Not Buying It challenges the porn and sex trade because of the incredible harms associated with them. Working closely with women who have survived these industries, we raise awareness and campaign for change. We are bold and forthright (always in the nicest possible way) because sometimes that is the only way to expose the truth and say ‘no’ to abuse.
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Who We Are
We are mums and dads, campaigners, journalists, mental health professionals, educationalists – concerned, like so many, by the increasingly abusive ‘porn culture’ we live in.
Our CEO, also an award winner, previously led the multi-award winning pressure group, Object. Object changed the law in 2010 to stop strip clubs being licensed like cafes. And it changed the law to make it a criminal offence to buy sex from anyone forced or coerced. It stopped Job Centres from advertising Escort Agencies and Massage Parlours, got lad’s mags off the bottom shelf (and ultimately off the shelf altogether) and saw Page 3 dragged over the coals during the Leveson inquiry. It put the harm of objectification and the porn and sex trade well and truly on the map.
Why?
The porn and sex trade in all its guises are deeply harmful for the women used and abused in them and to us all because of the attitudes they aggressively promote. Even where the abuse is in plain sight for anyone to see (like mainstream porn that any child can access at the click of a mouse), it is still being billed as ’empowering’ for women, a ‘choice’ and ‘human right’.
But we work alongside women who’ve been in these industries. They testify to a catalogue of, often extreme, abuse. Yet they are threatened and harassed, ridiculed, smeared as liars or simply ignored when they dare to speak out. And it is not just the women in these industries who face unimaginable abuse. With revelations that 1/3 of young women now experience violent sex at the hands of their partners and an increase in ‘rough sex gone wrong’ assaults, rapes and even murders the consequences of ‘abuse porn culture’ could not be more evident – for us all.
Success!
Police rethink ‘Sex Work’ Guidance
In 2023, our legal action against Police Chiefs forced them to rethink viewing prostitution as ‘just work’ and they’re partnering with online pimping sites. Read more about the campaign (donations still welcome!) here
Strip Clubs in the Dock
Following our successful legal action against Sheffield City council’s pro-strip industry decisions, more and more individuals are now challenging their council’s sex industry policies and licensing decisions. If you are concerned by your council’s love of the strip trade, contact us here
Spearmint Rhino Defeat! 2020
In 2019, we carried out a series of exposés to show that, to earn even £20, women must provide sexual contact and perform sex acts in so-called ‘Gentlemen’s Clubs’, whether in Sheffield, Manchester or London. Councillors were so offended to hear what actually happens in the strip clubs they license they walked out of meetings.
Despite this, councils then relicensed the very strip clubs we had exposed. Camden council never even seemed to carry out its own investigation.
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Strip Clubs 2018
We launched Not Buying It by sending a copy of The Sport ‘newspaper’ to every MP asking why a publication full of very young naked women and 1,000s of ads for porn and national directories of escort agencies and massage parlours was being sold as a newspaper. We took the challenge to the ASA who, after 6 months of ‘investigation’ and a round table discussion decided this did not breach their advertising codes! We then challenged TfL – asking why it allowed Metro and the Evening Standard free distribution on the London transport when they advertised prostitution (‘chat or date’) and hosted a little sing-along outside the ES awards.
SUCCESS! Both Metro and ES have now dropped their ads for the sex trade
Porn
We took to the streets and petitioned to get Ann Summers to finally dump its link with Pornhub, the world’s largest portal for the filmed sexual abuse that internet porn has become.
SUCCESS! Ann Summers has now ended its partnership with Pornhub
Lib Dems
Although we are non political, we’ve felt compelled to raise awareness of the Lib Dems shocking pro-porn, pro-sex trafficking policies. This included protests at its 2018 party conference, covered in the national press and our creating leaflets on its behalf to showcase policies that the party is very coy about publicising itself.