Fuck Sexism

[Truthordeal]

I think I need to point something out here.

The current US population is a little over 307,000,000 people. The current population of the Czech Republic, Armenia, Bulgaria and Iceland(countries that have a, for lack of a better word, robust sex trade) is 10,000,000, 3,230,100, 7,500,000 and 319,000 respectively.

5,000 in CZ's 10,000,000 is about .0005%, 10,000 in the US's 307,000,000 is about .000003257%. I point this out to show a scale of number of sex slaves per capita, if that makes any sense. Basically, even though there are more instances, it happens less often.

Moreover, the estimated number of people trafficked in countries is about 600,000-800,000 globally each year. At 10,000 each year, the US sex trade makes up about .167-.125% of the annual global trade. I attribute this in part to our rather forceful approach to the sex trade(we even have a "czar" for it, established under Bush the Younger).

My point is, the sex trade in the US does indeed exist, but we are combating it and are taking a far more proactive approach than other countries. It is more prudent to start putting pressure on countries like the ones mentioned above where they aren't.

To be completely fair, Canada, Britain, most of Western Europe, Austrailia, New Zealand, Morocco, French Guyana, and Colombia are up-ing their methods too.

To give you a better idea, here's a map illustrating it. Yellow areas are doing "something," red areas are doing nothing, green areas are up to the US code, and the gray areas have no data.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trafficking_in_Persons_Report_2005.png

[FaustWolf]

Truth, thank you for the enforcement numbers. Yes, it's good that the US government and other governments in developed countries are aware of the problem and tackling it from a law enforcement perspective. But what worries me more is the demand side, and why a subset of the male population is bred to think this sort of thing is okay.

I mean, can anybody even imagine being the buyer (I would prefer the term "perpetrator") in the situations Rosario is quoted as describing a couple posts back? I mean, ramming your pickle or some other implement into every orifice of a young woman who's probably frightened, shuddering, and crying the entire time? It's a scene straight out of some...cheap horror porn flick. These men, and any women who might also be partaking in this abuse, are sick puppies. They have serious mental problems, notably a complete inability to empathize with the person they're doing this to. It makes my stomach churn that even a small percentage of Westerners are even capable of these things. They share traits with serial killers.

I'm assuming of course that 99.9% of the customers are men, but anyone have numbers on women also buying these torture sessions? It might reveal some undercurrent in Western society that affects not only men as I've been supposing, but women also.

[Thought]

Truth, even though that's a small percentage of the population, don't forget to consider the network that those few people interact with. The article you linked to earlier suggested that the 2 encounters a day, 7 days a week, is the norm. So a single slave is sexually abused at least 712 time a year. 30,000 slaves in the US (a low estimate; also, keep in mind that the 10,000 you mentioned is just the reported influx, not the actual population) results in 21,360,000 instances per year. To be ridiculous, let us suppose that ever single instance was a unique perpetrator (a supposition I hope is horribly incorrect): ~7% of the US population supports these crimes per year.

The supply of flesh in the US might be low, but the demand for it...

[Sajainta]

Truthordeal,

I apologize if my posts came across as saying that the U.S. isn't combating trafficking, because I know it is and that is not what I was trying to say.  I'm well aware of what organizations in the U.S. are doing to address sexual slavery.  I could go on a huge rant about how there is still a great deal of injustice and ignorance concerning sexual trafficking in U.S. courts (once a trafficker is caught or once a victim testifies), but the blunt truth is that it's still much better than most other countries.

My point was that, even though per capita there are more sex slaves in Eastern Europe, we can't deny that it seems the ideal goal of traffickers is to eventually ship their products to somewhere like the U.S.--where they will make ten or a hundred times more money than in their own nations.  We may not have as many slaves per capita as other countries, but we sure do pay a lot more money for it.

(For clarification's sake--the number of estimated sex slaves in America is 50,000, not 10,000.  10,000 is approximately the number of people trafficked into the country for sexual purposes.)

[Sajainta]

I don't and won't claim to have all the knowledge, but I know more about trafficking than many other people in the world because I was trafficked.  The abuse that started when I was 14 eventually bled into slavery.  This was in the U.S., in the suburbs.  The man who got me pregnant and then got rid of the pregnancy was my main trafficker, or my "pimp" if you want to use colloquialisms.

Why do men rent people out for sex?  I don't know any statistics, but I can tell you what I know from experience::

Some of it is ignorance.  A lot of men think these girls are just run-of-the-mill prostitutes.  The men who trafficked me had a fake ID for me that said I was 18.

Another part of it is sheer apathy.  "Okay, so this girl is obviously not 18 but what do I care?  I just want to get laid.  If she wants to make a living selling her body, that's none of my business."

Another part is "desperation".  Homeless men, lonely men, etc.  They don't care about the well-being of the girl because they are that desperate for any kind of sexual contact.

