We were very grateful for the opportunity to interview writer and prostitution survivor Rose Hunter, whose memoir Body Shell Girl was released in 2022. Campaigns Manager Caitlin Roper sat down with Rose for a discussion on myths and misconceptions about the sex trade, the problems with 'sex work' terminology, Lily Phillips, women’s ‘choices’ and supposed empowerment, as well as why we support the Nordic or abolitionist approach to prostitution legislation rather than full decriminalisation (which decriminalises pimping, brothel keeping and sex buying).
We include some highlights from Rose below.
Don't women choose prostitution?
I would ask immediately why are they choosing it, because not all women choose it. According to the research it does tend to be a certain situation that a woman is in that makes her choose this, so it’s not a free choice…
The second reason women often choose it is addiction issues like I had, alcoholism that make it difficult to keep another job, [or] because of past abuse which makes what’s happening seem normal… Another reason women choose it is because of the way we are indoctrinated in our culture to self-objectify, so it doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch.
How the language of 'sex work' normalises the sex trade and funnels more vulnerable women into the industry
I don’t think it’s a good term to use, firstly because it legitimises this industry and erases the harms of this industry [and] makes it seem like a job like any other, which from my experience it certainly was not.
The more we normalise it, the more young women are going to think, ‘Well, it’s okay’ and get caught up in it. And that was my story.
The indoctrination I was subject to at university very much played a role, which was very much ‘sex work is a legitimate job like any other’, and a lot of people said that who had never done it. I heard that and I think it probably played a part in me going to that first interview at a massage parlour. I thought, ‘Maybe it’s okay.’
Wider culture of sexual objectification and harassment contributes to women entering the industry
As a woman in my mid-twenties in Canada, I got harassed a lot… This sort of thing accumulated day after day and I thought, I may as well get paid. It’s happening anyway, so let’s just get paid, and that’s the argument I see a lot from women who are in favour of this industry – 'society is terrible, it’s objectifying, so let me get paid for it'. And I understand that attitude as it was my attitude for a quite some time. But then I came to see ... that getting paid in the short term had bad consequences for me in the long term.
I was just very cut off from my own body, so people that I didn’t want touching me did not seem that strange. I just thought, ‘Well, I get paid for it so it’s okay’, and I definitely see that attitude a lot – 'if you get paid, its okay'. And it took me a long time to question that, and question where did that come from – why did I think it was okay to be abused essentially if I got paid?
Rose and Caitlin explain how the Nordic/abolitionist model works, and why exit programs to assist women in leaving the industry are so important.
Watch the full interview here.
Rose Hunter is a writer and prostitution/sex industry survivor. Her latest book, Body Shell Girl, is a memoir in verse that tells the story of the first two years of a decade she spent in different parts of this industry in Canada. She is also the author of several other books of poetry, and has been widely published in literary journals in Australia, the USA, and Canada. Her article about the Nordic Model approach to prostitution/the sex industry was published at the ABC, and she has been a guest on Radio National. Rose currently lives in Brisbane, where she is completing her PhD in Creative Writing.
You can find Rose’s book Body Shell Girl, published by Spinifex Press (one of our Corporate Pledge Partners!) here.
See also:
Sex with 100 men in 24 hours: Opportunistic men and a young woman’s self-harm
Body Shell Girl: The Sex Industry, Men’s Violence Against Women, and “Choice”
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