Buying Sex

A Paradigm Example of Unethical Consumption

This week, we bring you an exclusive excerpt from Featured Author and philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith’s 2024 co-authored book, Is It Wrong to Buy Sex? A Debate. In this section, Lawford-Smith argues against those who think women’s autonomy demands permitting a market in sex.

Buying Sex

Holly Lawford-Smith

What are the injustices in the supply chain of commercial sex, specifically, the end product of a discrete session of sexual acts, paid for by a john? Depending on the individual woman, there may be any of a range of injustices, human rights violations, and other harms.

There is human trafficking for prostitution. There are rapes. There are beatings. There is captivity/confinement. There is coercive control. There is psychological abuse. There is drug and alcohol addiction (whether a habit induced by pimps and traffickers, or a coping mechanism adopted by the sex worker herself). There are thefts, including refusals to pay. There is coercion/blackmail (e.g. police officers saying that they will arrest the sex worker if she does not service him for free). There is mistreatment by police and legal officials. There is social stigma, which may prevent sex workers from accessing physical and mental health services that are desperately needed. Any time a man buys sex, he risks having sex with a woman who has had, or is having, any number of these experiences.

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This Week in Sex-Realist Feminism: UK Grooming Gangs, Fertility Idolatry, and No Place Like Home

This week: Julie Bindel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Bari Weiss on the UK grooming gangs, Helen Roy on idolizing fertility, and Ivana Greco on the importance of the home. Plus: defending the privileged girlboss, Dawkins on gender, seasons of motherhood, a Fairer Disputations book club, and more!

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From the Archives:

Mia Döring defends the Nordic Model—which criminalizes the act of buying sex, but not the act of selling it—as the best legislation for combatting prostitution.

Prosecute the Men Who Pay for Sex, Not the Women Who Sell It

Mia Döring

“Prostitution—paid rape—doesn’t exist because of poverty or drug addiction. It exists because men create the market for it. The Nordic Model justly recognizes and responds to this reality.”