WEBVTT

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I want to talk about sex for money.

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I'm not like most of the people

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you've heard speaking
about prostitution before.

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I'm not a police officer
or a social worker,

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I'm not an academic, a journalist
or a politician,

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and as you've probably picked up
from [arian's] blurb,

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I'm not a nun, either.

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(Laughter)

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Most of those people would tell you
that selling sex is degrading,

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that no one would ever choose to do it,

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that it's dangerous:

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women get abused and killed.

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In fact most of those people would say
there should be a law against it.

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Maybe that sounds reasonable to you.

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It sounded reasonable to me
until the closing months of 2009,

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when I was working two dead end,
minimum wage jobs.

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Every month my wages would just
replenish my overdraft,

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I was exhausted

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and my life was going nowhere.

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Like many other before me,

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I decided sex for money
was a better option.

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Now don't get me wrong,

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I would have loved to have
won the lottery instead,

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but it wasn't going
to happen any time soon,

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and my rent needed paying,

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so I signed up for my
first shift in brothel.

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In the years that passed,

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I've had a lot of time to think.

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I reconsidered the ideas
I once had about prostitution.

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I've given a lot of thought to consent

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and the nature of work under capitalism.

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I've thought about gender inequality

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and the sexual and reproductive
labor of women.

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I've experienced exploitation
and violence at work.

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I've thought about what's needed

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to protect other sex workers
from these things.

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Maybe you've thought about them, too.

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In this talk

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I'm going to take you through
the four main legal approaches

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applied to sex work around the world,

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and explain why they don't work;

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why prohibiting the sex industry

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actually exacerbates every harm
the sex workers are vulnerable to.

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And then I'm going tell you about
what we, as sex workers, actually want.

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The first approach is full criminalisation.

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Half the world,

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including Russia, South Africa
and most of the US,

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regulate sex work by criminalizing
everyone involved.

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So that's seller, buyer and third parties.

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Lawmakers in these countries
apparently hope

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that the fear of getting arrested
will deter people from selling sex.

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But if you're forced to choose

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between obeying the law and feeding
yourself or your family,

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you're going to do the work anyway,

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and take the risk.

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Criminalisation is a trap.

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It's hard to get a conventional job
when you have a criminal record.

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Potential employers won't hire you.

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Assuming you still need money,

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you'll stay in the more flexible,
informal economy.

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The law forces you to keep selling sex,

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which is the exact opposite
of its intended effect.

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Being criminalized leaves you exposed
to mistreatment by the state itself.

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In many places you may be coerced
into paying a bribe,

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or even into having sex with a police
officer to avoid arrest.

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Police and prison guards
in Camodia, for example,

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have been documented
subjecting sex workers

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to what can only be described as torture.

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Threats a gun point,

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beatings,

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electric shocks,

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rape

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and denial of food.

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Another worrying thing:

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if you're selling sex in places like
Kenya, South Africa or New York,

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a police officer can arrest you
if you're caught carrying condoms.

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Because condoms can be legally used
as evidence that you're selling sex.

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Obviously this increases HIV risk.

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Imagine knowing that if you're
busted carrying condoms,

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it'll be used against you.

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It's a pretty strong incentive
to leave them at home, right?

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Sex workers working in these places
are forced to make a touch choice

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between risking arrest
or having risky sex.

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What would you choose?

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Would you pack condoms to go to work?

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How about if you're worried

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the police officer would rape you
if he got you in the van?

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The second approach
to regulating sex work,


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seen in these countries,

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is partial criminalisation;

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where the buying
and selling of sex are legal,

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but the surrounding activities,

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like brothel-keeping or soliciting
on the street are banned.

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Laws like these,

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we have them in the UK and in France,

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essentially say to our sex workers,

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"Hey, we don't mind you selling sex,

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just make sure it's done
behind closed doors

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and all alone."

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And brother-keeping by the way,

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is defined as just two or more
sex workers working together.

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Making that illegal means
that many of us work alone,

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which obviously makes us
vulnerable to violent offenders.

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But we're also vulnerable

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if we choose to break the law
by working together.

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A couple of years ago,

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a friend of mine was nervous
after she was attacked at work,

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so I said that she could see
her clients from my place for awhile.

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During that time,

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we had another guy turn nasty.

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I told the guy to leave
or I'd call the police,

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and he looked at the
two of us and he said,

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"You girls can't call the cops,

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you're working together,

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this place is illegal."

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He was right.

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He eventually left without
getting physically violent,

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but the knowledge that we were breaking
the law empowered that man to threaten us.

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He felt confident he'd get away with it.

