(3) Foreword to the US edition

"Ideologues who wish to lie convincingly have learned that fake “statistics” are very good at persuading the mathematically-illiterate to embrace ideas they’re already predisposed to believe.
That goes double when the subject is sex and quadruple when the subject is sex work; it seems that no figure, no matter how outlandish nor how blatantly in defiance of the laws of logic, psychology and physiology, is unbelievable to the average person as long as it serves to advance the narrative that sex is dirty and harmful, and that anyone involved in the sex industry must be either a victim or a villain."(4)

[Lijkt me erg waar. ]

"While there are many ethical academics who have produced sound research on sex work and sex in general, there are also many unethical ones who don’t hesitate to craft bogus “studies” designed to produce false results intended to uphold an anti-sex agenda; how is a person with experience in neither science nor the sex industry to tell the difference?"(4)

"In the face of this assault, sex workers and ethical academics are faced with the daunting double task of not only getting the truth out, but also of debunking the myths and bogus statistics with which the prohibitionists hope to confuse and bamboozle those who don’t have inside knowledge that comes from either deep study or lived experience."(5)

"Dr. Magnanti has one more important credential: she’s an engaging writer whose award-winning blog on her time as the London call girl Belle de Jour inspired several books and a hit television series, Secret Diary of a Call Girl. So even if math isn’t your strong point, fear not; this book is written with the same style and wit that have made her a popular writer for over a decade, and strips away the dangerous nonsense the modern-day Puritans have used to cloak their moralistic crusade in the veneer of science."(6)

(9) Introduction

"When it comes to sex, the habit of making constellations is so pervasive that the truth can be hard to see. Myths, assumptions, and preconceptions dominate the discussion even when there is rational evidence to the contrary."(11)

"The problem when it comes to emotive and controversial topics, especially sex, some of the people claiming to be experts are nothing of the kind." [mijn nadruk] (14)

"This book will examine the evidence behind topical stories we hear every day. In particular I will look at several tropes media seems to never get enough of: children and sexualization, porn and violence, sex work and trafficking. Research in these areas often overlaps, and I’ll be investigating the good, the bad, and the ugly of the stats we hear thrown around all the time. Who’s telling the truth, and who’s trying to pass off fake numbers to sell their agenda? And whose agenda is it anyway? The results, I think, may just surprise you."(14)

(15) Chapter 1

"Did You Know…
- Sexualization does not have a single definition, and is contextual
- Changes in modern media are not linked to earlier, or riskier, sex among teens
- Good research shows young people and parents are the best judges of what’s appropriate
- Poor conclusions are being used to push ill-considered laws"(15)

"Let us begin with one of the most widespread myths. In almost every article touching on topics from social media to sex work, the arguments are underpinned with the belief that exposure to sexual images is invariably and irreversibly corrupting. The idea that the very sight of sex or sex workers turns women into mindless sexbots and men into drooling predators. This assumption is the foundation on which other myths are based."(16)

"Sexualization then, however it’s defined, is something these writers believe can’t coexist with intelligence or informed decision-making."(17)

"UK policy is being spoon-fed to the government by some of America’s most extreme conservatives, and people are lapping up everything they have to say without questioning where it comes from. Right-wing think tanks are not the only source of dud stats, the left does it too."(23)

[Magnanti heeft dezelfde kritiek als ik heb op allerlei rapporten over seksualisering vanuit overheidsinstanties in de bekende periode rond 2010.]

"Now, the difference between ‘sexualizing’ images aimed at children and actual pornography created for adults is apparent, and using such a study as a reference in a discussion of sexualization is suspect. When looking at how well a review makes its arguments, it’s essential to ask whether the evidence being presented is not only accurate, but relevant."(30)

"There is a lot of conjecture about sexualization. But there is no evidence to justify the grim and worrying pictures of youth gone wild. Responsible research shows parents and children aware of the dangers of too much too soon. Most importantly: kids are astute judges of what is and is not appropriate. And the ‘secondary effects’ trumpeted by the left and the right? Do not exist.
This issue is a well-trod path with a predictable outcome, and demonstrates how biased polls are used to push bad agendas by shadowy interests."(37)

