my trip to London

A couple of years ago I had a day trip to London. I wrote about that. On Monday I went to London again only this time I had booked a hotel. So I had three days and two nights in London. I saw a few women in Soho and I will tell you about five of them.

Tamara of 52 Greek Street

I had done my research and I knew that Tamara seems to be the most popular girl in Soho at the moment. Obviously I wanted to see her. She is Indian and I found her incredibly attractive. She told me she is twenty five years old. She is superfriendly and it was one of my best experiences. She has dark skin and black hair. Medium height. I had taken a viagra and was able to shag her. I didn't manage to orgasm but then I wasn't expecting to. I had only paid £30 which is the minimum and gets you only ten minutes.

Sabrina of 8 Greek Street

Sabrina is completely different from Tamara. A lot older for a start and bigger. I've had a fascination with Sabrina for years. There's something very earthy about Sabrina. Many years ago I was in the room below hers and I heard her bedsprings going. Someone was giving her a good seeing to. I wanted to do that too. So on Monday I did. I used to think that Sabrina was plain. In the room though I realised she is attractive. She is friendly too.

Sonia of 4 Lisle Street

I've had photos of Sonia for years and I thought she's very nice looking. I sat with the maid for a while then this beautiful young woman walked in. It took me a while because she looks older in the photos then I said to her "I've seen your photo. On the internet". She was surprised and wanted to know where. Her maid said other men have said they've seen photos of her.

Her face reminds me of Kelly Brook and maybe Lucy Montgomery. She's that pretty, with bright eyes. There was something about her that put me off though. Unlike with Tamara and Sabrina I found it difficult to get an erection. Someone on the internet said that if she likes you, you will have a nice time with her. If she doesn't like you, you won't.

Sonia

my own photo - you can see it is the same room by the mirror tiles

Adele of Greens Court

I saw an ordinary Romanian girl called Adele. She's pretty enough and friendly. Not only was I able to get an erection and shag her but I ejaculated too. So ended my first day in London.

The next day I tried to see Tamara again. I went back to the walk down several times but each time there were two men waiting for her. The last time there was a man on the stairs too. The maid came up the stairs and said that the same man keeps rebooking her. I said can I come back 11 am tomorrow. She said it won't be Tamara then, it will be Adele. I asked if this is the Romanian girl and she said yes.

When I went back to Greek Street the next morning I could see Sabrina and another woman sitting outside the cafe opposite number 8. It got past 11 am but the door to 52 remained closed.

Carole of 8 Greek Street

She was a big plain Brazilian woman. About 40. Just what I needed though and within the ten minutes I ejaculated while on top of her. When I left it was just before midday but the door of number 52 was still closed.

doorbells at 8 Greek Street

statistics from Sweden

I have found more statistics that show that the Nordic model in Sweden is failing. I have put all the relevant information from surveys in Sweden on this page. I hadn't realised that there was a survey in 2017. I knew about the surveys in 1996, 2008, 2011 and 2014.

In 1999 Sweden introduced a law (the 'Nordic model') that criminalises men who pay for sex. We have statistics from before and after the law about the proportion of Swedish men who pay and the proportion of Swedish women who are paid for sex. There were many more women who stated in the 2017 survey that they had been paid for sex than in any of the other surveys. In 2017 it was 1.5%. In 1996 it was 0.3%.

younger woman

Since my last post I have been back to Wales a few times and seen new women. I have seen Samantha at Dollys in Queensferry and Brooke and Jade at Temptations in Flint. Samantha is an old woman but nice. Brooke and Jade are younger and tried hard to make me happy.

Each of these I have seen once. I have told you about Naomi and Leila at Temptations and Candy at Dollys. I have seen these three several times throughout the summer and autumn. I liked them all. I also saw Nicole once at Temptations.

I don't think I will be going back to Wales though. Something happened to me recently. I phoned Rock Ferry Thai Massage and was told that they have two new young women working there. I wanted to see them, usually they have older women there.

I had a choice of two young women when I went there on Friday. The one I chose was called Soda, or something like that. In the room I asked her how old she is. She said twenty eight and asked me how old I thought she looked. I said eighteen. If she had told me she was eighteen I would have believed her.

Soda has a pretty face and a lovely figure with medium size breasts. Her hair is dark brown and she has a couple of small tattoos on her legs. She is of medium height.

I used to think that my ideal woman is about 40 and a bit plump. That was before I met Soda. I think she is every man's dream. She is my dream now too.

Some people will say that when a man visits a sex worker he has preconceptions about he will like. These preconceptions may come from pornography. He may select the sort of woman that he has seen in porn and want to perform particular acts.

That may be true of many men but not with me. There are many young women in porn of course but older women too. Slender women and also plumper. In the room with Soda any preconceptions I had were changed. I didn't think I would enjoy being with a younger woman but being with Soda changed that.

I enjoyed my half hour with Soda so much that I came back the next day and paid £100 for an hour with her. It had to be yesterday because she will be working in Blackpool next week. It will be at 23 Cookson Street.

My first time with Soda I had no problem getting an erection. She let me use one of my thin condoms and I came quite quickly. That is because I found her so attractive. After I came it didn't take long before I got an erection again. She told me that if I had stayed for an hour I could have come twice.

So yesterday I had sex with her again, had an orgasm, then got another erection soon after. I shagged her again but wasn't able to come a second time. That's not surprising - I have never had two orgasms within one hour, not even when I was young.

We did a wider range of things yesterday. She has two sex toys. One of them is a clitoral stimulator. The other seems to be like the lovense toy. It has something resembling a flower at one end and she held it against her pussy. She was really enjoying it and had an orgasm. Some of the time I had two fingers in her vagina.

I would call her an enthusiastic amateur. She told me she lives in the south of England but has come up north to work with her friend. She doesn't usually do anything except massage and she said she will return to that.

Yesterday she was tired and hungry. She said that she had been with her friend to a casino in Blackpool the night before. She told me it was good, she had won some money. I hope that things work out for her. I wish I had met someone like her when I was eighteen.

seen in window of new Thai massage place in Chester

sexy Wales

For a lot of the summer I was going to Wales every Tuesday. I went to a brothel in Flint called Temptations where I saw Naomi. She told me that her usual day is Tuesday. She's very nice so I thought that I can see other women that day but she'll be there if I want her.

I had seen her years before. Some Tuesdays she wasn't there and I saw Leila instead. In many ways I prefer Leila. Another one I saw is Nicole. Leila and Nicole are friends and they drive from Manchester or somewhere to work in this brothel in Wales.

I liked Nicole, but she's not very attractive. She looks like someone out of a Beryl Cook painting. She wanked herself to orgasm while I put two fingers in her vagina. Just like Marina in Amsterdam earlier this year. None of these women are young, with Nicole looking the oldest.

Naomi and Leila are very talkative. Naomi told me that young women aren't so attracted to working in a brothel. That is the reason brothels are dying out. I had a very interesting conversation with Leila about the woman who ran the Sandy's Superstars brothels in Manchester - Sandra Hankin. She said that Sandra was prosecuted because she didn't pay taxes on her earnings, although I'm not sure if it is possible for people like her to pay taxes in the normal way.

So it got me thinking that maybe there are fewer brothels now because young women don't want to work in brothels. It's not that the police have closed them down. Young women usually prefer to work from a flat and advertise online. I thought they do that because it is illegal for them to work together. They avoid the possibility of arrest.

There are advantages to women working together, either in a brothel or in a less formal arrangement. Safety, for example. Perhaps they feel safe enough working on their own. Although I think they often have someone else there in the flat with them.

