Salome Salvi challenges Hontiveros’ Nordic Model approach to sex work

The adult content creator says penalizing clients could put sex workers at greater risk.

Filipina model and adult content creator Salome Salvi has challenged the idea that penalizing clients is the best way to protect sex workers, arguing that the approach could instead push them into more dangerous and precarious situations.

Salvi, a Fine Arts graduate of UP Diliman, shared her perspective after a 2012 interview of then-Akbayan representative-turned-Senator Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel resurfaced on X (formerly Twitter), reigniting discussions about the proposed Anti-Prostitution Act and its reliance on the so-called Nordic Model.

While Salvi acknowledged that the Nordic Model has its merits, she argued that it ultimately creates a more dangerous environment for sex workers.

“What it mostly does is it makes it more difficult for sex workers, who benefit from the employment… connect with paying customers, therefore, putting them in a different kind of precarity,” Salvi said in a lengthy thread on X.

She stressed that penalizing buyers does not abolish the demand for sex work. Instead, “it just pushes existing sex workers to find unsafe avenues to do their work hidden from the law.”

For Salvi, the solution lies not in partial decriminalization but in the full decriminalization of consensual sex work. She argued that this would be the best route toward harm reduction because it allows sex workers to govern themselves and minimizes their interactions with law enforcement, whom she noted can be instigators of harassment and extortion.

Salvi also explained that full decriminalization would make it easier for sex workers to report genuinely unlawful transactions, including non-consensual involvement and trafficking, without fear of being penalized themselves.

Addressing the deeper societal issues surrounding the industry, Salvi acknowledged that the demand for sex work is a “tool of the patriarchy” and will likely continue to exist as long as emotional and sexual labor remains gendered.

Because the industry is unlikely to disappear, she said society’s focus should instead be on “making the fulfillment of this demand as safe and informed as we can possibly make it for the providers of sexual services.”

The discussion took a sharper turn when an X user replied to Salvi, admitting they did not feel knowledgeable enough to weigh in on the broader issue. Salvi responded bluntly: “Neither is Sen. Risa tbh,” although she quickly clarified that she took no offense at the exchange.

Salvi ultimately pointed to what she sees as a larger gap in discussions about sex work legislation: “There’s too few people outside of sex workers well-versed in sex work discourse because our experiences and politics are very specific to us.”

The resurfaced clip featured Hontiveros discussing her proposed Anti-Prostitution Act on the show “Wasak” with media personalities Lourd de Veyra and Jun Sabayton.

In the interview, Hontiveros explained that her proposed legislation was heavily influenced by the Nordic Model, which places legal culpability on buyers and third-party exploiters or pimps while seeking to decriminalize the sale of sex and provide sex workers with legal rights and protections.

Hontiveros said the bill sought to shift criminal liability away from prostituted women, whom the legislation viewed as victims, and instead penalize what it considered the “true perpetrators” of the industry, including pimps, establishment owners, corrupt law enforcers and customers who generate demand.

The proposed measure also included alternative livelihood opportunities and counseling for sex workers who wanted to leave the industry.

While the bill’s intention to stop criminalizing exploited women was praised by some netizens, Salvi’s response underscored the continuing debate over whether protecting sex workers means restricting demand or giving them greater control over the conditions in which they work.

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