Apr 30, 2026
Content Warning: Rape culture, victim-blaming, shame culture, dismissal of victims’ experiences.
Day to day, our experiences are shaped by the societal attitudes that surround us.
These attitudes influence how we are treated, who is believed, and whose experiences are taken seriously. Many women feel the effects of rising mainstream misogyny alongside long-standing stigma and harmful beliefs – from everyday interactions to the larger systems and institutions they encounter.
At the same time, these attitudes are being actively challenged. Across communities, we know that work is being done to shift perspectives, dismantle harmful norms, and build a safer, fairer society.
Misogynistic attitudes continue to shape women’s experiences; how they’re seen, who is believed, how harm towards them is understood. These attitudes are not new. Patterns that position some people as more deserving of dignity, credibility have persisted for centuries. For women involved in the sex industry, these dynamics are often intensified, reflecting a long history of stigma, gendered inequality and exclusion.
We still see attitudes rooted in outdated 19th‑century moral frameworks echoed today. In the Victorian era, publications such as London’s Penny Dreadful newspapers profited from sensationalising the murders of women associated with the sex industry. The dehumanisation of these women transformed their deaths into public entertainment. While the mediums have changed, the underlying dynamics remain familiar: profit and power continue to drive narratives that fuel misogyny and obstruct progress towards gender equality.
Stigma, misunderstanding and real‑world consequences
One reason these perceptions persist is a widespread lack of understanding of women’s lived experiences of involvement in the sex industry. In the absence of a nuanced, holistic understanding, judgement and stigma too often fill the gaps. The real‑world consequences are significant. Harm against women involved in the sex industry becomes more readily excused, minimised or ignored, and their needs left unrecognised or unmet.
These attitudes are not abstract. They surface in public discourse and positions of authority.
For example, when a Greater London Councillor publicly described a woman’s sexual assault as “more likely a punter that didn’t pay,” the extent of victim‑blaming on display was stark [1] . Such statements reinforce the idea that violence against certain women is inevitable, or even deserved, and that belief has serious consequences.
Crucially, these attitudes do not exist in a vacuum. They’re reinforced daily in the world around us, through media representation, casual conversations, the jokes we tell and the language used to describe women’s experiences, bodies, and lives.
As organisations dedicated to ending violence against women and girls Beyond the Streets and Everyone’s Invited understand well the harm caused by stigma, misogyny and rape culture, and what it takes to challenge the attitudes that sustain them.
What Rape Culture Reveals About Who is Listened To
Everyone’s Invited began in 2020, when our CEO Soma Sara shared her experience of rape culture. What followed was an outpouring of testimonies, from friends, friends of friends and then strangers, all asking her to share their stories too.
What started as a personal moment quickly became a national conversation. To date, over 52,000 survivors have shared their experiences on our platform, exposing the scale and normalisation of sexual violence.
Since then, Everyone’s Invited has helped influence legislation, reached more than 87,000 young people through our education programme, and maintained our grassroots activism, reaching 28 million people on Instagram last year alone.
Everyone’s Invited exists because survivors spoke out – and that collective voice continues to drive change. Our mission is to expose and eradicate rape culture with empathy, compassion and understanding.
Rape culture describes a society in which sexual violence is not only pervasive, but normalised – sustained by attitudes, behaviours, and systems that excuse, minimise, or even condone harm.
To make sense of this, we use the rape culture pyramid. At its base are everyday behaviours many dismiss as harmless: sexist jokes, victim-blaming language, the policing of what women wear or how they present themselves. As we move up the pyramid, these attitudes escalate into harassment, coercion, and exploitation – ultimately creating the conditions in which sexual violence is able to occur and be dismissed.
Crucially, the pyramid shows that sexual violence does not exist in isolation. It is upheld by a broader culture. And within that culture, some women are afforded less protection, credibility, and empathy than others.
This is where women in the sex industry sit at a particularly sharp intersection.
Stigma, rape culture and the sex industry
For over 25 years, Beyond the Streets has worked alongside women involved in the sex industry, offering trauma-informed and gender-informed support. Many women supported through our services describe their experiences as survival sex: selling or exchanging sex for food, shelter, money, substances, to pay bills or safety. For the women we support, this is often the reality that stigma and stereotypes ignore.
One important element of Beyond the Streets work to challenge attitudes involves a unexpected activity set in the east end of London: the Whitechapel Women: Beyond the Jack the Ripper walking tour.
We understand that people live busy, pressured, complex lives, and set out to oppose harmful attitudes we see whilst providing people with an engaging and enjoyable, sociable activity – combining social connection with awareness‑raising and empowerment.
Through a humble walking tour, taking place on the last Thursday of every month, we’re able to explore themes including victim‑blaming, misogynistic historical narratives, discrimination, positive social activism, and enduring harmful attitudes.
What are these ‘harmful attitudes’ were referring to, when it comes to the sex industry?
Women involved in the sex industry who have experienced harm are too often seen as ‘less worthy victims’, or perceived as less deserving of justice and support. These views are rooted in centuries‑old stigma and under-challenged stereotypes.
This response means that violence against women involved in the sex industry is often socially tolerated. Women supported by Beyond the Streets have described experiences of physical violence, stalking, intimate image abuse, as well as purchasers refusing to wear condoms and refusing to pay.
This same stigmatisation that contributes to violence against women, also creates barriers to women accessing support. When women disclose harm, their experiences may be minimised or framed as inevitable. Even professionals may avoid raising the topic entirely, either out of discomfort or judgement, leaving support needs unidentified and unaddressed.