(39) Chapter 2

"Did You Know…
- Strip clubs are not linked to violent crimes
- Porn use is not linked to violent crimes
- The most-quoted studies claiming they are contain fatal flaws
- Poorly designed research often tries to look like real statistics"(39)

"The stated aim of Lilith was, according to its website, is ‘to eliminate all aspects of violence against women.’ A worthy ideal and important issue. But it doesn’t necessarily equal good science."(41)

[Volgt een prachtige analyse van dat onderzoek: het wordt met de grond gelijk gemaakt, en terecht. ]

"To a layperson, cargo cult science and real science look similar in that they contain numbers and try to come to some sort of conclusion. But even if the Lilith report had managed to get its arithmetic correct, there still would have been clues that the look and feel of real research was being imitated, and the content wasn’t up to scratch."(48)

"The Cornwall data reinforces the same thing the statistics from Camden show: that lap dancing does not correlate with a higher occurrence of rape. And if there is no rise, then it is impossible to claim lap dancing ‘causes’ rape."(52)

"The theory that adult entertainment causes ‘secondary effects’ comes straight from radical 1970s feminists who believed that all heterosexual sex was rape. As time went on, they accrued the money and academic positions to allow them to craft bogus studies to fit their assumptions.
Poor research starts from an assumed position, and any data falling outside of that position are ignored. The writers are biased and try to make the numbers to fit their preconceived notions rather than what it actually is."(53)

"What people hear in mainstream media is limited to studies made by people with an agenda against adult entertainment.
Many anti-porn arguments rely not on what is testable and verifiable, but are based instead on the untestable and unverifiable opinions of highly biased, self-selecting interviewees."(55)

"t’s acting, after all – what’s on screen is not the way the people are in real life. Hard-core kink scenes can have entirely willing, consenting participants. ‘Vanilla’ soft porn could include people who are coerced, trafficked, or abused. Making conclusions based on the plot is silly, and no way to be an informed consumer."(61)

"Reliable studies contradict any connection between porn and violence. ‘There’s absolutely no evidence that pornography does anything negative’ says Milton Diamond, a professor at the University of Hawaii in an interview in Scientific American.[xxviii] ‘It’s a moral issue, not a factual issue.’" [mijn nadruk] (62)

"Does this prove that, in fact, internet access and violent films actually reduce rape and violent crime? No, not really. Not yet. There would have to be a lot more research – from many more angles – to even begin to support such a claim. Again, correlation is not causation. Bu they do disprove a common assumption."(65)

"In general, men who are sex workers are inconvenient to anti-sex work campaigners. Their existence makes the ‘porn and prostitution are violence against women’ line demonstrably untrue, and goes against the neat categorizations of men as always predators and women as always victims. So what do the majority of biased researchers do? Ignore them altogether, unfortunately – leaving the bulk of what we know about men who have sex with men (money involved or not) to HIV research alone."(67)

"But misinformation, as it turns out, is not rare at all when the topic is sex."(69)

(69) Chapter 3

"Did You Know…
- Laws to “control” sex work put sex workers at more risk of danger
- Decriminalization, not legalization, offers the greatest safety
- There is a robust, well-funded industry of poor research profiting off of harm done to sex workers"(69)

Beschrijving van de situatie na 1860 in de VS, waar vrouwelijke prostituees een goed leven hadden.

"This was not unique to the US West. As noted by Hallie Rubenhold, author of Covent Garden Ladies, late 18th century London was similar. Sex workers were part of the community: “there were no red-light districts, how prostitutes lived cheek-by-jowl with everyone else in their neighborhoods.”" [mijn nadruk] (74)

"Stereotypes of sex workers lead people to believe they all have chaotic, desperate lives. Until recently the UK government’s website claimed: ‘Most women involved in street-based prostitution are not there through choice … Nearly all prostitutes are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Many of them have been trafficked into the country by criminals, and are held against their will. Many were abused as children, and many are homeless.’[xliv] There were no sources given for these statements – for the simple fact that they are wrong. (The false information has since been removed.)"(76)

