Thread on Scottish consultation on the Nordic model: if you're in doubt about how to fill in the consultation and want to "listen to sex workers", here's my view as an exited woman. I was in sex trade doing prostitution for 1.5 years. I was a so called "high class escort"
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I have C-PTSD due to my experiences in the sex trade. I can tell you it is inherently traumatizing and violent.
Compared to many other women in prostitution, my experience was LESS violent and traumatic. You could say I got off lightly. 2/15

I've attempted suicide since exiting. I've had flashbacks, nightmares, and panic attacks. It has destroyed relationships and friendships. It has made me have serious trust issues. It's infinitely worsened my depression. I have felt worthless and never hated myself so much. 3/15

If you're "listening to sex workers" but the only people you're listening to have just done calming/onlyfans and not had a creepy greasy old man shove his penis down your throat, you're listening to the wrong people. "Sex work" is rape. Money did not buy my consent. 4/15

Anyone who says money bought my consent is a rape apologist. Plain and simple. I remember lying there as a poor woman being fucked by a multi-millionaire john. I was disassociating, trying not to cry because my vagina hurt and he was calling me a "bitch". 5/15

I remember thinking I'm just a masturbatory aid. That was rape. But the "sex work is work" brigade will tell you no, my consent was bought so it was totally cool. I remember feeling terrified every time I would go to an outcall. Would he have a knife hidden under the pillow? 6/15

Would he have a hidden camera? Would he try to choke me? I had many johns try. I had many johns try and avoid using a condom. One of them was so insistent he was at the point of getting violent. So to avoid getting beaten I "compromised". 7/15

I let him rub his bare penis on the outside of my vulva and come on my bottom. I felt so disgusted & dehumanized. I scrubbed myself in the shower until I bled. This is violence against women. "Sex work" advocates will tell you if we have the Nordic model it will obscure... 8/15

These specific instances of violence. But what they don't realise is that ALL of this is violence, not just the specific instances I mentioned. These are so commonplace. What I described as disassociating and almost crying happened every single time. You cannot buy consent! 9/15

If you're not attracted to the person & want to have sex freely, where is the consent? It's wealthy men buying sexual access to poor women. This is really the point I want to make - what the Nordic model does is recognize men buying sex (committing rape!) as a crime. 10/15

It is still possible to recognize instances of 'extra' violence e.g. beating, violent rape and prosecute that additionally. It does not have to be an either/or thing. In fact the Nordic model makes it much easier for women to get justice and exit. 11/15

I have felt so gaslighted by "sex work" advocates who claim that prostitution isn't rape. The Nordic model will affirm for all current and former prostituted women that the sex trade is sexual and mental violence. It will give us an avenue to pursue justice . 12/15

I have been raped inside and outside of prostitution. So I am under no illusions that getting justice is near impossible for ANY raped woman. But at least when I was raped outside of prostitution it was recognized as rape and I had the option of pursuing justice. 13/15

But when I was getting raped daily as a prostituted woman, no one counted that as rape. The justice system & society doesn't care. I blamed & hated myself. I had no option to pursue justice against my rapists as they hadn't committed a crime. The Nordic model changes that. 14/15

Please listen to our pain and actually hear us as exited women. It has been so hard to write this but it's been a long time coming. Thanks for reading to the end. Head on over to @nordicmodelnow for guidance on filling in the consultation. It closes today. 15/15