#Prostitution itself is dehumanizing. The societal stigma that blames women and pretends the industry exists because of "nasty greedy nymphos" is just the top layer of hatred. The industry itself hates women. This shows in the way that women have to advertise/are advertised. A 🧵
I'm just going to describe the images I see logging onto a legal #prostitution advertising website in Germany, where supposedly regulation and bureaucracy keep women safe. First the name: "KaufMich" means "BuyMe". Not "BuySex", site owners knows its women for sale, not sex.
Most images are of either women's chests or butts. Some include a face (a powerful blackmailing tool for anyone trying to punish her), but many are just headless shots of (half)naked breasts, butts, crotch. For fetishists there are feet and even pregnant bellies (illegal but nvm)
Images on legal #prostitution advertising sites are frequently really explicit. Women are partially or fully nude, bending over, spreading their legs. I see some images are hidden and marked as "over 18". I don't want to see them, but I got no doubt that's showing genitalia.
Women of course use fake names. But worse than that the names too carry dehumanization. Take a female name and add "horny", "sexy", "kitten", "nasty", "big booty", "blow", "small", "sow", "beast", "slut", "dirty", "porn", "nympho" - or an emphasis on an "exotic" country of origin
The way that johns are visually presented is interesting. The advertising images show young conventionally attractive men in suits and bowties. These images don't match remotely onto how women have to present themselves and of course look little like the actual average john.
Here's an exemplary profile: "HotSexyMouse" #BigBigLady. States her location, last log-in time, age, sexual orientation, body time, height, weight, breast size, whether breasts are natural, origin, languages, smoking, piercings, tattoos, and state of her pubic hair.
Men must pay extra for oral on her, her masturbating in front of them, car dates, sleeping over, a porn vid, pics, swallowing semen, ejaculation on face, a dinner date.
According to the schedule she is available every single day, 7 days a week, from 11:30 to 1 am. We don't know who she is, who is making the money (the woman in question is literally pregnant and bruised, so could well be a trafficking operation) and how many men she has to see.
She has to advertise herself as "I am open minded friendly woman available for hot fun. Meet me at *** for a lovely date. Are there men who like to lick, I'd love that (strange how they must pay extra for it though). I sell short porn vids, 30 hot pics for an Amazon gift card."
There is an "interview" section where she has to answer "steamy questions" to gain more interest. "What was the weirdest request a customer ever made of you?", "What kind of roleplaying do you enjoy", "What do your customers appreciate most about your service?"
The "interview" section asks what sex acts she likes most. She lists "deep throat", "ball licking", "french kissing", "fingering", "oral on me", "anal tongue", "tit massage", "hard doggy", "frontal fuck" and "hot side ways". (No woman in the world enjoys deep throat...)
The ad page finishes with johns reviewing her and her replying that she enjoyed her time with them. This is her advertising page. What can she say on there other than "you know how to treat women right, you big stud." She (or her pimp) must maintain the nympho fantasy for men.
#Prostitution advertising sites reduce her to body parts, body sizes, often skin color and origin, and the essential faux extreme nympho persona thereby dehumanizing her in the eyes of the very men who pay before they have even met her. The industry itself promotes #stigma#hate.
If you're mad that society views women in #prostitution as "dumb bimbos/nymphos" you need only look at the most extreme promoter of this dehumanization: The way that #prostitution advertising works. And it works that way because that's what johns want to see.
Johns are not separate from society. In my country they're about 25% of the male population. They are part of society, they are businessmen, judges, police, academics, journalists... they shape our society. Many people see women in #prostitution as less than because these men do!
The dehumanization of women in the #sextrade is a requirement for its continuance. Men purchasing sexual access to (commonly young, impoverished often traumatized) women can only continue for as long as they see objects, not people. This is why sextrade ads objectify to extremes!
