|
menu | |
search | |
forums | |
resources | |
| |
| News: Revealed: the truth about brothels |
Revealed: the truth about brothels
A survey into London's off-street sex industry has exposed just how
widespread it is - and documents in disturbing detail the plight of the
women trapped in it.
Julie Bindel The Guardian Wednesday, Sept 10, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/sep/10/women.socialexclusion When Frank rang a brothel in Enfield, he could hear a baby crying in
the background. When Alan called one in Southwark, he could make out
the sound of a child asking for his tea. And when Mick called another
to inquire about their services, he was told that he could have a
"dirty Oriental bitch who will do stag nights, anal, and the rest."The
men were undertaking research for Big Brothel: a Survey of the
Off-Street Sex Industry in London, the most comprehensive study ever
conducted into brothels in the UK. The project, which gathered
information from 921 brothels in the capital, was commissioned by the
Poppy Project, the only British organisation that offers support for
women trafficked into prostitution.My co-author Helen Atkins and
I recruited male friends and colleagues to help with the research, and
warned them that the work might be upsetting. They were to telephone
brothels, posing as potential punters, with a list of questions
including "What nationalities are on offer tonight?", "Do the girls do
anal?", "How about oral without a condom?", and "What age are they?" We
wanted to look at what really goes on in brothels - how much control
the women really have; whether there is evidence of trafficking; if
local councils are giving licences for saunas and massage parlours when
it is clear that they are brothels; and how the sex industry is growing
and evolving. During 120 hours of telephone calls, we
established the following: at least 1,933 women are currently at work
in London's brothels; ages range from 18 to 55 (with a number of
premises offering "very, very young girls"); prices for full sex start
at £15, and go up to £250; and more than a third of the brothels offer
unprotected sex - including, in some cases, anal penetration. The
lowest price quoted for anal sex was £15. "Come along and bring your
mates," said one brothel owner. "We have a Greek girl who is very, very
young." While kissing used to be off-limits for women selling sex, it
can now be bought for an extra tenner. Of the brothels
researched, 85% operate in residential areas. Almost two-thirds are
located in flats and more than one-fifth are in a house. Wherever you
are in the city, the likelihood is that buying and selling women is
going on under your nose.Our researchers contacted only brothels
that advertised in local newspapers - not those that advertise on
websites or on cards in telephone boxes. Because of this we only
uncovered the tiniest corner of the trade. But we still encountered
brothels in every London borough, with Enfield (a typical residential
area of north London) having a minimum of 54, and Westminster at least
71. We estimated that the brothels we surveyed made anything from £86m
to £209.5m in total per year through newspaper advertisements alone. Although
it is a criminal offence to advertise prostitution services, the law is
not enforced, and this "blind eye" approach serves the pimps and
punters well. Researchers also interviewed women who have
worked in London brothels, and all reported having felt degraded and
violated while selling sex. This tallies with previous research: one
large US study on prostitution and violence found that 82% of women had
been physically assaulted since entering the trade, with many having
been raped. More than 80% were homeless, and a majority, on and
off-street, were addicted to illegal drugs and/or alcohol. UK research
published in 2000 found that prostitutes routinely face sexual and
physical violence from pimps and punters, but have little or no
"workplace" protection. One of the women we spoke to was Naomi,
who, like many prostitutes, has a history of childhood sexual abuse.
When she ran away from home, she met a man who pimped her - first into
hostess clubs, then from a private flat. "It's an unsettling, unhealthy
experience seeing 20 guys a day," she says, "and you don't know what
the next person will be like".A common assumption is that
brothels are safer than the street, and while it seems that women are
more likely to be murdered if they are working on the streets, the
prevalence of rape and other attacks from pimps and punters is also
high in brothels. "The men have up to an hour to do what they like to
you," says Janet, who was pimped into a Leeds brothel when she was 15,
"whereas at least on the street you can always try to run away."Rachel
told us about the reality of how much money the women make, as well as
the inherent danger in the off-street trade. "Flats are set up to be a
rip-off, to be truthful with you, because you're not going to make
money for yourself." Rachel made about £200 a day, but after paying
card boys, rent, the maid, and her "protector" (pimp), she came out
with next to nothing. "And you're not guaranteed security at the end of
the day."Alice brought it home to us just how accepted and normalised prostitution has become.
