Thank you for your years of work fighting prostitution. My grandmother survived the Semarang Incident and narrowly escaped being trafficked as a "comfort woman" (she always maintained she was "lucky" to "only" be interred in a forced labour camp rather than be in the brothels), and all the Allied governments acknowledge it as a horrific war crime. In the Resistance Museum in Amsterdam, there's a testimony from "comfort women" taken from the next camp to hers in Semarang and it's harrowing.
...And just a mile into town is one of the most famous and biggest rape trafficking centres in the world. It sickens me that everyone recognises all the atrocities of prostitution and the sanitising euphemisms for it, but still tolerates it.
In the data I collect on trans widows, women who ended a marriage/relationship with a suddenly 24/7 crossdressing partner, I find (with testimonies from 74 trans widows) that the rate of sexual assault on wives is a steady 39% and the rate of physical assault is a steady 38%. These men are not the shrinking violets the press makes them out to be. In exactly zero of these incidents have there been any kind of prosecutions. One case of a brutal rape in the UK involved witnesses, DNA evidence, the woman's testimony and the fact that an infant daughter was present. Met police called her 2 weeks after, at her mother's, to tell her they "did not have enough evidence to charge." She lives in fear that he'll eventually get unsupervised visitation with this child and also that he'll do this to another woman, perhaps killing her, since his crime also included battery strangulation. Shame on Maggie Chapman for her part in silencing women.
Women’s literal bodies bought by men for their sexual gratification 🤝 women’s bodies mimicked by men for their sexual gratification.
There’s a reason these issues are tightly bound and regurgitated as one and the same. If the root drive of privileging men’s sexual gratification above all else was acknowledged, the whole thing would fall apart.
Everyone yapping about the poor maligned trans people (like they're lacking any human rights) aren't talking about the young women cutting their tits off, piercing their faces and dying their hair blue. They're 100% referring to men in lipstick and dresses having the "right" to freely frequent women's intimate spaces and competitions.
The fact of her studying zoology may be very important. It could lead to the easy reductionism that she seems to practice, treating people, women sex workers in this case, as zoological objects. Ian
Politics is in trouble, and yet the supreme court verdict earlier this year suggests that all is not lost. There is a huge backlash right now, but the paid labor of women remains important and will become more so, as our shortage of young workers to look after oldsters like me, will become more acute.
So yes there is no shortage of pain, but I think things will improve when the present populist fashion is found out. Ian
I was on the same academic course at University as Maggie in the early 2000s. She was academically unremarkable, average at best. She was deeply unpleasant and rude to everyone around her. She was clearly a very privileged individual with little grounding in reality. It’s a disgrace that someone so ignorant could ever be an MSP and have any influence in society. Hopefully she won’t get re elected come the 2026 Scottish Election.
Ah, you are so right Julie. And it has to be said over and over again because many men will fight to the death to maintain access to the bodies of women and children. It comes in many forms both subtle and overt.
Thank you, Julie for your years of courageous work on behalf of the safety of women and girls. I’ve just had a Google of Chapman and on her Facebook page, she is everywhere at everything..from grouse moors to local pride events, from Palestine protests to striking academics. Charmless, earnest and utterly convinced that she knows what’s best for everyone, everywhere, all the time.
What are some organizations that have successfully helped women move from this trade to the legitimate economy? As you've noted in the past, many of these victims are not in the best position to advance in a free enterprise economy, especially in the US where convictions can tarnish your record.
What I don't understand is how advocates for "sex work is work" can argue that it is individual women's choice, while many of these people (if not all) would argue that when criminals commit crimes, they must be seen in their context and with the structural issues in society that might lead someone into crime.
I wonder how many pro-sex work advocates are affected by a fear of being seen as prudish if they were to criticise prostitution. Another pernicious effect of "queer theory", which promotes kink and sex positive attitudes, perhaps?
I know you haven't brought this up directly in the article, but a common reason given for wanting to legalise 'sex work' is to enable disabled individuals (mainly men) to experience sex. I'm a straight male with a disability who struggles to form relationships (partly due to time constraints, but partly because of said disability) and I don't want that 'right'-and I'm frankly appalled that people would seek to use my experience (however indirectly) to justify blanket decriminalisation. All power to Ash Regan in her attempt to bring the Nordic Model to Scotland, I hope it'll lead to it's adoption in the UK more widely.
