When men buy sex, who really pays?

The commercial sex industry is inherently racist and divided by class. Outside workers tend to be racialized individuals who are not welcomed into brothels. Indigenous women fall into this category.

When men buy sex, who really pays? It seems like there should be a straightforward answer to such a simple question. Reality is, there is no way to make the commercial sex industry safe for the women selling sex. There’s also no way to keep neighbourhoods and entire communities from being impacted by the repercussions of prostitution. So, who really pays? And, in what ways?

“There’s a common misconception that certain sectors within the commercial sex industry are inherently safer than others,” Andrea Heinz told Small Change.

“But I think that there’s more to that conversation that people gloss over. And, that’s the inherent vulnerability of the women who are exploited on the streets in comparison to the inherent vulnerability of the women in indoor prostitution,” Heinz added.

Heinz, a former sex seller who successfully exited from the commercial sex industry in Edmonton, Alberta over a decade ago, still struggles with the effects of non-State torture (NST) including shame, anxiety, emotional flatness, and sexual dysfunction.

The grassroots feminist and prostitution abolitionist knows the murder rates of women exploited on the streets tend to be higher than those who are being exploited in licensed venues such as body rub parlors.

Often women operating within the licensed sector have a residence, government issued identification and the ability to go through the municipal licensing process.

That stands in stark contrast to women being exploited on the street. Those women often don’t have a permanent address or identification which means they face challenges to the getting a municipal license.

Heinz notes that the commercial sex industry is inherently racist and divided by class. Outside workers tend to be racialized individuals who are not welcomed into brothels. Indigenous women fall into this category and are often considered a lesser caliber of woman by brothels, agencies and buyers of sex. Indigenous women bring in lower rates and instead are marketed as a variety of ethnicities including South American and East Asian.

Heinz says barriers also exist that prevent outside sex workers from integrating into the indoor sector. Women with addiction issues often find it challenging to stick to a schedule or to ‘perform’ on demand making it difficult to work in brothels.

In 2020, when the City of Edmonton was deciding whether or not to continue the municipal licensing of commercial sex workers, claims were brought forth by academic scholars who found the city’s report contained widespread snowball sampling — also known as non-probability sampling.

Researchers contracted by the City of Edmonton interviewed licensed commercial sex workers who have a higher level of bargaining power. Those women told the researchers that they chose this ‘work’, that they have options, and that they like this ‘work.’ The researchers then asked these women to refer them to other commercial sex workers who could be interviewed.

Heinz maintains that given the stark divides of agency and victimization in the commercial sex industry, it’s very unlikely that a woman earning $60,000 to $100,000 annually indoors under a licensed brothel or agency is going to connect that researcher with someone who is street exploited and charging $60 a time.

That means the qualitative and quantitative information collected by the city did not reflect the broad range of experiences found within the commercial sex industry.

City of Edmonton Bylaw 20002 -- Business Licence Bylaw (2023), licenses brothels and agencies as well as inappropriately licensed establishments which fall under the Health Enhancement Centre category of licensing.

“There is this protection that is offered to owners of municipally licensed brothels. We don’t see any enforcement. Police are not going in and doing any end demand operations where they’re actually going after the men,” stated Heinz.

“It’s basically this pocket that’s been created. Kathy [King] called them safe ejaculation sites where men can go and use their money, use their resources, exploit vulnerable young women for their one-sided sexual use and nothing will be done to them. There will be no repercussions that they face. Which is unfortunate,” Heinz added.

Apartments, homes or hotels that have been turned into brothels for short-term unlicensed use also fall under this bylaw. However, they are only subject to bylaw enforcement through fines when someone files a complaint. Heinz considers that encouragement for those establishments to defy current federal legislation in the form of the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA).

Meanwhile, if a woman selling sex doesn’t want to be subjected to bureaucratic visibility and the stress of being licensed, the city has the ability to threaten her with a $1,000 fine.