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The prohibition of street prostitution
also causes more harm than it prevents.

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Firstly, to avoid getting arrested,

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street workers take risks
to avoid detection,

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and that means working alone

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or in isolated locations like dark forests
where they're vulnerable to attack.

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If you're caught selling sex outdoors,

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you pay a fine.

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How do you pay that fine
without going back to the streets?

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It was the need for money that saw
you in the streets in the first place.

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And so the fines stack up,

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and you're caught in a vicious cycle

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of selling sex to pay the fines
you got for selling sex.

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Let me tell you about Mariana Popa
who worked in Redbridge, East London.

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The street workers on her patch
would normally wait for clients in groups,

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for safety in numbers,

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and to warn each other about how
to avoid dangerous guys.

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But during a police crackdown
on sex workers and their clients,

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she was forced to work alone
to avoid being arrested.

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She was stabbed to death

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and the early hours of October 29th, 2013.

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And she had been working later than usual

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to try to pay off a fine
she had received for soliciting.

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So if criminalizing
sex workers hurts them,

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why not just criminalize
the people who buy sex?

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This is the aim of the third
approach I want to talk about,

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the Swedish, or Nordic model
of sex-work law.

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The idea behind this law

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is that selling sex
is intrinsically harmful

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and so you're in fact helping
sex workers by removing the option.

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Despite growing support

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for what's often describe
as the "End Demand" approach,

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there's no evidence that it works.

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There's just as much prostitution
in Sweden as there was before.

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Why might that be?

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It's because the people selling sex
often don't have other options for income.

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If you need that money,

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the only effect that a drop
in business is going have

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is to force you to lower your prices,

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or offer more risky sexual services.

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If you need to find more clients,

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you might seek the help of a manager,

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and so you see,

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rather than putting a stop to what's
often descried as pimping,

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a law like this actually gives oxygen
to potentially abusive third parties.

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To keep safe in my work,

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I try not to take bookings from someone
who calls me from a withheld number.

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If it's a home or a hotel visit,
I try to get a full name and details.

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If I worked under the Swedish model,

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a client would be too scared
to give me that information.

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I might have no other choice

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but to accept a booking from a man
who is untraceable

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if he later turns out to be violent.

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If you need their money,

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you need to protect
your clients from the police.

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If you work outdoors,

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that means working alone
or in isolated locations,

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just as if you were criminalized yourself.

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It might mean getting into cars quicker,

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less negotiating time
means snap decisions.

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Is this guy dangerous or just nervous?

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Can you afford to take the risk?

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Can you afford not to?

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Something I'm often hearing is,

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"Prostitution would be fine if we
made it legal and regulated it."

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We call that approach Legalisation,

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and it's used by countries
like the Netherlands,

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Germany

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and Nevada in the US.

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But it's not a great
model for human rights.

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And in state-controlled prostitution,

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commercial sex can only happen in certain
legally-designated areas or venues,

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and sex workers are made to comply
with special restrictions,

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like registration
and forced health checks.

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Regulation sounds great on paper,

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but politicians deliberately make

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regulation around the sex industry
expensive and difficult to comply with.

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It creates a two-tiered system:
legal and illegal work.

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We sometimes call it
backdoor criminalisation.

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Rich, well-connected brothel owners
can comply with the regulations,

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but more marginalized people find
those hoops impossible to jump through.

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And even if it's possible in principle,

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getting a license or proper venue
takes time and costs money.

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It's not going to be an option

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for someone who's desperate
or needs money tonight.

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They might be a refugee
or fleeing domestic abuse.

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In this two-tiered system,

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the most vulnerable people
are forced to work illegally,

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so they're still exposed to all
the dangers or criminalistion

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I mentioned earlier.

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So ...

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it's looking like all attempts to control
or prevent sex work from happening

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makes things more dangerous
for people selling sex.

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Fear of law enforcement makes them
work alone in isolated locations,

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and allows clients,

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and even cops,

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to get abusive with the knowledge
they'll get away with it.

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Fines and criminal records force
people to keep selling sex,

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rather than enabling them to stop.

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Crackdowns on buyers drive sellers
to take dangerous risks,

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and into the arms
of potentially abusive managers.

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These laws also reinforce stigma
and hatred against sex workers.

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When France temporarily brought in
the Swedish model two years ago,

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ordinary citizens took it as a cue

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to start carrying out vigilante attacks
against people working on the street.

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In Sweden,

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opinion surveys show

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that significantly more people want sex
workers to be arrested now

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than before the law was brought in.

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If prohibition is this harmful,

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you might ask,

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why it so popular?