Porta-Potty: The Dark Reality of Sexual Exploitation

Porta Potty Culture in Ghana: Why Men’s Behaviour Must Be Part of the Conversation

The phrase “Porta Potty Party” has spread across the internet, sensationalised as a bizarre spectacle of money, sex, and humiliation. But behind the hashtags and gossip lies something far more serious: an emerging culture of exploitation in West Africa that says as much about male demand as it does about women’s poverty.

Women in Ghana and across the region are vulnerable to this form of sex work because of economic hardship, lack of housing, and family pressures. Yet the crucial question remains: why are men paying for it in the first place?

Moving Beyond Sensationalism

The word “party” masks the reality. What is described as a Porta Potty “party” is in truth a transaction where a man pays a woman to endure humiliation for his gratification.

By focusing on scandal, the public narrative obscures the core issue: this is not about glamour or choice. It is about men creating demand for acts so extreme that only desperation drives women to accept them.

A Voice from Accra

On 30 August 2025, the Hope Education Project interviewed a 25-year-old Nigerian woman working in Accra. Her testimony echoed what we hear from many sex workers in the city.

“It all boils down to money,” she said. Most women she knows don’t see it as a choice. They are driven by poverty, by the absence of family support, or simply the need for somewhere safe to stay.

When asked about clients, she was blunt: “Everybody – any nationality, it’s just a personal preference.”

She explained that women try to negotiate higher amounts, sometimes asking for GH¢2,000 (about US$170) for extreme requests. But clients often push back, offering less, and desperation dictates whether a woman accepts. “It depends on her situation that day,” she noted.

She also reflected on the psychological toll: “Sometimes when you taste the money, most people don’t want to stop – but in the long run, you can’t account for any of it.”

These words mirror the experience of many women in Accra’s sex trade. Studies show that sex workers in Ghana routinely face stigma, anxiety, depression, and violence (Wulifan et al., 2024), and occupational risks are compounded by the illegality and secrecy surrounding their work (Antwi, Ross, & Markham, 2023).

Understanding the Men

Why would men seek out such degrading practices? Several themes emerge:

Sexual deprivation and loneliness – men who feel isolated or unable to form healthy relationships seek outlets in extreme behaviour.
Porn-influenced expectations – exposure to increasingly extreme online content can distort ideas of what sex “should” be.
Mental health struggles – compulsion, trauma, and untreated conditions manifest in harmful behaviour.
Power and control – for some men, the appeal lies less in sex itself than in humiliating someone more vulnerable.

Seen this way, Porta Potty culture is not simply a niche fetish. It is a symptom of men’s unmet needs, distorted sexual attitudes, and the misuse of power over women.

Porta Potty – A Shared Social Issue

For women, Porta Potty practices are a form of survival. For men, they reflect deep fractures in mental health, sexual health, and social expectations. Together, these dynamics create a market where the most vulnerable are exploited for the darkest fantasies.

Research has documented similar patterns of Nigerian women trafficked into commercial sex work in Ghana under false promises of employment (Musah, 2025), echoing what our interviewee described. The International Organization for Migration (2019) has likewise highlighted internal and cross-border trafficking networks that prey on women’s economic desperation.

If we continue to treat Porta Potty culture as gossip, we risk trivialising the issue. Instead, we must acknowledge it as a public health, mental health, and human rights challenge.

A Call for Collaboration

The Hope Education Project believes the next step is research and dialogue that bring both sides of the equation into view. Women’s vulnerability must be addressed, but so too must the drivers of male demand.

We invite academic researchers, NGOs, and practitioners in sexual and reproductive health, human trafficking prevention, and men’s mental health to work together. By combining expertise, we can:

Document the scale and reality of Porta Potty practices in Ghana.
Understand the psychological and social factors driving male demand.
Develop educational approaches that reduce stigma, correct misinformation, and offer healthier alternatives for men.

The factors pushing women into transactional sex are well documented — economic hardship, lack of education and employment opportunities, single-parent households, and even climate change. What we rarely examine is the demand side of sexual exploitation. Too often, the media sensationalises depravity and frames the exploited as criminals, while ignoring the men who create the market. Only through collaboration across research, sexual health, and trafficking prevention can we shift the conversation from scandal to solutions. By focusing on male demand as well as women’s vulnerability, we can ensure that no woman is ever reduced to a “Porta Potty” for someone else’s gratification.

Note to reader: AI-generated image. Used to illustrate the issue; it does not depict real people or events.