Thai women are not always lured into the sex trade for reasons that are associated with force or kidnappings. Thai women look at the potential that the sex industry could provide; women seek for the potential to make enough money to support their families and expunge their debts. It is therefore an appealing occupation where women can make a median monthly income from sex work ranging from 5,825 to 7,950 baht. By this, it is important to compare a typical Thai salary of a decent occupation such as a chef or construction worker, in which earnings are around 6,000 baht per month. In many cases, “women might end up as prostitutes because their parents had to sell them into slavery or because their impoverished husbands might so use them. By the middle of the second millennium B.C., prostitution was well established as a likely occupation for the daughters of the poor” (atd. In Parrot and Cummings 6). The women who are targeted as best candidates for the illicit trade are driven by the need for work. Victims seek occupations and fall in the hands of recruiters who sell them lies, and or at times the parties force them to become a personal slave. For example, victims like Rei from Thailand knew that she would have to be a prostitute in terms of an appealing salary. Rei grew up in southern Thailand and had a hard time obtaining a job after completing twelfth grade. She heard many women who were going to work in Japan; she also knew of agents in her neighborhood that could
Prostitution, sometimes referred to as “the world’s oldest profession” (Henslin, pg. 54), is defined by James M. Henslin as “the renting of one’s body for sexual purposes” (pg. 54). This arrangement, though illegal and socially deviant in most parts of the world, exists universally in many different forms (pg. 54). As a matter of fact, types of prostitutes range greatly in variety from call girls – who are said to be “the elite of prostitutes” (pg. 58), to streetwalkers – “who have the lowest status among prostitutes” (pg. 58), to sugar babies -young, physically attractive women who provide “rich, older men” (Kitchener, par.4) “…with attention (and sex) in exchange for the finer things in life” (par. 4).
Women and children who are being sexually exploited are often found in the urban areas of Thailand, but even rural areas have a share of commercial sex workers (Lau, June 2008). The Thai society is extremely male dominated as men are considered superior to women and hold the government and societal power (Vejar & Quach, May 2013). Foreign investors have a great deal of power in Thailand as the country has become more dependent tourism and manufacturing rather than the traditional small farm economy (Geary & Meyer, June 1993).
The first type of abuse discussed includes sex trafficking and forced prostitution. Many would believe that these two types of abuses are one in the same, but they are not. Sex trafficking involves the act of taking a human from one country to another country with the intent to use them for prostitution. Forced prostitution is the act of mentally or physically intimidating a human to perform sex for value. In both of Rath and Meena’s stories, they were forced to sell sex for money that they would not receive. Rath’s story is an example of sex trafficking, as she unknowingly was taken into sex trafficking from her home in Cambodia to Malaysia. Rath believed that she would be working in a Thai restaurant with her friends, but sex traffickers forced them in prostitution in Malaysia. As the term “sex trafficking” has been used
Prostitution, also referred to as “the oldest profession,” has always been a controversial and challenging social issue. It is practiced in many different forms including: call girls, convention prostitutes, apartment prostitutes, hotel prostitutes, house prostitutes, bar girls, streetwalkers, and parking lot lizards (). Civilizations such as the Samarians, and countries including Morocco and parts of India engaged in a form of prostitution known as temple prostitution. Temple prostitution is based on the belief that “generative activity of human beings possessed a mysterious and sacred influence in promoting the fertility of nature” (Clarkson). In other civilizations, such as the Roman and Byzantine Empires, prostitution was looked upon as less of a religious ceremony, and more of a sin practiced by “women of evil life” (ProCon.org). Today those differentiating view are still present in modern society, but there are also new ideologies surrounding the everlasting presence of prostitution. This Essay will use the Symbolic Interactionism Theory to identify those new ideologies, and evaluate the meaning of prostitution within three relationship: the husband and wife, the Call girl and client, and the Pimp and the sex trafficking victim.
Imagine leaving everyone and everything you have ever known to go to a new unknown world and make money to help your family. The amount of stress and anxiety might be too much to handle at first. This was the life of many young women from small villages in Nepal, looking to do whatever it takes to keep a roof on their family’s head. Desperate times call for desperate measures, but what these women expected in the work is not what they got. They were sold into sex slavery, unaware on the struggles they would have to endure in their lives.