Rape culture: The classroom, conversations, and the impact of women in the sex industry
Four years ago, Everyone’s Invited developed our Online Misogyny talk, exploring the business model of misogyny, the rise of the manosphere, and its real-world consequences for women and girls. What we are now seeing in classrooms is an evolution of these dynamics.
An increasing number of young people are navigating a culture shaped by “hustle” narratives – where success, visibility, and monetisation are prioritised, often without critical reflection on the systems underpinning them. Pop culture becomes a useful entry point for these conversations.
Take the “bop house” – a prominent Florida-based TikTok collective and shared mansion of OnlyFans creators. Many young people admire the creators for leveraging these online platforms to make money. Yet, at the same time, there is a striking judgement of those women for their involvement in the sex industry. By contrast, managers within the same system are rarely subjected to the same scrutiny, instead being framed primarily as entrepreneurs.
This contradiction is not incidental. It mirrors the logic of rape culture.
Women in the sex industry are simultaneously visible and silenced. Judgement they face is not separate from rape culture, it is a key mechanism through which it operates.
What needs to change?
Challenging stigma requires open, informed and critical conversations. Beyond the Streets’ Whitechapel Women Tour exists to do exactly this.
Since 2017, Beyond the Streets has run the tour to challenge myths, spotlight women’s hidden history and educate around harmful attitudes
For example, although the five women murdered by the so-called ‘Jack the Ripper’ are frequently described as having sold sex, historical evidence does not support this claim. Labeling them as ‘fallen women’ functioned to excuse indifference to their deaths, deny justice and turn their murders into public spectacle.
The tour reframes these narratives by focusing on the women’s lives rather than their deaths, drawing connections between historic multiple disadvantages and stigma, and the experiences of women supported by Beyond the Streets in Whitechapel today.
To meaningfully challenge rape culture, we must confront the attitudes that sustain it – particularly those rooted in stigma and hierarchy. This means questioning why some women are more readily believed than others. Cultural change demands active engagement, critical reflection and community.
Breaking down systemic discrimination requires more than policy reform; it demands a cultural shift. One that centres active work towards equality, listens to diverse lived experiences, and brings everyone along as allies. Justice will look different for different people. For some it may involve the criminal justice system. For others it means being believed, accessing support, or having their experiences validated without judgement.
A vital part of this is building stronger critical analysis skills.
In a digital landscape shaped by misinformation, evolving at a faster pace than its regulation, we must move beyond passive consumption towards active questioning:
These can be powerful tools for disruption.
And change also happens in the everyday. In conversations with friends, in classrooms, in the willingness to challenge harmful assumptions when they arise.
There are real tangible signs that the landscape is changing for the better
The language used to describe sexual violence is shifting. When Everyone’s Invited first began, the term rape culture was often placed in inverted commas – treated as controversial, or up for debate. Its legitimacy was questioned. Today, that framing is beginning to fall away. There is growing recognition that rape culture is not a provocation, but a reality – one that demands naming in order to be dismantled. In our Primary School Campaign back in 2025 the media dropped those inverted commas, a sign that there is growing acceptance of this issue.
Sexual violence is being increasingly viewed as a systemic issue rather than a series of isolated incidents. Organisations like Everyone’s Invited and Beyond the Streets are playing a vital role – not only in supporting women, but in reshaping the cultural understanding of harm.
Education has become a key site of intervention: classrooms, workshops, and digital spaces are now places where young people are actively engaging with concepts like consent, power, and inequality. These conversations are increasingly informing policy discussions. Lived experience, frontline insight and education work are shaping how attitudinal change is understood and pursued.
We know that informed, open conversations work. Since 2021, 90% of attendees of Beyond the Streets’ Whitechapel Women tour have reported improved understanding of the multiple disadvantages women face, demonstrating the impact of challenging assumptions, and building shared understanding.
Change begins when we name the systems, attitudes, and myths that harm women, and when we challenge them
Positive change occurs when we listen to diverse lived experiences and recognise whose voices have historically been marginalised.
By dismantling stigma, we create conditions where women’s experiences are heard and believed, and where support and justice are accessible rather than conditional.
This change is being fought for.
It’s ongoing and collective.
It requires listening, learning and sustained action.
If you feel safe to do so, talk to someone you know about this topic. Start conversations, ask difficult questions, and be open to uncomfortable answers. Cultural change is built collectively, through small, consistent acts of awareness, reflection, and shared accountability.
If you’re a woman connected to sex industry in any way and want support, or just to talk
call 0800 133 7870 – or visit our support page
If you want to share your story of rape culture please submit via: https://www.everyonesinvited.uk/submissions/submit
If you’d like to book a school, university or corporate workshop, please contact: education@everyonesinvited.uk
Want to increase your understanding of women’s experiences of the sex industry, for yourself or in your workplace? Book one of Beyond the Streets’ upcoming training sessions here
If you’d like to challenge harmful attitudes with Beyond the Streets on one of our Whitechapel Women Walking Tours, book your tickets on Eventbrite
Alternatively, to book a private tour for your educational class (from school to university), your community group, or corporate team day, please email us
[1] After being expelled from the Conservative Party in 2023, Sean Slater served as an independent councillor for around 1 year. Slator was readmitted to the Conservative Party in 2024, after issuing an apology and agreeing to undergo training. As of early 2026, Shaun Slator serves as the Chairman of the Bromley & Biggin Hill Conservative Association.
Find more information on Bromley Councillor Sean Slater’s rape shaming comments here: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/shaun-slator-bromley-council-rape-twitter-st-mary-cray-b1050838.html
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