A Feminist Debate on Sex Work
Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown makes the case for legalizing sex work. Author Julie Bindel wants customers to be held criminally liable.
Do people who hire sex workers deserve to go to jail, or should all laws prohibiting consensual sex work be repealed?
On May 9, 2022, writer and activist Julie Bindel debated Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown at the Sheen Center in lower Manhattan. The resolution was "A good society should criminalize the purchase of sex."
The event was hosted by The Soho Forum, a monthly debate series sponsored by the Reason Foundation.
Bindel is the London-based author of The Pimping of Prostitution: Abolishing the Sex Work Myth. She opposes arresting women for the selling of sex but wants their customers to face consequences for their actions.
Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown, who's also the co-founder and president of Feminists for Liberty, took the position that all laws prohibiting consensual sex work should be abolished.
The debate was moderated by Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein.
Narrated by Nick Gillespie; intro edited by John Osterhoudt