During his tenure on America’s Next Top Model, fashion photographer Nigel Barker was perennially kind, steady and honest to the young female contestants—making him an antidote to Tyra Banks wonderfully crazy antics. Barker brought that same ethos to a talkback after a performance of Trafficked, a play about sex slavery and child exploitation, at the Bleecker Street Theatre on Thursday night. But this time, unlike his many countless panels on ANTM, Barker was brought to tears by the ensemble cast of local 15 to 21-year-old girls who wrote and performed in the work. (The piece was also put on by the Project Girl Performance Collective.) “This issue is seen as being simply unsavory . . . not for polite discussion, but this play pulls the cover on it,” Barker said. “This show needs to be seen by men . . . because men need to be better men.”
–ANTM’s Nigel Barker Stands Up Against Sex Trafficking At Bleecker Street Theatre
While we might debate the impact of the increase in sexually explicit material of all kinds that floods our national consciousness–and I have met plenty of people who see porn and strip clubs as relatively harmless if not potentially beneficially forms of sexual liberation–the one area of the sex trade that hopefully we can all agree is incredibly damaging is the exploitation of teenage girls and boys. I interviewed a Homeland Security Agent for the Federal Government investigating Sex Slavery.
“It is a lot more common that people think. People think that this could never happen here, when actually it’s there. You just may not see it, may not know about it, may not hear about it. But, believe it or not, it’s a pretty common occurrence. If the girl’s a minor, she doesn’t need to be forced into it for it to be human trafficking. If it’s a 15-year-old girl and you’re her pimp, even if she wants to go out and have sex for money, that’s still considered human trafficking. Once somebody’s an adult, you have to be able to prove that through force, fraud, or coercion that this girl was forced into those sex acts.”
I also interviewed the Executive Director of one of the leading treatment centers aimed at helping teenage prostitutes. “The great majority of these girls have been raped and beaten and forced into prostitution. This is not your middle-class college-educated girl who says, “I can make money turning tricks with CEOs.” That’s not what it’s about. Ninety-nine percent of it is girls who’ve been terribly exploited,” he told me. He helped me understand the pattern of violence and dependency that occurs when a young girl, or boy, is trapped into The Life.
So my question is, can’t we all agree that the evil of Sex Trafficking is not up for debate? Can’t we join forces to put a stop to the exploitation and violence occurring all too often right under our noses?
CNN reported a major operation yesterday:
“During a three-day law enforcement sweep targeting the problem of teenage prostitution, officers rescued 79 children and arrested 104 alleged pimps, the FBI announced Monday. Operation Cross Country 6 took place from Friday though Sunday with more than 2,500 state, local and federal officers working in 57 cities. FBI Acting Executive Assistant Director Kevin Perkins said the children law enforcement freed from their handlers ranged from 13 to 17 years old with one girl saying she had gotten involved in prostitution when she was 11.”
And still there are comments questioning whether this is a real problem.
We debate a lot of things here on GMP, but one thing I am sure of is that this is a problem and it is wrong. We should all do what we can to help the victims of this heinous crime.
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Mostly, the police found and arrested adult prostitutes and pimps. When the police go after underage prostitutes they mostly find and arrest adult prostitutes and johns. Why are the police wasting their time on adult prostitutes? Instead of spending that time going after underage prostitutes?
Why aren’t the police finding millions of children forced against their will to have sex for money? Because their aren’t millions of them. And what proof do they have that they were forced against their will?
Why are the police just finding, and arresting consensual adults? Because the child victims either don’t exist or are very few in number. They use the excuse of children to arrest consenting adults. If they are just after children, they why don’t they leave the consenting adults alone? The police arrest the consenting adults that they find Why?
If there is no children involved – why arrest the consenting adult prostitutes, johns, and pimps? They are no children involved? Why are the police wasting their time on adult prostitutes? Instead of spending that time going after underage prostitutes? Because the police are mostly after adult prostitutes, not children.
Were all the underage prostitutes forced and raped? crying, kicking and screaming while being forced, against their will to have sex for money?
If a prostitute is 17 and under the age of 18, she can not give legal consent. So, she could have wanted to be a prostitute, and given consent for sex, but since she is underage, she can not give legal consent, so legally she was “forced” even if she gives total consent to sex and it was consensual – she was “forced” according to the court and justice system. There is a BIG difference between being legally “forced” and truly being physically forced against someone’s will.
This gives the impression that all prostitutes under the age of 18 are “forced” when they may in fact, not have been. If fact, if two people who are both 17 years old have sex, they both are legally considered to be victims and sex predators at the same time. It is strange how the justice system works.
Here is a good article from the Washington Post about this:
Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence
U.S. Estimates Thousands of Victims, But Efforts to Find Them Fall Short
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 23, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201401_pf.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201401.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/20/governmen…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/20/trafficki…
http://bebopper76.wordpress.com
http://sextraffickingtruths.blogspot.com/
There is hard evidence that the sex slavery/sex trafficking issue continues to report false information and is greatly exaggerated by politicians, that receive fund from the government.
When the police arrest customers of prostitutes and the prostitutes themselves:
They try to get the adult women prostitutes to say that they were forced and victims of sex trafficking even though they weren’t.
These adult women just flat out say, ‘Nope, that’s not what’s happening.’ No one is forcing me”
Then the U.S. Attorney general, senators, the police and government officials say:
“We have to help them realize they are victims,”
They must be brainwashed by their pimps, and johns.
They say that adult women do not have the ability to make decisions for themselves about sex, therefore
The government must make all their decisions about sex and who they have sex with for them.
So… the police are trying to invent victims? Where no victim exist?
The adult women say that no one is forcing them to work in prostitution and the police don’t believe them?
So the police want these adult women to lie? and the police are forcing the women to lie about being forced?
I thought lying was wrong? And isn’t it against the law to lie? -Not for the police, attorney general and other government officials.