It’s naïve to think we can end sex trafficking when we’ve not begun to speak about it accurately.
Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been called a feminist on many occasions. As someone who is pro-equality I embrace the label just the same as I hope I’d have been labeled a “sympathizer” during the African-American civil rights movement. Yes, I believe more women should be in power and yes I believe they should be paid equal wages and yes I think it entirely absurd that elderly men hold positions of power such that their voice is loudest when it comes to the many health topics unique to women. Hell, I even donate to the Women’s Debate Institute. **Throat-clearing finished**
For a problem to be solved we must first see it for what it is. This applies to anything from fundamental calculus to fiscal cliffs. I can’t pretend to know much about either, but I’ve learned enough in my extensive research into sex trafficking to know this: the sex trafficking of boys is essentially absent from the conversation.
This might be a positive thing if the crime itself was front and center, but it’s not. Too often, and partly because the crime involves the word sex, the victim takes center stage. I’ve heard countless speakers from all over the world define sex trafficking as something that happens to girls and women or even as something that men do to girls and women. Don’t get my wrong, men are the primarily perpetrators of this crime and girls and women are the primary victims, but to constantly frame and even define the crime in such terms is, in its inaccuracy, distorting the public’s perception of the crime and layering our attempt to combat the crime with yet another barrier. There are enough already.
In my visit to Care Corner Orphanage in Thailand I was shocked that most of the HIV-infected sex slave survivors were boys under the age of ten. I saw and learned of something similar in the Philippines and in Bangladesh. Upon reflection, I think part of the reason for my shock was because I was conditioned through the media, literature, photo and film to believe that this was a crime perpetrated against only girls and women. The photo above actually came from a video released a few days ago by Reuters titled The Trafficking Business in which the entire focus is females as victims and how millions of them are forced into the sex trade or sweat shops. While not untrue, it’s not painting a full picture either.
Speaking broadly on the topic of human trafficking – boys and men are trafficked far more than girls and women because, in part, strong bodies are needed for labor. And as it relates to sex trafficking, girls and women are victims to a larger extent. Many other crimes have such disparities but few place the disparity so high in their definition. All this is to say let’s define human trafficking and sex trafficking for what they are: horrific crimes against the most vulnerable populations. There are loads of ways to be vulnerable. Yes, one of many vulnerabilities is being a woman. But there’s also the vulnerability of childhood, of lack of self-esteem or self-worth, of being displaced after a natural disaster, of being indebted/poor, of being too trusting, of being unaware, of being human. This is not a crime against men or a crime against women and it should not be defined as such. It is a crime against us.
As I mentioned in The Other 20%, men raping boys is still a taboo topic. Even filmmakers who document the horrors of sex trafficking have told me they feel their work wouldn’t be accepted if it instead highlighted the abuse of boys. “The public isn’t ready for it,” I’ve been told. Truth is, we only speak about the victimization of boys when it’s forced on us by breaking-news scandals like those of Jerry Sandusky or The Boys Scouts of America. As the news story fades so too does the conversation. This makes it tough, then, to even entertain the idea of discussing, as I’ve heard from several high-ranking women in anti-trafficking organizations, that the sex traffickers, the actual criminals in the crime, are about 65% men. Such a statistic has a hard time taking root because there’s already the perceived and ingrained idea that men and men-only are the criminals.
Though the crime is called “sex trafficking,” the leaders of the crime are rarely caught-up in the actual act of sex itself to the extent that it impacts their job. The big-time distributor of the drug is rarely a user of the drug, and, for the sake of addressing sex trafficking, we need to at times dehumanize it and instead view it as a business model, a criminal enterprise. Of course, the number of sex traffickers who also “use” is surely higher because their “use” doesn’t get them high and alter their decision-making to the same extent that drugs do. But I believe we need to force the comparative image and take the metaphor further to imagine the human victim not as flesh and blood but as a magical drug able to be used repeatedly. After all, this is one of the major allures human trafficking has over drug trafficking. A low-risk crime with big money payouts is attractive to criminally-minded humans. Not just to men. Not just to women.
If we are going to seriously tackle sex trafficking we need to cease our limiting attempts to define and first deepen our understanding.
