Examines the arguments surrounding the controversial debate on prostitution and its legalisation
Draws on over 250 interviews from people affected by, and involved with, prostitution from all around the world, from trafficked women to legal brothel owners

Paints a truly global picture of the lived realities of women in contrast with the current political and moral debates

Autorentext
Julie Bindel is a renowned investigative journalist, and has written extensively on religious fundamentalism, violence against women, the international surrogacy trade, mail order brides, trafficking, and unsolved murders. She writes regularly for The Guardian , New Statesman , Truthdig and Standpoint Magazine , and frequently appears on the BBC and Sky News. She was Visiting Journalist at Brunel University, UK (2013 - 2014) and is now on the advisory board for www.byline.com.

Klappentext
'This book is comprehensive, authoritative, personally revealing, and a clear headed rage against a tide of modern double think. It will help feminism untangle itself from all the knots of faux progressiveness about prostitution, which is repackaging sexual abuse as empowerment. Bindel is a fearless, uncompromising voice who deserves to be universally heard.'Janice Turner, Times Newspaper columnist
'A profoundly impressive piece of reporting and polemic into a commercial industry. You may love Bindel's work, you may profoundly disagree with it. But it will never leave you indifferent, and it will always make you question, which is why there should be more of it.'Rose George, Author and journalist
This book examines one of the most contested issues facing feminists, human rights activists and governments around the globe the international sex trade. For decades, the liberal left has been conflicted as to whether pro-prostitution activists or abolitionists hold the correct view, and debates are ongoing as to who holds the key to the solutions facing the women and girls involved.
Over the course of two years, Bindel conducted 250 interviews in almost 40 countries, cities and states, traveling around Europe, Asia, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and East and South Africa. Visiting legal brothels all around the world, Bindel got to know pimps, pornographers, survivors of the sex trade, and the women being sold by men classed as 'business entrepreneurs'. Whilst meeting feminist abolitionists, pro-prostitution campaigners, police and government officials, and the men who drive the demand, Bindel uncovered the lies, mythology and criminal activity that shroud this global trade, and suggests here a way forward for the women seeking to abolish the oldest oppression. Informed by the lived human experience of those interviewed, this book will be of great interest tofeminists, students, criminal justice advocates, criminologists and human rights activists.

Inhalt
Introduction.- Chapter 1. The Abolitionist Movement.- Chapter 2. The 'Sex Workers' Rights' Movement.- Chapter 3. Sanitising the Sex Trade.- Chapter 4. Realities & Consequences of Legalisation.- Chapter 5. The Invisible Man.- Chapter 6. Human Rights and Wrongs.- Chapter 7. Aiding the Fight for Legalisation: AIDS & HIV.- Chapter 8. Fighting for Rights, or Parasites?.- Chapter 9. Sex Trade Academics.- Chapter 10. A Queer Defence of the Sex Trade.- Chapter 11. Surviving the Sex Trade.- Conclusion: The Way Forward.