I have also been going to another brothel in Wales, Dolly's in Queensferry. I saw Candy there. I thought that I might have seen her before. The next time I saw her I said were you Lucy at The Office in Ellesmere Port. She was amazed that I could remember her as it was years ago. Candy is very raunchy. She likes to snog and laughs a lot.

I had a little joke with her that I had first seen her years ago in the street near to a brothel in New Ferry. I wondered if she was a prostitute so I followed her back to the brothel. When I saw her going in then I knew she was one. Candy said she had worked at that brothel.

I have seen Candy six times this year, Naomi twice, Leila three times and Nicole once. What I like about both of these brothels is that they charge £50 pounds per half hour. Rock Ferry Thai Massage charges £60 per half hour. You can get it even cheaper if you pay for 20 minutes instead of half an hour. At Temptations I give £20 to the 'maid' and the rest to the woman. I usually pay her an extra £10 for oral sex without a condom.

There is a café in Flint called Temptations, I don't know if that ever causes confusion.

I often go to Chester and I have found that it is easy to get to Queensferry or Flint from there. The 11 bus is my favourite. I don't just use it to go to brothels. I have now walked between Flint and Greenfield Dock along the western side of the Dee estuary. If I see a beluga on the way that is an added bonus.

The phone number for Temptations is 07749231388 and for Dollys it is 01244831664.

feminism pornography and prostitution

People who have read this blog will know that I have a problem not with feminism itself but with a particular type of feminism: Radical Feminism or Revolutionary Feminism. I don't accept the beliefs of Catharine MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin, Sheila Jeffreys and Julie Bindel. Especially when it comes to prostitution and pornography.

I was looking through the feminism section in a library and I came across two books by feminist authors that interested me greatly. They don't like MacKinnon and Dworkin either. The books are Feminism (A Very Short Introduction) by Margaret Walters and Difficult Women (A History of Feminism in 11 Fights) by Helen Lewis.

Before I quote from both books I want to point out that although MacKinnon and Dworkin don't seem to have changed their native America much, they are responsible for a big change in Sweden. According to Prohibiting sex purchasing and ending trafficking: the Swedish prostitution law by Max Waltman they are responsible for the law there that criminalises men like me.

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Feminism by Margaret Walters page 115

Unfortunately, this legitimate, urgently necessary insistence that rape is, indeed, a serious and violent crime, was distorted by some later feminists. For another American, Catherine MacKinnon, woman is always, indeed almost by definition, a victim. 'To be about to be raped is to be gender female in the process of going about life as usual', she insists.

You grow up with your father holding you down and covering your mouth so another man can make a horrible searing pain between your legs. When you are older, your husband ties you to a bed and drips hot wax on your nipples and brings in other men to watch and makes you suck his penis ... In this thousand years of silence, the camera is invented and pictures are made of you while these things are being done ...

Her friend Andrea Dworkin argued that 'pornography is the law for women', and flatly, without any qualification, equated rape and sexual intercourse. As, indeed, did MacKinnon, who from the opening paragraph of Only Words (1995) offers a terrible paradigm of what she sees as female experience: a primal paternal rape that freezes us in a state of permanent terror. She constantly evokes the image of a once-violated child who can never grow up, who, she insists, lives on in most women, even those who claim to enjoy consensual sex: 'the aggressor gets an erection; the victim screams and struggles and bleeds and blisters and becomes five years old'. This is melodrama masquerading as feminism.

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Difficult Women by Helen Lewis page 312

It is a mistake for 'gender critical' feminists, who question aspects of transgender ideology, to form alliances with right-wing Christian fundamentalists in the US who believe that changing your legal gender should not be permitted. A similar error was made by anti-porn feminists in the 1980s, whose efforts to point out the misogyny of the porn industry and its products were co-opted by religious conservatives into a broader reactionary agenda.* One shared goal does not cancel out such a fundamental divergence in world view.

*'In 1984 antiporn legislation devised by Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, defining pornography as a violation of women's civil rights, was introduced in the Indianapolis city council by an anti-ERA [equal rights amendment] activist, passed with the support of the right, and signed into law by the Republican mayor, William Hudnut,' reported the Atlantic in 1992.

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page 185

Like Pizzey, though, Bindel has found herself at odds with the rest of the feminist movement. She is on the unfashionable side of two of the most divisive and heated subjects in modern feminism: transgender issues and prostitution. She believes that the latter is violence against women, and that sex-buyers should be prosecuted. The current generation of student activists take a more liberal position, stressing individual choice and agency. They argue that decriminalising both sellers and buyers would make the transaction safer.

my day trip to Blackpool

I had been intending to return to Blackpool and I did so on Friday. It was perfect weather for a seaside trip, sunny but not hot. I wrote about the funny little Red Light District in Blackpool, quite near the train station. I notice that it has gone downhill since I was there a couple of years ago. All of the ones in Cookson street seem to be closed now apart from Natalie's and the Thai one at number 23.

It can't be that the police have closed them because then they would all have closed. It must be that either there is less sex work or that it has shifted more from brothels to flats. You would think that women would prefer to work with each other than alone. It could be though that they don't like the brothel taking a cut of the money that they earn. It's a pity that women can't choose to run a place like this for themselves, making the rules for themselves and keeping the profits for themselves.

The Thai brothel is somewhere I wanted to visit. It is run by the same Thai woman who runs the nearest brothel to me, Rock Ferry Thai Massage. She also runs a brothel in Manchester. There is a flat in Southport where some of the same women turn up. From the outside 23 Cookson Street doesn't look nice, it looks a bit run down like the whole area. So I was surprised when I went in. They have done it up to look like the best Thai massage places.

Perhaps there are men who go there who don't realise that they can have full sex with their masseuse. Perhaps some of them are hoping for hand relief. When I went in I asked how many women there are there. There were two. I asked to see both of them. One of them was Nadia, who I have seen before in Rock Ferry. She told me there that she lived in Fulham and worked in Mayfair. I chose the other one though, Jessica.

I would guess that Jessica is about 40. She has long hair and is a bit plump. She has large well-shaped breasts. The best thing about Jessica is that she laughs a lot and is just good fun. I paid £60 and I had a very enjoyable time on top of her. Just the thing you want on a day trip to the seaside. I was using her standard condom but I managed to orgasm easily. I asked her if she would like to contact me when she starts work at Rock Ferry. I told her I would go to see her there. I wrote down my phone number.

Before I left this area to go to the sea front I had a good look round. I tried the door of the Babylon brothel where I had been a couple of years ago, just to see if it really was closed. It was. I hadn't been happy with my experiences in this area, it was overpriced with a poor service. But I got a very good service at number 23 and paid no more than my usual £60.

In one of the side streets is a Thai massage place. Perhaps it is one of those 'legitimate' Thai places where there is no sex, just massage. Or they may just do hand relief. It could be somewhere they have full sex though. There is another Thai place in King Street where there is definitely full sex. I went into their doorway and a short Thai woman came out. I asked her if it was full service and she said yes. I asked her how many women there were there and she said just one. Probably her, I thought. Nothing to tempt me there.

my trip to Amsterdam

I have been to Amsterdam twice this year. I didn't go just to see sex workers. I also went to try cannabis for the first time. You might think that it would be easy enough to try cannabis without going abroad. I try to avoid doing anything illegal though. I often lack the good sense to avoid difficulties, which indeed happened both with the sex workers and the cannabis.

I walked around the Red Light District in Amsterdam for a while before I chose the first sex worker to see. She just happened to be one of the few or maybe the only one who offers sex with or without a condom. She asked me if I wanted to use a condom and - foolishly - I said no. If I had known this might happen I would have taken PrEP. I had some back in England but it didn't occur to me that this might happen.