MEDIAHOUND! i would like to ask you a question regarding the stats. You said a few stats in a toy soldier blog about percentage of boys to girls. I checked the trafficking in persons report but i cant find those stats anywhere. If anybody is reading can u help me find percentage of stats between girls and boys in the trafficking in humans report plz and thank you!
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By8cvTJI-dcSajg3ajdMUXFzQVU/edit?usp=sharing
World online Vigil for #HumanTrafficking victims tonight 8-9pm EST on Ark of Hope site bit.ly/12dTbvI Comment using #WorldVigil
Cameron, thank you for this article; and to others in the comments for your contributions as well, especially those who actively work to help male victims. I agree it is wrong and harmful on many levels that boys and men are “vanished” from the media and stats by the UN, authorities, etc, even by charities and other advocate groups. Those film makers Cameron mentioned who said society “wasn’t ready for it”, that is disgusting on their part. A large part of society doesn’t know, and that is the fault of heinous attitudes like that. When the Sandusky story broke, Paterno… Read more »
When I was in grad school human trafficking was the topic of the moment (probably still is there) because of the amount of domestic sex trafficking that was occurring in that city. It was just a good location to move people through. So I did the obligatory paper and presentation discussing human trafficking, just like a bunch of other people that year. I was the only one to discuss human trafficking as it pertained to labor, adoption, using kids for war as well as sex trafficking. I was the only one that made an effort to high light specifically the… Read more »
Thanks for that Kat – it provides a nice perspective and real world experience of how even in Eduction – grad school, 3.5 billion people are made to not count, made less. It must have been hard having friends who had been through it and then having their and your reality denied. That is the mind set which allows child abuse to flourish … so for me all those other students got a Big “F”.
@MediaHound:I had no idea my last posts here were so unintelligible; It what sometimes when dyslexia meets impatience. I find the assertion that because the media–whatever that means– has failed in it’s real mission of presenting all the facts, that it is therefore a justifiable, legitimate reason for not knowing two things: that boy’s and men are victims of the sex trafficking industry and that 35% of the perpetrators are women. To simply blame some amorphous, undefinable,leaderless institution leaves quite a bit if legwork undone.Why? If the media is supposed to represent all of the issues of all the people,… Read more »
@OgWriter – It’s not clear what your are referring to. It seems we have the magical vanishing comments again. If I remember correctly – my last post here was about certain people in UN agencies indicating that men and boys raped in war zones run at high speed to get help, and women don’t. So all funding and support should go to women and no men included! Bunkum and false factoid but swallowed whole by people’s biases. There is the whole issue of language misuse, being raised by law Professors at UCLA, but it seems such voices are bad and… Read more »
@Cameron: This is just another example of the failure of the feminists strategy that told us,’ If it’s good for white women, it must be good for everybody.I first noticed this political talking point taking hold in the 80’s when feminists were still developing some of their newer strategies. This was the political horse-the only people who have important issues worth discussing are women- the Democratic Party rode to victory this fall. We all remember the “War on Women”, a narrative which was appropriately, usefully, vague and ambiguous. As women’s issues took center stage this presidential election season, a season… Read more »
I think that there is a bolt hole for paedophiles on Forth Street Edinburgh. i went in there after visiting the NUS at 29 Forth Street Edinburgh Scotland. It looked like a law centre I had Heard of but my diabetes was affecting my vision and it was already dull and over cast so I could not read the posters very well in the windows. I went in and I was soon to discover a theme mainly for women’s rights and Gay rights. But I was followed from their office to a food court on in The St James Centre… Read more »
@Og – I have just seen again the comments of Anne-Marie Goetz, ‘Introduction’, in Women Targeted or Affected by Armed Conflict: What Role for – Military Peacekeepers? Wilton Park, 27–29 May 2008. Violent sexual attacks on women and girls in fact pose special challenges for peacekeepers – challenges that differ even from cases when men are the targets of sexual attack. Women and girls do not rush to report the crime, fearing the ensuing social stigma. It’s just another “Perfect Example” of misleading tropes. Name – Don’t name – Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius – the expression of one thing… Read more »
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-883365
