Heart, I really hope that I have not caused you too much trouble, for I do know they will not “attack” me, but vent onto other radical feminists.
I think you have shown a great deal of courage to continue to publish the actions and words of exited prostituted women.
Thanks for allowing their truths to express the terrible conditions that are in the sex trade.

Satsuma - I was not just writing about men, but also women who are pro-sex trade and then called themselves feminists. They are a group that can be very patronising to exited prostitutes who dare to speak out. Maybe they will not never change their views, but I still believe it is important to say my opinions.
Although I know all male violence is interconnected, I also think it is very important to say how being in the sex tradeis different.
For I would framed it in the language of torture and deeply connected to human rights. For most men who use prostituted women and girls see them as non-humans.
This means I would view it as rape or battery, or should framed as sadism - rather as torture where the men wank into the woman or girl who becomes an object. She becomes a a piece of property that any man can use and do whatever he wants.
Framed as torture it will be seen the mental, physical and sexual abuses are, leaving no space for trauma, and can only be survived by closing out the reality.
This closing out includes acting tough, including believing that you are in control, imaging what should be happening rather than knowing the violence.
It needs to heard that prostitution affects trust issues with both men and women. It needs to heard that that exited should their truths in their own words, and just have to fit into whatever stereotype the listener wants.
I see there are connections with rape, child abuse and domestic violence, but listen and hear the differences.
For me feminism is about letting women say say their truths in their own words.

When it comes to pornography and prostitution, radical feminism gets at the “father load” of profit men make in both these enterprises.  The use of women’s bodies is the ultimate male industry, whether it is a single wife controlled by a violent husband, or a group of male athletes out to chase women down in bars, the end result is the same.

I personally think it is a lost cause to try to get through to men on this subject.  They really have no clue.  But what men fear the most is when all the women all over the world suddenly wake up.

when that happens, women will be free.  Until that time, the male propaganda machine has a lot to lose if more women actually think about their lives politically rather than personally.

Saying a ’story’ sic is ’sad’ means the person reading or hearing it does not have to actually listen and understand, instead they can detach themselves from what they are hearing/reading, because of course, they would never be subjected to such routine, normalised male violence.  

So it is with prostitution - there are innumerable ways and attempts at discrediting women who have either exited prostitution or else are attempting to seek a way out when so many individuals only want them to stay.

The excusers and deniers always seek a group or individual to use as scapegoat(s) because this effectively means they will not have to actually face the real issues and address their accountability.  Ever wondered why certain groups are defined as ‘deviant’ or to blame?  Ever wondered why it is always women’s fault when men commit violence against them?  Answer is because these groups/individuals are scapegoats. 

I happen to know that many women’s experiences of male violence and the routine denials and excuses, serve to render such women even more determined to speak out against male abuse of power.   My experiences although not the same as Rebecca’s caused me to challenge male power and male violence - not because I had read about radical feminism but because I refused to accept men’s and their supporters’ claims that women are naturally inferior and  therefore men are entitled as a group to inflict sexual violence in whatever shape or form.   It was not until much later that I began to learn and understand just precisely how this abuse of male power operates and why so many men who though not violent prefer to be ‘bystanders’ and thereby indirectly ensure male power and male violence will continue unabated.

Keep speaking the truth Rebecca because you are making a difference.  If you were not - your words would be ignored and no one would trouble themselves with making false accusations and false claims of sympathy.  Remember too, that if radical feminism was just another theory why then is so much effort put into attempting to demonise and discredit radical feminism.  Is it perhaps because the truth is being spoken?