I have to admit that prior to this course I thought little about the subject of sex trafficking. And on the occasion I did consider it, I was likely guilty of victim-blaming. It remains hard to imagine that in this world, there still exists such a thing as slavery, and yet I know that it does exist. The idea of sex slavery sounds fantastical and something from a medieval horror. It brings to mind images of women who somehow are hard to sympathize with and therefore it is easy for us to dismiss it, ignoring the horror it really is.
I think the most interesting thing I learned, and perhaps the most difficult to internalize, is that sex trafficking is not a desperate act of survival in far off lands as women have no other means of feeding themselves and their children. While that may be the case some of the time, the truth is far more brutal. Children in the industrialized West are targeted and forced into the sex trade (Department of Human Services (DHS), n.d.; Frundt, 2005). Warring factions engage in sexual terrorism (UNICEF, n.d.). And even in those countries, like our own, which claim progressiveness and equality, sexual assault is treated dismissively, victims are blamed, perpetrators are unpunished, and the cycle of female oppression is fueled (Frundt; Stock, 1991). Although I knew on some level that the victims of sex trafficking were, in fact, victims, it was easier to dismiss it than think about it. My research forced me to see the reality of the sex trade industry without the excuses that allow us all to rest easier at night, or paint it as a picture in which our own lives could never be portrayed. What I once believed was a them scenario, research has shown me it is very much everyone’s problem (DHS).
There is no easy fix for the sexual exploitation and systematic abuse of women (DHS, n.d; UNICEF, n.d.). The problem with creating change in gender equality is that it asks those who are in power (men) to create political, social and cultural changes that limit their own power (Stock, 1991; UNICEF). This forces people to act against their own immediate self-interest. Sex-trafficking will not stop until women are not just treated equally, but truly accepted as equals. And women will not become equal until the people that prevent their equality willingly agree forego the power to do so (Stock).
One of the greatest problems I found in doing the research is limitations on the research itself (DHS, n.d.). Around world, sex trafficking is an ongoing issue so prevalent entire units of police enforcement at all levels are set aside to address the issue (Frundt, 2005). However, finding victims who will talk about their ordeals, getting reliable data, or even finding people willing to speak about in something other than the most hushed voice was difficult. As global, real, and insidious as the problem is, it continues to be treated as a conversation one does not have in polite company, as if not saying it out loud will somehow prevent it from being real.
Completing this project forced me to open my mind about the reality of the sex-trade industry. My previous views were naïve and I think served as a level of self-preservation. It was as if not knowing the truth protected me from it and allowed me to not think about the terrible reality adults and children alike are forced into daily. I suppose I began with a rather narrow view of the sex industry as a choice women can make. I suppose I told myself that women have the freedom to choose and adults should be able to make whatever decisions they want about their bodies. I was not convinced it was anything more than that except in those rare cases over-reported and sensationalized in the international news. I decided to allow myself to be informed, however, and kept an open mind.
I was uninformed when I began. And I was unprepared for what I learned. But the research, the reading, and ultimately the reality of the sex-trafficking world set in and I found myself both wiser and more sad for having become so. I like to think that we have advanced ourselves as a global society with ever-growing respect for all of us who live in it. I have found that in some aspects we are no more advanced than the barbarians who lived a millennia before us and busied themselves making sacrifices and seeking wisdom in tea leaves and star formations.
References
Frundt, T. (2005). Enslaved in America: Sex trafficking in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/enslaved-in-america-sex-trafficking-in-the-united-states/
Stock, W. E. (1991). Feminist explanations: Male power, hostility, and sexual coercion. From Elizabeth Brauerholz and Mary Koralewski, Eds.) Sexual Coercion: A Sourcebook on its Nature, Causes and Prevention, pp. 61-73. New York: Lexington Books.
UNICEF. (n.d.). The state of the world’s children 1996: Sexual violence as a weapon of war. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/sowc96pk/sexviol.htm
