Are porn and prostitution just a bit of harmless fun? What really happens behind the scenes? How do we get through to men and boys about this? How do you have those tough conversations with your teenage sons? What might help them resist the peer pressure to participate in rape culture, the trip to the brothel, harassing the girls in their class?

In our previous webinars, we have heard from women who have experienced prostitution – about what it was really like and why it can never be safe. They told us why they support the Nordic Model as the best way of reducing the harms, providing women with alternatives, and changing the wider culture so that women are no longer seen as commodities that men can rent for sexual use and flattery.

“I think the fairy tale of “sex work is work” is harmful to girls and boys – because it tells girls that sex is work they have to do for men and it’s only for the pleasure of boys and men and it’s work for girls – and they have to deliver.” – Huschke Mau, survivor of the German legalised prostitution system.

In this webinar, we will turn the spotlight onto men and boys. To bring about real, material change, men and boys need to understand that the sex industry in all its myriad forms harms us all and jeopardises all of our futures – but they can be part of the solution and we welcome them to join the struggle.

The webinar will start with a short talk from three of the speakers. This will be followed by a discussion and Q&A session. You will be able to ask questions during the event and you can also send in questions in advance via email (see below).

Speakers

Michael Conroy: Michael is founder of Men At Work and creator of the ‘Men At Work: 10 Dialogues’ resource for those working with boys and young men. He has worked in Secondary education for 16 years and trains educators and youth workers in how to run constructive dialogues on a range of themes and areas touching on sexism, misogyny, objectification, risk-taking behaviours, peer pressure and mental health. Michael has spoken as a panellist in a Parliamentary Select Committee on Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces and recorded a TEDx talk on the collective socialisation of masculinity. He is a trained Youth Mental Health Instructor and is trained in Suicide Prevention.

Gemma Aitchison: Gemma is a working-class radical feminist. She runs YES Matters UK, an organisation that supports the victim rehabilitation of children who have suffered sexual abuse. Her work includes challenging the lack of access to justice for women and girls, compulsory sex education for the UK, and presenting to the European Parliament her research on the danger of gender stereotypes, in particular the sexual objectification of women and girls. She is the sister of a murdered girl, a survivor of CSA, rape and domestic abuse and doesn’t care that it’s not all men.

Esther: Esther has a longstanding interest in research on legal and public policy approaches to sexualised violence and domestic abuse. She uses her own experience of porn and prostitution to reflect on these issues. Her talk will look at consent issues, the global reach of depictions of sexualised violence and what this means for everyone.

Bryn Frere-Smith: Bryn left the UK Police Service in 2014 to pursue a career in private security. After a number of years working in close protection for clients in the UK and overseas, Bryn took a sabbatical to volunteer for a human rights agency investigating the trafficking of children in the Dominican Republic. His experience investigating human trafficking led him to start a social enterprise designed to support coffee growing communities in vulnerable parts of the world, whilst using its profits to fund organisations fighting human trafficking and caring for survivors. Bryn is an active anti-trafficking campaigner and the host of The Justice & Coffee Podcast.

Siobhan: Siobhan has been a member of NMN for the last two years. She is honoured to be chairing this webinar and to have met and worked with like-minded women around this essential issue.

Webinar details

The webinar will be hosted in Zoom and is expected to last about 90 minutes. We will email registered attendees shortly before the event with details of how to join. If you can’t see the email, please check your spam folders.

Questions

There will be an option to submit questions during the event, but you are welcome to email in advance any questions you would like the panel to consider. Please put ‘Webinar Question’ in the subject line and email it to nordicmodelnow@gmail.com. Time constraints mean, however, that we will be limited in how many questions we can address.

This is a mixed event

This event is open to everyone. The event will include discussion of some of the worst forms of male violence. We ask everyone, but particularly men, to be mindful of this and how both speakers and members of the audience may find this triggering because it resonates with their own experiences of male violence. We ask everyone to be open and respectful.