I had sex with her three times on my first trip to Amsterdam and three times on my second trip. At least the second time I brought my PrEP with me. The first trip was about two months ago; I have had an HIV test and I am HIV negative.

The first time I had sex with this woman I waited a couple of hours and then I went back and had sex with her again. Both times without a condom. The second time was about 5 pm and I decided it was the right time to try cannabis for the first time. I went to one of the 'coffee shops' and bought a spliff of the mildest cannabis that they had available.

It didn't have the effect on me that I expected. I was expecting it to make me feel hungry then sleepy. I was hoping to get a really good night's sleep. It made me feel really hot and thirsty though. It was a bit like being drunk. I had to get home but I wasn't able to read the map. My hotel was an hours walk from the centre of Amsterdam. I managed it by recognizing landmarks.

The second time I smoked cannabis was on my second trip to Amsterdam. I bought a spliff but waited till I was back at my hotel. There was a no smoking rule at the hotel, so I smoked it outside. The next day I bought a cannabis brownie and ate it in my hotel room. It didn't make me hungry or sleepy. I felt rough the next day and didn't get up till after 2 pm. I won't be doing that again.

I had sex with other women too. There are three Red Light Districts in Amsterdam. All of them have the windows where women stand or sit in their bikinis. The main one is in the centre of Amsterdam and is called De Wallen. There is another not far away near to the Singel canal. Most of the windows here are in Oude Nieuwstraat.

I chose Marina, who is a middle-aged woman from Brazil. There are many young slender tall women in Amsterdam but I didn't choose them. I gave all of them a good look though. Marina wanted me to put my fingers in her pussy while she wanked herself. I was happy to do this and I shagged her too.

I like latina women and I had sex with two others apart from Marina. Both seemed a bit younger than Marina and very sexy. The first one was in De Wallen at the end of a street called Bloedstraat. She told me her name and where she came from but I can't remember. Her name was something like Marietta and she came from either Colombia or Venezuela. She was wonderful.

The third Red Light District is in an area called De Pijp. I had sex with another latina there. It was at the end of a street called Govert Flinckstraat. She was wonderful too, they certainly know how to make a man happy. This one talked me into giving her €60, but all the other women charged €50. Even the woman who I had sex with without a condom didn't charge extra (she also let me snog and finger her; I think 'enthusiastic amateur' is the best description). I don't know how long I spent with each one, it seemed to be about 20 minutes.

Another two other women I had sex with were both in Oude Nieuwstraat. One was Dutch, the other Mexican. Both were interesting experiences but not as good as with the other ones.

I didn't stay in De Wallen after about 7 pm, so I can't tell you what it is like late at night. 

One evening I was walking along Barndesteeg. The door to one of the window flats was open and a young woman was hanging out of it. She seemed very friendly but looked a bit strange. I wondered if she was on drugs. I passed by and looked into another window. There was a young woman sitting looking at her mobile. She was wearing a mask. A domino mask. She got up and came towards me. Then I heard her shouting something and maybe some banging too.

I wondered what was going on. There were some people behind me and I thought maybe one of them had tried to take a photograph. They don't like that, it is not allowed. I considered that maybe she had privacy issues - she didn't like the way I looked at her. Women often don't like the way that I look at them, it is perhaps too intense.

The young slender tall women didn't seem to mind me looking at them. I saw one, the most beautiful, standing in the doorway in her bikini. She was taller than most too. I asked her how much and I think she said €100. I think some of them charge €150.

The only younger one that I might have gone with was a really cute one who smiled encouragingly from her window. She was in Monnikenstraat. The other woman who was very encouraging was a woman sitting in lingire in a window up some steps. She saw me looking at her and opened her stockinged legs then closed them. I tried to find her on my second trip but she wasn't there.

The last woman who made an impression on me was a young woman I think in Boomsteeg. She wasn't trying to be sexy. She didn't have loads of makeup on. She was just a young beautiful blonde woman. Perhaps she wondered why I was staring at her but she didn't seem to mind. I wonder if she realises how much happiness she has brought to so many men.

I saw this at the airport

am I being censored?

I just noticed today that many of my posts and one of my pages have been removed from this blog. I will try to rectify this but in the meantime be aware that many of my posts and pages could disappear over the next few days. Anyone who can give me advice on this feel free to comment.

These posts are valuable. The post about the Soho 'maid' Wendy - for example - is about of Soho history. My post about nostalgia for Liverpool and Soho is about Liverpool and Soho history. The information is not found anywhere else. I don't understand why they are violating 'Community Guidelines'.

which way for Britain?

I used to think that the Nordic Model might come to Britain. It already has in Northern Ireland. Recently though it seems that we are moving the other way. Julie Bindel is worried that this might be happening. She wrote an article in December subtitled 'Young Left-wing MPs ignore the exploitative reality'.

In this article she criticises a number of women politicians for speaking in favour of decriminalisation. Nadia Whittome, Dawn Butler, Charlotte Nichols and Zarah Sultana from Labour. Caroline Lucas and Natalie Bennett from the Green Party.

About Nadia Whittome: "She was delighted when feminists lost their fight to put a cap on lap dance clubs in Bristol, despite evidence that men outside the clubs sexually harass women on their way home".

Julie Bindel doesn't give a link to this 'evidence' although she gives links to other things. If you follow the links though they never seem to support the points she makes.

Caroline Lucas used to support the Nordic model but changed her mind after talking to Paris Lees. One link given in this paragraph doesn't have anything to do with Caroline's ideas about prostitution though. It is a link to a debate where Caroline was present but didn't speak.

Another link is intended to support her assertion that 'the psychological damage as a result of prostitution is well documented'. The link is to a study titled 'Posttraumatic stress disorder among female street-based sex workers in the greater Sydney area, Australia'. It is not about sex workers in general, it is only to do with women who are drug addicts and street-based sex workers. They are a minority of sex workers and their psychological damage is as much to do with drug addiction and homelessness as it is to do with street prostitution.

Julie Bindel states that in New Zealand HIV and rape are thought of as "industrial injury".She links to a document called 'A Guide to Occupational Health and Safety in the New Zealand Sex Industry'. The version she links to  is not a seachable version but I found one here. The word "industrial" is not found anywhere in the text. The document is meant to help women avoid harm, it doesn't say that sex workers have to accept harm as a necessary part of what they do.

There can be a sex industry where harm is minimised or a sex industry where harm is not minimised. What is not possible is to have a society without a sex industry. You can try to ban it but it will not work. It hasn't worked in any Nordic Model country.

She believes that legalisation increases trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children. She links to a study done by the London School of Economics. The study however has nothing to say about the exploitation of children. The study says that the more prostitution there is in a country the more trafficking there will be. It doesn't seem to distinguish between women who are coerced and women whose motivation is to make more money.

Some countries have more prostitutes and therefore more trafficking. The study establishes that the amount of prostitution and trafficking increased in Germany. It does not establish that the amount of prostitution and trafficking increased in Denmark or decreased in Sweden. Germany, Denmark and Sweden were the three countries studied in some detail. It says nothing about New Zealand, which is the only country to have had decriminalisation in place for a number of years, where we know there has been no increase in the amount of prostitution.

Denmark has more prostitution than Sweden, but there is no evidence that this is because of the difference in the laws. So that cannot be used to say that there is more prostitution and trafficking because of differences in law. It can even less be said that legalisation causes an increase in prostitution and trafficking ('legalisation of the sex trade increases both' in Bindel's words), and the study does not say that. We know that did happen in Germany, but we already know that what is happening in Germany is not the right way to go.

