In the Booth with Ruth – Rebecca Mott, Exited Prostituted Woman and Abolitionist

How did you become involved in supporting the abolition of prostitution? 

I first started campaigning for abolition of prostitution after the murders of several prostitutes in Ipswich. That was very triggering for me, but at the time, I was unclear why. I was very angry, incessant with rage, for it seemed that the media is, and was, only interested in the murders of the prostituted when it is in connection with the sensation of a serial killer. When I started my blog, it was with unclear memories and feelings, and of knowing that most murdered prostituted women and girls are never recorded – they just vanish from existence. It is to those disappeared that my motivation to fight for abolition is founded on. I am sick of the vast majority of the prostituted being made into sub-human in life, and in death, being made to vanish.

I also became an abolitionist because I did indoors prostitution from aged fourteen to twenty-seven, and know the violence and hate that it is the foundation of all aspects of prostitution. I write to show how in indoors prostitution, punters are paying mainly to be as sadistic as they want without consequences. Punters are paying for the privacy which gives them more time to pour their violence into the prostitute’s mind and body. She is his property, so has no rights or access to full humanity.

What draws you to support and advocate for people in prostitution?

I choose to fight for the prostituted class for I believe it is vital for exited prostituted women to take hold of the leadership of the abolition movement.

I believe deeply that for many centuries the words and views of the prostituted class has been forced into silence, mainly because the ‘history’ of prostitution has been made in the interest of the profiteers of the sex trade. This means that any language of the prostituted that shows any form of discontent, or that seeks a path to full humanity, is censored. The only language that is allowed to be public is the voice of the ‘happy hooker’ – which is the voice of the pimp and the voice of the punter.

I want the multiple voices of the vast majority of the prostituted to rise to the top, the voices of a whole class that has been enslaved and silenced. One way this can happen is through pushing to the forefront of the abolition movement the multiple voices of exited women who know the real face of the sex trade.

What does your work in the abolition movement involve? 

I write a blog – www.rmott62.wordpress.com. This is a campaigning blog, but also explores the impact of trauma after prostitution.

I use the blog to have connections with exited women on an international scale, and to reach out to exited women who are dealing with extreme trauma. I try to offer support, for there is so little external and long-term support for exited women. I try to do this with self-care, because I live with trauma as my shadow all the time.

A very important aspect of my blog is to explore how extreme trauma is after long-term prostitution. I am exploring that many exited women have fragmented memories, often with many years wiped away. I explore how trauma is a releasing of buried emotions, after most prostituted women think they are dead inside – a shell without access to human emotions.

I write to my pain, I write to my fury, I write into my confusion. In that way, I use my blog as one path back to my humanity.

To regain humanity for the prostituted, I believe it is vital to say in plain words what punters and profiteers do to our bodies and minds. This means that exited women should be in control of the language and concepts of what it is to be inside prostitution, which may mean being graphic or not being afraid to be confused or vulnerable.

I also give talks and go to conferences to spread the reality of being prostituted. I always speak for real change, not just to be a token prostituted woman who is allowed to speak and then everyone can return to apathy. I will speak if I was made into a pet – I will not be made sub-human again.

What legal improvements or changes would help to abolish prostitution? 

I think it is important to start with having the Nordic approach. This makes it criminal to buy and sell the prostituted, whilst decriminalising the prostituted, and providing exiting projects. That is only a start to giving back the prostituted class full humanity and dignity.

We must speak in the language of human rights, and not the language of labour rights when speaking of prostitution. It is not ‘sex work’. It is slavery and torture.

Laws should be framed to acknowledge that each time a prostitute is bought, then the prostitute has no access to the language of consent or right to say no. That is rape, so each purchase of a prostitute is an act of violence in and of itself. We should not wait until the punter says it is wrong.

We must have longer sentences for all those who profiteer from prostitution, for they are allowing the prostituted to be made into goods, and giving permission for any sadism to be done to their property.

What are your plans for the future? 

I spend many hours thinking of plans, and hope that some of them happen.

I was exploring how much of prostitution is torture, and how it fits into the framing of non-state torture.

I feel it is vital to spread the word of how internal trafficking is made invisible, or it is made that girls who are internally trafficked are blamed and told it is their choice to be a prostitute.

I am exploring how violence done to the prostituted is made normal, when it is viewed as outrageous when done to the non-prostituted women and girls. I am interested in how gang rapes are made normal inside the sex trade, and outside the sex trade are viewed as vile degradation.

I would love to have more connect with exited women outside of the net, maybe in the future have an English meeting/conference for only exited women.

Recommended websites/further reading: 

I highly recommend reading Survivors Connect – and finding their multiple voices of exited women.

• A French translation of this interview can be read here.
• ‘Despair Hits My Heart’, a short piece of non-fiction written by Rebecca Mott, can be read on Voices of Prostitution Survivors here.
• Click here to read the interview with Nordic Model Advocates co-founder, Nicole Rowe.