This essay first appeared in Cliterati on November 9th; I have modified it slightly to fit the format of this blog.
I’ve previously predicted that the “sex trafficking” moral panic will start to fall apart in about three more years:
…skepticism about “trafficking” (especially in regard to its conflation with sex work) will slowly increase, and by about 2015 it will be possible for a major media outlet to publish articles critical of both the statistics and the very concept. By 2017 public funding for anti-sex worker hate groups will begin to dry up, and by 2019 or 2020 we should expect it to virtually disappear from public discourse except for a wave of books and documentaries by “experts” who couldn’t be bothered to speak out against it while it was going on but are happy to make a quick buck from it after it’s safely over…
I’ve seen nothing in the past three years to convince me that this prediction is off by very much; in fact, we’ve already started to see skeptical articles, including some from within the “anti-trafficking” movement itself, and academics, health officials and human rights organizations are now openly attacking the hysteria. But what I actually want to concentrate on today is that last part of the quote; when such books start to appear, you can be sure mine will be among them. And I plan to spend a large part of it in discussion of the truly bizarre and outrageous myths that the hysteria has spawned. Take this article, for example; even by “sex trafficking” standards, it’s jaw-droppingly stupid:
A couple of years ago, Bo Quickel…[quit his] real estate…job…[to] dedicate his life…to ending sex trafficking…“I’ve never been in the trucking industry, but I [talked]…executives for a trucking company…[into hiring me] as a consultant…The following week I was…with social workers learning more about human trafficking”…
Let that sink in: a real estate agent with a folksy name, who knew absolutely nothing about sex work, migration, psychology, law or the trucking industry, somehow managed to talk a trucking company into hiring him as a “sex trafficking” expert; he neither sees a problem with admitting this, nor with admitting that he didn’t even bother to learn anything about the subject he was hired as a “consultant” in until after he already had the job. This is not at all unusual in the rescue industry; time and again we see cops, lawyers and even people whose “expertise” consists of having watched one propaganda film, hailed as “experts” by morons who hang on their every pronouncement, no matter how appallingly idiotic. Given this low regard for actual evidence, it isn’t surprising Quickel contented himself with listening to the masturbatory fantasies of a couple of “trafficking” fetishists, nor that he, like other “rescue” opportunists, has absolutely no credible plan for fighting his imaginary bogey:
“…[there are] stickers on bathroom stalls (at truck stops) with an 800-rescue number on it…because that’s the only time these girls are alone.” Quickel said truck drivers account for 60 percent of the people who pay for sex with those who are being sex trafficked…From there, Vigilante Truckers was born, an organization dedicated to creating awareness among truck drivers to end the demand to what Quickel calls “the sale of rape”…
Don’t even ask where Quickel got that 60% figure; he simply made it up as his mentors taught him. “Sex trafficking” opportunists portray women as passive, childlike creatures completely without agency; sex with them, as with an infant, is automatically defined as “rape” because they lack the capacity for rational consent. They are, in fact, so passive that they can’t think of calling 911 for the local police, yet the number of a “rescue line” in some other part of the country will reflexively trigger an unconscious dialing behavior if placed before their eyes in a loo on a sticker or the wrapper of a bar of soap. But Quickel goes even farther than most, imagining whores as literally inanimate objects:
“If you look at it from a manufacturing perspective through supply and demand with sex slavery as the business, the supply is the use of their own bodies, and the demand is the people paying for sex…if there are 10 bottles of Tide at the market and the goal is to meet the people’s demand, and I go in and…purchase five bottles, but there are still 10 needs for it, the supplier will bring in seven more bottles to replace the five that were rescued and the same could be said when looking at sex slavery.”
Yes, he actually said that bottles of laundry detergent can be “rescued”; he also seems to be saying that for every five doll-like girls who are “rescued” by cops or vigilantes, “pimps” will go out and abduct seven more…which if anything constitutes an argument against his methods. And what exactly are those methods?