Great discussion, Cameron! Much earlier in the semester, we read several journal publications about the origins of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the Caribbean originating in part from the exploitation of boys and very young men by sex tourists from North America and western Europe. The lengths these researchers had to go to even interview with male prostitutes and trafficking victims was pretty astounding. Male victims of sex trafficking experience a unique set of challenges. While it is an accepted norm that women and girls are the victims of violence (disgusting, btw), men and boys who are subjected to the same… Read more »
Salvice, “Current models of intervention require a degree of openness about abuse, which is at least somewhat acceptable for women, but not at all acceptable for men under most circumstances. It is a shame that any sex trafficking victim would be alienated for the horrors committed against them…” I couldn’t agree more. Any victims / survivors out there, there are people listening, hearts willing to care and arms reaching out. Whether male or female (and we listen to many males) please check out our live chat victim/survivor support site. http://www.RemovingChains.org Good Men Project I apologize for the shameless plug but… Read more »
What exactly are people who aren’t in positions of power denying? Rape culture, and their personal complicity in it. When a person is aware of rape in any form against any person is taking place, on a quite literal hourly basis, and they Ignore, excuse, – they just other it and allow it to be common – when they ignore and allow it to be made common and prevalent , the norm, excused in any way , tolerated…. that is Rape Culture. Each time the issue is raised and anyone dismiss, undermines or expresses doubt about the truth the victims… Read more »
I think what I was saying has been misunderstood, in general. I completely agree with all you’re saying about rape culture. My original comment was thanking Cameron for the much-needed article and noting how, so often, reports and commentary and anything relating to human trafficking so often focus on individuals the West seems to “other” or that are often not groups thought of as those being in the “majority” or positions of power (those individuals of color, those not located in the West (trafficking stories, at least in the US, often focus on SE Asia), women, children, etc.)) Rape culture… Read more »
Deborah – have you been looking at the work of Prof Lara Stemple (UCLA) Director of the Health and Human Rights Law Project? I keep raising it here but it keeps being ignored. Maybe one day! Just Google her name plus Al-Jazeera – it seems some media are not frightened of the issues and even cover them. Others don’t see wiping out 3.5 billion people as noteworthy due to personal dogma and inhuman bias.
And anyone involved in writing a report for the UN certainly seems like they’d be a group heavily entrenched in positions of power and privilege, so the absence of boys/men in a report in that situation is exactly what type of thing I’m noting. Then you might be interested to note the explicit arguments against including male victims in the agenda of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 as presented by Anne M Goetz in a presentation in 2008 by UN Women/UNIFEM. I’ll quote the 4th argument for focusing on female victims: Violent sexual attacks on women and girls in… Read more »
Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius
Violent sexual attacks on women and girls in fact pose special challenges for peacekeepers – challenges that differ even from cases when men are the targets of sexual attack. Women and girls do not rush to report the crime, fearing the ensuing social stigma. Indeed, rape is the only crime for which a community’s reaction is often to stigmatise the victim, rather than prosecute the perpetrator. It’s just another “Perfect Example” of misleading tropes. Name – Don’t name – Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius – the expression of one thing is the exclusion of the other. Name Women and Girls… Read more »
I was saying that it’s the people on power who don’t want to believe that it’s possible for themselves to be exploited, not that the “others” are “othering” the people in power. What exactly are people who aren’t in positions of power denying?
Andy: Not sure the point of your post in relation to this piece
I am just introducing myself. So what was the point of your comment on my contribution? after all we are all different and this is me being me. if my experiences and coping strategy offend you fine. is controversy no longer a badge worth wearing or is it now embarrassment. let me know if I’ve missed something.
Andy, I don’t think that Aspire was trying to criticize your contribution, I think he was trying to understand how it fit into the context of the rest of the discussion and the point that you were trying to make with it. Were you trying to refute something another commentator said using the articles you provided? Were you trying to provide more information to support a statement made by another commentator?
actually i am pleased that this issue has been raised. as it is mostly girls and women who are portrayed as the victims. in addition the statement that this issue should be more accurately presented was also the purpose of my contribution.