Bindel writes that "The commercial sexual exploitation of children is rife, for example, the buying and selling of Albanian refugee children in Kent". The article she links to does not say that though. It says that Albanian children have gone missing. It doesn't say anything about them being bought and sold, or even sexual exploitation.

"Tina sold sex from high-end London hotels for years and was forced to sleep in handcuffs every night." I don't know where this comes from. The Space International site she links to in this paragraph has nothing about Tina or handcuffs. It has testimony from 'women who have escaped' but I can't find a Tina. Rachel Moran doesn't mention anyone being forced to sleep in handcuffs every night in her book.

There are horror stories and they want us to believe that they are typical of the sex industry.*

Nadia Whittome gets another mention in an article that suggests there has been a big change in the attitudes of the police towards brothel keeping. The police closed many brothels in the 2010s.

"Commenting on the police officer's remarks, Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, told The Independent: Right now, too many sex workers work alone for fear of prosecution, increasing the risks they face.

Changing the law on brothel keeping so that sex workers could work from the same premise would be an important step in the right direction."

Christine Jardine, a Scottish Liberal Democrat, agrees with Nadia Whittome. So it looks as if Julie Bindel will have to add Christine Jardine to her list of female MPs who she despises, along with Nadia Whittome, Dawn Butler, Charlotte Nichols, Zarah Sultana, Caroline Lucas and Natalie Bennett. She will have to add the Liberal Democratic party to the Labour and Green Party. That seems to leave just the Conservatives left for her.

It's not that Whittome et al ignore the exploitative reality. Bindel and people like her have failed to convince them. Most prostitutes don't get PTSD. Decriminalisation doesn't increase the amount of prostitution, trafficking or the sexual exploitation of children. It's not surprising that people think that Julie Bindel and her Evangelical allies are pearl-clutchers.

What is Julie Bindel's real motivation? Does she really believe that women need to be freed from handcuffs? Or, as a political lesbian, does she think that women shouldn't be having sex with men anyway? Does she think that she can stop some women having sex with some men, which is some way towards her ideal society?

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* The worst horror story that I know of - and a real one - is that of the the four Gonzalez Valenzuela sisters. It's quite interesting but not relevant - it comes from 1940s Mexico. They were the perpetrators, not the victims.

the victims of the Gonzalez Valenzuela sisters

the reality of trafficking

Recently I participated in an internet forum about prostitution (ukpunting.com) where a thread was entitled 'Trafficking'. The man who started the thread began with "Should we report suspected trafficking to the police? Is that a moral dilemma for punters? How do you define it?".

What surprised me was the level of ignorance of most of the other contributors. They really do seem to be confused about the issue. This confusion has led to a great deal of harm to women.

I tried to explain that you have to be very careful what you report to the police. It can result in arrest and deportation for the women concerned. There were two different responses to that. One was to say that they don't believe that women will be deported. If the police don't find evidence of abuse they will leave the women alone. The other was that if they are deported it will be because they shouldn't be in this country anyway. So what's the problem?

Both responses are ignorant, but the second is also callous. When the police find women from abroad they will deport them when they can. There is lots of evidence that this is happening. When Britain was part of the EU women from Romania (for example) were entitled to live in Britain. They were deported anyway. So it's not just people who shouldn't be in this country anyway.

I'm not sure what the situation is now that we have left the EU. What I expect is that women on tourist or student visas will be deported even if they haven't overstayed.

On page 80 of Revolting Prostitutes by Juno Mac and Molly Smith they say this:-

"Police Scotland put out a press release noting that they had refused entry at the border to more than a hundred people as part of their anti-trafficking work - offering as an example a Romanian woman who had 'previously worked as a prostitute in Glasgow'. The BBC reports, 'She was refused admission at Glasgow in May 2017, then again at Liverpool in July 2017 and was encountered recently at Belfast docks attempting to get to Scotland. She was removed to Romania."

They go on to write about another Romanian woman whose sex worker colleague was murdered in her presence. The police 'deported her while claiming a humanitarian anti-trafficking mantle'.

This also happens in Nordic Model countries where they (wrongly) say that women have been decriminalised. On the Nordic Model Now! site Luba Fein writes in the Has the Nordic Model worked? What does the research say? page about Nordic Model countries:-

"While there is no clear evidence that the police are violent towards those engaged in prostitution, they do tend to target undocumented migrants and report them to the immigration authorities for potential deportation. Clearly this is unacceptable and states need to provide better support and assistance to foreign nationals who have been used and abused in the sex trade within their territory."

Most people who support the Nordic Model seem to think that prostitution should be eliminated by any means necessary. They don't care about the women who are harmed. However, Luba Fein believes that it is clearly unacceptable to deport prostitutes.

So even she - a Nordic Model supporter - has compassion for deported women. It surprised me when so many people on the forum didn't have this compassion. It is also a contradictory attitude to have. You want to report a brothel to the police because you think that coercion might have occurred - presumably out of compassion for the women there. Yet if the result of your actions is for women to be deported then you say it doesn't really matter.

You have to question people's true motives. Someone says he wants to free women yet if he knew that the women had not been coerced or deceived but had been deported he says he doesn't care. It sounds like the real motivation is dislike of immigrants.

If you ask what proportion of Brazilian or Chinese nationals working as prostitutes in Britain are trafficked, the answer has to be nearly all of them. They are trafficked because someone will have organised their flight, organised their accommodation, and organized their customers. It's very unlikely that someone who doesn't speak good English will be able to organize themselves.

If you ask what proportion of Brazilian or Chinese nationals working as prostitutes in Britain are coerced or deceived, the answer has to be hardly any. There are many reasons why we know this. You can read what investigative journalist Nick Davies has written in his article Inquiry Fails to Find Single Trafficker Who Forced Anybody Into Prostitution. Read what Emily Kenway has written in her book The Truth About Modern Slavery.

Section 14 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 says that a man who pays for sex with a woman who has been coerced or deceived is committing a crime, even if he didn't know that. 81% of police forces in England and Wales have never used it. The remaining ones seem to be using it for something other than for what it was intended.

It is clear that trafficking and coercion are two different things. Most non-European prostitutes will have been trafficked, and few will have been coerced. People don't seem to be able to distinguish between these two things. They say they will report their suspicions to the police, and if later there are prosecutions for trafficking they feel vindicated.

If a man decides to make money by recruiting women from Brazil for prostitution, he may feel that because they don't have bruises and don't look miserable then nobody can accuse him of trafficking. He will be prosecuted though, and they will be deported.

I was asked on the thread what I would do. I wrote that there should be welfare officers independent of the police. People could give information to them, and the welfare officers could pass on to the police information if they thought that it was in the interests of the women.

I was then told that there are already people like this. There are Dedicated Liaison Officers or Sex Work Liaison Officers. These however are not independent of the police. It doesn't seem that they can be can be contacted by members of the public. That's not what they are for.

I wrote that instead of the police deporting any woman that they can, it would be better if the police or a welfare officer interviewed them. First to find out if they have been coerced or deceived. If, as is usually the case, they haven't then each woman should be asked why she came to Britain. If she says that she wants to stay 3 months, earn £20,000, then go back to China to start her own small business then she should be told she won't be deported if she's out of the country in 3 months time.

She should be told that if she's not out of the country by then she will be found and deported. She will have a black mark against her name because the Chinese government keeps tabs on all its citizens. She may find it difficult to get a job or the sort of job that she would like, and may have problems with custody of her children. That's why I would hesitate to report a brothel to the police, I wouldn't want that on my conscience.

I tried to tell them about the Palermo Protocol but they weren't interested. The Palermo Protocol defines trafficking and was adopted by the UN in 2000. It says that trafficking has to include coercion or deception if the person is over 18. If there is no coercion or deception then it isn't trafficking. That definition was changed in the US and UK. Under UK law now it doesn't have to include coercion or deception. This is where the confusion comes in.

