This is an edited transcript of the webinar we held on Sunday 24 January 2021. Read More
The Nordic Model vs. full decriminalisation: what do sex trade survivors say?
Sex trade regulation in England & Wales: Property, hypocrisy and the ballot box
This article, by Esther, who was herself in prostitution, explains the law relating to prostitution in England and Wales, and the stomach churning hypocrisy that accompanies it. Read More
The deception of “Pleasure”
Powerful feminist critique from Monica Mazzitelli of Ninja Thyberg’s new film “Pleasure”. Read More
Egg ‘donation’ empowering? Really?
This article explores what it means when young women are targeted on social media with adverts encouraging them to ‘donate’ their eggs or undergo surrogacy for the benefit of strangers and the big fertility industry. Read More
Open letter to Freedom United calling for a rethink on its position on the sex trade
Open letter to Freedom United asking it to rethink its support for the full decriminalization of the sex trade. Read More
What services does Israel provide to people in prostitution under the Nordic Model?
Luba Fein presents an overview of the services that are provided in Israel under the new Nordic Model law to people who have experienced prostitution, along with data about the service users from a recent study. Read More
Leeds City Council: It’s time you listened well to Holbeck
Voice of Holbeck, a coalition of community groups, has today released its ‘Listening Well’ report about local residents’ experiences of the decriminalised red-light area in Holbeck, Leeds. The area is also known as the ‘Managed Zone’ because it is part of the Leeds-wide ‘Managed Approach’ to prostitution, but as one young person who contributed to the report, said: “It is not managed at all, we are approached.” Read More
Prostitution policy: The Nordic Model or full decriminalization?
This page provides access to the recording and transcript of our ‘Prostitution policy: The Nordic Model or full decriminalization? What do sex trade survivors say?’ webinar that was held on 24 January 2021.
The theme of the webinar was the debate about the Sexual Exploitation Bill that Dame Diana Johnson recently tabled in the UK Parliament. If passed, this would establish a Nordic Model approach to prostitution legislation and policy in England and Wales. Read More
‘Any girl, and most boys, growing up in care become targets for the sexual predation of adult men’
‘Alice’ sent this harrowing testimony about growing up in a UK children’s home through our Share Your Story page.
“A lot of the time surviving in the care system prepares girls for prostitution later. We all allowed degrees of sexual access to adult men for basics like food or clothing. Even beyond that most girls acquiesce to men’s sexual demands in return for things that make you feel like a ‘normal’ young teenager, but aren’t necessities…” Read More
Dame Diana Johnson’s Sexual Exploitation Bill: The Debate
This article provides a very brief introduction to Dame Diana Johnson’s Sexual Exploitation Bill, which if passed as planned would introduce a Nordic Model approach to prostitution law and policy in England and Wales. The article then delves into some of the negative assertions about the Nordic Model that Lyn Brown MP made in the debate on the Bill’s first reading and shows that many are oversimplifications and/or are contradicted by the evidence. Read More
What I learned about prostitution in 20 years as a hairdresser in Berlin
I have worked as a hairdresser for 20 years and for all that time I’ve had women involved in prostitution among my clients. Women who are so mentally and physically broken that everyday life can only be endured with drugs, which brings them into the next vicious circle. Women who are often in need of a hug and a listening ear… Read More
The Law of Diminishing Returns
In this insightful article, Esther, who was herself in prostitution, reflects on the finding of the Médecins du Monde study that the income of people involved in prostitution in France has reduced since the Nordic Model law was introduced there in April 2016. She explains how such a reduction in income has been observed in several European countries and suggests it is related to the increase in the number of women entering the sex industry through “choice,” coercion, trafficking, and the fallout from the banking crisis from 2008 and the subsequent implementation of “austerity” policies – and the normalisation of BDSM practices through the mainstreaming of porn. Read More
Critique of the Médecins du Monde study into the Nordic Model law in France
In April 2018, Médecins du Monde published a study they had conducted into the operation of the Nordic Model-style law that was passed by the French National Assembly two years earlier. The 80-page report was entitled ‘What do sex workers think about the French Prostitution Act’ and it has been widely quoted as showing that the Nordic Model doesn’t work and makes things worse for “sex workers.” This post provides an English translation of a detailed critique of the study by Amicale du Nid, a French NGO. Read More
Ask your MP to support women and VOTE FOR the Nordic Model
Dame Diana Johnson MP has introduced a Sexual Exploitation Bill into the British Parliament. If passed, this would establish a Nordic Model approach to prostitution law and policy in England and Wales. The Bill passed its first reading on 9 December 2020 and the second reading is scheduled for 29 January 2021.
