Name: Prostitution Narratives
Brand: Spinifex Press
SKU: 9781742199863
Price: 19.95 GBP
Availability: InStock

Prostitution Narratives

Stories of Survival in the Sex Trade

Edited by: Caroline Norma, Edited by: Melinda Tankard Reist

Published by Spinifex Press

In Stock

£19.95

Format: Paperback
Pages: 238
ISBN: 9781742199863
Publication Date: 01-Jul-2016

Subjects:
Memoirs
Ethical issues: prostitution & sex industry

Quantity

For too long the global sex industry and its vested interests have dominated the prostitution debate repeating the same old line that sex work is just like any job. In large sections of the media, academia, public policy, government and the law, the sex industry has had its way. Little is said of the damage, violation, suffering, and torment of prostitution on the bodies and minds of mostly women and children, nor of the deaths, suicides and murders that are routine in the sex industry. This book refutes the lies and debunks the myths spread by the industry through the lived experiences of women who have survived prostitution. These disturbing stories give voice to formerly prostituted women who explain why they entered the sex trade. They bravely and courageously recount their intimate experiences of harm and humiliation at the hands of sex buyers, pimps and traffickers and reveal their escape and emergence as survivors. Edited by Caroline Norma and Melinda Tankard Reist, the book documents the reality of prostitution revealing the cost to the lives of women and girls. This book will strengthen and support the global campaign to abolish prostitution, provide solidarity and solace to those who bear its scars, and hopefully help women and girls exit this dehumanising industry.

Caroline Norma, PhD, is a lecturer in the school of Global Studies, Social Science, and Planning at RMIT University, and a member of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia (CATWA). She is also the author of The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars (2016).

Melinda Tankard Reist is an author, speaker, media commentator, blogger and advocate for women and girls. She is best known for her work addressing sexualisation of girls, objectification of women, pornification of culture, sexual exploitation and trafficking and violence against women. Melinda is author/editor of five books with Spinifex Press. An opinion writer for a range of mainstream and online media (including ABC and SBS), Melinda is also a regular on morning television and has appeared on ABCs Q&A and The Gruen Sessions as well as many other TV and radio programs. Melinda is co-founder of the grassroots campaigning movement, Collective Shout: for a world free of exploitation, exposing corporations, advertisers and marketers who objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services. An ambassador for World Vision Australia, Compassion Australia and the Raise Foundation, Melinda is named in the Whos Who of Australian Women and the World Whos Who of Women.

Whatever your stand on prostitution, its the first-hand stories of women that have to be listened to first. These accounts are among the most unsettling you will ever read, dispelling in just a few pages the comforting fairytales our society has built around sex work. Steve Biddulph, author of Raising Boys

As you read, be prepared to feel both grief and rage. Prostitution Narrativesforces us to face the routine cruelty of the sexual-exploitation industries and go beyond the diversionary arguments of those who glorify sex work. Most importantly, this book asks men to choose: What do we value more, our own sexual pleasure or the humanity of women? Our answer reveals whether we believe in our own humanity. Robert Jensen, University of Texas at Austin, author of Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity.

One of the women who shared their story in Prostitution Narratives went on to share it in the Daily Mail online. Her article can be read in full using the link below.