As Nick Davies wrote a while ago in The Guardian:-

"And, from the outset, that word was a problem. On a strict definition, eventually expressed in international law by the 2000 Palermo protocol, sex trafficking involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to transport an unwilling victim into sexual exploitation. This image of sex slavery soon provoked real public anxiety.

But a much looser definition, subsequently adopted by the UK's 2003 Sexual Offences Act, uses the word to describe the movement of all sex workers, including willing professionals who are simply travelling in search of a better income. This wider meaning has injected public debate with confusion and disproportionate anxiety."

I was accused of trying to confuse people. People like me try to confuse people about trafficking. I replied that there are people who want to confuse, people whose interests are served by confusing the issue. I said who these people are. Christian Evangelicals and Radical Feminists in the UK and US. They didn't believe that.

Instead I was told that it is 'UK pro-decriminalisation advocates' who are trying to confuse people. Someone suggested that I am a pimp. That could be the only reason in his mind why I would be reluctant to help the police to raid brothels. I told him that pimps aren't going to support decriminalisation if they understand the issue because in New Zealand pimps have gone out of business. There are far fewer pimps in New Zealand now than before decriminalisation.

It is true that New Zealand has its problems with migrants. I have explained this in a recent post. It's because of section 19 of the PRA which those who campaigned for decriminalisation never wanted and are trying to remove.

Then I was accused of being political even though it wasn't me who raised the issue of decriminalisation. Now I have been banned. That doesn't bother me because there's no point in having a forum if people don't understand how to have a discussion.

my review of the year 2022

It has been a good year for me. I set out to limit myself to one paid-for sexual encounter each month. I have had more than twelve though. Until today I had had twelve paid-for sexual encounters resulting in orgasm and today I had another one. That's better than last year, better than any year (yes I do keep records). As you will know if you have been reading this blog, I don't always have an orgasm.

In January and February I went to my nearest brothel, Rock Ferry Thai Massage. I had sex and orgasms with Emma and Maya. So far so good. I had another orgasm with Maya in April. In April and May I had sex and orgasms with Pepsi at the same place. Pepsi is much more attractive that either Emma and Maya. The second time with Pepsi she let me snog her while I was on top of her, which made it even more enjoyable.

In June I made two daytrips to Sheffield. On the second one Alec at Diplomat let me use one of my thin condoms, which is probably why I had an orgasm with her but no one else. In July I had a daytrip to London, I went to Soho and visited a couple of walk ups.

In June I started going to a flat that I found out about in Southport. Some of the women who go to Rock Ferry Thai Massage also go here. In July saw the lovely Joy again here. When I didn't orgasm she said it was because I had taken viagra. She said next time don't take viagra, she will be able to give me an erection without it.

In September I went to Angel Lodge in Liverpool looking for Megan. Instead I found the very attractive Olivia. I shagged her until I came. In October I decided to go to the brothel in Manchester which is run by the old Thai woman who also runs Rock Ferry Thai Massage. I was lucky to find Pepsi there so I gave her a good shagging.

This month I shagged Joy again at Rock Ferry Thai Massage and this time I orgasmed. It wasn't because I didn't take a viagra, I had taken one. I don't know what difference it makes but sometimes I think that when it is starting to wear off then I get both a good erection and resulting in an orgasm. I've seen Pepsi three times this year and orgasmed twice, Joy two times and orgasmed once. Quite good going for someone of my age.

In my last blog I told you about the new Chinese brothel down by the docks in Liverpool. I have been there six times since October. The first time I saw Yaya. I shagged her without a condom. I recently had an HIV test: you have to wait 7 weeks before you can have the blood test that will tell you if you have the HIV infection. You can have a test kit sent to your home, I did that but couldn't get enough blood from my fingers so I arranged to go back to the GUM clinic where they took my blood. They test for other STIs too. I will get the results soon but I'm not worried, it will probably be negative.

The second girl I saw here was slightly more attactive than Yaya and wanted to use a condom so we did. The third girl was called Ee-purr. I've no idea how she spells it but that's what it sounds like. She was very pretty and young, smiley and chatty. The fourth girl didn't look happy at all. I started thinking this brothel must be a bad place. First a woman who didn't seem to know about condoms and now a girl who looks unhappy.

On the internet someone said it should be closed down. He said that the man who seems to be security there is to stop them escaping. I don't believe that. There was a documentary about trafficking I have written about. A Brazilian woman was deported, she tried to return to Britain, saying that she needed money for uni. A police officer said that the women aren't coerced but they don't know what they are letting themselves in for. They face rape and robbery and therefore it all needs to be stopped.

However, it is the system that makes them vulnerable to rape and robbery. Police activity means they often work alone. At this Chinese brothel in Liverpool they are not going to be raped or robbed with that security guard there. I don't know what the answer is.

A few days ago I went there again. This time it was the most beautiful woman. I like Japanese pornography, one reason is that often they have very beautiful women in it. This woman was as beautiful as any. I asked her name. I thought she said Bingo, I thought what strange names they choose for themselves. I felt a sense of unreality because she was like a dream woman to me.

I went to see her again today. Like the last time I got on top of her and fucked her. This time though I had an orgasm. Both times she had let me use one of my thin condoms. She is very engaging, smiling and laughing, talking and looking at me in the eyes.

I said she should take my phone number so that when she comes back to Liverpool she can text me and I will come to see her again. To my surprise she said yes. She said her name isn't Bingo, it is Bingu. That's her real name. I thought they might not have a bathroom there to keep themselves clean. Turns out they've got a really nice one, I've been in it.

In my last post I said that one thing I like about Meena is that she stays with me for the full half hour after I have orgasmed, massaging me and talking to me. When I saw Joy for the second time this year it was the same: perhaps they are different with regular clients. It was the same with Bingu today.

Sometimes I think what would 'cure' me of my desire to visit sex workers. It wouldn't be a series of bad experiences. It could be a series of wonderful experiences, such as I have had this year. If someone had a perfect holiday, might they consider that they don't need to go on holiday again? They have found what they were looking for. They found the perfect holiday. No need to search any more.

I won't be visiting a sex worker for a while. It might be different when it comes to the summer. If I get a text message from Bingu I shall see her. If I make a daytrip to Blackpool and Pepsi is at this brothel I told you about then I shall see her. I'm tempted to make another day trip to London now that I know Sabrina is still in Greek Street and Poppy is still in Greens Court. I missed out on seeing them on this year's daytrip. I would have to plan it better if I wanted to see both of them on the same day.

I will tell you all about it if I do. In the meantime I will keep myself informed about the legal aspects of sex work and pass on anything important.

down by the docks

I told you that there is only one brothel in Liverpool now. I have found another, down by the docks. I don't think you would want to go there though.

Since my day trip to London in July I have been to Angel Lodge, the brothel in Liverpool that I have told you about before. I was hoping to see Megan, who I have seen several times before. Instead there was Olivia. Olivia is taller, thinner and younger than Megan. She has tightly-curled blonde hair, a light tan and very white teeth. She is also very friendly. I told Olivia that Megan let me use my ultra-thin condoms, if they were in an unopened pack.

Olivia didn't tell me that I could do the same. We had sex with one of her normal condoms but I still had an orgasm. I went to see her a second time. I told her that I had seen a model in a clothes catalogue who looked just like her. So much so that I thought it might be her. The same hair, light tan and white teeth. So, if you want to know what Olivia looks like, go to the Joe Brown's site. Perhaps that look is becoming fashionable.