Quickel’s organization has 10 semi-trucks that are regularly parked in truck stops across the Southeast, wrapped in information about the parent organization “Stand As One”…the 800 number of the national hotline for anti sex slavery and rescue, and anti-sex slavery statements…Quickel said they’ve had highly effective results from placing the trucks at area truck stops as they are considered “moving billboards that create sex free zones wherever it is parked [sic].” Quickel said trucks are parked at their respective locations for 10 hours at a time and essentially stop the demand for the product during that time period under the authority [sic] that they are being watched and all slavery activities will be reported to the national hotline in real time, and GPS located pictures will be uploaded to the Vigilante Truckers database for public viewing and rescue response… “If we have 10 trucks parked for 10 hours that’s 100 hours of sex-free zones at truck stops…Their handlers will not bring in a supply of girls when one of our trucks is parked at a truck stop for fear of being reported, and the same goes for the truck drivers.”
This ludicrous fantasy would strain the credulity of even the most lawheaded simpleton were it not for the presence of the magic word “sex”, guaranteed to freeze all cognitive functions in at least 40% of all humans and 60% of Americans. Imagine someone seriously declaring that a billboard plastered with anti-drug propaganda had the magic power to stop people from carrying or consuming drugs in the area; he’d be laughed off the stage. Even taken out of context, the phrases “sex free zones”, “slavery activities” and “supply of girls” are astonishingly dumb. Yet Quickel insists his lies are superior to those of other self-declared “experts”:
Quickel said Charlotte [North Carolina] ranks sixth in the nation “for the demand of sex slaves and services provided by human trafficking victims”…Quickel disagrees with Mooresville Police Chief Carl Robbins’…opinion that human trafficking is not a problem in this town. “I’ve personally sat outside (four massage parlors [here]), and I can tell you that the only people coming in and out of there are men every 45 minutes, and if the women that are working at these places were there of their own free will they would leave”…
“I’ve personally sat outside four grocery stores in Yahootown, and I can tell you that the only people coming in and out of there are shoppers every minute, and if the cashiers that are working at these places were there of their own free will they would leave.” This is the level of nonsense emitted by those who declare themselves “experts” in this foolish fairy tale; I imagine future students reading this idiocy in my book and laughing themselves silly. Alas, we aren’t in a position to laugh at present, because clowns like Quickel are parroted by politicians with absolutely straight faces, and thus actually influence the policies which are inflicted on sex workers, our clients, our associates and our families by heavily-armed gangs of thugs.
[quote]except for a wave of books and documentaries by “experts” who couldn’t be bothered to speak out against it while it was going on but are happy to make a quick buck from it after it’s safely over…[/quote]
But your own book will be much better, since you know what you’re talking about, and you didn’t wait for the hysteria to end to speak out against it.
Exactly so. After years of fighting this literally full-time, I think I deserve to make some money off of it.
Well, shoot, since retiring from engineering, I’ve been looking for some supplementary income (to facilitate my once-a-month visit with my regular sex-worker lady). Wonder if I could talk some “executives of a trucking company” into paying for my services as a consultant? I don’t know a damn thing about commercial transportation, but maybe they’d pay me to talk or write about it anyway. If the trucks are parked, then there’s no accidents and no truck drivers, or other drivers, are getting killed or injured. So if I park a truck in a truck stop and keep an eye on whatever other trucks are parked there for 5 or 6 hours, then for those hours, that’s a death-free zone, right? And what if there’s ten such trucks parked, here and there? 50 or 60 death-free zone hours! I’d REALLY be getting the results.
Whoooo-eee! Second career, here I come!
Jim, Jim, Jim …
You’re only just now realizing this?
They’re called “Bullshitters” – I was one … for about 2 years after I retired from the Navy. If I hadn’t found another job – I would have slit my wrists … but that “Bullshitter” job easily paid more than 40K per year better than my current job.
Well, with my overtime and travel now … maybe only 20K more – but that “bullshitter” job was 9 to 5 … my current one? Well, I just got told to go fly to a shithole on the other side of the Earth … and leave tomorrow (they told me this morning).
