Prostitution Narratives

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.

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 including Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (Spinifex Press, 2009), now in its 9th printing, Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry (Spinifex Press, 2011, co-edited with Abigail Bray) and her new release (Spinifex Press, co-edited with Caroline Norma) Prostitution Narratives: Stories of survival in the sex trade. 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 ABC’s 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 sexploitation, 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 Who’s Who of Australian Women and the World Who’s Who of Women.Caroline Norma 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). Caroline is a contributing author to the collection of essays in Big Porn Inc: Exposing The harms of The Global Pornography Industry ( Spinifex Press 2011). She is also the author of newly released The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars, (2016).