If you live in the UK, please contact your MP to ask them to support women and VOTE FOR this Bill. We have created two options to help you do this… Read More
Swedish sex trade survivors back international campaign for the Nordic Model
This article, by a group of people who have experienced prostitution in Sweden, explains why they formed the organisation #intedinhora (#notyourwhore) and why they back the Nordic Model approach to prostitution policy.
“We see prostitution as neither work nor sex, but as an oppression built upon oppression based on gender, race, class and/or age. We believe this, not despite our own experiences of being in the sex industry, but because of them.” Read More
Response to the Law Commission’s hate crime consultation
In 2020, the UK Law Commission ran a consultation on “reforms to hate crime laws to make them fairer, and to protect women for the first time.” It also included a question about whether the hate crime legislation should be extended to include “sex workers” as a protected characteristic. Nordic Model Now! responded to the consultation and this post provides our full response.
Read More
Prostitution: Work? … Or exploitation? The discussion
This is an edited transcript of the discussion part of the ‘Prostitution: Work? … Or exploitation?’ webinar on Sunday 22 November 2020.
Siobhan: I just want to introduce our panel members. First we have Rebecca Mott. Rebecca used to do indoor prostitution of various types, all of which allow punters to be violent. She is now an Abolitionist, and has been blogging about her experiences for more than 12 years, explaining the conditions of prostitution and the impact of having trauma as an exited woman… Read More
Prostitution: Work? … Or exploitation? Recordings and transcripts
This page provides access to recordings and transcripts of the talks from our ‘Prostitution: Work? … Or exploitation?’ webinar on 22 November 2020.
We hear over and over again that “sex work is normal work.” But is this really true or is the reality in fact much darker? In this webinar, women who have lived experience of prostitution examined this claim. Read More
The Nordic Model: The best approach to tackling prostitution
This is a transcript of Megan King’s presentation at our ‘Prostitution: Work? … Or exploitation?’ webinar on Sunday 22 November 2020.
“I’m going to talk about the Nordic Model as the best approach to tackling prostitution. I’m Megan King. I speak as a survivor of the sex trade myself, initially being coerced into the trade and then I continued to sell sex off street independently, glamourizing my situation as a high-class escort, for a period of eight months across the south of England… Read More
About time! Women’s criminal records for soliciting will no longer always be disclosed
New rules have come into force in the UK that will make life much easier for large numbers of women who have experienced street prostitution and are trying to rebuild their lives.
Provided she didn’t serve a custodial sentence and the convictions are more than 11 years old, criminal records for soliciting to sell sex under Section 1 of the Street Offences Act 1959 will no longer be automatically disclosed to employers – even on an enhanced DBS check… Read More
‘My father started sexually abusing me before I was two years old…’
“I’m a survivor of familial sex trafficking. My father started sexually abusing me before I was even two years old and by age six, he was selling me to strangers for sex. This went on until I was about 16 years old.
He threatened my younger brother and me, saying he would kill our mother if we ever told anyone what he was doing… Read More
How to respond to the Scottish Prostitution Consultation
The Scottish Government is running a consultation on its prostitution policy. We would like to encourage all our supporters to respond to this consultation. You do not need to live in Scotland to respond.
This post provides two options to make it as easy as possible for you. You can either use a two-minute option to send a template response, or you can use our crib sheet to fill in the full consultation.