"Sex work is an attractive job for migrants, many of whom are unable to access benefits in their adopted countries."(77)

"On a day-to-day basis, sex workers are more likely to have a negative encounter with police than they are with a client. They are as likely to be raped by the police as helped by them.(...) Demonizing sex workers and painting them as criminals makes them more vulnerable, and puts them in direct contact with more violence."(78)

"House prices and the appearance of propriety was what mattered, not sex workers’ safety and health. The only result desired – and obtained – was that the streetwalkers moved to a less populated area. It is a result that puts them at higher risk of risky working practices, and of attack."(80)

"This also a knock-on effect on how sex workers are viewed by the public. If someone who has ever done sex work is murdered, her death is reported in the media not as ‘woman killed,’ but as ‘prostitute killed.’ Fiction, news, and ideology all spend a lot of time emphasising that it’s usual, and even acceptable, to think of these people as inherently bad."(83)

"Sex workers are targeted because of the message society sends about their lives having no value."(84)

"But the message sent by recent laws is only making that job harder. In Ireland, where Swedish-style laws were recently passed criminalizing parts of sex work, attacks against sex workers are on the rise."(85)

"Increased migration brought a greater prudishness to the West. As churches began to overtake saloons, new arrivals were shocked by toleration of prostitution. In 1890 an alliance pressured the US Congress to form a national crime commission to investigate the sex trade. When Congress refused, the busybodies started their own."(86)

"With a combination of dodgy methods and underhand tactics, opponents of prostitution transformed their morality crusades into political power.
Reports that are written today are the intellectual heirs of these dishonest tactics, designed to sway government policy and force public opinion into line with their agendas."(86)

"Many self-described second wave feminists like Farley continue their campaigns with little or no supporting data. For instance, radical feminist Julie Bindel wrote in 2010 ‘prostitution is both the cause and consequence of inequality between men and women,’[lxiv] a logical impossibility if ever there was one."(89)

"So why is it popular, if the results are difficult to track and point towards causing harm? Not because of the evidence – but because it fits a preferred ideology in which sex workers and their clients must be punished."(92)

"Hold on a moment – if only 3% of outreach organizations support the Swedish model, why are there so many groups apparently pushing for it? Because those groups that do, and the people in them, are not frontline outreach. They are not the ones staffing drop-in centres, sitting in vans, handing out condoms and coffee to women on the streets on a winter’s night. They are fronts for ideology-based lobbying efforts and never come into contact with the people whose livelihoods they are trying to take away."(93)

"Despite occasional setbacks like in Canada, the sex worker rights movement continues to grow. Groups like the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW), and the Desiree Alliance in the US, are made up of sex workers who have much to say about the policies affecting them. Sex workers have started to appear in debates, on television and radio, and even in cover stories for the New York Times Magazine discussing their fight for rights."(98)

"The prohibition approach has not worked. It will never work.
Moral disapproval is a bad basis for policy making. The condescension heaped on people who do sex work is embarrassingly transparent. All this mealy-mouthed, 'Oh, but we want to help them, really.’ By saddling people with criminal records and taking away their children?" [mijn nadruk] (99)

(100) Chapter 4

"Did You Know…
- The numbers widely quoted about trafficking are incorrect
- Trafficking is more common in agriculture and domestic service than in the sex industry
- Many notable anti-trafficking charities have been proven frauds
- Most laws against sex trafficking instead target and harass non-trafficked workers"(100)

"The closer we look at the truth about trafficking, the more we find not women and children being saved from terrible fates, but powerful agencies claiming money and attention for themselves while the people they supposedly rescue are arrested, deported, and fall through society’s cracks."(102)

"The problem starts with a deceptively simple question: how many trafficked sex workers are there? It’s an easy question to ask, but almost impossible to answer. That hasn’t stopped people who have claimed to know the answer from claiming unrealistic totals though."(103)