That woman also has to attend a mandatory three-hour course informing them about human rights, how to pay their taxes and why they are considered a contractor and not an employee.

Heinz says that most women working in brothels and for agencies do so due to a situational trifecta that includes immaturity, impoverishment and impressionability.

As a 22-year-old, Heinz read an ad in the Edmonton Sun claiming that adult entertainers could earn $2,000 a week. After seven years of being in very abusive relationships with young men and being $60,000 in debt, that proposition seemed like a beacon of hope. Instead, it was the worst decision Heinz ever made.

Many of the men purchasing sex were cruel and violent, but Heinz was told that was just part of the job. Heinz came to believe what she experienced was acceptable when, in fact, it was NST.

Kathy King’s daughter, Caralyn Aubry King, who went by the name Cara, was an academically challenged, fun-loving impulsive person. Cara got involved with drugs in her late teens and developed a drug related psychosis.

Cara, whose father was Indigenous, was in and out of psychiatric hospitals and began trading sex for drugs.

King had difficulty accessing services for Cara because the system said she couldn’t get mental health treatment because this was an addiction issue. At the same time, addiction treatment claimed Cara couldn’t access their services because it was a mental health issue.

Cara went missing on August 2, 1997 at the age of 22.

King tried many times to file a missing persons report. After 23 days, the RCMP finally filed a report and undertook an official search of the inner city of Edmonton.

On September 1, 1997 a farmer in Sherwood Park outside Edmonton, found human remains. Cara was identified by her dental records.

King’s frustration with the lack of services was then overshadowed by her indignation at the media’s coverage of her daughter’s femicide.

“I was caught up in the same sort of shame that the women were and I was sort of ashamed by association. I was thinking, well, I’m a professional person, I don’t want to have my image sullied. It was just a very confusing time. I did not ever anticipate having a homeless, addicted daughter. So, it was hard to know how to deal with that,” King told Small Change.

King realized that if as a privileged white woman, she was having a difficult time accessing services and dealing with the media, then it must be exponentially difficult for women who have been racialized and marginalized.

King also recognized that it was wrong that these women and girls were being stigmatized and criminalized for the behaviour of men.

Heinz and King met at the ‘John School,’ one of the programs offered through The Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE). It’s a prostitution offender program that King has volunteered with since 1998.

The eight-hour educational presentation targets various aspects of sexual exploitation. Part of the program is composed of personal testimonies of people who have survived the street, parents of commercial sex workers, spouses of ex-Johns and a variety of community members.

The program was designed for men arrested for solicitation. Think partner abuse response (PAR) program for Johns that conveys the personal impact of the men’s actions on various community members.

Heinz and King met in January 2013 during Heinz’s first CEASE presentation. Heinz was finally able to be her honest, authentic self because she was no longer in the licensed commercial sex industry.

The pair made a lasting connection that has evolved into an anthology called, When Men Buy Sex: Who Really Pays,that they hope will become not only an educational tool for the public, but a textbook used in Canadian colleges and universities.

Heinz and King provide a solid body of evidence along with reflection on the history of sex work ideology in Canada using a feminist-centered lens.

Contributors include NST advocates Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald; prostitution abolitionist Megan Walker; journalist and gender critical activist Anna Slatz who addresses academic silencing; as well as an anonymous John turned commercial sex industry abolitionist.

According to Heinz, When Men Buy Sex: Who Really Pays provides the counter-narrative to the rampant sex work ideology that has taken hold of academic and political institutions. It also provides space for feminists who have been actively silenced.

King disputes the vocal minority claims that sexual exploitation is a right that provides empowerment. Instead, King considers that view a distortion of the femininity and sacredness which came out of the Missing and Murder Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People Inquiry and the way that women are to be regarded.

When Men Buy Sex: Who Really Pays, is set to launch in January 2024. It was a labour of love for Heinz and King who are donating the profits to fund end demand strategies and exits in Canada.