COVID-19 restrictions created life-threatening challenges to female sex workers as they weren’t able to access their medication, support or their clients.
After a change in the law which criminalises the purchase of sexual services, the French government is willing to help only those who wish to exit prostitution for good.
Gustave Boulanger, The Slave Market, 1886.
Wikimedia Commons
From a young age, Neaera was trained for the life of a hetaira, or courtesan. Her tragic story comes to us only through court documents, but she deserves to be remembered.
For centuries, people thought nothing of crowding family members or friends into the same bed.
miniwide/Shutterstock.com
Brian Fagan, University of California Santa Barbara
Today’s beds are thought of as bastions of privacy. But not long ago, they were the perches from which kings ruled and places where travelers hunkered down with complete strangers.
Sex worker rights – fought for at this red umbrella protest in Vancouver – are under threat by ‘hospitality’ programs which ask civilians working in hotels to ‘report’ on their guests.
Caroline Doerksen
While there’s still a great deal that is unknown about sex trafficking, research studies and nonprofits have been able to gather telling data on this industry’s victims and perpetrators.
Trafficking is a very real threat for kids in Nigeria.
Paschal Okwara/Shutterstock/Editorial use only
If India really wants to stop sex trafficking, legislators might consider asking sex workers in Kolkata how they keep the Sonagachi red light district safe and exploitation-free.
Protesters in front the Supreme Court of Canada in 2013 when the court was hearing arguments on the constitutionality of Canada’s prostitution laws.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Canada’s prostitution laws are based on the idea that prostitution is dangerous. Legalizing prostitution doesn’t eliminate the risks of violence and psychological harm.
Sex workers protest in Westminster in early July.
Andy Rain/EPA
Rubbish excavated from brothels sheds light on sex workers’ lives in the 19th century. Despite the dangers, prostitution offered an independent living free of male control.
Young victims remain at risk because current laws are focused on concerns over immigration and the economy.
Legislative issues around prostitution have the ability to lead the conversation and determine research priorities. Here, Terri-Jean Bedford makes a victory sign with Nikki Thomas, left, and Valerie Scott, right, after the Ontario’s Court of Appeal struck down a ban on brothels in 2012.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim