The subject of human trafficking has gotten much attention recently in popular culture, through books such as The Girl Who Played With Fire and movies such as Taken. In many of these fictional scenarios, the victims are rescued and the perpetrators face justice. In real life though, the victims are not as lucky. “Every year, close to 500,000 women are trafficked to Western Europe. It is also estimated that approximately 50,000 women are trafficked to the U.S. every year. This problem also exists in India where almost 200,000 Nepalese women are trafficked into brothels,” (Amnesty International USA). Unfortunately, these crimes go unseen or unpunished in countries all over the world. Until recently the subject of Human trafficking was not brought up often in news stories or poplar culture. Even today the subject is somewhat taboo.
Many think that this problem only occurs in Eastern Europe and Asia, but the sexual trafficking of woman and children is quite common in the USA. Recently in the news, advocates have been fighting Cragislist.org to take down the erotic ads services due to it’s ability to allow the sexual exploitation of children and women forced into the sex trade through kidnapping or trickery. “Polaris and U.S. attorneys general call Craigslist the Wal-Mart for sex trafficking and crimes, where the majority of online ads are placed for prostitution of women and children,”(Cecilia Kang) Portland has also been making the news due to its high numbers of children rescued from forced prostitution. Police in Oregon claim they run into on average five child sex trafficking victims per week.
Though my work does not directly deal with this subject, human trafficking does have a lot to do with gender roles and the double standards between genders. For the most part those who are victims of sexual trafficking are young girls and women. The fact that these acts are still allowed to happen by society (quite commonly when looking at the numbers) shows how little the public cares about these women because they are not a popular reality start or pop singer. Even with popular books out such as the second in the trilogy The Girl Who Played With Fire in which the main characters combat sex trade rings, society is focusing more on which actress will star in the film adaptation, than the real life situations at hand. Though the book does not try to hide that sex trafficking truly happens in reality, people are more interested in focusing on what young beautiful girl gets to hold the spotlight in Hollywood. My work focuses on these kinds of problems, in which sadly women are generally still focused on for their beauty and sexuality, but problems that do not directly affect this mode of thinking are ignored.
1. Kang, Cecillia. "Advocacy Group Calls for Craigslist to Take down Sex Services outside U.S." The Washington Post. 8 Sept. 2010. Web. 8 Sept. 2010. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/09/public_advocates_call_for_crai.html
This article deals with the focus in the news on Craigslist erotic ads portion of the site. This past weekend the site did take down this portion on the US site due to the protests from advocacy groups. Now though they want Craigslist to take it down from the site in general and not just the US version. The erotic ads section of the site has been under scrutiny due to its ability to make the advertisement of prostitution easy. In many cases those whose services are being advertized are children and many times women who are forced into prostitution. Some are arguing that taking down this portion of the site will make it harder to track down sex traffickers. Some are also arguing that it infringes on our freedom of speech. This article helps to fuel my research by giving a specific example of how trafficking interlaces with the average life. Many peers use Craigslist for a variety of things such as selling mattresses or seeing if they were mentioned on any missed connections. Little do they know that through this same site, many people log on for not so innocent uses.
2. "Stop Violence Against Women." Amnesty International USA - Protect Human Rights. Amnesty International. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. <http://www.amnestyusa.org/>.
3. Elseth, Michal. "Portland's Dark Wold Of Child Sex Traffciking." The Washington Times. 28 July 2010. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. <http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/28/portlands-dark-world-of-child-sex-trafficking/>.
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