"Media coverage equates all trafficking with sex trafficking, but most trafficked people are brought in for domestic labour, agriculture, and food processing.(...) Not all trafficking is sex trafficking of women. Of national referrals made in the UK in 2009, 74% were female, 26% were male. Sexual exploitation accounts for 43% of victims; the rest are trafficked for manual and domestic labor. In 2016, the Crown Prosecution Service noted the proportion of trafficked men had risen to 40% (but still reported these incidents as ‘violence against women and girls’ anyway). When they break down trafficking categories by age, all children are assumed to be female." [mijn nadruk] (104)

[Wat een onzorgvuldigheid bij al die instanties. En natuurlijk zijn er redenen om die cijfertjes te manipuleren. ]

"If people who cross borders voluntarily can be called ‘trafficked,’ then what is ‘trafficking,’ exactly?"(109)

"Radical feminist Julie Bindel, perhaps best known for her statements that all men should be locked in prison camps, claimed ‘[s]tudies have found that at least 70 per cent of women working in UK brothels are trafficked from places such as Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.’ This had to be retracted later by the newspaper as no such study exists." [mijn nadruk] (111)

"Nick Davies, who reported on the phenomenon, commented, ‘… the cycle has been driven by political opportunists and interest groups in pursuit of an agenda … an unlikely union of evangelical Christians with feminist campaigners, who pursued the trafficking tale to secure their greater goal, not of regime change, but of legal change to abolish all prostitution.’" [mijn nadruk] (112)

"Rarely, if ever, is the definition of trafficking explained in the media. This violates the second principle of the realistic estimate: show your work clearly. It’s the kind of sloppy calculation that throws all conclusions into question. It's bad Fermi."(113)

"A 2016 report from the US Justice Department recorded 1,130 arrests of underage individuals for prostitution in 2009. If you think this is rescue, think again - young offenders get not just detention and court fees, but criminal records that can exclude them from being eligible for social services, as well as making difficult to rent homes, get jobs, and apply for loans. The "victims services" offered to them at the time of arrest, if any, amount to no more than missionary and faith-based programs, or referrals to shelters that won't accept young people with criminal backgrounds." [mijn nadruk] (125)

(128) Chapter 5

"Did You Know…
- A network of far-right interests fund misleading research and campaigns worldwide
- There are links between anti-trafficking campaigns and white supremacy, anti-LGBT efforts, and abuse of women in institutions
- The money allocated to anti-trafficking is almost always misspent"(128)

"Are prostitutes spreading sexually transmitted infections? Many believe sex workers play the central role in the transmission of STIs to the general public. But a huge amount of research over the past twenty years counters this belief.
Studies consistently show high rates of condom use in sex work, and low risks of HIV and other STI for women sex workers. Cohort studies have shown a low incidence of HIV infection in sex workers in Europe (0.2 cases per 100 person years in the United Kingdom). Decriminalization reduces HIV epidemics, averting 33-46% of infections in some countries.
Despite an increase in the rate of STIs in the general population, sex workers have shown a decline in infections. In the Netherlands, where prostitution is legal and workers’ health monitored, sex workers have a lower rate of sexually transmitted infections than swingers." [mijn nadruk] (128-129)

"Which is unsurprising because the entire ‘World Cup’ disease publicity was part of a strategy devised by Hunt Alternatives Fund to tie international sports headlines to hype about sex work and trafficking.
What is the Hunt Alternatives Fund? It is a private foundation started in the 1980s by Swanee Hunt - the daughter of right-wing US oil tycoon HL Hunt, a man who believed votes should be distributed to citizens according to their personal wealth.
Offshoots of HAF include Demand Abolition, a group that sources false information and distributes funding to a web of like-minded anti-sex work initiatives. Under these and many other names Hunt’s billions are used to lobby for draconian developments in laws relating to prostitution. Hunt Alternatives Fund's campaign attacking sex work was developed with the help of Abt Associates, one of the largest for-profit consulting firms in the world." [mijn nadruk] (132)

"The Hunt/Abt strategy values lobbying above evidence.(...) Celebrity power is a huge tactic from the prohibition toolbox."(134)

"In Hunt’s view, there is no way to distinguish between willing and unwilling sex workers, so why bother trying?(...) This assumes that no participants in sex work have any agency. That solely by the act of having sex for money, one is rendered incapable of self-determination. That’s a ludicrous assumption, with nothing to support it."(135)

