Founded in March 2016, Nordic Model Now! is a secular, feminist, grassroots women’s group based in the UK that is campaigning for the abolition of prostitution and related practices (such as lap-dancing, pornography and surrogacy). While abortion is not the focus of our campaign, as feminists we recognise women’s human right to safe, legal abortion services.

What we are calling for

  • The introduction and effective implementation of the Nordic Model approach to prostitution.
  • The clearing of criminal records for soliciting to sell sex.
  • The legislation against procuring, pimping and sex trafficking to be strengthened and brought into line with our obligations under CEDAW and the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (known as the Palermo Protocol).
  • The eradication of all the factors that push people into prostitution, including the entrenched inequality between the sexes, the impoverishment of mothers, the inadequate support for “looked after” children, student fees, low pay, zero-hour contracts, benefit cuts and sanctions, and so on.
  • The UK government to ratify the 1949 UN Convention on the Suppression of the Trafficking in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.

What do we mean by abolition of prostitution?

By abolition we mean a new social consensus that recognises the harm and  violence intrinsic to prostitution, both to the individuals caught up in it and to the wider society, and the adoption of concrete measures to bring about its eradication while helping those caught up in it to make a new life outside.

Abolition is not the same as prohibition, which implies that all of the actors (pimps, punters and prostituted persons) should be targeted.

We can provide speakers

We can provide speakers for events, panels and debates, and also educational engagements in schools, universities, and elsewhere. Our speakers include survivors of pornography and prostitution who are well placed to explain the realities of the modern sexploitation industries and the pressures and harms that porn and prostitution entail. For more on what we offer, see Speakers, workshops, and talks in schools.

Work with us to raise awareness of the Nordic Model

Many people in the UK have never heard of the Nordic Model and how effective it can be in changing social norms, reducing the number of vulnerable people who are drawn into the sex industry, and helping women find genuine routes out. Find out how you can help us raise awareness here.

Who we are and how we are organised

We are a grassroots organisation run entirely by unpaid volunteers. We are non-hierarchical and wherever possible work by consensus. We have never received any public or corporate funding and are not aligned to any political party. Our main source of funding is donations from our supporters.

We registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee in August 2022. (Company name: Nordic Model Now Limited. Company number: 14269536. Registered address is: Unit 13, Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Lytchett Matravers, Poole, England, BH16 6FA. Please do not send any packages or signed-for deliveries.)

The group includes a number of women who have lived experience of the sex trade. There are many reasons why these women cannot be open publicly about their histories in the sex industry and as a result none of them are able to be directors of the company, because this would put their names into the public domain.

The directors therefore delegate the running of the company to a management committee that includes women who have lived experience of prostitution. We provide information about some of the members of this committee below.

Anna Fisher, Co-founder and Chair

Photo of Anna Fisher

Anna is a survivor of child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation (CSE). Her struggle to survive and recover has been a life-long endeavour.

She believes that prostitution and child sexual abuse are inextricably linked and sees prostitution (and its near-ubiquitous filmed version, porn) as the cornerstone that underpins the patriarchal system, defining women as less than human, and therefore unworthy of the basic human rights that men take for granted. She has actively campaigned against the sex industry for many years.

Esther, Deputy chair and Policy advisor

Photo of 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.

Sue Riley, Secretary

Photo of Sue Riley

Sue has a background in public sector governance. She has been a feminist activist most of her adult life having discovered the Women’s Movement during her time at university when she joined CND and became involved in Greenham Common.

With two (now young adult) daughters who have experienced the everyday sexism/harassment and assaults by men and boys, the links between pornography, male violence and attitudes to women and girls continue to permeate every aspect of society and she believes Nordic Model Now! is challenging this ideology head on.

Helen Lipscomb, Treasurer

Photo of Helen Lipscomb

Helen has a day job as a company secretary and lives in London.

Megan King, Survivor advisory panel representative

Megan is a survivor of the off-street sex trade. Although initially coerced and exploited into the trade, Megan’s involvement in prostitution was later glamourised as that of a ‘high class escort’. Upon exiting the trade, Megan’s primary motivation for speaking out as a survivor is to prove that it doesn’t matter how or where you sell sex, or how much money you are compensated with, the nature of prostitution is inherently abusive and exploitative and the only solution to avoid this trauma to women is for the UK to apply the sex buyer law.

Sian, Survivor advisory panel representative

Sian is a child abuse and exploitation survivor from the Midlands. She experienced both trafficking and working for a pimp, as well as street prostitution. Ending the demand for women and children to be abused, as well as supporting those harmed in the sex industry is her hope. Sian has a degree and MA in history.

Funding

We operate on a shoestring and our only source of funding is currently donations, mostly small, from individuals who support us – along with ticket sales for our events and sales of our booklets and Handbook for Universities, which you can buy in our shop.

We are committed to transparency and publish annual financial statements.

If you would like to contribute financially to our work, please see our Donate page.

Outside speakers, events and podcasts

NMN is a non-partisan single-issue campaign. The issue being the commodification and instrumentalisation of women and children through prostitution, pornography, all the myriad other forms of sexploitation, and surrogacy. As mentioned above, while abortion is not the focus of our campaign, as feminists we recognise women’s human right to safe, legal abortion services. Otherwise NMN does not take a position on the many issues on which public opinion is polarised.

NMN members come from a variety of backgrounds and traditions and have a variety of different political, cultural and religious positions. We see this as a strength and we aim to be open to and learn from each other even when we see the world differently.

Similarly people we invite to speak or run workshops at our events have a variety of opinions on a whole raft of issues. We invite them because of their experience of or expertise in the issues we campaign on and this does not imply either agreement or disagreement with any other positions that they might hold.

We are also invited by a variety of organisations and individual podcasters etc. to provide speakers and interviewees. When we agree to speak at an event or on a platform run by another organisation or individual, it does not imply that we agree with them on all or any issues. We accept because we are keen for our message to reach as wide an audience as possible.

What about trans people?

We campaign for the Nordic Model, which applies to everyone regardless of sex or gender. Under the Nordic Model, women are banned from paying for sex just as much as men, and men and trans people are protected under the law just as much as women are. This is important because there is evidence that trans people are at disproportionate risk of being drawn into the sex industry and harmed by that experience.

We call for women-only services for women who have experience of prostitution and separate services for men and trans people where necessary – because all these groups have specific and different needs.

Women and girls who have been sexually exploited have often experienced staggering amounts of violence and verbal and psychological abuse at the hands of men, often pimps and punters. Women who work with this marginalised group of women and girls speak about the change that happens if a man enters the room, with the women and girls often closing up and closing down. This is not surprising in the context of what they have gone through and recent understanding that trauma at the hands of human beings often leads to a fawning response.

We unequivocally support the rights of women and girls to recovery space away from men and boys – just as we believe that boys and men need their own recovery spaces – and so do trans people.

High quality well-funded services for all those who have experience of prostitution, including viable routes out of the industry and appropriate psycho-social support are key to the Nordic Model. We believe that it is possible for everyone’s specific needs to be met and that is what we fight for.

Further reading

Connect

Networks

We are proud to be members of the following networks:

VictimFocus Pledge

We are proud to  have signed the VictimFocus charter pledge. Set up by Jessica Taylor, the charter is “the first set of standards for professionals, organisations and individuals to combat victim blaming in abuse and trauma.”

This page was first published on 14 March 2016 and was last updated on 29 June 2024.

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