Another part is the sheep mentality, especially if it's a group of men who are renting someone out (like a frat house, or friends celebrating someone's 21st birthday, etc.).  "Maybe the girl is underage, or seems just a little too scared, but all of my buddies are going to have sex with her and they'll call me a faggot if I don't do the same thing."

A large part of it is fueled by sick desire--those who knew the girl is under 18, they know that she is being kept prisoner, they know that there is absolutely no consent, and that turns them on.  What I don't know is why they think and feel this way.  I can't understand it.

The latter group will pay the most, especially if they want to be violent or sadistic.  Finding a "regular" prostitute is no feat whatsoever.  Finding a young girl on whom they can act out whatever rape or torture fetish they have is much, much more difficult.  If they physically abuse a "regular" prostitute (or most sex slaves), god forbid what will happen to them once the pimps find out.  But they can hit, kick, punch, strangle, push underwater, electrocute, cut, or burn a slave who is "singled out" for violent clients to their hearts content (like in the "damage group" from the link I posted).  As long as they don't kill the girls or disfigure their face, they can do whatever they want.  If they have the money.  Traffickers are smart, and they know that very, very, very rich men will shell out obscene amounts of money for X amount of time with a girl.

Within the trafficking cell that I was in, the sadistic clients were referred to as "special" clients.  From what I heard, they're the ones who really pad the pocket of slavery.

[FaustWolf]

Jesus.

So you were, I mean, you went through that first hand Sajainta? Like, with clients and stuff? How did you finally get out of it? A police raid? Just ran for it?

And what goes through the mind of a victim? Is there just this zombie-like, catatonic state you have to go into to get through it? I can't imagine actually thinking about it while it's happening.

[ZeaLitY]

WE'LL FIGHT THE POWER



DOESN'T MATTER WHO IT IS, WE'LL CRUSH SEXISM



YOUR DAYS ARE DONE, MISOGYNIST FUCKERS



THIS IS MY SOUL



NEVER GIVE UP



OUR BURNING BLOOD WILL CUT THROUGH FATE



IT'S A PROMISE IN THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH

[Truthordeal]

Ultimate list of awesome bombastic awesomeness!

I only wish I had an image awesome enough to follow that up...

Oh, wait...maybe I do.




SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH ULTIMATE COLLAGE MUTHAFUCKA!

Ok, now that that's done, its time that I did a penance:

I have been wrong about most things regarding sexism over the past few months on this thread. The stories and arguments here have really shed a light on an aspect of humanity that I failed to recognize, whether through ignorance or indifference.

But rather than torture myself over that and work my penance in over guilt, I already have an awesome idea to make up for it and be proactive!

We're on the right track, but we need to push FORWARD TO EQUALITY!!

[FaustWolf]

Yeah, catching a glimpse of the very worst society has to offer really puts things into perspective, doesn't it? When this thread started I was worried about things like the overbearing power male high school seniors and politicians sometimes are able to exercise in their relations with younger and less well-positioned women, and women being portrayed with exaggerated sexual characteristics more often than not in pop culture. But now we're getting into holy shit, we're still in the dark ages territory.

Well, for good measure:

[Mr Bekkler]

I have been wrong about most things regarding sexism over the past few months on this thread. The stories and arguments here have really shed a light on an aspect of humanity that I failed to recognize, whether through ignorance or indifference.

But rather than torture myself over that and work my penance in over guilt, I already have an awesome idea to make up for it and be proactive!

We're on the right track, but we need to push FORWARD TO EQUALITY!!

NOW YOU KNOW, AND...

[Lord J Esq]

Damn. That would explain why you have trouble sleeping, and why you didn't post in the prostitution thread. There's not much I can say to someone who's actually been through the cogs of the sex slavery business. I guess ZeaLitY is on the right track: All we can do is work to help those who are still sexual slaves, and to prevent others from ever being stolen away into that world.

ZeaLitY and I are pretty serious about that. I hope others here will get to the same point, and make real contributions. Fuck sexism...

[Uboa]

Sajainta, all I am able to think right now is, "I can't imagine."  Especially, I can't imagine how it would feel to talk about your experience here.  But, I know that your openness means a lot to many of the people here, myself included, but more so to those who have devoted a lot of time to trying to understand and do something about sexism.  Thank you.  

I told Z this, but I'll say it again here:  This forum has opened my eyes in ways I never imagined, and in a really brief period of time.  After I started posting here I started asking questions that I had never wanted to ask before.  Actually, not to sidetrack this thread or anything, but there's a reason why I never asked these questions before, and that's because my experience with "social justice" groups in the past was never positive.  For some reason, the groups I joined seemed to be headed up exclusively by closed-minded, poorly tempered control freaks who all happened to be men trying to put a better face on their shoddy personalities.  After just a short while here, something told me that the people here were different, and that if I wanted real answers I would have to leave behind those personalities and find a better way.  I don't know if it was just serendipity, but around this time I also began meeting several gentle, brave, and wise women involved in real social justice projects around a larger city nearby, one of whom I've mentioned here.  This has all brought me back around to actually feeling connected to social justice, and for the first time feeling like I can really understand and do something about all of the problems I've been reading about for a very long time.

