Michelle Kelly recently spoke out about her experience of being exploited for 7 years in prostitution and pornography. As expected, she received vicious backlash from sex trade lobbyists. They bullied, threatened, ‘doxxed’ and intimidated – terror tactics designed to silence her and deter other survivors from coming forward. This gaslighting and victim-blaming is re-traumatising – and it is deliberate. When women speak out about men’s violence and abuse, we are told to shut up, to distrust ourselves, to always give our abusers the benefit of the doubt lest we say something ‘unkind’ about men. But as Michelle points out, the women and children still in the sex industry have no voice. Only those who have escaped are in a position to speak out. We must continue to OBJECT to men’s violence even (or especially) when we are told to shut up.