What’s Current: VPD releases its new ‘sex work’ guidelines, fails to mention johns

Oops. The newly-released Vancouver Police Department “sex work guidelines” fail to mention the reason why prostituted women are “unsafe” in the sex trade: men. Painting a pretty rosy picture of the industry, the VPD has completely erased male violence and adopted pro-industry, gender-neutral language in their video explaining the  guidelines.

Vancouver Rape Relief is disappointed Vancouver police have not been enforcing Canada’s new prostitution laws, despite arrests of johns happening in other parts of the country. Collective member, Keira Smith-Tague, says:

“We know the harm that’s done to women in prostitution, and we know this directly from the frontline crisis work we do. The johns and pimps are the men that harm them and exploit them.”

Pussy Riot plans to open women-only museum in Montenegro.

A 48-year-old woman from San Salvador was jailed for a year because she had a premature birth.

FitzGibbon Media, a major progressive public relations firm in Washington, D.C., closed abruptly due to allegations that the firm’s president had committed sexual harassment and sexual assault against female staff.

Meghan Murphy

Founder & Editor

Meghan Murphy is a freelance writer and journalist from Vancouver, BC. She has been podcasting and writing about feminism since 2010 and has published work in numerous national and international publications, including The Spectator, UnHerd, Quillette, the CBC, New Statesman, Vice, Al Jazeera, The Globe and Mail, and more. Meghan completed a Masters degree in the department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University in 2012 and is now exiled in Mexico with her very photogenic dog.