Putafeminista: A Manifesto

by Monique Prada, Amanda De Lisio (Translator), Thayane Brêtas (Translator)

As long as feminism has existed as a movement in Brazil, sex workers have taken to the streets in solidarity—despite the fact that mainstream feminist discourse positions sex work, and the “putas” who enact it, as detrimental to women’s rights. In Putafeminista, activist and sex worker Monique Prada calls for feminists to retire this hypocrisy and embrace putafeminism: a working class women’s movement that rejects whorephobia and its classist, colonial dimensions.

Drawing on her firsthand experiences with sex work and movement building, Prada argues for the validity of sex work as feminist labor and tracks the innovations introduced by Brazilian sex workers to feminist internet discourse, street actions, and governmental advocacy. For readers seeking the glimmers of tomorrow’s feminism, Prada places that future with putafeminists, naming the brothel a “final frontier” for all women to gather, reform, and revolt.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Brazil, Social Justice

128 pages, Paperback

Published July 8, 2025

About the author

Monique Prada is the author of Putafeminista, published in 2018 in Brazil. She is a militant defender of sex worker rights, creating the blog Mundo Invisível (Invisible World) in 2012 and participating in popular debates. She also served as president for the Central Única de Trabalhadoras e Trabalhadores Sexuais (CUTS), member of the UN Women Civil Society Advisory Group, and advocated for Bill 4211/2012 by Federal Deputy Jean Wyllys, which sought to regulate the profession in Brazil. She lives in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Reviews

[Meike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monique Prada is a Brazilian sex worker and activist fighting for an intersectional feminism that respects the agency of sex workers and incorporates their strife in its struggle for a more just society - she was even a member of the UN Women Civil Society Advisory Group. Like many other sex work activists, Prada aims to steer the discourse away from highly subjective moral questions to discuss pragmatic measures in order to improve the lives of and protect prostitutes: She is not here to dramatize or glamorize sex work, but she points out that it's a job frequently taken out of need, so to protect vulnerable people who would not choose sex work if they had a choice, measures like fighting poverty and improving social mobility could help change their destiny - the criminalization of sex work only makes it harder for them to survive (especially in countries without social security nets, obviously).

Prada also points out that the stigmatization of sex work is rooted in highly patriarchal thinking and rhetoric: That promiscuous sex ruins women, that honest women are married women - a rhetoric that serves to render trad wife marriages more appealing, because the alternative would mean to be some kind of failure and / or whore punished by society. And Prada does not fail to mention that marriages can (not must!) be a prostitution contract without a time limit, especially if there is severe monetary dependency and unilateral monogamy. So apart from pondering how society views sex workers, she also investigates what sex work says about society: The clients, she re-iterates, are mostly the husbands of these so-called honorable women. To exclude the sex worker from the feminist struggle, to declare them an anti-feminist agent in the business of pleasing men, means to enhance their marginalization and vulnerability. Rather, the whole structure of the sex industry and how it relates to society at large should be looked at for its inherent oppressions, so they can be fought.

The text is very engagingly written, it is illuminating and serves the important function to make the voices of those heard who are often turned into a objects of legislation, policing, and moral stigma, and frequently denied agency and respect by the same people who claim to want to protect them.

[Karolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książka dla każdej osoby, która uważa, że w feminizmie nie ma miejsca dla seksworkerek. Prada pisze w bardzo logiczny i wyważony sposób o tym, że praca seksualna dotyczy w większości kobiet z biednych rodzin i często nie mają one innej alternatywy, mimo wishful thinking białych zbawicielek, próbujących ich „ratować”. Nie glamoryzuje pracy seksualnej (a nawet takie przedstawianie jako „cool” krytykuje), ale też nie daje się złapać na trauma p*rn, tak obecny w dyskursie. Podkreśla, że kobiety doświadczają przemocy ze strony mężczyzn w związkach, w pracy, na ulicy i że to mizoginistyczna przemoc jest problemem, a nie sam fakt pracy seksualnej, a często te dwie rzeczy są w dyskursie zlane w jedno - i chciałaby móc z tą przemocą walczyć razem z innymi feministkami, a te zazwyczaj ją z ruchu wykluczają.

Wielki plus za wspaniałe przypisy od redakcji uzupełniające brazylijski i w ogóle południowoamerykański kontekst. Fascynuje mnie to, jak dużą rolę zdaje się odgrywać w feministycznym dyskursie tytułowy putafeminizm (od „puta”, czyli „dziwka”, słowo to próbują odzyskać osoby pracujące seksualnie), jak przyczynia się do konkretnych zmian w prawie (np. dot. przemocy seksualnej w ogóle).