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The life of Joop Wilhelmus - an exemplary tale of many a "#sexualrevolution|ary's" extreme hatred of women and children...🧵
Joop Wilhelmus is born in 1944, son of a Communist, sent at an early age to GDR socialist fraternization camps. Begins writing in leftwing papers at 14. Noticed for his braggadocio, claims of having first had sex at 12 years of age, and attracting "hot chicks" with his politics.
Jumping on the bandwagon of the sexual revolution in the 60s he soon becomes one of the Netherlands' most notorious pornographers, founding (among others) the adult porn magazine "Chick" in 1968. His fans are proud of the fact that he is hated by "the bourgeoisie and feminists".
There's a new website educating about the largely forgotten and understudied history of Nazi military brothel networks during WWII by German feminist historian Anne S. Respondek. "The male right to sex" in full brutal force looks like this... 🧵wehrmachtsbordelle.de/2023/09/12/gla…
During their time in power the Nazi war machine established a brothel network stretching entire occupied territory. Brothels catered to (nearly) every sector of the male population incl. not just soldiers, SS, police and elites, but military allies, workers and even camp inmates.
The history is glossed over in large part because post-war Germany still maintained its hatred of prostituted/sexually exploited women while also wanting to justify its continuance of the prostitution system (openly in the West, covertly in the East).
One of Germanys biggest news magazines, Der Spiegel, headlines:
"We will be ashamed"
Deploring 20 years of failed German #prostitution policy.
Here's the story of how the law let women down, the people (often survivors) ringing the alarm & the politicians admitting the mistake
The article opens with the story of "Lena" (20), the victim of a "loverboy" pimp, a trafficker who makes their victim think they're in a loving relationship - in Lena's case a martial arts world champion. Atypical about her story is that he got sentenced to 6 years and 3 months.
Lena's story is not a singular case, the article explains. There are countless women and some men & trans people trafficked to Germany annually. Most traffickers dont have a day in court nevermind the men literally paying to rape, the latter's actions are only criminal since 2017
Every femicide in the sex trade warrants action and no country is doing enough to stop men using lethal violence against women in #prostitution. But the radio silence on the recent case of a woman murdered in a German apartment brothel, compared to the Irish case is deafening.
I don't think anyone can prove their case on what policy is better based on homicide data alone because as far as I'm aware no country is tracking murders of women in prostitution specifically. The cases and survivor reports we do have indicate lethal violence is a concern always
In any country, call it "legalization", "liberalization" or "decrim" women in #prostitution are given advice on how to not get robbed, raped, and murdered on the job from organizations that speak of #sexwork. Clearly, it remains a significant concern under all models of law.
Reading about legal experts and sexologists who work with child rapists repeatedly going "oh, if they'd just pay someone 18+ for it, it's totally fine!" and the totally fine thing is cutting someone's skin or keeping someone in a basement for a dozen men a day. I'm furious.
Women in prostitution are not sponges for rape and abuse. Not only are men very capable of raping both their stepdaughter and the barely 18-year-old woman at the brothel, a disproportionately large number of women in the sex trade are themselves child sexual abuse survivors.
Some women in the sex trade have reported that men tell them "I chose you because you look like my niece/daughter/granddaughter/student". How does that make her feel esp. considering the significant chance she is a survivor of incest/child abuse? Why are "experts" endorsing this?
Having made terrible experiences with window #prostitution in Amsterdam, the city plans to build a mega-brothel euphemistically called an "erotic center" instead. 100 women in rooms plus social and health service, security, hospitality, entertainment, education & cultural events.
In Germany, we call these places "mega brothels" and we have many of them. The biggest is the Pascha brothel in Cologne with 150 individual rooms. Such places may also include strip clubs, restaurants, spaces for concerts and business meetings. None of this has made women safe.
Not only are mega-brothels dehumanizing to the women in it, presenting them often based on "flavor" as in sorted by race or transgender status, bouncers and cameras have not made them remotely safe. The Pascha in Cologne has seen drug and human trafficking + 1 murder & 2 attempts