Prostitution, exploitation and '5-star' reviews: Equality points out in a new campaign those who pay for sex

The Ministry of Equality launched this Monday its first institutional campaign focused on the abolition of prostitution. Under the slogan "5-star reviews? #YoSíTeVeo", the department led by Ana Redondo focuses on men who pay for sex and on the normalization of a market that treats women's bodies as products that can be rated, compared, and discarded.

The campaign starts from a harsh and direct idea: the real comments that some consumers leave in forums and networks about prostituted women. “Impeccable work”, “top atmosphere” or similar ratings appear converted into the center of the message to show to what extent prostitution has gone from silence and shame to an increasingly normalized exposure on the internet. Equality wants to point out this trivialization and open a debate about the social and individual responsibility of those who feed the prostitution system.

Redondo has defended that the campaign seeks to show “the suffering and absolute loss of rights” of women and girls in prostitution. She has also criticized a “throwaway” society that, in her words, goes as far as consuming “women’s bodies just like a menu in a restaurant”. The minister has been especially critical of consumers, whom she accuses of talking about women “as if they were consumable and perishable products”.

From the club to digital platforms

Equality places the campaign at a time when prostitution is no longer concentrated only in streets, clubs, or apartments. The Ministry warns that the system has extended to digital platforms, social networks, and spaces for recruiting young women, where exploitation appears wrapped in a language of apparent freedom, recommendation, rating, and rapid consumption.

The data helps explain the campaign's shift. A study promoted by Equality and the CIS reflects that a large majority of the population rejects prostitution as a normalized labor activity and links it with violence, economic necessity, and loss of dignity. The Macro-study on trafficking, sexual exploitation, and prostitution of women also identified more than 114,000 women in prostitution in Spain based on the analysis of hundreds of thousands of ads on websites.

The Secretary of State for Equality, María Guijarro, has defended that “the impunity of demand is part of the problem” and has accused society of having looked the other way for too long. Her message points directly to clients: “Prostitution is the only area in which sexual assault seems to be purchasable”.

The Government keeps the legislative front open. Redondo has assured that Equality is working on the comprehensive law against trafficking and on texts linked to the abolition of prostitution. The minister has insisted that the Executive will not give up on that agenda, although the parliamentary debate remains delicate and with resistance inside and outside Congress.