Demand Change Fact Sheet: “Prostitution: fact or fiction?”

OBJECT and Eaves in the UK have kindly given us permission to reprint this fact sheet on prostitution. Download the high-resolution PDF.

See also:

Examiner.com: “German’s legalized prostitution brought more exploitation than emancipation to women” (5/26/10)
…sex trafficking has increased 11 percent from last year and 70% over [a] five-year period. While many advocates for legalized prostitution argued that legalization should improve the rights of prostitutes and eliminate discrimination, the case in Germany shows otherwise. Rather, the sex industry in Germany became a magnet for sex traffickers from Eastern Europe and African countries. Further, it became a source of exploitation of German as well as other foreign women rather than their emancipation to support their right to sell their bodies. 

The Vice Guide to Becoming a Whore in 2004 (explicit language) 
…No matter what the empowered academics in San Francisco pretend to believe, whoring—in any form—is hell, and the only reason women do it is to get money for coke NOW! If you want to try it out, be prepared to have nothing to show for years of suffering but a blown-out septum and some lumpy fake tits. It’s like extreme waitressing. You make hundreds of dollars a night licking ass and then you immediately spend it on drugs just to feel normal again.

Pioneer Valley Gets 300 Posters This Week to Protest Valley Advocate Escort Ads  (3/21/10)
Contact Daily Hampshire Gazette/Valley Advocate Publisher Jim Foudy and ask him to drop massage/escort ads from the Valley Advocate.

Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations

New York Times: “For Runaways, Sex Buys Survival” (10/27/09) 

Huffington Post: “Break the Chains of Modern Slavery: End Demand”
After years of parliamentary debate, in 1999 Swedes passed the Sex Purchase Law, which criminalized buying and decriminalized selling sex. This placed the emphasis on the buyers, while allowing women to seek help without being fined or deported. In five years, the number of prostituted women in Sweden dropped 40%. Today, the government estimates that less than 400 women are trafficked into the country, while in neighboring Finland it’s 17,000.

Sweden’s Prostitution Solution: Why Hasn’t Anyone Tried This Before?
In the fog of clichés despairing that “prostitution will always be with us”, one country’s success stands out as a beacon lighting the way. In just five years Sweden has dramatically reduced the number of women in prostitution. In the capital city of Stockholm, the number of women in street prostitution has been reduced by two thirds, and the number of “johns” has been reduced by 80%…

Abolishing Prostitution: The Swedish Solution – An Interview with Gunilla Ekberg by the Rain and Thunder Collective
One of the first principles is that if you’re trying to create a modern democratic society where gender equality is the norm and where all men and women should have similar rights and responsibilities, then you cannot legalize prostitution. In Sweden, it is understood that any society that claims to defend principles of legal, political, economic, and social equality for women and girls must reject the idea that women and children, mostly girls, are commodities that can be bought, sold, and sexually exploited by men. To do otherwise is to allow that a separate class of female human beings, especially women and girls who are economically and racially marginalized, is excluded from these measures.

A Closer Look at Sweden’s Success with Reducing Prostitution; Skeptics Rebutted

Bloomberg Columnist Likes Sweden’s Approach to Prostitution

US Department of State: “Prostitution: To Legalize Or Not”