In a review by the New York Times, the author, Stephen Holder, highlights the context surrounding prostitution in each different country. From Thailand having a high end brothel ran by rich Asian men, to Bangladesh full of towering, run down apartments oversaw by madams,
Asian girls are especially vulnerable to trafficking due to their traditional Asian cultural and social values. There is a need to obey parents and support the family. Too, females and children are often viewed as lower than men and in some cases are viewed as property to be sold or bargained with. These traditional cultural values create situations where females are susceptible to trafficking. Given these values and poverty mean that girls and their families may be easily deceived into accepting gainful employment with the assumption that they will be able to earn enough money to support their families.
For the purpose of this study, male prostitutes and sexual acts such as pornography, stripping and erotic massages are excluded from the definition of prostitution. The terms ‘sex worker’ and ‘prostitute’ will be used interchangeably throughout the paper. The term ‘sex work’ was coined to circumvent the stigma that accompanies prostitution and to acknowledge that it generates income, like any other profession in our society (Sondhi, 2011).
A woman is a mother, a sister, a daughter, and an aunt. She can be a teacher, a rocket scientist and a model. Sadly, sometimes she is also a prostitute. Exploitation of women for sex has been an ancient practice that is still prevalent in present time. Modern prostitution is a growing problem with its roots planted deep in the past. Ancient Athens was not an exception when it came to prostitution, with both men and women being targeted. There is limited information regarding the consequences of and characteristics of Athenian prostitutes but the sources that are available present many similarities as well as differences with modern Indian prostitutes. Even though these women are separated by centuries, their work still remains. Through a careful research of the definition of Athenian prostitute and characteristics of a modern Indian sex worker, the two types of women can be compared.
Kevin Bales’ Because She Looks Like a Child is an editorial piece that enlightens readers on a tragedy that has befallen the country of Thailand for decades, sex trafficking and child prostitution. Aside from the horrific realism of the stories portrayed throughout the piece, the cultural acceptance and evolution of the epidemic is truly frightening and eye opening. Furthermore, Bales explains how in time, sex trafficking and child prostitution has reached American soil in efforts to expand profits and the market for these young, child slaves. While many steps have been taken by the United Nations to help condemn slavery and
The sex trafficking trade has been largely acquainted with countries in Europe and South America of the years. Nonetheless, this epidemic in reality has been in the United States for some time. The United States has become tolerable because of the amount of money the sex business industry brings in annually. The youths trapped in prostitution, brothel, massage services has been on the upsurge due to a lack of assistance. Lack of acknowledgment by the government and the media has been astounding. To comprehend how to combat the issue one must be aware there has been a problem occurring. Therefore it would be essential to provide the necessary statistics for individuals to know which youths are targets by their vulnerability. The types of
The state of social and economic disarray that plagues villages surrounding Thailand makes them easy prey for trafficking. According to Toward Freedom, and organization dedicated to advancement of human rights, peace, justice, enlightenment, and freedom from oppression, “Brothel owners have networks of agents combing the villages for troubled families with daughters, making tempting offers of good jobs in the big cities and resort areas” (“Toward”). The most common scenario for troubled families is that they are in debt and are without proper paying jobs. Families are offered up to an entire year’s salary and are also told their children will be going to a better life. Many families know they can’t support their children and see this as their only option. The economic issue prevalent is not unique to Thailand. According to Asia Times, an organization designed to report on Asian political, economic and business
Imagine a four year old girl growing up in contemporary Cambodia. Each morning she wakes up miles from home, homesick and scared. She is forced to beg for money for the brothel that she belongs to, and all of her earnings go straight to her master. Then, that night, about seven men come to the brothel. These men, some as old as fifty, often pay as little as two dollars to partake in sexual intercourse with these school-aged children. The toddlers enslaved in the horrific sex trade are forever stripped of their purity, making human trafficking a major issue in present day Cambodia. Over 30,000 children are sexually exploited annually (“Children for Sale”), and millions have been forced into human trafficking
Prostitution is defined as the act of “providing or receiving sexual acts, between a prostitute and a client, in exchange for money or some other form of remuneration” (Hock 557). The idea of exchanging sex for valuables has been around since the beginning of human society. The first reported data about prostitution was reported around 3000 B.C.E in one of the first known civilizations, Mesopotamia (Caraboi and Fierbinteanu 362). It is often referred to as “the world’s oldest profession.” Today, even though prostitution is illegal in most parts of the world, it is still prevalent worldwide with different ways to exchange sexual services for payment and many different types of prostitutes. One of these types of prostitutes are brothel workers; brothel workers work in “a house of prostitution,” a brothel, which are normally in areas where prostitution is not criminalized or is legalized (Hock 560). Like prostitution, human trafficking has been around for thousands of years and is still present today.
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.