The Stereotypes Of Sex Trafficking

Sex trafficking is essentially systemic rape for profit. Force, fraud and coercion are used to control the victim’s behavior which may secure the appearance of consent to please the buyer (or john). Behind every transaction is violence or the threat of violence (Axtell par. 4). Just a decade ago, only a third of the countries studied by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had legislation against human trafficking. (Darker Side, par.1) Women, children, and even men are taken from their homes, and off of the streets and are brought into a life that is almost impossible to get out of. This life is not one of choice, it is in most times by force. UNODC estimates that the total international human trafficking is a

The audience for this paper is an educated public and specifically those who influence or make policy regarding trafficking, most specifically in Colorado. The dominant discourse around human trafficking centers on sex trafficking, and I hope to encourage a more holistic view.

The “trafficking” discourse relies on the idea that deceit was used to get women to leave home, but research indicates that large numbers of migrant women who work in the sex industry, did know that their work in Europe would have a sexual component if not be directly “prostitution.” The importance of this is that they were not completely deceived.

The first chapter of this book details what Raymond believes to be the most dangerous myths surrounding sex work, or prostitution as she refers to it. The first point she makes is that “Prostitution is Inevitable.” She claims that this is “the most senseless argument in defense of maintaining the system of prostitution” (Raymond, 2013, p. 2). Raymond backs her claim by explaining that this idea stems from the patriarchy from a time when women were objects. Raymond then continues on to berate the mindsets that say that sex work cannot or should not be banned because the safety of the worker has to be taken into consideration. She compares the “harm reduction” mentality to the same mentality that tobacco industry claimed to be using filtered cigarettes.

As humans dehumanize one another, sex trafficking is constantly evolving. The primary targets of sex trafficking are young girls and women, who are given opportunities by wealthy men. Young girls are taken from their families and put into a society where they do not fit in. They are unaware of the idea that they soon will be sold to someone else and a profit will be made. One’s need for cash causes someone else to feel less of themselves. Eventually, girls become vulnerable to the situation that they are in since their life is being controlled by someone else. Adolescent girls are terrified of their trafficker, so they result into child pornography as a way to keep him or her pleased. This is demonstrated in Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake.”

The sex industry is highly divided between those who call themselves “sex workers”, and former prostitutes who call themselves “survivors” (Glazer 340). Women should have the right to choose what they do for a living, including prostitution. The criminalization of prostitution does more harm than good when often women are left unprotected, both socially and legally, and therefore, the United States should make efforts to decriminalize and regulate prostitution instead.

It is often hard for the average person living in great conditions with all the luxuries this world offers like a nice car, big house, and a family to not stigmatize the profession of female sex workers. Themes of religion, addiction, and shame encompass the every day lives of the sex workers featured in the film Whores Glory1. Are the sex workers working in Thailand, Bangladesh, and Mexico seen as feminists? Do the women featured have control over their bodies? Finally, are these women recognized by society as workers in the film? I will be analyzing the production of the film through it’s themes and support my argument that the film Whores Glory1 is not feminist due to it’s depiction of female sex workers.

Beyond the realm of political legality, there exists a commodification of human for a different kind of “labor.” Sex trafficking presents itself as the underground by-product of the concept of “tradable” human “labor.” Women and children are trafficked all around the world as “laborers” serving “sex.” This has led to a dual commodification. While women and children have been commodified as “laborers”, sex to has been reduced to a dehumanized “product”. Thus, people no longer sell merely their products in the market, but instead, are led to sell “themselves” recognizing their own value as commodities. The commodfied humans offer their services as “use value.” The

In an article by DorchenLeidholdt, a Co-Executive Director for the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, supposed that those who accept the theory that there is voluntary sex work, ignores the social forces of poverty, violence and inequality that propel women and children into sexual exploitation and the harm that women and children incur as a direct result of it. In this view, it is understood that the consent given by women in entering into sex work is preceded by and conditioned on traumatic abuse. It signifies that prostituted women go into prostitution not by their own voluntary means but are dragged and forced towards it by strong social factors that are outside their control.

Prostitution and human trafficking are taking place all over the world despite the legal restrictions put upon them. According to Ronald Weitzer, “The sex industry refers to the workers, managers, owners, agencies, clubs, trade associations, and marketing involved in sexual commerce, both legal and illegal varieties” (1). There are many questions that arise when discussing the sex industry. Should prostitution be legalized? If it were to be legalized, would anything change? Is prostitution morally acceptable? What is being done to stop human trafficking? There is not one correct answer for any these questions, but each question can be analyzed by scholars who have different opinions on the issue. Prostitution should be legal while

Regarding the mortality rate of sex workers, “One study found that workplace murder risk is 51 times greater [for prostitutes] than for the next most dangerous profession which is operating a liquor store” (Dir. J. K. Wasson and J. Wells). Because prostitution is ultimately seen as a consensual profession, some may interpret this information with indifference, believing that the sex workers were willing participants. More often than not, however, sex workers are being coerced into the industry by some form of force; leading them to be exploited for physical and economic gain. In order to convince someone that the prostitution industry influences the victimization of women, I would need to counteract the notions endowed onto us by society that lead people to believe that prostitution is a fair system. Ethnomethodology, Symbolic interaction, and conflict theory have contributed to the the false impression of sex workers endorsed by the mainstream.

As told by the United Nations, sex trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, and harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat, use of force, or other forms”; this is the idea of moving and selling goods by an action known as sexual exploitation (WHO, pg. 1). The idea of sex trafficking can be broken down into two different feminist views: a Radical feminist or a Liberal feminist. Radical feminists believe that the definition of sex trafficking applies to all people associated with prostitution; Prostitution can be described as an act where sexual favors are being exchanged for sums of money (O’Neil, pg. 123-137). On the other hand, Liberal feminists believe that sex work is related to debt-like situations and is used as a tool for freedom. The main

Siri’s story illustrates the complicated dynamics of sex trafficking. Prostitution and sex work in general has become part of the global economy (Truong 1996). Some women choose to go into the sex industry while others are deceived or forced into it. Human trafficking networks usually use deception, coercion, or force to push women into sexual slavery. Some women migrate with the knowledge that they wil l be doing sex

A study done by Joanna Phoenix in 2000 discusses “women’s sustained involvement in prostitution. In the late twentieth century it is taken for granted that women’s involvement in prostitution can be explained in terms of poverty and/or vulnerability to predatory men. However, closer examination of the stories that prostitute-women recount reveals that their narratives are marked by a paradox that inheres in the contradictory effects of involvement in prostitution and the antithetical representations of prostitution offered by the women.” (Phoenix 37) In the study Phoenix does not support or go against either side. Her studies primarily argue that women freely enter into prostitution because of economic rewards, she also argues that their continued involvement makes sense with in their social and material conditions in which they live. (Phoenix 38) Secondly

Women made vulnerable by poverty are most susceptible to the sex industry because they lack the resources, the education, and the economic alternatives to pursue other work possibilities. The lack of education diminishes women’s potential to gain paid employment, and desperately consent to prostitution as their survival strategy.