We are calling on men to join a #CoolMenDontBuySex social media campaign to raise awareness that prostitution-buying is damaging and drives the vast prostitution industry, most of whose $186 billion annual global turnover goes into the pockets of pimps and traffickers.

It is estimated that there are 11 million sex trafficking victims worldwide, of whom 96% are women and girls. This represents an unimaginable amount of human misery and suffering.

Let’s be clear, it is the money that ordinary men pay for prostitution that drives this exploitative industry.

Every time a man buys sex* anywhere in the world, he contributes to this cesspool of ruthless exploitation.

Cool men do not buy sex.

But what about…

But it isn’t like that, many people say – she chose to do it and therefore it’s consensual and completely ethical. To these people, we say please educate yourself about the reality.

To those who say they’re enabling her to have an income, we say why not give her some money without strings attached, and campaign for a more equal and just society?

To those who say the problems with prostitution would be sorted if we’d just legalise (or fully decriminalise) it, please find out what has happened in New Zealand and Germany.

The #CoolMenDontBuySex campaign

Prostitution is inherently violent and is one of the key mechanisms that maintains male dominance. We do not believe that prostitution is inevitable. And if we want a fairer, more humane world, we need to work to end it.

We already have a law in England and Wales that makes it a criminal offence to buy sex from someone who’s been coerced. But it’s not effective. This is why we need the Nordic Model, which makes buying sex per se a criminal offence, with the key aim of changing social norms around prostitution. This approach also cracks down on pimping and decriminalises those who sell sex and provides them with services and genuine routes out.

The Nordic Model requires thinking about prostitution differently and we need to raise awareness of this. The #CoolMenDontBuySex campaign is one way you can help raise that awareness.

Apne Aap, a pro-Nordic Model organisation helping women and girls out of the sex industry in India, started a #CoolMenDontBuySex campaign a couple of years ago. We want to build on their excellent work and bring the campaign to the UK.

We are calling on men to take selfies holding a #CoolMenDontBuySex or “Cool men don’t buy sex” sign, and post them on social media under the hashtag. Alternatively, email them to us (nordicmodelnow@gmail.com) and we will post them.

You can make your own sign or download a PDF to print out.

But isn’t the idea that men should be “cool” suffocating?

Some of the men we’ve spoken to have expressed reservations about the use of the word “cool.” One said, “it feels like part of the suffocating force that got men into the mess we’re now in.”

He has a point. We considered a number of other hashtags, including #MenWithIntegrityDontBuySex, #MenStandingAgainstBuyingSex, #MenForGenuineHumanConnection, and #PornSoakedMenAreUnfuckable. All have their strengths, but we don’t think any of them flows off the tongue quite as easily as #CoolMenDontBuySex.

Please use whatever you prefer. But it would be great if you could also add the #CoolMenDontBuySex hashtag to the social media post.

Here’s Ian doing his own thing.

Prostitution-buying sabotages men’s chance for real happiness

Harvard University recently completed a study on men’s life satisfaction. Led by Robert Waldinger, it was one of the largest studies of its kind ever undertaken, tracking 700 men over 75 years.

Its overwhelming conclusion was that it was the quality and warmth of personal, family and community relationships throughout their lives that was the single most important factor in determining the men’s happiness and life satisfaction, and even their physical health and financial stability.

Research shows that men who buy sex are more likely to commit rape and other forms of male violence against women and children, and are less likely to have empathy for women. Research on the effects of pornography use shows similar results.

It is not possible to have good, warm relationships without empathy. So abandoning porn use and sex-buying is not only in women’s and children’s best interests, but in men’s too.

Cool men do not buy sex.

Watch Robert Waldinger’s TED talk

Watch the Apne Aap video

1 woman, 18 men, 1 day

Further reading

• On Choice, Agency and the Nordic Model
• Prostitution – Time for a New Paradigm
• Working in a New Zealand brothel was anything but ‘a job like any other’
• The German model is producing hell on earth!

[ * ] “Buying sex” and “sex-buyer” are not our favourite terms because they sanitise the inequality and abuse inherent to prostitution. Prostitution is more a case of a man renting a woman for sexual use. But sometimes there’s a place for compromise in the interests of accessibility. See Terminology for more on this.