Of course, now I'm not sure what "my part" to do will be.  For now I'm just building connections in the city and asking those who are more experienced than I am what they do and what they know, and, yeah, for the first time feeling like I'm not just signing up to be a pawn in some "visionary's" (read how you will) "grand design".  It sounds like a jaded thing to say for a reason; it is, and it's unfortunate that it is.  My point is the feeling of contrast with the present, which instead feels promising to me.  I feel I owe that to many here.  Again, thank you all.

[Sajainta]

There is too much badass-ness on this thread.  

Thank you for fighting against it.  That sounds stupid, right?  No one in their right mind would say "Oh yeah, this is a great thing!  Keep it up!"  It'd be the same as me saying "thank you for wanting to find a cure for AIDS and cancer."

But people are unaware of trafficking, or willfully ignorant, or just plain apathetic.  So thank you for being aware, and for being serious in stopping it.  I can't stress that enough.

Fuck sexism indeed!

FaustWolf,

Yes, it was first-hand.  I'm fortunate in that it didn't last very long--it was less than a year.

I didn't really "get out"--the trafficker let me go.  It was purely a mind fuck.  He had always said I was his "favourite", his "favourite object" and he was letting me go because he wasn't merciful enough to kill me.  He said he wanted me to be in incredible pain for the rest of my life, and killing me wouldn't do anything but put an end to the suffering.  And the suffering gratified him far too much.  So he just let me go.  He was allowed to do so because he was the head of that cell and his words were law to anyone working underneath him.

And what goes through the mind of a victim? Is there just this zombie-like, catatonic state you have to go into to get through it? I can't imagine actually thinking about it while it's happening.

That's pretty much it.  "Zombie-like, catatonic state" is quite accurate.  You train yourself to "check out".  Focus on anything but what's actually going on.  After a while it becomes routine.

Unfortunately, traffickers (or at least, mine) aren't stupid and some of the clients aren't either.  They'll make you do or say things in order to make sure you're not shutting down, so that you fully "comprehend" what's happening and you have no way to block it out.  It's just another form of control for them--see to it that you're as traumatized as possible.

It's all a bunch of mind games, with the ultimate goal of creating a completely subservient, irrevocably destroyed human being.  Toward the end, I became so catatonic and robotic and passive that I stopped thinking of myself as a human being.  I couldn't differentiate my individual thoughts from my main trafficker's.  I honestly began to believe that I had no individual thoughts, because I knew that I was literally the property of someone.  You can only be abused and tortured and traded off and told "You're an object", "You're a thing", "Objects don't cry / scream / speak, etc."--and told to repeat those things--so many times before you start to "accept" those things as being true and being what you deserve.  And it's sick and it's sad, but permanently shutting down sounded wonderful.  The gift of intelligence, thought, reason, and comprehension is a terrible, terrible thing if you're a slave.

[Lord J Esq]

The gift of intelligence, thought, reason, and comprehension is a terrible, terrible thing if you're a slave.

Aye.

[Uboa]

Thank you for fighting against it.  That sounds stupid, right?  No one in their right mind would say "Oh yeah, this is a great thing!  Keep it up!"  It'd be the same as me saying "thank you for wanting to find a cure for AIDS and cancer."

But people are unaware of trafficking, or willfully ignorant, or just plain apathetic.  So thank you for being aware, and for being serious in stopping it.  I can't stress that enough.

Fuck sexism indeed!

One thing I've found out over the past couple years is that real headway is being made into the most confounding problems facing our world.  It just isn't always apparent unless you do some digging.  Unfortunately those who do make real headway also have a hard time getting their voices out over the noise that's often purposefully meant as distraction.  That's why it's important to be able to cut through the noise and be able to talk in a frank and forward-thinking environment.  This is my first experience of an on-line setting where I've actually been able to witness and take part in such a phenomenon.  Actually, I take that back, this is my second.  My first was a forum in which participants were actually able to have open dialogue with doctors and researchers making headway into cancer cures.  My first "real-world" experiences of frank and forward-thinking discussion have been in the city near where I live.

God, reading the rest of your post I feel like I'm trying to comprehend an account of a nightmare (a dream) which deeply disturbed someone but which I can only minutely understand.  But, unlike a dream, this was something real, is something real, and being closer to that reality is a weight, a sink, something that changes my world view for the worse.  At the same time, knowing what I know now, I'm relieved that you are here.  I'm relieved that you are able to be frank, that you held onto your intelligence, and your spirit.  I'm relieved by your strength, and I'm relieved that there will be some good that comes out of this, even though I am tempted, wrongly, to diminish it in the face of this ugly reality.  It shouldn't be diminished, because its importance is apparent in the fact that minds, and likely lives, are changing right now.

It is safe for you to talk about this, correct?  I am really curious to know whether anything has been done in terms of investigating or breaking up this ring...