I have also been back to the Thai brothel in Rock Ferry. I have seen Meena twice. Meena is older and not so attractive but I like her. She lets me use ultra-thin condoms. One of the things I like about her is that after I have had my orgasm she stays with me for the full half hour that I have paid for. She gives me a massage and we talk. I pay £60 to see Meena but only £50 to see Olivia (or £60 if I also want oral sex without a condom).

I told you before that I have been finding out about where the women go when they are not working in Rock Ferry. I know that Joy sometimes works for a couple of weeks from a flat in Southport. I went to see her there. It makes a nice day out. I thought Pepsi works there too, but it turns out another woman I have seen in Rock Ferry calls herself Pepsi when in Southport. I knew her as Emma and I don't like her. She is older like Meena but not friendly.

The old woman who owns and runs the Rock Ferry brothel also owns a brothel in Manchester and another one in Blackpool. I went to the one in Manchester (6 Park Place) for the first time. The old woman opened the door and recognised me. I was in luck because Pepsi (the real Pepsi) was there. I had half an hour with her. I didn't know about this place until recently even though it was in the next street to a favourite brothel that has closed permanently (Salon 24).

The Blackpool brothel is at 23 Cookson Street. I have not been there but I would like to go. Next time I feel like a day out in Blackpool. I have told you about my days out in Blackpool in 2019. I can phone to find out who is there. I can find Pepsi and avoid Emma. Cookson Street is an odd little red light district in Blackpool I have told you about.

When I saw the advert for the new Liverpool brothel I thought it was going to be like the brothel in Rock Ferry but it is very different. I have not been to a place like that except once many years ago in Croydon. You phone the number and a woman answers. She will tell you the street (alley) to go to. It's near the Baltic Fleet pub. When she has seen you then she will tell you the number of the flat.

The door is opened by a Chinese man. He knows little English but gestures for you to sit and wait. He sits in the same room as you. It smells of Chinese food. When the previous customer has finished he will come down the stairs and walk past you to the door. You go up the stairs to a small room.

The woman I saw the first time was young and attractive. She told me her name is Yaya. She speaks next to no English and I realised that the woman I spoke to on the phone is not the same woman. I also wondered if she has washed since the previous customer or changed anything on the bed.

We did some kissing and touching and then I indicated I wanted to get on top of her. I was expecting her to reach over for a condom but instead I got a slightly puzzled look. It took me a couple of seconds for me to realise that I could fuck her without a condom. Foolishly I did. I really enjoyed it.

I had some ultra-thin condoms in my bag but I didn't think to use them. Afterwards she continued to be friendly, helping me on with my clothes. She looked me in the eyes and asked me if I am English. I have an unusual eye colour and she wanted to know which ethnic group has eyes like mine.

Later I thought that if I had known this would happen I would have used one of my ultra-thin condoms. Then I could have gone to a GUM clinic and got PrEP. I have been on it before and if you take it before unprotected sex you won't get HIV. Then I could have gone to the brothel again, fully prepared for any eventuality.

I searched for information about it and realised there is also something called PEP. You can take PEP after unprotected sex. I went to Boots and they said go to the GUM clinic in Liverpool. I went there and they said go to A&E. I went there and they said go to the walk-in GPs surgery in the same hospital. I went there and they said I would have to go back to A&E: they haven't got any PEP.

Two weeks later I went back to the Chinese brothel. A different girl was there. She was prettier, taller and thinner than Yaya. She wanted to use a condom so we did. She hardly spoke any English. I asked her name. I can't remember it because it sounded Chinese but I think it begins with an N. I asked her about Yaya. I think what she said was that Yaya is in London and wouldn't be coming back: there are only 3 girls who return there again and again.

I think the reason these women do this is because they can make a hell of a lot more money than in a garment factory in Shanghai. They aren't looked after properly though. They should all be told about condoms. They should be able to shower between customers. I might go back once more but it will never become somewhere I want to go again and again like the one in Rock Ferry.

I'm not sure I should even call it a brothel because it seems there is only one sex worker there at a time. There is the woman on the phone and the security man. I suppose it might be like many of the 'independent' sex workers in Liverpool. There are some truly independent sex workers in Liverpool. The best system is the one only found in New Zealand: women working together for safety and companionship making the rules themselves and keeping the profits for themselves.

New Zealand decriminalisation model

I have just been reading a blog written by a sex worker in New Zealand. I think that what she has to say is so important I want to repeat it here. This comes from the post What the NZ model cheer squad get wrong on the Dollar Girl Diaries blog.

If what she is saying is true then it seems that the decriminalisation of sex work has succeeded even better than expected. Sex workers are turning away from pimps because they don't need them. I have always said that sex workers don't need pimps, they can work for themselves.

"So, what happened when we introduced decriminalisation? Something totally unexpected. The paradigm shifted and it shifted radically. The brothels and agencies got wiped out, they were forced out of business. Nobody predicted it. But why did it happen? Despite decriminalisation, the casual independent contractor model for brothel work stayed. The owners had no reason to change it, there was a lot of very good employment case law from around the world saying this was legal and changing would both increase their costs and reduce power over the workers. So they didn’t change it. Decriminalisation however meant you could work outside the brothel system without fear of arrest of police harassment. Suddenly independent work was every bit as safe from arrest as the brothel work. The PRA also includes a provision allowing up to four sex workers to work out of a single location and share the costs equally without a license. Only restriction is all have to control their income independently, you can’t pool the takings and share them out. Gives the safety benefits of a brothel without the exploitation of a manager. Of course this means you’re self employed, with all the issues that brings, but without half your income going into somebody else’s pocket, you can put aside for those things.

Now for the first time, brothel workers had a choice. They no longer needed the brothels and agencies to be safe from arrest. They could stay on in the brothels as self employed independent contractors, with the owners taking around half of what they earned and imposing shift fees, late penalties, controlling their shifts to keep them from complaining, pressuring them to take clients they didn’t want etc. Or they could cut out on their own as an independent worker, maybe get together with a couple of other workers and form one of those new fangled small worker collective brothels. Of course that meant facing the perils of self employment, but they were being treated as self employed in the brothel system anyway. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority elected to cut out on their own. The old brothel system very simply collapsed as the workers found they no longer needed it’s protection. The entire industry paradigm changed. The sex industry in New Zealand is now dominated by independent workers and small worker collectives. Before 2003 there were over 400 hundred brothels and agencies in New Zealand, there are 45 left."

This shows that the proponents of the Nordic model have got it wrong when criticising the New Zealand model. Finn Mackay in her book Radical Feminism on page 211 writing about the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) and the International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW). "Both groups commend the approach taken in New Zealand, where brothels of varying sizes from small owner-operated ventures to larger chains are allowed to operate legally, though the ECP favour small owner-operated ventures over larger big business brothel chains. The latter are thriving however under this regime."

Mackay also writes that there had been plans for a 15-storey brothel in Auckland that didn't go ahead. Three brothels in Queensland closed complaining about unfair competition. That doesn't sound as if big business is thriving.

People who believe in decriminalisation are not the pimp lobby. The last thing that pimps want is the decriminalisation of sex work just like the last thing that drug dealers want is the decriminalisation of drugs.

There are some people who will tell you that the amount of prostitution increased in New Zealand after decriminalisation. Mellissa Farley has said this, and so has Samantha Berg. They are both wrong, and I shall show why below. In the case of Samantha Berg, she doesn't seem to understand how statistics work. Just as with her examination of the statistics to do with Norway, she doesn't understand you have to compare like with like. If you have two statistics related to different time periods then they are not comparable. Christchurch had 100 street prostitutes in 2006 and 121 street prostitutes in 2007. However, we're talking about different time periods and different times of year.

more than two types of sex work

In my last post and the one before I pointed out the prohibitionist argument heavily dependent on the idea that there is a minority of sex workers who make a good living and a majority who are drug addicts and pimped. The idea is that escorts etc are unrepresentative - 'tourists' - and therefore their views can be ignored.

