Unfortunately the inquiry is now closed because parliament has been dissolved for a general election. However, the evidence collected will remain available for future consideration. Almost all prostitution buyers punters are male and the vast majority of those bought and sold are women and children.
So prostitution is something that men do to predominantly women and children. Men are the subjects and the women and children are objects who must please the punters and allow them to do whatever they want, regardless whether it hurts, humiliates, or threatens their life.
On a societal level, it works to maintain male hegemony and female subordination. It is not possible to understand prostitution without framing it in gendered terms. Our work is informed by women who have lived prostitution. There are many reasons women are unable to speak publicly about their involvement in prostitution, so we have a feature on our website where women can enter their experiences anonymously.
We draw on their words below to illustrate the reality, some edited slightly for length. Sarah said :. Harriet said :. He even drew blood. But I was scared to tell him to stop. I was in his house. What was stopping him from killing me and dumping my body, or taking the money back? A woman who wants to remain anonymous said :. It was horrific.
This can lead to STIs and injuries to internal organs, causing chronic ill-health. Condoms provide little or no protection. A German medical study of 1, prostituted women found most show signs of premature ageing, suffer chronic lower abdominal pain from mechanical trauma, and had injuries deliberately inflicted by punters and from overuse of their orifices. Emma said :. It has truly ruined my life.
