UN prostitution and violence report sparks 'sex work' industry backlash - yes, really

Countries that legalise and profit from the exploitation of prostitution torture are Pimp States aka sex traffickers. Anastasia Sprout, Advocate for Children's Rights to Innocence

Dec 04, 2024

Sex work is not work - it’s prostitution and torture

I've spoken with many women who exited commercial sex or self-trafficking as I call it, who said, ‘I had no idea that I was involved in prostitution. It was sold to me as something else. I thought it was fun… I thought it was glamorous.’ But in the end they took on incredible shame and self-blame from those experiences and could never hang on to the money.

The other benefit of being honest about what it actually is, it's easier for society to comprehend the high levels of complex post-traumatic stress, dissociation and functional life difficulties that survivors of prostitution and torture suffer.

Anastasia Sprout, retired Psychotherapist (who was sex trafficked as a child)

Presentation by Anastasia Sprout

Published November 2, 2024 - Run Time 15 mins

Pornography as a School for Sexual Abuse and Violence

A dynamic coalition of mental health professionals who know that sex work is not work - it is prostitution and torture, includes retired licensed psychotherapist turned coach and advocate for children’s rights to innocence, Anastasia Sprout. They meet regularly to explore best practices for treating the profound impacts of sexual betrayal trauma and sexual addiction on women and girls.

In 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner Special Rapporteur issued a global call for papers regarding prostitution and violence against women and girls.

Anastasia Sprout and her co-authors Alison Dearborn and Lacy Elena Bentley wrote a paper entitled Pornography as a School for Sexual Abuse and Violence: A Review of Culturally Approved Harms to Women and Girls. The co-signatories were Heather Cronemiller, Jeff Goodman, Claudia Holly, Deborah Wunderly.

Their paper was accepted and published on the UN website and also referenced in the final report written by UN Special Rapporteur (reporter) Reem Alsalem. Her comprehensive report was presented to the UN Human Rights Council at its 56th session in June 2024.

The report sparked a massive backlash from the sex industry’s pro-sex work propagandists who accused Alsalem of being ‘gender critical’ for recognising a distinction between sex and gender. They also used abusive name-calling tactics, accusing her of being anti-trans, a Nazi, genocidaire and extremist. How charming.

Hot on the heels of the backlash, the European Network of Migrant Women issued an expert statement on the matter and produced a paper called European Pimp States Oppose Protecting Vulnerable Women From Abuse of Prostitution. (Brussels, June 27, 2024)

Over 300 papers were submitted. Link to Submissions: United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls

UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls
Women and girls constitute the majority of those in prostitution. International law has recognized that prostitution is incompatible with the dignity and the worth of the human person and has included prostitution as a key element for the crime of trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has very importantly called on States to “take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women”.
Background, UN Website

UN report calls out sex industry for gaslighting

Anastasia Sprout’s Sex is Not Work - It’s Torture presentation focuses on UN Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem’s report which essentially called out the sex industry for gaslighting and argued against using the term ‘sex work’ given the immense harm experienced by women and girls in prostitution.

Terms like ‘sex work’ sanitise the harmful reality of prostitution and wrongly depict prostitution as an activity worthy and dignified as any other work.

It's not, and I'm telling you this as someone who has been trafficked as a child, was used in pornography and prostitution, and who told myself that it was fun, it was good, it was powerful, it was pleasurable and all the things I self-gaslighted, which now happens on a global scale. The truth is, it is not worthy and dignified as any other work and any honest person who has done this will agree with you if you say that.

Anastasia Sprout, retired Psychotherapist

(Image Source: Sex Work is Not Work - It’s Torture presentation)

Presentation transcript notes

Sex Work is Not Work - It’s Torture

Anastasia Sprout: It is important to use terminology that aligns with international human rights law and standards. Terms like ‘sex work’ sanitise the harmful reality of prostitution and wrongly depict prostitution as an activity worthy and dignified as any other work.

Backlash from pro-sex work propaganda machine

After Alsalem’s report was released, there was backlash from the sex… rape industry. If you look at the history and current practices of the sex industry, you will see that it is oriented around and profits off of rape and their allies, so of course they sent in a well-funded pro-sex work propaganda machine.

They ignored the actual issues in the paper and simply did a strawman attack for Alsalem, personally, using the same old abusive name calling tactics that they've used on porn protectors, people like myself, who have stood up for children's rights to innocence.

They called Reem Alsalem gender critical because she actually stood up and said that there's a distinction between sex and gender and it matters. They called her anti-trans, a Nazi, genocidaire, extremist. What she's doing is standing up for the rights of women and girls and that is what I am doing and that is what everyone needs to do.

After the backlash, the European Network of Migrant Women issued an expert statement on the matter and created a paper called European Pimp States Oppose Protecting Vulnerable Women From Abuse of Prostitution. (Brussels, June 27, 2024)

Quotes:
~ Prostitution reduces women and girls to mere commodities and perpetuates a system of discrimination and violence that hinders their ability to achieve true equality. (Alsalem)
~ Pimp States are those who legalise and profit from the exploitation of prostitution and this debate included Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Croatia and Switzerland. And then the European Union joined the Pimp States.
~ By continuing to focus on a tiny minority who say they are free in prostitution (the pretty women) when compared to all women and girls who have been victims of prostitution, we hold women and girls hostage to no action, and allow states and societies to get away with not addressing underlying causes that push women and girls into prostitution. (Alsalem)

Root causes of prostitution

We need to look at the bigger picture of what's really going on here. Root causes of prostitution include:

Pervasive structural inequalities between women and men aka ‘Male Supremacy’ or the ‘Toxic Patriarchy’
Women's disadvantaged economic position
Sex, ethnic and racial discrimination
*Neglect, violence and untreated trauma are disproportionately higher in women

*Anastasia: Working as a psychotherapist specializing in treating women and girls who have compulsive sexual and pornography use, what I've seen is they have suffered tremendous neglect, violence and untreated trauma. This is disproportionately higher in women and we're seeing it now more than ever.