Were you a victim of sex trafficking? I think people are confused as to why you posted on this article about it. I myself am a lil confused, did you mean you were a male victim of abuse? If so there are other articles which are better suited to that contribution which is probably why we’re confused. Of course you’re welcome to contribute but I am failing to see where it fits in with sex trafficking?
I was victim to the child sex trade and illegal human drug trials here in the UK. what i have in common with this article is that i am a man who was mainly exploited by women in the home and community and in child care institutions. as the main title states that boys are forgotten it entitles me to post here.
Andy – being from the UK I am aware of what you are referring to. I am also equally painfully aware of just how careful people have to be in what they say because of differences between European Law and US Law – and then throw in Oz, New Zealand, India, South Africa and other anglophone legal jurisdictions. I have also had to champion the rights of children in Scotland in the past – and it’s even painful to have to point out to other Netizens (Over and Over) that it is quite possible for laws in England to differ… Read more »
Well i am not interested in the rights of child nor adult prostitutes but child and adult sex slaves. The kind of slave who does not get paid and do sometimes in this country get killed in the trade.
All you have to do to understand where I am coming from is to look at my posts. Children also prey on vulnerable children for gain and that is usually financial gain.
Ahh my bad, wasn’t quite sure from the link I saw about the BBC reporter.
my post should be of interest as most of my abusers were women and girls. the sex trades are not really as forced as people suggest as most people turn to it because of poverty. If you were to see it as people selling themselves and the main body being female, in it’s running, you will be able to put that out more clearly about the male being forgotten or ignored victims. But it does also matter about the sexuality of the offender and the victim. if the offenders are gay there will be less of a problem getting justice… Read more »
“V.I.P.’s (Very Important Paedophiles) like Daisy Park B.E.M. and Jimmy Savile O.B.E. and Cyril Smith have demonstrated that they are protected by people on the highest levels in our societies.” Yes they are. Those with money and power are so often covering because they themselves have so much to lose. I help victims/survivors online. They come from all walks of life and many are male. They are silently suffering… and dying in silence. Why? Why is it that in this society that they fear speaking out. There are too few with ears to care and hearts that won’t judge. If… Read more »
While we’re speaking to…speaking about…an issue accurately, “human trafficking” also refers to labor trafficking (among several other things), not just the more “flashy” sex trafficking. And it happens to adults, not just children. And to individuals who live right next to us, who aren’t necessarily of color. I disagree with the first comment: “In this world we will fight to end violence against women, fight to end rape against women, fight to stop female trafficking. Notice a theme here? Very few people seem to give a fuck about men and quite a lot will justify their bigotry by claimign men… Read more »
And, I believe that one of the major reasons we don’t see those so often in positions of “powerrrzzz” is *because* those in positions of power are often the ones making the media decisions (as they’re often the ones that control the decision-making…though, I won’t get into an argument about patriarchy, because—as a female—I operate within it just as much as the next guy to me). But essentially, people just don’t want to believe that it can happen to them. I’m curious. If that is the case that doesn’t seem to explain why do even those who don’t have the… Read more »
I was saying that it’s the people in positions of power who don’t want to believe that it’s possible for themselves to be exploited, not that the “others” are “othering” the people in power. What exactly are people who aren’t in positions of power denying?
I was saying that it’s the people in positions of power who don’t want to believe that it’s possible for themselves to be exploited, not that the “others” are “othering” the people in power. Oh I figured that’s what you were saying. What exactly are people who aren’t in positions of power denying? That sharing a characteristic with people power doesn’t translate into them having power themselves. Male victims of trafficking are denied in part because they share gender with “the people in power”. Sounds like those male victims don’t actually have power but are just being monolithed by those… Read more »
Totally agree with the last sentence. Definitely never made that case.
