Pornography is documented prostitution.
"Everyone that watches "Deep Throat" is watching me being raped"
- Linda Lovelace
Talita has over 20 years of experience working with women exploited in prostitution and trafficking for sexual purposes. Throughout our journey, we have seen the clear and undeniable link between pornography and prostitution, which is why we decided several years ago to officially expand our work to include support for women exploited in pornography. Pornography is often nothing more than documented prostitution. Someone or some people have sex for money, but it all happens in front of a movie camera.
One woman we met in 2015, whom we'll call Katja, told us that she got into the sex industry through pornography. The natural next step, according to Katja, was prostitution. Katja explained that prostitution was a nightmare, but pornography was even worse. She couldn't live with the idea of men getting off by consuming her abuse, and that abuse was forever on the internet.
Since then, we have met many more people than Katja - over 100 people who have been exploited in pornography. As with other forms of prostitution, those filmed for pornography are usually women and girls with a history of sexual abuse, poverty, and psychosocial problems. It is no coincidence that they are lured into the industry. Pimps are well aware that these young women lack protection and are thus easier to exploit.
In our daily work, we see the impact of prostitution on victims, whether it is filmed or not. But when your prostitution is documented and disseminated, it can be even more traumatic because the videos may be online, accessible to everyone, forever.
Our experience is supported by both Swedish and international research. Read the following reports for more in-depth knowledge about pornography and how it affects those who are filmed.
Reports are available in both English and Swedish.