Wniosek po lekturze: potrzebujemy więcej głosów i perspektyw z Globalnego Południa. Chciałabym, żeby ta książka ukazała się kiedyś po polsku.

[sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

thanks to edelweiss for the drc, this rocked! i'm grateful this work has been translated, because it has such important ideas packaged in a really interesting, comprehensible format. not only does it offer substantiated arguments for the legitimacy and decriminalization of sex work, it was also surprisingly funny and undercut with empathy that i really appreciated - for example, it both acknowledges the life and circumstances that created Dworkin's ideology, while also acknowledging the violent patriarchal harm that ideology causes. that's a layer of nuance i don't see that often, mostly because it's so easy to dunk on second-wave feminists like Dworkin for their anti-porn stances, but I think understanding where that mode of thinking comes from is really important when we're trying to combat conservative feminist takes (Prada's alternate phrasing for 'radical' feminists, which i really like, because nothing about excluding sex workers/trans people from your feminism is radical). AND it acknowledges the nuances of gender/queer identity and that intersection with sex work specifically in Brazil, AND it uses 'asexual people exist' as a counterargument to 'sex work is an inherent talent all women have,' which i thought was particularly delightful and inclusive. anyways! i would totally read more from this author, and i hope these ideas resonate with as many people as possible. fuck a swerf, fuck a terf, long live putafeminism <3

[Marcos Faria · Rating 4 out of 5]

O que falta em rigor acadêmico é compensado pela contundência. Às vezes parece que Monique Prada está dando voltas sem sair do lugar, mas é apenas porque está atacando por diversos lados os seus dois temas principais - o embate contra o proibicionismo radfem e a afirmação dos seus direitos. O que entra de autobiográfico passa longe da fetichização e serve para sustentar a argumentação. E o último capítulo chega a ser lírico.

[Taty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fundamental ouvir as prostitutas no que se refere a elas. Livro. muito bem escrito e embasado.

[anne larouche · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essai qui apporte une lumière sur un coin trop souvent à l’ombre du féminisme. Prada soutient des points très intéressants tout en restant près des possibles de la réalité. Cependant, l’essai souffre de l’absence d’une ligne directrice claire qui pourrait mieux transmettre les idées et surtout ne pas laisser des interrogations de côté. Dans tous les cas, ça donne envie d’en lire plus du côté féminisme pro sexe!

[Margarida · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sou marginalizada pela mesma cultura que permite que eu exista."

[Lina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Às feministas: necessário.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a putafeminista, but if I was a puta, I definitely would be one!

Puta is the Brazilian term for sex worker or prostitute. The Portuguese terms, including those similar or derived from English and other languages, need to be considered with care and with respect to the sociocultural context. Puta may seem brazen or crass and brush up against the pushback by Western feminisms when it comes to the direct translation of "prostitute" (in favour of "sex worker") but in Brazil the feministas prefer to "take words by their horns."

This is a short text and not without flaws. The best part is the candour and representation. I learned so much about the Brazillian puta and feminist scenes. I also learned a lot about gender, including the notion of travesti, who are neither "transvestites" or transgender folks, so careful!

Monique Prada is a famous putafeminista and this is her raw take on the present day and historical trajectories of puta rights and feminism. Many of the points she makes we may already know or readily get behind. "If a woman doesn't charge for sex, she is said to 'give' it away. At the origin of this expression is the incredibly sexist and deeply patriarchal view that no woman remains whole after sex: that something is no longer hers ..." This kind of bold clarity resounds throughout the text.

I also found the footnotes essential to understanding the Brazilian context. Clearly, there needs to be an update to this volume, which is a translation of an earlier work ... here's hoping it's published soon.

Thank you to Edelwiess+ and The Feminist Press at CUNY for the advance copy.

[Ren Parks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mainstream feminism has never been feminism for everybody. There is always, always, always someone at the bottom of the priority list in a movement whose public presence is largely dominated by cishet white women coming from a certain measure of financial privilege. This often leaves the most vulnerable populations, the ones we could stand to learn the most from, silenced.

One of these groups, which frequently intersects with many others at the bottom of the feminist hierarchy, is sex workers, prostitutes, escorts, or - as Monique Prada and many others prefer to call themselves - putas. While mainstream feminism has plenty to say about prostitution, often taking it up as a symbol of the shame and violence caused by patriarchal society, we rarely hear from those engaged in the trade themselves.

