"Why I Slept with 1300 Women"

Editors Note: The text of Sebastian Horsley's manifesto, available from the link below, contains adult language which I find disrespectful and degrading to women. Read with caution.

British, self-proclaimed "prostitute connoisseur" Sebastian Horsley begins his commercial sex manifesto "Why I Slept with 1300 Women" with an unforgettable statement,

I remember the first time I had sex—I still have the receipt. The girl was alive, as far as I could tell, she was warm and she was better than nothing. She cost me £20.

His bald description of the girl as less-than-enthusiastic (and possibly less-than-willing) is chilling. Since that first, dubious encounter, Horsley claims to have spent more than $180,000 on sex with over 1300 women. Horsley himself may be an anomaly among men, but his attitudes towards prostitution, women, and sexuality are emblematic of the the reasons human trafficking and exploitation are so prevalent in the commercial sex industry.

Horsely describes himself by claiming,

I am a connoisseur of prostitution: I can take its bouquet, taste it, roll it around my mouth, give you the vintage. I have used brothels, saunas, private homes from the Internet and ordered girls to my flat prompt as pizza.

In his bio, he directly compares women in prostitution to pizzas -- both objects of his pleasure to be brought to him when he demands it. This is not an empowered view of women controlling their bodies and sexuality, but an objectifying view of women as the tools of male pleasure. Women in prostitution can refuse sex no more than a pizza can refuse to be eaten. He then rambles on for awhile about his detest for monogamy and emotional relationships, and goes on to discuss why he respects prostitutes,

A prostitute exists outside the establishment. She is either rejected by it or in opposition to it, or both. It takes courage to cross this line.

This shows a common misconception among men who use women in prostitution -- that all women in prostitution enter it freely and willingly because they see it as empowerment, a way to rebel, or simply their occupation of choice. In many cases, women enter prostitution because they are, as he puts it, "rejected by the establishment." They feel the have no other viable economic options, they enter as young girls, they have been abused, they are trafficked, they have substance addictions, or they are desperate. Some women may fit Horsely's idea of outsiders who "cross the line" willingly, but far too many are pushed or coerced over into prostitution. And he follows one common misconception with another,

Of course, the general feeling in this country [the UK] is that the man is somehow exploiting the woman, but I don’t believe this. In fact, the prostitute and the client, like the addict and the dealer, is the most successfully exploitative relationship of all.

Another favorite argument of johns is that if prostitution is ever exploitative, it's the woman in prostitution exploiting the male buyer. In prostitution, the man possesses the social, financial, physical, sexual, and emotional power in the transaction. When prostitution arrests are made, women are far more likely to be arrested than men. Women in prostitution who refuse sex risk being raped, physically abused, and ostracized by society. Prostitution is a manifestation of a gender imbalanced society, and all the power is on the side of the men.

Sebastian Horsley is just one man, but his objectification of women in prostitution and the myths about the indutry he believes are not uncommon at all. These attitudes are in part what allow trafficking and exploitation to take place in commercial sex. As Horsley says,

Yes, yes, I know. Prostitution is obscene, debasing and disgraceful. The point is, so am I.

For once, Horsley, I couldn't agree with you more.