The deadline for responding is: Thursday 10 December 2020. Read More
NMN Response to the Scottish Consultation on Prostitution Policy
The Scottish Government is running a consultation on its prostitution policy. The consultation is open until Thursday 10 December 2020. We would like to encourage all our supporters to respond to this consultation. You do not need to live in Scotland to respond.
This post provides the full text of the Nordic Model Now! response to the consultation, which you are welcome to use this as inspiration and/or to copy and paste from it. Because the consultation is fairly complex and, in some places, confusing, we are also providing shorter template responses in an attempt to make it as easy as possible to respond. Read More
‘Sex buyers, pimps and traffickers are delusional, narcissistic murderers of innocence’
A woman who wants to remain anonymous sent this powerful piece about her experiences in, and understanding of, prostitution through our Share Your Story page. This provides a space for women to tell of their experiences of the sex trade in their own words.
“Sex buyers, pimps and traffickers are delusional, narcissistic murderers of innocence that malevolently groom, then prey upon, people who are often victims of child molestation and sexual assault. These vulnerable people also tend to struggle with substance abuse, mental illness and most of all, financial insecurity… Read More
How living near the Holbeck red-light zone turned us into activists against the sex trade
This is an edited transcript of Paula and Claire’s talk at the Experience of Prostitution webinar on Sunday 27 September 2020.
Paula and Claire are campaigners against the decriminalised red-light zone in the Holbeck area of Leeds. They are part of the Save Our Eyes community group. Read More
‘Gagged and bound, I’m led down the steps into the basement…’
‘Sarah’ sent this harrowing and powerful piece about her experiences in prostitution through our Share Your Story page.
“Gagged and bound, I’m led down the steps into the basement. A group of men stand there and my legs begin to buckle beneath me. Surely, I’m not to be offered up to all of them? I’m horrified and afraid. But the question has already been answered in my mind and I know that my life will be changed forever… Read More
Three Dangerous Myths About Webcamming, Debunked
There are many popular myths about cam girls. The men who pay them often believe cam girls are lazy, superficial, money-hungry [insert gendered slur of your choice here]. A lot of women think the work will be sexually empowering, or at the very least, innocuous.
However, I once worked as a cam girl and got to find out first-hand what being one was actually like. I learned that all the myths about webcamming are not only false and misleading but dangerous. Here is the truth behind three of the biggest myths… Read More
The experience(s) of prostitution
This is an edited transcript of Linda Thompson’s talk at the Experience of Prostitution webinar on Sunday 27 September 2020.
“Hello everyone. My name is Linda Thompson and I am absolutely delighted to join the webinar today on the experience – no, the experiences – of prostitution.
I work for the Women’s Support Project. I am national coordinator on commercial sexual exploitation. I get funded by the Scottish Government to develop and deliver programmes of work to raise awareness of the harms and realities of commercial sexual exploitation as a form of violence against women… Read More
‘Sex work’ advocates and the Nazi propaganda playbook
Last month Nordic Model Now! was asked to participate in a University of Exeter student debate on the proposition that “This house believes that sex work is real work.” As a group, we are ambivalent about taking part in such debates. On the one hand, they are seldom a conducive forum for understanding nuanced and complex issues – but on the other hand, if we don’t participate there is a risk that the audience won’t hear the feminist analysis of prostitution. No one else in the group was able to take part that night, so reluctantly I agreed. Read More
Human trafficking and online sexual exploitation
This is the text of our submission to a Sheffield University study on human trafficking and online sexual exploitation.
AdultWork and similar sites make it extraordinarily easy for sex traffickers to exploit the prostitution of vulnerable women and girls. In fact it is hard not to come to the conclusion that these sites have been specifically designed for this purpose. If the UK is serious about cracking down on human trafficking, it must hold websites that facilitate sex trafficking and who profiteer from women and girls’ prostitution to account, as it is obliged to under international law. Read More
