Category — Equality

As a man working in the anti-trafficking movement, I see fellow men playing three roles in the world of sex trafficking: men who are pimps, men who are johns (I am a speaker at our local “John School”), and men who are anti-trafficking activists.  It is no wonder, that at a recent conference a woman named Wiveca Holst–an incredible Swedish woman’s rights activist who I admire a great deal–said to me with kind honesty, “no offense, but I don’t trust you.”  Without a shred of malice, she went on to explain how her years of experience working with male activists in the women’s rights movements have been checkered with a mix of well-meaning men making honest mistakes, men with outright poor intentions, and the occasional man who actually respected her as an equal. [Read more →]

Treating pornography as a monolith is facile. The branching variety of its media and subjects (all brought to the internet by Rule 34),and its looming popularity (13 million American women a month view pornography) make it difficult to address the intersection between human trafficking and pornography categorically. It is a truism to say that pornography is integrated into our culture, but a recent web comic from the ultra-geeky xkcd reasserts it:

Scheduling

This strip could not work if its audience weren’t familiar with the stylized roles a french maid, pizza-delivery boy, or plumber play in the adult film industry. Because pornography is kabuki sex, viewers may vicariously enjoy risky behaviors (like anonymous, unprotected sex, or apparently violent situations) from the safety of their computer screens, perhaps ignoring that the performers are actually present in them.

Avenue Q‘s take on pornography is unique among musicals–not only because it is articulated by puppets. In “The Internet is For Porn” a character named Trekkie Monster, who we later discover has made millions on his online pornography business, argues that the primary purpose of the internet is to facilitate the consumption of pornography:

There are some important distinctions in the conversation about human trafficking and pornography. Most human trafficking based criticisms of pornography exclusively address the adult film industry, or even with ugly subsets therein, rather than amateur ortext-based pornography. Avenue Q‘s focus on commercial pornography, both in Trekkie Monster’s life and in the lives of all of the male characters, allows us to hone in on the potential for trafficking in that subset of pornography.

Pornography can become trafficking when women, men, and children can be forced into posing naked for sexualized stills, or sexually assaulted on film for sale. But all issues in human trafficking and commercial sex, it is currently impossible to know whether .9% of adult stars are trafficked, or 90%.

Whether pornography is a social good, a social ill, or a mix of the two is a strong and enduring debate. Movies like last summer’s Middle Men remind us it was, and still is, a major money-maker online. The question for us as a society is how we feel about traces ofthe formaldehyde of trafficking lacing the cupcakes of our adult entertainment.

Next week, we’ll cover sex trafficking in indigenous communities.