While debates around sexualisation are underway in academic, policy, practitioner and popular contexts, there are tensions as well as connections across and within these arenas. This article traces the origins of policymakers' engagement with sexualisation and reflects on the conclusions from the recent reviews commissioned by the current and former Westminster governments, including links with strategic responses to violence against women and girls (VAWG). Within academia, themes of agency, participation and pleasures in sexualised culture(s) are, arguably, more dominant. Here, we explore these differing engagements with the issue of sexualisation. We draw on the practice-based evidence of women's organisations, and suggest this constitutes an "epistemic community" [Haas, P.M. 1992. Introduction: Epistemic communities and international policy co-ordination. "International Organization" 46, no. 1: 1-35; cited in Walby, S. 2011a. "The future of feminism". Cambridge: Polity Press], a vantage point from where sexualisation is primarily viewed as a "conducive context" [Kelly, L. 2007. A conducive context: Trafficking of persons in central Asia. In "Human trafficking", ed. M. Lee, 73-91. Cullompton: Willan Publishing] for VAWG. (Contains 4 notes.)