Prostitution

Sex work or prostitution is the selling of sexual activity for payment, which can be dangerous if coercive or unregulated.

LA City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto on Fighting Child Sex Trafficking—Because Kids’ Rights Are Not for Sale

LA City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto—the first female city attorney in the city’s history and the first Latina elected citywide—has made fighting child sex trafficking a priority since her election in November 2022.

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, today Feldstein Soto leads a team of 1,000 legal professionals. She was driven to tackle this issue after witnessing the extent of the problem firsthand during a ride-along on South Figueroa Street. Ms.spoke with her on her multifaceted approach includes rescuing minors, prosecuting predators, and disrupting the demand for trafficked children.

N.Y. Bill to End Statute of Limitations on Sex Crimes Could Help Survivors Seek Justice

“We have to crawl our way out, even though we tripped our way in,” said Gabrielle Prieto, who was sex trafficked at 12 years old and is now challenging the stigmas surrounding survivors of sex trafficking and advocates to end sex trade.

In New York, a new bill could afford survivors seeking legal recourse for the crimes committed against them a real chance for justice—removing the five-year statute of limitations on sex crimes.

My Sexts Were Leaked in High School. I Learned the Hard Way How Sexuality Is Weaponized to Silence Women.

Each instance of gendered and sexualized narratives against high-profile women—and even ordinary people, including students like myself—serves as a warning to thousands of other women and those close to us. Witnessing these attacks often leads them to reconsider their own participation in public discourse.

The message is clear: Speak out, and your sexuality will be weaponized against you.

U.N. Rights Experts Make False Promises About Prostitution

A guidance paper produced by a U.N. human rights group on eliminating discrimination against “sex workers” actually advocates for policies that will endanger women and girls.

Prostitution is not labor (as the term “sex work” entices us to believe), but a harmful cultural practice. Its inception parallels that of other forms of gender-based violence, such as female genital mutilation or domestic violence. It is a system that relegates women to second-class status and offers men the opportunity to purchase domination. From Bangladesh to the Netherlands, from South Africa to Colombia, and every country in between, the sex trade generates significant profits for both those who exploit women and the state.

Maine Is the First U.S. State to Center Survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Legal Reforms

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed two laws last month empathetic toward people who engage in prostitution, while expanding criminalization for sex buyers and those who sexually exploit vulnerable populations, including children and people with mental disabilities.

The two new laws in Maine were inspired by the movement against domestic violence—which aims to center victims, hold abusers accountable and eliminate victim-blaming.

‘The Stroll’ Showcases the Lives of Trans Sex Workers Through Their Own Eyes

The Stroll is a feature-length entry into Sundance’s U.S. Documentary competition that won this year’s Special Jury Award for Clarity of Vision. The film is about several blocks of 14th Street in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, colloquially called as “The Stroll,” where trans sex workers, mostly women of color, were known to gather.

Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s compassionate and authentic portrayal is about solidarity and hope—asking viewers to understand the past while looking forward into the future.

2022 ‘Best of the Rest’: Our Favorite Books of the Year!

Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. And each year, we review our monthly Reads for the Rest of Us lists and choose our favorite books of the year. 

You’ve read the other “Best of” lists—now read the other one. You know, for the rest of us. Here they are, my top 40+ feminist books, in alphabetical order.

‘I’m This. I’m That. I’m Many Things’: Pratibha Parmar on Andrea Dworkin and ‘My Name Is Andrea’

Pratibha Parmar’s 2022 film about Andrea Dworkin brought both pushback and praise within feminist and queer communities. In this Q&A, Parmar shares her thoughts on reactions to the film but also about her interest in Dworkin.

“There is an arc between generations of female artists’ protesting violence against women. And I want Andrea’s voice to be part of the conversation on its own terms and in its complexity.”

What Our Primate Ancestors Can Teach Us About Dismantling the Patriarchy: The Ms. Q&A with Diane Rosenfeld

A new book shines an intriguing new light on the possibilities for alliances among women in the ongoing struggle to end men’s violence against women by examining the social organization of one of our closest primate relatives. In The Bonobo Sisterhood, Harvard Law School professor Diane Rosenfeld shows how we have much to learn from the bonobos about how to eliminate male sexual coercion.  

“Patriarchy is not inevitable; the bonobos are living proof of that.”