"You sit in a basque, in a window with your red light on. When you get
a client you close your curtains and turn your red light off. That
starts from eight in the morning."The minister for women,
Harriet Harman, is determined to curb the massive trade in women's
bodies. Last week she released findings from a Mori poll of more than
1,000 British adults on attitudes to paying for sex. It found that the
vast majority of both men and women polled would think it
"unacceptable" if a partner paid for sex; the majority would support a
law that criminalised paying for sex; and around half would back a law
that decreased the number of women being trafficked into the UK.As
our researchers discovered, brothels market women merely as
merchandise. Frank was offered "two for the price of one" if he visited
during "happy hour" (any time before 5pm). One brothel owner offered to
send two women to the punter's home for a £50 delivery charge; another
offered free oral sex without a condom if more than £50 was spent; and
at one suburban sauna, first-time buyers were offered a voucher which
entitled them to 50% off the next visit.We primed the telephone
researchers to look for evidence of trafficking. There was plenty.
Brothels offered women of 77 different nationalities and ethnicities,
including many from known-source countries for trafficking. One
researcher was told by a brothel owner, "For no condom and anal, call
tomorrow. Eastern Europeans promised later in the week."One
punter I interviewed for another research project told me that in
choosing a woman, "I made a list in my mind. I told myself that I'll be
with different races eg Japanese, Indian, Chinese. Once I have been
with them I tick them off the list."Many people are unhappy that
this research has been done at all. The pro-legalisation lobby do not
seem to want the horrors of what goes on in brothels exposed,
preferring to present such places as being similar to an office
environment; simple, clean, consensual workplaces. Punters are also
unhappy about public exposure of brothels. One frequent customer at a
Soho brothel told me, "I don't know why people have to research
prostitution - the army shoots innocent people, fast food poisons
people; no one wants to research them. It's the only job that has no
downside. It only brings pleasure to the customer."Some of the
male researchers had previously been liberal about prostitution. Frank
had thought that legalisation would be beneficial to the women, and
Mick believed that some would be happy earning good money. By the end
of the project, all the men considered prostitution to be a violent and
abusive industry, and perceived the punters as harmful misogynists.
Nigel said that after weeks of talking about sex to third parties in a
cold, clinical way he realised that the women were being used as
nothing more than a product. "The idea of sex started to be devalued
and demeaned, its sanctity lost," he says. Tony was shocked at the
number of brothels. "They're on high streets, down alleyways and in
suburban two-up two-downs."Unless we think about sustainable and
substantive solutions that will eventually eradicate prostitution, it
will continue to grow at an alarming rate - research published last
year found that in just 10 years, the number of men paying for sex in
the UK almost doubled. What Big Brothel shows is that
commercial sex is becoming as normalised as stopping off for a
McDonald's. There are two key ways that the UK can respond. We can
legalise the trade, make the women pay taxes, and declare the pimps to
be legitimate businessmen. Where brothels have been legalised- in
Amsterdam, for instance - the illegal sector continues to flourish.
Since brothels were legalised in Melbourne, Australia, more than 20
years ago, the number of unlicensed brothels has trebled. Few
prostitutes will pay tax, as the act of registering their trade is too
stigmatised, and their lives are often too chaotic. There is no
evidence that legalisation keeps women safe, but there is plenty that
shows it results in an increase in demand for the sex trade. In
Australia, $11.3bn was spent on prostitutes and strippers last year,
and the trade is growing at approximately 8% a year. The other
option is to bring in a law that makes paying for sex illegal, while
helping to educate the public that prostitution is not a victimless
crime. This has worked in Sweden, where such a law was introduced nine
years ago, and 80% of Swedes now support it. Trafficking into the
country is now lower than in any other EU nation. This is the approach
that government ministers Harriet Harman and Vera Baird support.Most
men do not pay for sex. Those who do need educating about the harm that
prostitution causes to women and society in general. Some will only
stop if they are frightened of the consequences, such as one charmer
who told me, "If she isn't crying but says no, I keep on. I only stop
if she is really crying."Others are able to justify to
themselves what they do, simply because it is not against the law. When
I asked why he pays for sex, one regular punter told me: "It's like
going for a drink. You are not doing anything illegal." At the moment,
he is right. Let's hope the government has the courage to change that.
|
|
|
|
Associated Topics
|
|
| |
myth-heard by men | |
Of those who were born as men, all that were cowardly and spent their life in wrongdoing were transformed at the second birth into women. ...Such is the origin of women and all that is female. -Plato Timaeus (ca. 360 B.C.) |
| |
ms-heard by women | |
They preach that I should save the world They pray that I won't do a better job of it -Dar Williams |
| |
SMBerg Links | |
site dedication | |
|
|