It isn't true though that there are only two groups of sex workers and that drug addicts are in the majority. There are many different types. I think that there are 5 main forms of sex work in Britain. It could be that each of them has about 20% of the total number of sex workers.

1. escorts
They work for an agency. Customers phone the agency and the sex worker travels to where he is. This could be a hotel room or his flat or house. Escorts are also called call-girls. Some of them specialize in domination. Some of them specialize in 'sugar daddies' - older men.

2. working from a flat
Some of them will be independent but not all. Customers find their details on web sites such as Vivastreet. He must phone and make an appointment. Ethnic groups involved in this tend to be Eastern Europeans and Brazilians.

3. working in a brothel
Brothels are often called saunas. Phoning to make an appointment might be encouraged but usually a man just turns up. There could be several women working there and he can choose which one he wants. There may be a pimp or madam involved or the sex workers could be working for themselves. Brothels are illegal even when there is no pimp or madam. Ethnic groups involved in this tend to be British and Eastern European.

4. massage establishments
The word 'massage' like the word 'sauna' can be used in the name of a brothel. The massage establishments I am thinking of though provide massage and usually 'extras'. The main extra is 'hand relief' (HR) also called a 'happy ending'. The masseur, after providing a standard massage, will use her hands to bring her customer to orgasm. Another extra is 'body-to-body'. This is where the woman will remove her clothes and rub herself against her customer. She may cover herself with oil and get on top of him. Oral sex and full sex will rarely be on offer. Ethnic groups involved in this tend to be Thai, Chinese and British.

5. street-based drug addicts
Not all street-based sex workers are drug addicts and not all drug addicts are street-based. They don't usually give their money to a pimp, they give their money to a drug dealer. It won't always be the same drug dealer but even so drug dealers, pimps and boyfriends often merge into one. The most common drugs are crack cocaine and heroin. Often they also get money from shoplifting. Homelessness is common.

When I tell people that drug addicts are a small minority they reply that even if that was so we can't ignore them. We have to criminalise men who pay for sex even if it only benefits the drug addicted minority, so they say. However, the Nordic model doesn't help any type of sex worker. It doesn't get rid of prostitution. It doesn't even reduce it. I have written about this many times on this blog.

Not only does it not reduce demand, it also does not help women to exit prostitution. The funds for this never seem to be forthcoming. Also, women continue to be arrested.

The way to help drug addicts is not to give them ASBOs or to scare away most of their clients. It is through rehab, and helping them with benefits and housing. Sometimes prescribing opiods helps.

So it is clear that no sex worker can be representative of sex workers as a whole. I haven't included Soho walk ups because they are restricted to Soho and Mayfair/Shepherd Market. There is one sex worker in each walk up but two women there (the sex worker and her 'maid'). That makes it safer, working alone in a flat makes rape or robbery more likely. Men just turn up and a popular sex worker has many clients a day, more than any other type of sex work.

I haven't included webcam workers because they don't usually have sex with someone on camera although some of them do. Porn stars have sex on camera of course so this is a form of sex work but there can't be that many of them.

Stripping, erotic dancing and burlesque aren't included because they are not providing a sexual service. They might be included in the sex industry though. There are many minor forms of sex work. I have read a web site that includes women going aboard ships.

In many northern cities teenage British girls have been raped by older men. This isn't prostitution. You may say that many women in prostitution are coerced by violence or threats of violence but this is rare. Addiction is a form of coercion and we know the best way to help them. Destitution could be said to be another but I have never met a destitute woman except for addicts.

We have a benefits system. Jobs are available even if they are minimum wage or zero hours contracts. People take them to avoid destitution. Then when they are fed up scrimping and saving some of them turn to sex work. Most women don't.

review of The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry

Chapter 7 of this book is about prostitution and I will limit myself to commenting on this. I will deal with three points that she makes. Otherwise it would be a very long post.

Right at the start of the book we have the idea that an archaeologist will say 'a pit of newborn babies' bones was how to spot a brothel'. One wonders what this is to do with the modern world. If you are interested in the remains of newborn babies in the modern world and not the ancient you will find them in great quantities in the grounds of a Magdalene laundry. The Magdalene laundries in Ireland where young women and girls were incarcerated. The laundries that would still be there were it not for the changes in attitudes in society which brought about the sexual revolution. UPDATE: the Tuam institution was not a Magdalene laundry it was a home for unmarried mothers and babies.

In Chapter 7 on page 147 Louise Perry writes this:-

"Decriminalisation or legalisation of the sex industry increases the demand for commercial sex. In countries that have adopted these legal models, the proportion of the male population who have ever bought sex is higher, and the sex tourism industry is larger. Given that the number of women who will willingly enter the sex trade is small, when demand grows, unwilling women must be sought out in order to meet it."

Decriminalisation and legalisation are two different legal models. I support the former not the latter. The only country that has adopted decriminalisation is New Zealand, although Belgium has recently adopted it too. In New Zealand demand has not increased. Some people say that it has but that is not true. I don't know if it has increased in the Netherlands or Germany. I have not seen evidence of that and Perry offers no evidence.

It is interesting that she uses the phrase 'the proportion of the male population who have ever bought sex'. From my analysis of statistics from Sweden I know that there is a difference between the proportion of men who are active sex buyers and the proportion who have ever bought sex. The proportion of men who were active sex buyers before the Nordic model was 1.3%, after it was introduced it was 1.8%. The proportion of men who had ever bought sex dropped from about 13% to about 8% in the same period.

That is because the proportion who have ever done it will change as older generations become too old to participate in surveys. The cut off age is 74 years old. It will depend on factors such as whether the country was at war or whether they had large scale conscription decades ago. It won't depend on recent changes in law. The proportion of men who are active sex buyers will probably change because of changes in the law but will certainly change because of a financial crisis when men have less money to spend.

When demand grows the existing sex workers make more money. They have more customers and each customer will pay more. It doesn't mean that women will be forced to become sex workers. They may be more incentivised to become sex workers, but that is a different matter.

On page 145 Perry quotes from sociologist Elizabeth Bernstein. These quotes however don't support her assertion that well-paid sex workers are 'highly unrepresentative'. Bernstein quite correctly states that there are two ends of the continuum. There are well-paid sex workers at one end of the continuum and homeless women addicted to crack or heroin who are pimped at the other. That doesn't mean that there are only two types of sex worker, and it doesn't mean that the vast majority are the pimped drug addicts.

In fact we know that drug addicts have never been more than about 15% of the total number of sex workers. That is what Professor Belinda Brooks-Gordon has said*. So does that mean that 85% or more of sex workers are the well-paid sort? That is what you would have to believe if you believed that there are only two types of sex worker. Far from being 'tourists' ie highly unrepresentative, these well paid 'call-girls, escorts, exotic dancers and masseuses' would be the norm.

We know that's not the case though. There are many different categories of sex worker. It isn't true that most working-class women in sex work are drug addicts or pimped. Women who come to Britain from abroad are rarely drug addicts. Most white British working class prostitutes are not drug addicts. There is no 'prostituted class'.

There was a revealing television series called Taken: Hunting the Sex Traffickers. Although they were trying to say that traffickers are evil, they didn't manage to do that. One of the Brazilian sex workers had been arrested and deported. They showed her at the airport returning to Britain to resume her life as a sex worker. She said she wanted money for university. Often women come to Britain so that they can invest in their future.

