to attend university.

And the tweets.. so many women acting like this is ok. This is not normal or acceptable.

A university is an institution of learning and leadership. In no way shape or form should the university be promoting a highly dangerous, exploitative lifestyle like this.

I know in the future where not to send my children if they ever want to study abroad. Your learning institutions basically are grooming young women to sell themselves and to be abused and exploited.

They don’t — I have students from all sits of backgrounds who manage to get funding and have part-time jobs no problem. This is all about the politics of normalising the sex industry and porn as socially valid.

*sorts! Bloody autocorrect

"I find it sad that students in the UK have to resort to prostitution to attend university"

Is there evidence to show they are selling sexual services specifically to fund Uni fees? How do you know they aren't just doing it for money in general?

In Scotland Uni fees are free I believe and there are student sex workers there too. I recall a few years back Edinburgh Uni openly said they supported complete decriminalisation in support of its students who were sex workers.

It's all about the normalisation of prostitution.

I recall a few years back Edinburgh Uni openly said they supported complete decriminalisation in support of its students who were sex workers.

Which representative of Edinburgh University said that they would support full decriminalisation of prostitution?

therealpornwikileaks.com/edinburgh-university-students-association-eusa-passes-motion-support-sex-workers/amp/

"Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) passes motion to support sex workers[decriminalisation]"

"It's all about the normalisation of prostitution"

It's not. As has been said many times, it's about offering support to students who are already sex workers. It isn't a "come and join the sex industry!!!" like some trashy tabloids are making it out to be.

And yes I know I should have clarified by saying Edinburgh University Students’ Association, as opposed to just "Edinburgh Uni".

@MargaritaPie

"I find it sad that students in the UK have to resort to prostitution to attend university"

Is there evidence to show they are selling sexual services specifically to fund Uni fees? How do you know they aren't just doing it for money in general?

In Scotland Uni fees are free I believe and there are student sex workers there too. I recall a few years back Edinburgh Uni openly said they supported complete decriminalisation in support of its students who were sex workers.

Maybe because the costs of university attendance aren't soley about the fees.

Just a thought

Just an aside but isn't it odd frequently the most strident voices on the pro- punter lobby front are often anti- capitalist leftists.

Funny that their anti- capitalism stance doesn't extend to wanting to see an end of the acceptability of using other human beings as tools to masturbate into or over.

Exactly - it’s pure market individualism, all this “choicey choicey empowering civilised what’s wrong with it stop interfering in what people do with their own bodies you jealous old feminazis” stuff. It’s not left wing at all; it’s pure capitalism.

I've always thought of the choice types as libertarian rather than economically left.

Are a lot of them really anti-capitalist? I would be surprised. Most people like that IME are pro state handouts and redistribution to soften a capitalist understructure. Which to me seems quite different.

@LobsterNapkin

I've always thought of the choice types as libertarian rather than economically left.

Are a lot of them really anti-capitalist? I would be surprised. Most people like that IME are pro state handouts and redistribution to soften a capitalist understructure. Which to me seems quite different.

I think that sort of person is very pro- state handouts with little concept of where the money to fund them will come from.

Well, think of Momentum, Corbyn, McDonnell, etc., all of whom were official pro “sex work” as a market transaction, but simply could not see that it is the very epitome of libertarian free market capitalism. I think there are plenty of young liberal feminists and woke bros on the left who think of themselves as extremely anti capitalist, yet are fully paid up to the “civilised sex work” idea. Including anti capitalists in the Green Party and XR. They just are strangely blind to the ideological contradictions of their position when it comes to sexual exploitation of women. Funnily enough….