Exclusive: Rachel Moran on Modern Sexuality, Prostitution and India’s Porn Ban

Rachel Moran grew up in north Dublin. A troubled family and a year in state care later, she became homeless at fifteen and was forced into prostitution. She worked in Dublin and other Irish cites for the nest seven years. Later, she liberated herself and studied journalism at Dublin state University. Today she is an international speaker on sex-trafficking and prostitution. She also advises young girls about the perils of the trade. She has shared her experience in her memoir 'Paid For'.

Business Insider caught up with Rachel on the sidelines of the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet, and got chatting about Sexuality, Prostitution and India’s Porn Ban.

Yours is an intriguing and inspiring story. How did you survive the tough times?
I survived because I never lied to myself. I knew what I was living was horrible and humiliating. That’s the main reason why I came out of the experience psychologically and emotionally healthy.

What I see now in the sex workers rights movement didn’t quite exist back in the 90s. It’s this deceptive veneer plastered over prostitution where sex workers lie to themselves and others.

Some believe lying to oneself keeps you sane, at least for a while.
That mechanism is used to lying to others. Lying to yourself is a harmful business.

Your biggest takeaway from the experience.
I’ve learned that it’s absolutely important for people to treat each other with the fullness of their humanity.

Some of the biggest myths about prostitution.
Some of the most popular myths that are out there are that these are a couple of lonely men accessing sex as they can’t get it anywhere else.

That is quite frankly, bullshit. About three-quarters of men who use women in prostitution are married. They are fathers and have wives at home.

Also, for lonely men looking for intimacy, they’re looking for something in a place they’re least likely to find it. You can’t possibly find sexual intimacy in a brothel.

India is in the throes of a sexual revolution today. Some say legalizing prostitution might help. What’s your take?
That’s the worst one can do. The countries that have legalized prostitution (several states in Australia, New Zealand, Nevada in the US) have all made the same mistake and faced similar consequences.

Today there are 450000 prostitutes In Germany and 500 brothels in Berlin alone. Brothels are as high as 12 stories with absolute inhumanity practiced on every floor. Men are able to use the bodies of impoverished marginalized women to satisfy every perversion, fantasy or whim they can imagine. All of this is legal, and the government collects taxes from this, which of course makes them a pimp.

The alternate view says legalization would help regulate the trade, and bring these women to the mainstream.
The government can control nothing over legalization. A little known fact about legalized systems is that illegal systems outstrip the legal brothels. These are not regulated.

There are women who’d say what they’re doing with their personal life is nobody’s business. What do you to say to that?
My response to women who speak that way is, “it’s not all about you”.

What’s you take on online pornography?
Prostitution and pornography are just the same thing. It’s the degradation of women on a large scale. The only difference is that there is a camera involved in one and not in the other.

The same men who say porn is just fine, if they happen to be on the internet one day and saw their daughters and mothers on a porn site, the indignity and humiliation would become immediately apparent to them.

The problem here is that modern day pornography is not erotica. It is not always mutual shared consensual sex.

Prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. How can you get rid of that?
Why are we trying to control the conditions of inhumanity?

Prostitution has been around for thousands of years. So has rape or murder. We legislate against these.

What can Men do now?
They Men need to understand the pain and damage to them that’s happening at a soul level. They need to become aware about how toxic masculinity has become.

If a Man is not dominant, he is not even seen as a man. If I had to been aggressive and antagonistic before my femininity is even acknowledged, what that would mean for me is that I would have to be practicing inhumanity to be considered a female.

Your advice to people stuck in the trade.
I understand exactly how they’re feeling, and how they’re positioned.

There is always a way out. Whether you believe it or not, there is always the possibility of a future beyond prostitution.

I didn’t believe that. I desperately wanted a way out, but couldn’t see any for years.

“Believe me, there is a future beyond this”, that would be my message.

Image credit: Indiatimes