There are jobs out there … and all you do is TALK … and sell ideas … really BAD ideas. Basically, you make people feel good by bullshitting them. You “evangelize” ideas – the way Guy Kawasaki writes about in his book, “The Macintosh Way” when he and the Apple boys were trying to sell the Macintosh computer to third party developers back in Apple’s infant days. The Macintosh paid off though … but that fact doesn’t make Guy Kawasaki any less of a bullshitter. He was just lucky!
Basically – just find an open “teat” somewhere and start sucking – because you are completely a “taker” … you aren’t giving back anything – you aren’t providing additional value to a damn thing.
If you can live with yourself – you can get rich. Seriously rich.
I couldn’t live with myself – so I jumped that ship. I only worked it because of Hurricane Katrina … which heavily damaged my house and I needed shit-tons of money fast to fix it. When Maggie was in financial extremis – she started stripping and hooking. That was A LOT more honorable than what I did.
But then again … I don’t have her tits … so my choices were a bit constrained. 😀
Much like that bottle of Tide, I too have Acti-Lift printed on my forehead. You couldn’t see it last time we were together, Maggie, because I think my side-swept bangs were covering my pimp branding.
Bo Quickie …
He founded “Vigilante Trucker” … in 2011 (I know you found his website cuz that pic you have came off it).
His Linkedin says he’s an “anti-SEX TRAFFICKING warrior” (“Sex Trafficking” in all caps, which kind of de-emphasizes the “anti” part, LOL).
Lives in an 8,500 sq foot “dream home” … like the third one he’s built … situated on a lake … some great views.
I found this quote on the internet on one of his speeches …
His name pops up a good bit associated with Jillian Mourning.
Just “Google” her – if I put in a link your fucking spam-termination-bot goes hyper on me and shit-cans my post to “moderation”.
What I see? I see a guy with an extravagant lifestyle that he needs to fund who doesn’t have a lot of skills to PRODUCE anything. When I listen to his speeches – he reminds me of televangelist Jim Bakker.
What better way for a guy with minimal skills to fund his extravagant lifestyle than by tapping into the Sex Trafficking Universe? A strange, alternate universe where the rules of facts and mathematics do not apply?
He’s all over YouTube … here’s a sample …
LOL … “Sex Trafficking 101” … LMAO!!
I have to laugh though Maggie. This guy is making a fortune off the sex trafficking morons … and he’s living in an 8.500 sq ft house and probably driving a Lexus while your running about trying to undo his “mess” in a used car that you bought for fuel efficiency!!
I think you’re doing it wrong! 😀
Once Linda said to me, “Maggie, you’re so beautiful and so smart, you could easily take these men for a lot more than you do.”
I replied, “That’s as may be, but I can sleep at night.”
The problem is – this guy, may actually have himself fooled that he’s doing this to improve the world. He may actually have himself fooled that he’s awesome enough to do it.
Or he may just KNOW he’s a fraud.
as far as his “tide bottle” comment, he woulda sounded allot better if he likened it to (former) General McCrystal’s “insurgent mathematics.” But then again, “insurgents” have agency. If feminist’s really were feminist’s–they’d go apeshit about the dudebro denying girls and womyn their agency. Wasn’t it second wave feminism where the Xtians and femmies were all anti-porn? As far as his anti-male bullshit, he sounds like that Mark Driscoll motherfucker…
That’s one reason no “men’s right’s” movement will ever succeed. Most guys will gladly shit all over men of lower status to look better to women. It’s the same with asshole Paul Elam shitting all over guys to look good for his honey badgers. As they say, “Most MRA’s are one blowjob away from being MRA’s.”
–from not being MRA’s– I meant to say… But y’all get the drift….
Much like the MRA Mark Minter was heavily promoting the position of not getting married, especially to single moms. What did Minter actually do? He married a single mom.
Ideology can frustrate biology, but never totally triumph over it.
He’s (was) a Pick Up artist, not a Men’s Rights activist.
awesome Maggie! Call me please
I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon. 🙂