The use of precise and appropriate terminology as recommended by Reem Alsalem is crucial in addressing the issue of prostitution and sexual exploitation. Alslalem highlights that terms such as ‘sex work’ can trivialize the severe violence inflicted on those involved in prostitution. Instead, it is imperative to adopt language that accurately reflects the reality of the exploitation, violence and coercion that is prostitution.

This distinction is not merely semantic. It shapes the legal, social and political frameworks within which policies are developed and implemented.

More key findings of the UN report from the Special Rapporteur

By using terms that recognise the exploitative nature of prostitution, we ensure that the focus remains on protecting the victims, holding perpetrators accountable and dismantling the systems that perpetuate such abuses. This clarity in language fosters a more truthful and effective dialogue on human rights and aligns with international legal standards while prioritising the dignity and well-being of all individuals.
Prostitution must be urgently recognised as a system of violence, exploitation and abuse that disproportionately affects marginalized and vulnerable women and girls from low income backgrounds who are displaced.
The violence and abuse inherent to prostitution where coercion, physical violence and psychological manipulation are common, negates any meaningful notion of voluntary participation especially for women who are poor and therefore vulnerable to economic coercion and pressure.
Prostitution leads to significant health damage inflicted on women including high rates of sexual abuse, reproductive harm and mental and physical injuries.
It is absolutely brutal what happens to women and girls who are sold, and girls. We need to look at this.
The report advocates for an abolitionist approach that prioritizes the criminalization of buyers and pimps while decriminalizing those in prostitution, coupled with comprehensive support services and exit strategies.
The report highlights how the proliferation of pornography including AI-generated content perpetuates harmful stereotypes, distorts healthy sexual norms and contributes to the objectification and exploitation of women and girls globally.

There is no separation between prostitution and pornography

Pornography can constitute sexual exploitation, a filmed form of prostitution. And I know from the research that when people actually talk to women in prostitution, they say that there's no separation between prostitution and pornography now.
If they are engaged in a transactional sexual experience, very often with no consent, the John or the buyer will pull out their cell phone and start creating pornography of them. They may broadcast it live or they may capture it for their later use and there's no additional payment for that. This happens all the time.
Anastasia Sprout

Prostitution is Torture Paper

Prominent prostitution researchers, Farley and Kennedy, 2024, created a Prostitution is Torture Paper - Torture and its sequalae among prostituted women in the United States. They found that extreme violence and psychological abuse have been extensively documented and are pervasive in prostitution.
Survivors of prostitution report high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociation, depression and self-loathing. These are the same sequalae reported by torture survivors.
…Severe forms of violence have been categorized as torture by experts - we have a consciousness about what torture is. This includes strangulation, rapes, beatings, restriction of movement, denial of privacy, sleep or food and being forced to witness the torture of others.
Torture is commonly suffered during prostitution and should be appropriately named.
The benefits of calling physical, sexual and psychological torture, ‘torture’, are holistic treatment for victims that can include medical and psychological, torture rehabilitation interventions and peer support, as already established by state sponsored torture victim treatment models.
The reduction of survivors' shame and self-blame.

We need to call torture torture and not romanticize it

Anastasia: I've spoken with many women who exited commercial sex or self-trafficking as I call it and said, ‘I had no idea that I was involved in prostitution. It was sold to me as something else. I thought it was fun, … I thought it was glamorous but in the end they took on incredible shame and self-blame from those experiences and they could never hang on to the money.

The report and the UN call for a cultural shift

Reem Alsalem’s report challenges the status quo, demanding a re-evaluation of how societies address the exploitation of women and girls. It calls for an immediate shift toward policies that uphold dignity, human rights and equality for all. Melissa Farley et al’s findings implore accurate language. We need to call torture torture and not romanticise it.

In conclusion, prostitution is not sex work. It is a system of violence and exploitation, especially of poor and marginalized women.

Prostitution is not sex work, it is torture, and countries that legalise and profit from the exploitation of prostitution torture are pimp States aka sex traffickers, legalising and profiting off of torture. So we have entire countries that are actively sexually trafficking and they're hiding it behind this gaslighting language. And we do not want the entire world to become this. Thank you.

Anastasia (Staci) Sprout

Pornography is Not Entertainment, It's Torture - Pt 2

Presentation by Anastasia Sprout

Update 17 December 2024

Pornhub's new owners at ''Ethical'' Capital Partners have insisted on keeping Asa Akira as Pornhub’s brand ambassador when they know she has openly admitted to wanting to sexually abuse a particular child and has said ''shoutout to my pedophiles'' among other disturbing declarations.

The fact Pornhub is still open for business is mindboggling and a true confirmation that justice is an illusion.

Source: Total Disclosure - https://t.me/totaldisclosure - Alessandro exposes human trafficking, pedophilia, high-profile murders, illegal migration, and secret societies.

Further information: https://www.totaldisclosure.net

Video run time: 2 mins 20

Until next time. Remembering American writer and anti-pornography campaigner Gary Wilson (1956 - 2021). More information: Your Brain On Porn