This post provides access to video recordings of our ‘Breaking The Cycle’ conference (held in central London on Saturday 11 November 2023), along with links to transcripts of the various talks as they become available.

Morning session

You can watch the recording of the morning session here. 

Transcripts

• Shabbana Kiyani’s introduction: Why we need to look at the links between male violence against women and girls and porn and prostitution
• Michael Sheath’s speech: Child sexual exploitation material and ‘mainstream’ pornography: Overlapping content, constructs, and ideologies

Afternoon session

You can watch the recording of the afternoon session here. 

Transcripts

• Esther’s speech: Andrew Tate is not an anomaly
• Huschke Mau’s speech: How legalisation made Germany the brothel of Europe

Speakers

Alyssa Ahrabare: Alyssa is a legal expert with a specialisation in Fundamental Liberties. A feminist activist, she has over seven years of experience working with NGOs to promote equality between women and men. As Advocacy and Legal officer of the European Network of Migrant Women and vice-president of the French coordination for the European Women’s Lobby, Alyssa has worked on the conception and implementation of advocacy strategies for the abolition of prostitution and pornography in Europe, provided training to CSOs and migrant women on access to rights, and contributed to several feminist books, reports and publications. She has also founded a theatre company to fight sexist stereotypes through artistic practices.

Dr Gail Dines: Dr Gail Dines, a Professor Emerita of Sociology, has been researching and writing about the porn industry for well over thirty years. She is a recipient of the Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America, and author of numerous books and articles. Her latest book, Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, has been translated into five languages. Dr Dines is the founding president and CEO of the non-profit, Culture Reframed.

Dedicated to building resilience and resistance in children and youth to the harms of a hypersexualized and pornified society, Culture Reframed develops cutting-edge educational programs that promote healthy development, relationships, and sexuality. Dr. Dines has consulted for government bodies in the US, Brazil, UK, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Colombia, and Canada. She regularly appears on CNN, NPR, BBC, CBC, and writes for media outlets such as The Guardian, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and The Boston Globe. In 2023 Dr Dines was named one of the top 10 most influential women sociologists in the world by Academic Influence.

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.

Farah Hussain: Farah is Director of UK Feminista, a feminist organisation that works to support organisations and individuals to take action towards equality between women and men. Farah was a Labour local councillor for eight years in London and has worked in national and regional politics.

Fiona Broadfoot: Fiona was groomed into prostitution by her ‘boyfriend’ when she was 15 and only managed to escape when she was 26, after hearing that her cousin, who had also been exploited in prostitution, had been murdered by a punter. Since then, Fiona has been a passionate activist against the sex trade and is the founder of Build a Girl, a social enterprise working with girls at risk of or experiencing sexual exploitation.

Gemma Kelly: Gemma is the chair of Nordic Model Now! and is Head of Policy and Public Affairs at CEASE. She has over 18 years’ experience working across a range of organisations – leading, developing and running advocacy, policy, research and campaign strategies and activities – in national and international contexts. Areas of interest and expertise include anti-human trafficking, addressing all forms of sexual exploitation online and off, addressing men’s violence against women and girls, and child rights. She holds a Master of Arts in Human Trafficking, Migration and Organised Crime and a Master of Arts in Equality Studies and a BA in Social Care.

Heli St Luce: Heli designs and facilitates workshops and writes. She works with pseudonyms to encompass her varied areas of operation. As Maxi McNaughty she is a therapist, healer, and ceremony and ritual guide. As Ms Ina Propriate she performs. The constant is the use and sharing of her powerful and moving voice which inspires and gives her work a unique quality.

Huschke Mau: Huschke was, with interruptions, in prostitution in Germany for about ten years, having been introduced to it as a sexually traumatized girl living through an economic emergency by a German police officer, her first pimp. She is now a passionate activist against the sex trade, a published author and she is writing a PhD. She is the founder of Network Ella, Germany’s advocacy organisation for women in and out of prostitution who want the Nordic Model for Germany.

Kellie Ziemba: Kellie is the CEO at Kairos Women Working Together (Kairos), a specialist organisation in Coventry who support, advocate for, and empower women to increase their safety, stability, self-belief, and self-reliance to build fulfilled lives, free from violence, abuse, and sexual exploitation. Kellie has lived experience of sexual exploitation, both as a child and as an adult within the sex industry. She is passionate about amplifying the voices of the women supported by Kairos and using her own lived experience to advocate for women’s rights and push for social change.

Michael Sheath: Michael is a qualified social worker and probation officer who worked for 25 years for the Lucy Faithfull Foundation (LFF), a UK-wide child protection charity dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse. During his tenure at LFF, he delivered hundreds of days training to social workers, probation officers, and police officers. He was also involved in ‘whole community’ safeguarding assessments in a number of British Overseas Territories, including Pitcairn and the Falkland Islands, and acted as ‘Staff Trainer’ for Europol’s ‘COSEC’ course for fifteen years, a 10-day course which trains police and prosecutors to investigate online sexual offences against children. He is contracted to work with Europol, Cepol (The European Union police training centre, in Budapest), and INHOPE, which manages the activities of Hotlines dealing with indecent content on the Internet.

He is the author of a play, now a book, Crossing the Line’ which deals with issues relating to secondary harms and vicarious trauma in investigations related to the downloading of child sexual exploitation material.

Roxie Roots: Roxie is a trauma survivor of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) who ended up in the sex abuse industry after a lifelong struggle of not fitting in. She has experienced all forms of the commercial sexual abuse trade, including digital exploitation as she witnessed the rise of OnlyFans. She has experienced herself how pornography shapes and fuels our culture and she now speaks publicly about her life experiences and has a special focus on talking to youth about the marketing of “sexual liberation” by educating about its harms.

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.

Ursula Le Menn: Ursula is a legal expert and spokeswoman for Osez le Féminisme!, a nationwide French feminist organization which was created in 2009. Osez le Féminisme! is civil party in two criminal cases against the porn industry in France and accompanies more than 50 victims in order to amplify their voices and challenge impunity. As a feminist activist, Ursula focuses on the analysis of the judicial system and the abolition of all sexual violence. She is an expert in feminist social media communication and campaigning.