"Many of these men wouldn't dream of sexually abusing the girl next door but when it comes to a "prostitute," even a "teen prostitute," they figure it doesn't really matter. She's already out there. She kinda wants it anyway. She is working her way through college. She needs to feed her kids. I'm actually helping her." (Lloyd, 97)
Sex traffickers frequently target children from the ages of 12 to 18. Young kids are more desirable because they will stay youthful longer, and older women/men may not be as appealing to Johns. Traffickers do not usually go any younger than 11 because this would put them at risk for being caught by the police. The real misconception when it comes to children and sex work is that these children are the same as prostitutes. The term prostitute implies that there is a choice, and that these children are "criminals or sexual deviants or at best victims of their environment: desperate for survival, the kids “choose” to sell their bodies for profit." (Not For Sale) This false identity placed on trafficked children leads the public to believe that they "did this to themselves" or "don't deserve our sympathy."
Typically according to the sex trafficker stereotypes and the Not For Sale website, girls that are trafficked most likely come from poor communities. They are often from broken homes that have drug addicted parents, or they bounce between different foster homes. These girls can be taken from their homes and forced into the sex industry, but not only that they can be forced into hard labor or slavery as well. These girls are most likely not reported as missing because they may get lost in the system, or the neighborhood they come from does not have leverage enough to get attention from the police.
My confusion with this quote is at what point does a child stop being a child? At what point does someone turn their back on a child because they feel like they are a sexual deviant, or that they were "asking for it." In a global perspective I believe that we all have a distorted view of human trafficking and there are many countries that place the blame on children. I think it is really important to understand who the criminals are. Not the children forced to work, but the men, women, traffickers, Johns, or Pimps responsible for their captivity.
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Lloyd, Rachel. Girls like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself. New York: HarperCollins, 2011. Print.
"Slavery Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery." Slavery Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.
Gracie,
ReplyDeleteI feel like answering your question from two viewpoints; one from the legal stand point and the other from a moral stand point. We both know that legally, a child is a child until 18, however as we've discussed, a person is not of sex consenting age until 15, which is ironic because there are many girls that are being convicted of prostitution at ages younger than 15.
From a moral standpoint, I believe this to be a much harder question. I can understand your confusion and anger towards this quote. In an NBC interview/sting it really surprised me when they met an American doctor from Oklahoma who was avidly giving tips to the reporters undercover as to where to go for the best sex and that he was "happy to brag about his exploits" (Hansen). What I think angers me the most is that many have daughters around the age where they could be exploited. The article also tells of a 14-year-old girl who went into a "cafe", which was really a storefront for a brothel, looking for a job and ended up being kidnapped and "force [me] into a room for three days and three nights. They beat me. They did not let me have anything to eat or drink. And they sold me to a different brothel." (Hansen).
This is really bothersome. How can someone who is old enough to realize that paying to have sex with a minor still do it anyways? Do they not realize they are essentially ruining the life of the individuals they are helping to exploit? I am doubtful that there has ever been a child who was asking for it, so I am with you in feeling just as disgusted with this, and yet helplessly watching from the outside in.
Works Cited
ReplyDelete1. Hansen, Chris. "Children for Sale." Msnbc.com. Msnbc Digital Network, 09 Jan. 2005. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. .