"Hunt’s involvement in stopping sex workers is so all-pervasive that it needs several guises. Demand Abolition is a Hunt project; so too is Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) which has rolled out across the US. Swanee Hunt’s deceased husband was a known client of escorts; whether his widow’s abiding interest in punishing sex workers is due to some personal vendetta is impossible to confirm. The fact remains that her money buys an awful lot of bad science, harmful policy, and moral panic disguised as concern. And those involved with Hunt can expect ample financial rewards." [mijn nadruk] (136)

"To be clear: none of these groups offer direct front line services, legal aid, retraining programs, or shelter to affected women. What they do provide is very comfortable incomes to ideological partners in their anti-sex worker mission. Looking over the list of beneficiaries of the Hunt Alternatives Fund, one sees many familiar names: Julie Bindel, Gail Dines, Melissa Farley. Conspicuously absent is input from sex workers themselves." [mijn nadruk] (137)

"Hunt Alternatives and Abt Associates are not the only groups using this kind of approach. The Schapiro Group, a market research firm in the US, regularly produces press releases with an anti-sex work bias."(138)

"Charities and other groups which purport to ‘attack’ the problem of sex work and ‘save’ the victims of trafficking are little different."(144)

"Groups receiving funds are not made to collect data, nor prove the existence of a local trafficking problem before securing grants."(145)

"If you look on Twitter, for example you’ll notice that in the US alone there are more accounts for groups supposedly raising awareness of trafficking than there are actual documented victims. The money is literally going to groups to tweet amongst themselves."(146)

"There are also the academics, researchers, and writers who earn their living not through hands-on effort, but by attracting grant funding or setting themselves up in tenured college lectureships. And it can be very lucrative.(...) This is over twenty times what the average sex worker earns in the US annually."(149)

"With their heads stuck firmly in ideology instead of reality, self-appointed experts respond to the inconvenient truth not by adjusting their beliefs but by creating “alternative facts.” Over and again the factually-challenged echo chamber driving this agenda disseminates bunk data. Skewed statistics and biased media reports are vital to the process. Consider why the issue of trafficking is seldom seen from the migrant’s point of view – a point of view in which cops are not heroes, and laws that claim to “save” them equal deportation and abuse."(153)

"Like Trump, anti-trafficking campaigns put opponents on the back foot with a constant barrage of untruth. And as much as these groups claim to detest the current administration, they are unlikely to criticize what has to date been a lucrative income as pimps of the Rescue Industry."(154)

(155) Chapter 6

"Did You Know…
- The “Swedish Model” is not decriminalization
- Anti-sex work campaigns recruit and heavily coach survivors while ignoring their real stories"(155)

"Research backs up what Jannine already knows to be true: after being displaced by police, sex workers are pressured into riskier work practices[cxi] and lose access to outreach and health services.[cxii] They experience double the amount of violence from clients[cxiii] - even senior police officers admit “operations to tackle the trade are counterproductive & likely to put women's lives at risk.""(156)

"This does no favours for women like Jannine. The campaigners are not staffing the drop-in vans or homeless shelters where women like Jannine are found. They are at international conferences in 5-star resorts, talking about feminist theory and being ‘a voice for the voiceless.’
The mistakes made over and again by lobbyists and policymakers come from a failure to listen to the people with the most at stake: sex workers themselves."(157)

"Sweden’s 1999 law that criminalizes the buying of sex has been shown conclusively not to eradicate sex work.[cxvi] But more to the point: its supporters claim it decriminalizes prostitutes, harming only the “pimps and johns.” This is untrue.
Sex workers from countries where these laws have been brought in say over and again how the laws make their conditions of work worse."(158)

"Racism and xenophobia underpins much of the trafficking narrative. It’s consistently used worldwide: from images showing young white girls being manhandled by dark-skinned men, to the repeated Donald Trump claims about “Mexican rapists” in the 2016 US presidential election."(161)

