The Pimping of Prostitution: Speaking from Bergen, Norway, the morning after a book launch, Bindel says her work is a grassroots, investigative expose of legitimised sex work around the world. A prostitution abolitionist, she uses words unlike those used in New Zealand's sex industry. It's not sex workers or prostitutes; it's "prostituted women". Brothel owners are pimps or abusers, no bones about it.
Johns or sex buyers aren't always punters; they're also abusers. And the service provided by women in the sex industry is spoken of in violent terms. Calling it work, and doing it over and over again in one day, is a form of torture.
In researching the book, Bindel visited New Zealand in April and spoke to eight sex workers, two in brothels and four on the street. The book recounts the stories of five; Nicky, unwillingly penetrated with a bottle; Ne'Cole, gang-raped while working the street at years-old; Chelsea, who describes brothel owners as abusive pimps; Lisa, a something street worker using a walking frame, disabled after a life in prostitution; and Sabrinna Valisce. And when the brothels open, no-one checks in.
Among the failures of the New Zealand system in removing abuse, exploitation and trafficking, she lists: Bindel advocates for the Nordic model, which criminalises brothels and sex buyers, but not prostitutes. Implemented in Norway, Sweden and France, under such a model prostitutes are offered "a way out" through health services, she says. Valisce declined to share her personal experiences and horror stories as a sex worker in New Zealand.
This much is known from Bindel's work: Decades of sex work and involvement with the NZPC followed, but Valisce recounts few positive changes from the legislation. After moving to Australia in , she realised the horrors of the industry she had been subject to. Valisce is now critical of the NZPC and says it will never be effective in removing abuse and exploitation. Bindel quotes sex worker Chelsea, who says the NZPC is in denial about an expanding industry and offers only "propaganda" in its information packs.
