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The above and the linked articles are depressing but necessary. The west needs a spiritual awakening from the misery and debauchery.

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May 17Liked by Meghan Murphy

Sex work is work.... they're right. You know what else is work? Slave labour, children in sweatshops and incredibly dangerous mining operations, forced domestics in the countries they are sent to..... we know these things are all reprehensible so why can't we call sex work reprehensible. It is demeaning and terrible, it is dehumanizing. Yes, it is work... but it is the worst kind of work. I wonder how "empowered" these women stuck in these super brothels feel.

Really well written piece.

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Right. Like ok sure, you can say 'sex work is work' all you like, but that doesn't make that framing good or ethical or not horrific in terms of results.

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May 16Liked by Meghan Murphy

thank you. here in new zealand we have absolutely nothing to be proud of when it comes to protecting women and girls from violence.

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Like making abuse legal will somehow make it better?? Nonsense. It's like decriminalizing domestic abuse so long as you're married and she's getting 'compensated' or some such nonsense.

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i was practicing as a barrister specialising in family violence when prostitution became legal here in nz. the effect of the legislation was pretty much immediate and disastrous.

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Ugh

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‘Be careful what you wish for’ comes strongly to mind when looking back at the ‘pioneering’ feminists who championed the notion of ‘we can treat free sex like the men’ which fed into the decriminalisation narrative where we are all just commodifying our bodies. Only they - women - can’t because they are unable to stand up to the ‘rapacious’ quality in men that demands not just sexual ‘accessibility’ to women but imposition over them. And men - the bad ones at least - are just so much better able to impose themselves than the women. They effectively became the masters in this ‘legalised slave trade’.

As ever it comes down to power, control and inadequately investigated cui bono? And as organisations become stronger and extend their reach ever-more into our lives the individuals - men too but especially women - become prey to be exploited.

And when there is so much poverty these days (who is engineering that I sometimes wonder?) it’s difficult to see a way forward.

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founding

Belgium has been famously at the leading edge of the sexual abuse of children for decades. That they have managed to introduce their bureaucratic EU tendencies into left wing Europe’s sexual perversities is hardly a surprise. This article is painful to read but as noted above, necessary.

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