"In September 2017 Julie Bindel released a new text claiming to tell all sides.(...) The title 'The Pimping of Prostitution,' is ironic given anti-sex work crusades demonstrably attract and spend far more money than shoestring operations like rights orgs do.(...) But while supporters paid a premium for the content, does the book deliver?
In a word: no. While advertised as a scholarly work it lacks any academic rigor. Most of the references are self-citations of privately published reviews written by Bindel and Melissa Farley. Peer review? What peer review?" [mijn nadruk] (172-173)

[Volgt een harde maar zeer terechte kritiek op Bindel. ]

"When discussing sex workers condescension drips from every word and it is clear she is used to having the floor to herself. Unable to take criticism or debate (the launch party for her book at "independent intellectual venue" Conway Hall expressly forbade sex work activists), disgusted by the humans she so profitably claims to save." [mijn nadruk] (175)

"Enforcement of current laws should come before creation of new laws. Trafficking is already illegal. Breaking immigration laws is already illegal. Exploiting another person sexually for one's own gain is already illegal. The public, when asked, tends to agree that ensuring current laws are enforced is better than adding another layer of agencies, laws, and potential problems on top if the ones we already have."(179)

"As someone who, by the way trafficking is counted, is supposedly ‘trafficked,’ it feels like the diverse voices of migrants are ignored. Instead others elect to speak for us. Who does this benefit? Only the ones getting paid for keeping the panic alive." [mijn nadruk] (180)

(181) Chapter 7

[Mooi begincitaat:]

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’ Isaac Asimov"

Dit hoofdstuk bestaat uit de notulen van een hoorzitting van een overheidscommissie waaraan de auteur deelnam.

(242) Afterword

"Along with the news media, feminism also has a charge to answer. Feminism has joined the anti-sex bandwagon in a big way. Not just by blaming men for inequality between the sexes, but perhaps more profitably and successfully by blaming other women."(245)

"Consider Julie Bindel's book which claims its remit is ending violence against women. If that is the case, why is so much of the text given over to attacking sex workers, specifically a large number of women? If as Bindel and her ideological mates claim their aim is to end demand for sex, why do they only ever attack the service providers? People like her want to have it both ways: claiming to save women by monstering them. Demonizing bad women to make more space in the discussion for themselves. And, by extension, more money."(245)

"When in doubt, follow the money. Over and over again the people fronting these campaigns are connected to industries with vested interests, radical right-wing think tanks, or anti-LGBT lobbyists. The deputy editor for the New Statesman previously worked at the Mail and is rumored to have subedited Jan Moir when she wrote a viciously homophobic column about Stephen Gately’s death. Arch feminists like Julie Bindel write for staunchly right wing, regressive magazines like the Spectator and willingly shares stages with the likes of alt-right figurehead Milo Yiannopoulos."(249)

"It’s notable that almost all of them – save a few token faces – are white. Poverty, migration, and homelessness are not part of their daily lives. When challenged, columnists like Julie Burchill and Suzanne Moore resort to bragging about all the lobster and champagne their unresearched writing buys them. None have experience or education in the field they claim to be ‘experts’ on. Their puddle-deep analysis is misleading and dangerous."(249)

"What was most maddening about the analysis after I came out as an ex-sex worker who is now a science researcher was the discussion about me as an object and not a person. Not so much by the tabloids I’d feared, as the feminists I’d revered.
It is clear that in some minds, to be a prostitute at all is to be a prostitute only. It’s very patronizing. They believe having been a sex worker at any time strips you of any other permissible identity and defines you absolutely."(251)

"The intellectual dishonesty of someone like Bindel, who claims to be ‘silenced’ and a ‘free speech’ advocate yet uses archaic laws to try to silence opposition, is staggering."(253)

"Few seem to care that the people doing this are all a couple of degrees of separation from known anti-LGBT and white supremacist orgs in the US. All anyone wants is to see the naughty, naughty sex lady be punished. They don’t care how it’s done or who does it. This, I was told, was the price of being a sex worker in public."(254)

"It would be unthinkable to have a discussion about women’s rights that did not involve any women. Or a discussion about race that did not include people of color. But time and again when the topic is sex work, sex workers are not simply ignored, they are actively excluded."(256)