prostitution

Jo

After I did my short teacher training course I stayed in touch with several people. One guy I met up with on an irregular basis, purely as a friend. He was pretty geeky, but then so am I, so that was all fine. Then I found out from a mutual friend that he takes regular trips to the far East for sex tourism. The guy is in a wheelchair, so at first, even though the whole idea of exploiting impoverished women who have gone into prostitution in developing countries was obviously upsetting, I found myself making excuses for him to some extent. I know that this is not an excuse, however, plenty of people in wheelchairs have relationships, it is this man’s odious attitude to women that was the problem. Perhaps even worse, I found out that he upskirts women, and has probably done this in my presence when we went out, or has even done it to me. I cut off contact with him eventually, but it makes me sick to think that this man is teaching young women. I hope he has stopped paying to rape women and illegally violating their privacy with upskirting, which is thankfully now an offence in the UK.

Xenofont

I’m male, from Greece. When I was 17, I decided to have my first sexual intercourse at an Athens brothel, like many of my classmates, which was (and probably still is) a common highschool boy practice. I knew my dad had had a similar experience in his time, so I felt okay to tell him about my decision. He encouraged me and even told me that “it is just a transaction,” like buying something and paying for it -so that I would feel okay with it. He implied that, since I am paying, the prostitutes are okay with the deal. Indeed, I went. I don’t know whether the prostitutes are okay with the deal, but I know it took me years to gather enough knowledge and empathy to understand how twisted his approach was and how it actually confused me, my emotions, my sexuality, my attitude towards women, and probably more. I know he thought he did his best. I wish I had a first time with a girl in an actual, loving relationship. And -as all events happening in families- it is not just the one event. The event is a sign of an ongoing mentality in which we are soaked.

Francesca

Being told by my mother that prostitution is a valuable service, because the men who use prostitutes will just go and rape other women.