This exhibition will highlight to visitors what the future of safe and legal brothels in the UK could be. Both from the perspective of the sex worker and themselves – the people – in a post-pandemic world where there is a rise in demand.
Showcasing all spatial areas of brothels (waiting room, bathroom, bedroom etc) to its visitors and creating pop-up spaces giving university students and scholars alike sex education during the day enabling the benefits that can be gained by all genres of any age in one place.
The intention of the exhibition is to show to visitors the similarities between the home and the brothel in its activities, design and layout. Ultimately, destigmatising the spaces, the activities and the workers themselves. It also helps reduce intimacy anxiety in people who have been home alone throughout the pandemic and are afraid to go back out and interact with people again.
These spaces are available to be booked into during night-time to have sex, with a sex worker of their choice; lesbian, gay, bisexual, heterosexual or transgender or the clients own choice of partner. In the daytime a showcase to everyone intrigued to come and see what a brothel looks like while at the same time discussions around sex education are being held in the venue. Of course, people who visit the venue will need to have been vaccinated and show an ID card proving that they have passed all medical health requirements to be able to have sex with other people. The design concept is to create minimal waste throwing away as little as possible and materials chosen to be highly sanitised, easily throughout.
Since Edward II order in 1910 to close UK brothels, sex workers have been fighting for their safety every day. What is legal, is offering sexual services as an individual, but what sex workers cannot do is work as a group, even if it is for the sex worker’s safety. They could go to prison as it is considered a brothel – which is (currently) not legal in the UK. Sex workers should not be dehumanised they have the same rights to be safe at work, just like all other workers. It is a human right to be safe. This is the main reason why sex workers in their profession are calling for sex work law reform in the UK.
It is reasonable to speculate that in the near future legal brothels will open again in the UK with the Nordic Model. One current element that is feeding this drive for safe legal access to paid for sex is the relationship to intimacy anxiety felt as an impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This could lead to more random attacks both on men and women whether in an open space or within a home or hotel. Safe legalised paid-for sex in a safe and hygienic environment would help lower anxiety levels for people as they emerge from the Covid 19 pandemic.
