Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson has been generating a conversation about women's sexual empowerment. The importance of it. The barriers to it. And, one rarely considered ...

Thompson’s promotion of the importance of women’s sexual pleasure is well over-due. Women buying sexual services have largely been overlooked or dismissed due to the skewed way in which we think about the sex industry. Others wanted to learn about their bodies and sexual function, and experiment with different desires or types of partners. We don’t know how many people buy sexual services because the characterisation of sex work is far removed from the reality. Sexual pleasure was a motivator for the women I interviewed to learn to identify their desires, initiate, negotiate and control their sexual activity. Acquiring these skills gave the women a feeling of power that allowed them to challenge both the stereotypes about women’s sexuality and the gendered roles that keep women in subservient positions to men.