How Women are the First Casualty of Poverty and Hunger

By Irena Ioannou — GAZE

In 2015, The Times published a study-based article on prostitution, claiming that Greece had been hit so hard by the financial crisis that female students were forced to sell their bodies for a meal, and in some cases for the price of a cheese pie.

For the most part, the Greek media reacted in a way common to local culture: by vehemently denying, pointing a finger, and making a joke out of it. The British newspaper was accused of spreading fake news, of holding a grudge against Greece as a whole, and of waging a campaign to defame the nation. An example of a common sexist jokes on Twitter, was “How much does she cost? Thirty cheese pies.”

In 2018, a similar article appeared in New York Times based on the same study, yet at the same time the article somehow managed to stay out of the limelight. Despite citing data that sex could be bought for less than ten euros, and that prostitution was now common in women of all ages — including middle-aged former businesswomen — the local media and the public didn’t raise an eye-brow.

The tragedies surrounding this story abound.

Our women have higher moral standards

The main backlash against The Times article seemed to focus on the fact that the new prostitutes were…