Buying Sex

Buying Sex looks at the contentious debate over pending reforms to Canadian prostitution laws, which are being challenged by both pro- and anti-prostitution forces, with no evident consensus about which way forward is either best or likely. Would decriminalizing prostitution free sex workers to take more control over their activities, run legal brothels and manage their own procurement businesses without fear of punishment, or would it give male buyers and sex-trade business owners even more power and opportunity to benefit from and possibly exploit the sale of sexual services?

Buying Sex brings forward the voices of sex workers, formerly prostituted women, policy-makers, lawyers and even the male buyers. All agree that they want to improve the workers' safety, but have polarized philosophies about how that can be best achieved. Respecting differences of ideology and opinion as Canada works its way toward an uneasy consensus, Buying Sex challenges us to question whether prostitution is the "oldest profession" or the "oldest oppression."