I fail to see the large effort by major anti-violence, anti-rape, anti-domestic abuse campaigns to address male victimization, even though who don’t have power don’t seem to care all that much. How many people know for instance that women raping men happens at about 1 for every 4 male on female rapes? Much higher than many realize? Surely even internet campaigns could exist and be made to try show victimization of males, perpetration of females, to go against the grain but still very few if any exist. Males are often erased as victims in our society and even campaigns full… Read more »
@Cameron: I will walk gingerly here because I don’t know you. My experience with feminists men( I was feminists male in 1969 when I first learned of the biases against women). is that, if what they want is for there to be gender equality(?) they have a funny way of showing it. They spend so much time defending, being the feminist white knight they can’t see the forest for trees. And it seems that no matter how egregious the hypocrisy of feminist or how much society suffers for it, the last thing a feminist male will ever do is criticize… Read more »
Og – lenses do change vision. Myopia – Hyperopia – Hypermetropia and other issues with focus can be made better or worse through the use of lenses. Also having a fixed location means you only see one side.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/veteran-bbc-presenter-stuart-hall-charged-with-indecent-assault-1-2676408
ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-883365
coblehaugh.blogspot.co.uk/
youtube.com/user/YAYFUL1
youtube.com/watch?v=eq8p4skwKCI
ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-889412
Thank you so much for speaking out on behalf of boys.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful and researched post! A few thoughts: i would contend *part* of why women as criminals in sex trafficking is excluded from the media presentations on sex trafficking stems from a much broader conceptualization of women as victims. Yes, women suffer horrendous injustices at the hand of many male-identified people. I’m glad we acknowledge this in our discourses. But even in our discourse on rape we hardly hear of women assaulting other women. It’s still basic sexism – the idea that women, because we are a “powerless” sex, cannot have the “powerful” role as… Read more »
“But even in our discourse on rape we hardly hear of women assaulting other women. ” It damned sure is sexism. It’s misogynist as hell. It erases those victims, who are women just as much as their rapists are . We see this exact same thing in the discussion of rape in the military. We see stats on how many women are sexually assaulted without and break-down of who is committing those assaults, whgicgh strikes me as a passive way of lying by leaving it to the reader or viewer to conclude it is always men. The conventional wisdom in… Read more »
Cameron, Thank you so much for this important article. We face an uphill battle when speaking to NGO’s and other organizations that focus their efforts on saving women and girls from trafficking. We know that many boys and men are victims as well, but bringing this up to advocates in often met with silence, hollow acknowledgements, or worse statements like “but it happens so much more often to females, we need to focus our energies there first”. Sexual abuse does not discriminate in it’s victims. Neither should we in our efforts to address it and provide support to survivors –… Read more »
Christopher
“Sexual abuse does not discriminate in it’s victims. Neither should we in our efforts to address it and provide support to survivors – wherever and whomever they are”
That’s a good line, that will fit well on a poster or in a anti abuse commercial.
filmmakers who document the horrors of sex trafficking have told me they feel their work wouldn’t be accepted if it instead highlighted the abuse of boys. “The public isn’t ready for it,” I’ve been told. Bollocks – “Some” of the public isn’t ready, but that is no reason to deny reality and hide it! I said last year that it would be a great idea to have some guys wandering the globe with some GMP T-shirts and showing reality – The people, photos and hell even the nasty bits. I think it’s such a pity you did not have those… Read more »
You aren’t the only one that’s noticed this. About a year ago I watched a 2 hour documentary that had a gender neutral title (like “Child Trafficking in America” or something like that). Not one single boy victim nor a single stat about boy victims was brought up during the whole 2 hours. I think there’s two problems when it comes to the conversation on trafficking as it stands. First while sex trafficking is a part of human trafficking most converage and discussion on human trafficking is limited to sex trafficking but is presented as human trafficking. (I wonder if… Read more »
Welcome to the world of target the majority or the perceived most vulnerable n ignore the rest activism. In this world we will fight to end violence against women, fight to end rape against women, fight to stop female trafficking. Notice a theme here? Very few people seem to give a fuck about men and quite a lot will justify their bigotry by claimign men have alll da powerrrzzz and that somehow makes them think they don’t’ need help or that womengetitworse and thus we need to focus on the women. It’s a complete mockery of equality.
Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius – Over 100 Articles in international law, treaties, UN security Council Resolutions … that specifically use the term Women and Children and they exclude Men. They also change child or children to Girl to make all males under the age of 16 magically vanish! Archy – I’ve said it before, so I’ll say it again, and again, and again * this issue was raised on Al-jazeera 28 Jul 2011 (18 Months ago) and the conclusion was simple – Men are not talked about. Take subject, genderise by talking women and girls – men are not… Read more »