APROSEX - The Spanish "Sex Workers Association" which offers an Introduction to Prostitution course receives €25,000 in government funding

By Anna Pratts, 07/08/2018

APROSEX, an association of “professional sex workers” based in Barcelona which offers an “Introduction to the Prostitution Profession” course, received over €25,000 in grants from local government authorities between 2016 and 2018. 

The three-day course is conducted via Skype and costs €90. According to the APROSEX (Asociación de Profesionales del Sexo) website the course is broken down under the following headings;

-          Why do I want to be a prostitute?

-          Insisting...do  I really want to be a whore?

-          Have you thought about the drawbacks?

-          Do I feel ready to practice this profession?

-          Little and “not so little” sex tricks

-          An introduction to stigma in prostitution and its consequences for mental health

-          The professionalisation of sex workers

-          The tax office and social security

-          Marketing for sex workers

There is no mention of strategies to prevent sexually transmitted diseases or the abuse and violence they may suffer at the hands of their future “clients.”

APROSEX, in the words of its president, Paula VIP (real name, Conxa Borrell), is “a non-profit organisation which aims to create a network of sex industry workers, and a political platform to oppose abolitionists and prohibitionists.” In their 2017 manifesto they label prostitution abolitionists as “whorephobes” and accuse them of “poisoning feminism.”

APROSEX president Conxa Borrell

The manifesto, entitled “Abolitionism Vs. Feminism”, has been endorsed by politicians such as Antonio Baños, an important figure in the left-wing pro-Catalan independence party CUP, and AMMAR, an Argentinian “sex workers union” whose leading members have been tried for the crimes of sex trafficking and pimping.

In a 2014 interview APROSEX president Conxa Borrell said that many of the young girls between the ages of 18 to 23 who want to enter prostitution do so to pay for studies or to help their families. Apparently, women of 50 years or older also sign up because they struggle to find employment elsewhere and “have hardly been with any men other than their husbands, but there´s a market for them because they’re affectionate, they know how to get men off and they’re up for the job... A puta who doesn’t like sex is like an anorexic food critic.”

Borrell considers that a professional prostitute should be emotionally intelligent and develop empathy with the male sex buyers in order to improve client retention; “We putas are clever, we know that we don’t make money with our vaginas – all women have a vagina  - but by using our heads. Listening to the client is fundamental. You should pay attention to them like they're the most important person in the world and memorise all the information they give you.”

APROSEX's “Give me the blowjob of your life” course description

In 2016 APROSEX also offered a men-only course entitled “Give me the blowjob of your life”. Enrolment on the 90-minute workshop cost €60 and was advertised on their website with the following description:

 “Many of you complain that saintly women, and even some putas, don’t know how to suck it properly. We believe the problem isn’t that they don’t know how to use their tongue and mouth, but that you don’t know how to direct them. You let yourself get carried away by your own pleasure, but don’t really understand that you also produce an extraordinary delight in the woman. This workshop, like the others we organise, is practical. That means the blowjobs will be real. No dildos, bananas or cucumbers. They’re fine for nibbling, but sucking a fully erect penis is always preferable...”

APROSEX's "How To Strip Yourself and a Man" course

Other workshops offered on the website include ‘The Art Of Fellatio’ taught by Anna Alba Escort, and ‘How To Strip Yourself and a Man’ by Martina de la Terra Escort.

You may be asking yourself whether this isn’t just standard prostitution presented in the form of a ‘course’? What’s the difference? Where would you draw the line? The APROSEX collective have not responded to questions, limiting themselves to accusing their critics of “whorephobia”. When I posted screenshotsof the course description and documents on Twitter which revealed the local government funding they received, the group’s founder responded by claiming this was “a hate campaign, ran by privileged people who are not stigmatised.”

The Eulalia Roig escort agency promoted by APROSEX

The APROSEX homepage features a link to a forum called Geishas VIP which is hosted from the same IP address as the main APROSEX site and Conxa Borrell’s personal website. Geishas VIP has an ‘agencies’ subforum where they officially recommend one such business in particular, Eulalia Roig, which offers on its website “an exquisite selection of the most select escorts that can be found in Barcelona. Get in contact to arrange an unforgettable date.”

How much do the women and girls have to pay to this agency and what is its relationship to Aprosex? Are the women and girls who attend their Introduction to Prostitution course also introduced to Eulalia Roig? Aprosex have declined to comment.

Translated by Ben Riddick

Original version in Spanish here