Does Ash Regan's Bill also oppose paying young women for their eggs? A while back I saw the Scottish government approved advertising in universities for young women to sell their eggs as an altruistic #BeKind act. It's a gruelling process that carries a significant risk of long term health problems.
Ditto surrogacy - riskier than a natural pregnancy because the egg is not the surrogate mother's own egg, but instead comes from the woman buying the baby.
The internal realm of women's bodies should not be commodities at all, whether in prostitution, surrogacy or egg "donation".
The problem is the black-and-white thinking. No solution will suit every situation or person. Are we claiming that no woman, under any circumstance, has agency; that people women may never have seen, read about or conversed with have the right to decide what *every* woman *should* do with their body or mind? The writer to whom I'm replying is already using *should*, which is a huge #RedFlag. The underlying conceit is that a "one size fits all" solution exists. It doesn't; we have to wrestle with that conceit.
Maggie Chapman is abhorrent and dangerous. Please don't tar the whole Scottish parliament with her sins. Yes, they still need to address some issues but at least they passed a motion to boycott all things Israeli. We in Scotland deserve self determination, even if currently it's limited and flawed. The Westminster alternative is not appealing.
Both sides take it in turn to be aggressors. The International Criminal Court has indicted the leaders of both sides on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity. Neither side is honest enough to remind people of this. Ian
Thank you for your years of work fighting prostitution. My grandmother survived the Semarang Incident and narrowly escaped being trafficked as a "comfort woman" (she always maintained she was "lucky" to "only" be interred in a forced labour camp rather than be in the brothels), and all the Allied governments acknowledge it as a horrific war crime. In the Resistance Museum in Amsterdam, there's a testimony from "comfort women" taken from the next camp to hers in Semarang and it's harrowing.
...And just a mile into town is one of the most famous and biggest rape trafficking centres in the world. It sickens me that everyone recognises all the atrocities of prostitution and the sanitising euphemisms for it, but still tolerates it.
In the data I collect on trans widows, women who ended a marriage/relationship with a suddenly 24/7 crossdressing partner, I find (with testimonies from 74 trans widows) that the rate of sexual assault on wives is a steady 39% and the rate of physical assault is a steady 38%. These men are not the shrinking violets the press makes them out to be. In exactly zero of these incidents have there been any kind of prosecutions. One case of a brutal rape in the UK involved witnesses, DNA evidence, the woman's testimony and the fact that an infant daughter was present. Met police called her 2 weeks after, at her mother's, to tell her they "did not have enough evidence to charge." She lives in fear that he'll eventually get unsupervised visitation with this child and also that he'll do this to another woman, perhaps killing her, since his crime also included battery strangulation. Shame on Maggie Chapman for her part in silencing women.
Women’s literal bodies bought by men for their sexual gratification 🤝 women’s bodies mimicked by men for their sexual gratification.
There’s a reason these issues are tightly bound and regurgitated as one and the same. If the root drive of privileging men’s sexual gratification above all else was acknowledged, the whole thing would fall apart.
Everyone yapping about the poor maligned trans people (like they're lacking any human rights) aren't talking about the young women cutting their tits off, piercing their faces and dying their hair blue. They're 100% referring to men in lipstick and dresses having the "right" to freely frequent women's intimate spaces and competitions.
Exactly - the so called transmen are just the collateral in all of this and the function as a key detractor from the male sexual gratification part.
Well stated!
How can Maggie be so wrong about everything? She studied Zoology and yet believes humans can change sex. There isn't much she is right about.
I don't think she does believe it; I think she lies about her beliefs for political gain. Which is worse, I think.
Exactly. People pushing this ideology are either stupid or evil. And I wish I could say I think they're just stupid.
The fact of her studying zoology may be very important. It could lead to the easy reductionism that she seems to practice, treating people, women sex workers in this case, as zoological objects. Ian
I am very unhappy over the state of politics. We have lost it completely.
Politics is in trouble, and yet the supreme court verdict earlier this year suggests that all is not lost. There is a huge backlash right now, but the paid labor of women remains important and will become more so, as our shortage of young workers to look after oldsters like me, will become more acute.
