empowerful“…But I do feel a special place of contempt for the absolute army of twenty-something, socially privileged, very well educated, young white women, who speak about prostitution in terms of “sex work” and “empowerment” and this utter nonsense when they have spent years educating themselves… in order to keep themselves out of the social class of women who are most commonly used in prostitution.“And you know… formally prostituted women like myself have been delivered and expected to digest the most galling lie about our own histories, that is, we have been told that our imprisonment was liberty – that our slavery was freedom. And when we talk about prostitution, we’re talking about an area of life where women are ritualistically coerced, abused, forced, and silenced. And somehow, in some magical realm that is dressed up as reality, we are expected to believe that these deeply dis-empowering elements add up to empowerment. This is bulls**t, and it is dangerous bulls**t – so blatant that it is worthy not only of our utmost contempt, but of our relentless resistance. And it comes from one particular category most forcefully: and those are the women, the young, white, privileged, college educated women I’ve just described.”

—Rachel Moran, Irish feminist activist and author and founder of SPACE International (Survivors of Prostitution-Abuse Calling for Enlightenment) speaking in an interview with Resistance Radio.