In comes Monique Prada's "Putafeminism," a much-needed revolutionary framework that seeks to assert the agency of sex workers, their right to safe working conditions and fair compensation, and the urgency of prioritizing the perspectives of the most vulnerable in liberation movements.

I often shy away from theory, but I found Prada's work accessible and engaging - especially considering that it's in translation. The organization of sections and chapters felt a bit arbitrary at times, but the message was still very poignant and gave me lots to think about. Always happy to challenge my worldview, and this book certainly helped me do just that.

Huge thanks to Feminist Press for giving me an advanced copy of this, as always. <3

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prada is writing from her own experiences and those of other feminists who are sex workers. Often people think that sex workers can't be feminist, but Prada makes the point that Putas (people who trade sex for money) are challenging the madonna/whore dichotomy that keeps women in their places. She states that women go into the sex industry largely because they are poor and need the money. She claims that sex work often pays more than other jobs and gives women more autonomy. She argues that sex work should be decriminalized (which I agree with) so that workers don't have to be frightened or dependent upon men. She points out that feminist sex workers are organizing for better working conditions and to end violence against women just like feminists in other walks of life. This has been a hot topic among feminists for years causing many splits within organizations and theoretical debates.

[nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

approachable, insightful, refreshingly inclusive. putafeminista is a short read, but one that was valuable for its earnest discussion of bodily autonomy and revolting against patriarchal stigma. this was such a wonderful intro for me -as a sympathetic but totally uneducated person- to begin to understand what considering sex work in our feminisms looks like (as we must!) and finding the language to combat radfem arguments. the chapter on the internet and its impact on sex work/community building was especially enlightening!

[Grace Hewitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

"it's as if people want putas to be punished for doing what they consider to be a shortcut- instead of dedicating ourselves to other precarious work with miserable pay- without submitting ourselves to the more socially acceptable alternative- marriage."

was really moved and informed by this piece. for so long, sex workers are excluded from the very conversations they have the experience and strength to lead.

[Natali Fischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ninguém perde por escutar o outro.
Discussão necessária demais.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fascinating manifesto on putafeminism

[Ariella Kvashny · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I liked was that this book brought forward a perspective from someone who knows the nuances of this business inside and out. Compelling but wouldn’t be a book I recommend.

[Sofia Rubi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Passionate and persuasive

[loathe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straight up BANGER.
Several concepts of feminists theory distilled down to facets of life as raw as sex and interacting with society.

Feminisms, the proposed merits behind anti sex work groups, the idea sex workers need to be oppressed as it’s a class of work that needs to be undesirable by default to keep people on the “normal,” paths. All in fifteen fking pages with a few lines of humor thrown in.

“We (sex workers/putas) exist. We provide for ourselves and our loved ones. We change diapers, feed our children, and send them to school. We care for our elders. We dream. We enjoy the smell of wet grass and the sound of waves…there is very little that separates us from one other. We are human. I am just like you.”

[nix _love_x · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como uma sw...eu só cheguei a muitos insights que levarei pra vida,depois dessa leitura. Diria que é uma leitura imprescindível se você quer se fortalecer sobre o que realmente está acontecendo. (Inclusive já emprestei ele após a minha leitura.)
A monique e outres pessoas com vivências importantíssimas tocam com consciência, extrema delicadeza e paciência, informando e reabrindo assuntos (ocultos por questões pertencentes ao capitalismo) sobre a lacuna sociopolítica que vivemos HOJE e ontem ,dentro do sexo/corpo remunerado. para que no futuro( espero que próximo), haja uma união muito mais coletiva (também). Que vise nos proteger e nos tirar apenas do eixo produto-consumo, algo que fica sendo posto à parte tirando condições mínimas e respeitosas do ir e vir, trabalhar/receber/ de se qualificar e de se reconhecer importante.
É sobre perder o medo... Parar de se achar errône em primeiro lugar quando na verdade lidamos com uma sociedade cheia de lacunas.
Caminhamos juntes e sentamos a mesa quando falamos de cultura,pagamento de impostos, inteligência social e econômica. Esse livro fala de articulação e ajuda muito a desenvolver um pensamento crítico realmente coerente com o cenário em questão.
Obrigada Monique e outres que estão nesse livro. Um fôlego a mais! ❤️