So yes there is no shortage of pain, but I think things will improve when the present populist fashion is found out. Ian
I was on the same academic course at University as Maggie in the early 2000s. She was academically unremarkable, average at best. She was deeply unpleasant and rude to everyone around her. She was clearly a very privileged individual with little grounding in reality. It’s a disgrace that someone so ignorant could ever be an MSP and have any influence in society. Hopefully she won’t get re elected come the 2026 Scottish Election.
Ah, you are so right Julie. And it has to be said over and over again because many men will fight to the death to maintain access to the bodies of women and children. It comes in many forms both subtle and overt.
Thank you for another great piece.. so many good talking points.
“ .. .men have the right to purchase access to the inside of an actual living, breathing human being, for one-sided sexual pleasure.”
Thank you, Julie for your years of courageous work on behalf of the safety of women and girls. I’ve just had a Google of Chapman and on her Facebook page, she is everywhere at everything..from grouse moors to local pride events, from Palestine protests to striking academics. Charmless, earnest and utterly convinced that she knows what’s best for everyone, everywhere, all the time.
What are some organizations that have successfully helped women move from this trade to the legitimate economy? As you've noted in the past, many of these victims are not in the best position to advance in a free enterprise economy, especially in the US where convictions can tarnish your record.
I wonder what the situation in that matter is in Britain? How much success is there? Ian
(Don't think these Substacks are supposed to be much of a dialogue...pity.)
I don't see why they shouldn't be. What are they for then - easy snappy simplisticisms?
Ian
Good questions. feminist organizations ought to have lists of these; I've certainly not seen any. Ian
Great piece!
What I don't understand is how advocates for "sex work is work" can argue that it is individual women's choice, while many of these people (if not all) would argue that when criminals commit crimes, they must be seen in their context and with the structural issues in society that might lead someone into crime.
I wonder how many pro-sex work advocates are affected by a fear of being seen as prudish if they were to criticise prostitution. Another pernicious effect of "queer theory", which promotes kink and sex positive attitudes, perhaps?
I know you haven't brought this up directly in the article, but a common reason given for wanting to legalise 'sex work' is to enable disabled individuals (mainly men) to experience sex. I'm a straight male with a disability who struggles to form relationships (partly due to time constraints, but partly because of said disability) and I don't want that 'right'-and I'm frankly appalled that people would seek to use my experience (however indirectly) to justify blanket decriminalisation. All power to Ash Regan in her attempt to bring the Nordic Model to Scotland, I hope it'll lead to it's adoption in the UK more widely.
Does Ash Regan's Bill also oppose paying young women for their eggs? A while back I saw the Scottish government approved advertising in universities for young women to sell their eggs as an altruistic #BeKind act. It's a gruelling process that carries a significant risk of long term health problems.
Ditto surrogacy - riskier than a natural pregnancy because the egg is not the surrogate mother's own egg, but instead comes from the woman buying the baby.
The internal realm of women's bodies should not be commodities at all, whether in prostitution, surrogacy or egg "donation".
The problem is the black-and-white thinking. No solution will suit every situation or person. Are we claiming that no woman, under any circumstance, has agency; that people women may never have seen, read about or conversed with have the right to decide what *every* woman *should* do with their body or mind? The writer to whom I'm replying is already using *should*, which is a huge #RedFlag. The underlying conceit is that a "one size fits all" solution exists. It doesn't; we have to wrestle with that conceit.
Maggie Chapman is a disgrace to lesbians. I have known many Maggie Chapman’s, many Ruth Hunts and her ilk. Can we not vote them off the island?
Why not stop voting them into parliament?
Maggie Chapman is abhorrent and dangerous. Please don't tar the whole Scottish parliament with her sins. Yes, they still need to address some issues but at least they passed a motion to boycott all things Israeli. We in Scotland deserve self determination, even if currently it's limited and flawed. The Westminster alternative is not appealing.
And please keep up the good work 🥰
Why boycott Israel? Hamas is the aggressor.
Both sides take it in turn to be aggressors. The International Criminal Court has indicted the leaders of both sides on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity. Neither side is honest enough to remind people of this. Ian
What? Why are we talking about this here?
Nakbar
So is Scotland trying to boycott Israel economically? Ian
Thank you Julie, your depth of understanding and research is outstanding - refreshing!