There was an older Brazilian woman who spoke Portuguese and English. Her job was to answer the phone. Every time she directed a punter to one of the sex workers she got £10. The sex workers got £60 or £70. This older woman was prosecuted for being a pimp and a trafficker.

There are thousands of women in Britain from abroad who use their hands for massage and then sometimes use their hands to bring their clients to orgasm. That is all they do. This is the most visible form of prostitution. In the nearest city to me, Liverpool, there are several of these establishments in the centre and even more further out. They are not drug addicts, and often they are saving their money to invest in their future back home.

When Elizabeth Bernstein was writing about pimped drug addicts, it is important to remember that this in America. In America men are prosecuted for paying for sex. Women are prosecuted for selling sex. Yet still prostitution exists in America and is widespread. So how on earth does Louise Perry think that the Nordic model is going to get rid of prostitution? How does she think that she is going to save the drug addicted women of the world?

Drug addicts are helped by rehab. That is the way to help them. Not handing them ASBOs. Not trying to drive away their clients. Not putting all sex work in the hands of organised crime. Benefits and housing are important too. I support spending more money on rehab, benefits and housing. I support welfare workers who ask sex workers what they need. I know that this doesn't happen in Nordic model countries. That is what they promise, help to exit, but as Dr Geoffrey Shannon stated in the official report into the Nordic model in Ireland this has not happened.

The homicide rate for drug addicts is higher. The mortality rate due to drugs or alcohol is higher. Because some prostitutes are drug addicts that can make it seem that prostitution is more dangerous than it really is. Not letting prostitutes work together doesn't help. Not letting them work together means they work alone or for a pimp. That needs to change. It hasn't changed in countries that have adopted the Nordic model.

I have written more about this book here.

*I can't remember where Professor Belinda Brooks-Gordon wrote this. She is Professor of Forensic Psychology and Public Policy, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck University. In one of Dr Brooke Magnanti's books she wrote that the estimate is between 5% and 20%. On this page the estimate is between 3% and 25%. We can say that the proportion of sex workers who are street based and drug addicted can't be more than a quarter. Especially when you think that some street based sex workers aren't addicts. It certainly isn't true what Janice Turner wrote in the Times this Saturday "The vast majority of prostitutes ... were abused as children, lured in by pimp-boyfriends and muffle their pain with drugs or alcohol".

UPDATE: I have found the statistic. Apparently Belinda Brooks-Gordon said "Lots of people mistakenly think that drug addicts form the majority of people in the sex industry. They do not. They are only a tiny proportion. And on-street prostitution only accounts for about 10 to 15 per cent of all prostitution. Decriminalisation makes it safer for people. It could be made no different to any other forms of business - with age guidelines, health and safety rules and zoning areas."

It was reported in this newspaper article.

Janice Turner in the Times

Janice Turner wrote an article in the Times about prostitution published on Saturday. She gave a statistic, if you can call it a statistic, that is false.

"But research shows men who buy sex are more likely to rape: trading money for consent reduces empathy, makes a man believe only his pleasure counts and increases his likelihood of partner abuse."

She doesn't give a reference for this research. She seems to have copied what Libby Purves wrote last year also in the Times. You would think that Janice could have asked Libby about this research and checked it before repeating it. You would think that the Times would have made sure that the statistic is correct. It seems though that they don't care that they publish false statistics.

I think I know the research that they are talking about. It is Comparing Sex Buyers With Men Who Do Not Buy Sex: New Data on Prostitution and Trafficking by Melissa Farley. I have already written what I think of this research in my posts student sex workers and more student sex workers.

Briefly, I wrote that Farley seems to be withholding information about this study. She doesn't seem to want to tell us whether men who buy sex report that they have raped more often than other men. Even though they were asked this direct question.

What I didn't know at the time I wrote this is that Melissa Farley is known for this. Consider this from Ronald Weizer's article The Mythology of Prostitution: Advocacy Research and Public Policy.

"In trying to make the case that indoor prostitution victimizes women to the same extent as street prostitution, Farley (2006) reported that a British study by Church et al. (2001) found that workers in indoor venues (private residences, saunas) reported more attempted rapes than street workers. In fact, the Church study reported the opposite: that 28% of street workers said they had ever experienced an attempted rape, compared with 17% of indoor workers. Moreover, Farley failed to mention that street prostitutes were 11 times more likely to have actually been raped: According to Church et al., 22% of the street sample compared with only 2% of the indoor sample had ever been raped while at work. This example is a clear case of both inverting and ignoring findings that contradict one's arguments."

In the article Janice also wrote "It is time that the Nordic model, which decriminalises sex work but makes buying it a crime and has been adopted in France, Ireland and Sweden, is debated in parliament."

What she doesn't seem to know is that it has already been debated in parliament. On 04 July 2018 there was the debate Commercial Sexual Exploitation. You can read what I wrote about it in my page Commercial Sexual Exploitation. All my pages are displayed on the right of this screen.

She wrote "The vast majority of prostitutes are not swinging Belle de Jours but were abused as children, lured in by pimp-boyfriends and muffle their pain with drugs or alcohol". This is just complete rubbish, there is no evidence for this. This isn't even true of drug-addicted street based sex workers. They are a small minority of sex workers anyway.

She ends by stating "No man should have impunity when buying a woman’s body, whether out on a stag night or serving his country". I have never bought a woman's body, I have bought a service.

2 new films about sex work

There are two new films that are about sex work. Both are positive about it. The first is Good Luck to You, Leo Grande starring Emma Thompson. The second is How to Please a Woman starring Sally Phillips. Both are well-known comedians.

I found out about the second of these on Woman's Hour this morning. The presenter had no criticism of this film. Someone contacted the show and said how hypocritical they are in saying that men objectify women through prostitution and yet they accept the objectification of men. In both films the sex worker is male. I don't mean trans women, who the Radical Feminists regard as male.

I can see how the Radical Feminists are going to be critical of both of these films. Objectification means different things to different people. It meant one thing to Radical Feminist authors such as Catharine A MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin. It means something different to the majority of Radical or Revolutionary Feminists. It means something different again to ordinary people.

To ordinary people it seems to mean having a sexual attraction to someone outside of the context of a relationship. The idea is that a man is incapable of appreciating a woman's personality if he is lusting after her. This is an idea that goes back thousands of years.

If I have casual sex with a woman, let's say on holiday, am I objectifying her more than if I play a game of tennis with her or a game of chess? Why would sex have that special attribute, different from other activities? If I pay for sex with a woman, am I objectifying her more than if I pay for a taxi driver or a waiter? You can say that sex is different from playing the usual sort of game or working the usual sort of job. That's not answering the question though.

We use people all the time. We meet people briefly, do something with them, and don't want to get to know them further. Casual sex or paid-for sex could be seen as harmful to women, but that is at the very least an overgeneralisation of women. Not all women are the same. Treating all people in a group as if they are all the same is one aspect of objectification, according to philosopher Martha Nussbaum.

The weird thing is that Emma Thompson has had a lot to say about prostitution over the years. She has signed up to Princess Eugenie's organisation to fight trafficking. We all want to fight trafficking, if by that we mean coercion. However, most prostitution does not involve coercion. Some other forms of work also sometimes involve coercion.

Other organisations that have associated with Princess Eugenie's crusade are the International Justice Mission, who say they want to release the captives. However, their hidden agenda is to try to stamp out prostitution anywhere in the world, no matter how many women they harm. They are an American Evangelical Christian organisation.

In the past they have called for and participated in brothel raids in countries such as Cambodia and Thailand. Women are arrested and kept against their will. Most of these women have not been coerced, and so their first experience of imprisonment is in a so-called rescue centre.