Prostitution is increasing because of austerity. A 60% increase in street prostitution recorded in Doncaster is primarily attributed to destitution caused by benefit sanctions,.with charities saying: “Women are being forced to sell sex for £5 because of benefit sanctions.” Sheffield reports a 166% increase (2014) while charity workers in Hull report: “ . . . women who are literally starving and they are out there to feed themselves.”
Price of austerityYes, women working in Chelsea Cloisters are paying a “huge rent” to an “astronomically wealthy” landlord: that is a widespread London experience. Yet women say they feel safer knowing they are not the only sex worker, and neighbours are not complaining — in fact they help one another, as in any good community.There […]
‘When Esther McVey claims there are other jobs out there for me, I would ask her what jobs can fit around caring for a disabled child?’ By Heather Saul Esther McVey stirred controversy last week when she advised the women resorting to sex work because of financial hardship that there are “other jobs” available to […]
Neville Southall’s recent comments on sex work draw praise from Stella Brook of the English Collective of Prostitutes, while Labour MEP Mary Honeyball condemns Catherine Healy’s elevation in the Queen’s birthday honoursNeville Southall’s compassionate, commonsense support for sex workers (‘I’ve got a bit of flak because I stick up for sex workers’, 5 June) is much needed at […]
Last night Sophie Walker, the leader of the Women’s Equality Party responded to a comment by a sex worker on twitter by calling her a “sex bot”. For Walker to disparage and dehumanise sex workers in that way is sickening. Is the Women’s Equality Party not for equality and respect for all women, whatever our […]
(The Guardian, unpublished).Dear Madam/Sir,Like our sisters in Haiti (‘Aid staff would pay more’: sex workers in Haiti speak out), sex workers who have survived disasters and face the calamity of criminalisation every day, must start with our need to support ourselves and our families. Women from Empower, a sex workers collective in Thailand, were in […]
“We wanted to remind people these are women, these are human beings, they have their own realities.”Sophie WilkinsonDoes scary stuff happen on the way? Does stuff jump out at you?” a tourist asks our guide, who informs her it’s not that sort of tour. Because though we’re in east London, close to the scene of […]
LETTER TO THE EDITOR.UnpublishedMick Parkin’s in his article Prostitution Is Not Work – It Is A Uniquely Extreme Form Of Commodification And Abuse joins a long line of men (and women) with apparently no qualms about defining sex workers’ experience for us.He claims to be concerned that our “intimate parts” shouldn’t be objectified but says […]
Stella Winter is a sex worker and the mother of two children. She volunteers with the English Collective of Prostitutes. During the 15 or so years I worked as a sex worker, I estimate that two out of three of the other working women I met were mums. Of course, this isn’t surprising considering 90 […]
The residents, sex workers and activists I spoke to told me it’s only going to force everything into a new area. Last week, Hull City Council won a landmark ruling to create Britain’s first “prostitution-free zone”. The new orders mean that any sex workers or curb crawlers caught around the impoverished Hessle Road area – where […]
A significant number of sex workers in the UK are also mothers, research suggests. So what is it like to sell sex while bringing up a child? “I’m certainly not ashamed of what I’ve done,” Sherri, 42, from Essex says. “And I’m quietly furious about the lack of recognition that myself and other women I […]