This post provides access to audio and video recordings of our ‘Talking with men and boys’ webinar that was held on 11 April 2021.
In this webinar, we turned the spotlight onto men and boys and asked: Is the current epidemic of male violence against women and girls connected with the proliferation and normalisation of prostitution? Are porn and prostitution just a bit of harmless fun? What really happens behind the scenes? How do we get through to men and boys about this? How do you have those tough conversations with your teenage sons? What might help them resist the peer pressure to participate in rape culture, the trip to the brothel, harassing the girls in their class?
We invited men and boys to be part of the solution and welcomed them to join the struggle.
Video
Podcast
Duration: 1.47.33 minutes | File size: 523 MB | Play in new window (with option to download file)
Transcript
Talking with men and boys about prostitution: the transcript
Speakers
Bryn Frere-Smith: Bryn left the UK Police Service in 2014 to pursue a career in private security. After a number of years working in close protection for clients in the UK and overseas, Bryn took a sabbatical to volunteer for a human rights agency investigating the trafficking of children in the Dominican Republic. His experience investigating human trafficking led him to start a social enterprise designed to support coffee growing communities in vulnerable parts of the world, whilst using its profits to fund organisations fighting human trafficking and caring for survivors. Bryn is an active anti-trafficking campaigner and the host of the Justice & Coffee Podcast.
Gemma Aitchison: Gemma is a working-class radical feminist. She runs YES Matters UK, an organisation that supports the victim rehabilitation of children who have suffered sexual abuse. Her work includes challenging the lack of access to justice for women and girls, compulsory sex education for the UK and presenting to the European Parliament her research on the danger of gender stereotypes, in particular the sexual objectification of women and girls. She is the sister of a murdered girl, a survivor of CSA, rape and domestic abuse and doesn’t care that it’s not all men.
Michael Conroy: Michael is founder of Men At Work and creator of the ‘Men At Work: 10 Dialogues’ resource for those working with boys and young men. He has worked in Secondary education for 16 years and trains educators and youth workers in how to run constructive dialogues on a range of themes and areas touching on sexism, misogyny, objectification, risk-taking behaviours, peer pressure and mental health. Michael has spoken as a panellist in a Parliamentary Select Committee on Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces and recorded a TEDx talk on the collective socialisation of masculinity. He is a trained Youth Mental Health Instructor and is trained in Suicide Prevention.
Esther: Esther has a longstanding interest in research on legal and public policy approaches to sexualised violence and domestic abuse. She uses her own experience of porn and prostitution to reflect on these issues. Her talk will look at consent issues, the global reach of depictions of sexualised violence and what this means for everyone.
Siobhan: Siobhan has been a member of NMN for the last two years. She is honoured to be chairing this webinar and to have met and worked with like-minded women around this essential issue.