This post provides access to audio and video recordings of our ‘Students for sale: Tools for resistance’ conference that was held in central London on Saturday 15 October 2022, along with links to transcripts of the various talks as they become available.

Morning session

Video

Podcast

Duration: 2 hour 06 minutes | File size: 136.6 MB | Play in new window (with option to download file).

Transcripts

• Fiona Broadfoot’s speech
• Chelsea Geddes’ speech
• Lulu’s speech
• Tsitsi Matekaire’s speech
• Robert Jensen’s speech

Afternoon session

Video

Podcast

Duration: 1 hour 50 minutes | File size: 117.5 MB | Play in new window (with option to download file).

Transcripts

• Michael Conroy’s speech
• Gemma’s speech
• Cajsa’s speech
• Kathleen Richardson’s speech

Speakers

Fiona Broadfoot: When Fiona was 15 years old, her ‘boyfriend’ groomed and pimped her into prostitution on the streets and in brothels. She suffered violence and abuse from her pimps and punters and was frequently arrested by the police whilst they exchanged friendly greetings with her pimp. As a result of the police actions, by the age of 17, she had 39 convictions for soliciting and loitering. She eventually escaped prostitution aged 26 after she heard about the death of her cousin, Maureen Stepan, who had also been exploited in prostitution and was murdered by a punter. Since the 1990s, Fiona has been actively and passionately involved in feminist activism against the sex trade. She is the founder of Build a Girl, a survivor-led social enterprise working with girls at risk of or experiencing sexual exploitation, and has spoken in the media and at numerous events.

Chelsea Geddes: Chelsea is a prostitution survivor with 20 years’ experience in the fully decriminalised sex trade in New Zealand. She managed to escape after a prolonged struggle about a year ago. She is a passionate writer and long-time activist against the sex trade.

Lulu: Lulu is a care-experienced adoptee in her mid-twenties. She is critical of the liberal feminist culture that she has grown up in and is particularly concerned about this culture’s impact upon some of the most marginalised young women and girls in our society.

Tsitsi Matekaire: Tsitsi is the Global Lead, End Sexual Exploitation at Equality Now. She is a legal expert on women’s rights, sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, access to justice, women’s political participation and violence against women and girls. She moved to the UK, from Zimbabwe, as a Chevening Scholar and earned a Master’s degree in Human Rights Law. She is a co-author of “How Lifelong Discrimination and Legal Inequality Facilitate Sex Trafficking in Women and Girls,” published in the Palgrave International Handbook on Human Trafficking.

Robert Jensen: Robert Jensen is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin, collaborates with New Perennials Publishing and the New Perennials Project. He is the author of many books, including The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men (2017) and Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (2007).

Michael Conroy: Michael is the founder of Men At Work and creator of the ‘10 Dialogues’ resource for those working with boys and young men. After working in Secondary education for 16 years, he now trains educators and youth workers in facilitating constructive dialogues with male students on a range of themes around sexism, misogyny, objectification, risk-taking behaviours, peer pressure and personal autonomy. Michael has spoken as a panelist in a Parliamentary Select Committee on Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces and at an APPG session on Sex Education. Men At Work was a co-host of Culture Reframed’s ‘Taking On Porn: Developing Resilience and Resistance Through Sex Education’ virtual global conference in 2021. Michael is session lead for the Commonwealth Forum on Engaging Men and Boys in Ending Violence Against Women being held in Rwanda, June 2022.

Gemma Kelly: Gemma has worked in policy and advocacy with a focus on gender equality, human trafficking and child rights for many years, across a range of organisations from local frontline services to the international development, humanitarian and peacebuilding sectors.

Cajsa: After escaping an abusive relationship as a teenager, Cajsa started to abuse drugs and turned to prostitution to finance her habit. She has now been clean for four years and fights for women’s rights and is a member of #intedinhora, an organisation of people who have experienced prostitution in Sweden.

Kathleen Richardson: Kathleen is Professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI at De Montfort University, and Director of Women Ethics Robots AI and Data (WERAID). She is also the founder of the Campaign Against Porn (‘Sex’) Robots, which aims “to warn against the dangers of normalising relationships with machines and reinforcing female dehumanisation.”

Shabbana Kiyani: Shabbana has been involved in the campaign against the sex trade for several years. She has worked in education for 28 years in a number of roles from classroom to leadership. Shabbana chaired the event.

Resources

• Handbook for Universities
• Booklet: Decriminalisation of the sex trade vs. the Nordic Model: What you need to know