Frontline Feminists Scotland demands that all candidates recognise commercial sexual exploitation as a form of violence against women, as recognised in the Scottish Government’s Equally Safe Strategy.

 

There is copious research which shows commercial sexual exploitation is a core form of sexism to service men’s sexual gratification whilst knowingly exploiting the poverty, addiction and trauma of women and girls.  These transactions are not an equal, consenting expression of sexuality, but an exploitation of the power, privilege and entitlement afforded to men in our unequal society.

 

We demand that candidates simultaneously prioritise developing services that support women to exit commercial sexual exploitation, in all its forms, and challenge demand and criminalise those men who commit this form of violence against women through A Model for Scotland based on the Nordic model.  Further measures should be prioritised to address wider structural issues of poverty, addictions and mental health, equal pay and work benefits, access to education and protection by pension arrangements in old age.