Nothing is more horrible than my self in the mirror of hysteria. – Karl Kraus
As I’ve often pointed out, moral panics don’t slowly subside; on the contrary, they pick up speed as they go, with the claims growing ever wilder and the official responses growing ever more extreme, until they fly apart and hurl debris in every direction. In the terminal stages of such a panic, many of those who failed to voice their skepticism in the early days are at last moved to open their mouths; however, others double down and continue to vomit out whatever evil nonsense the hysterical narrative demands, with their eyes bulging and froth flying forth from their lips. Domina Elle sent me this prime example of the genre in early December, but once I started trying to edit it down for inclusion in a news column I realized it deserved to be shared in all of its bizarre, moon-barking glory. The lunacy starts with an egregiously mixed metaphor in the incredible headline, which declares “human trafficking” both a “highway” and an “empire”; Hamlet, eat your heart out.
Whether it’s for sex or labor, labeled human trafficking or slavery…human beings in this country still live and die toiling under force, fraud and coercion every day to fulfill criminals’ wealth, power and sexual fantasies. And it turns out Denver is a human-trafficking hub, a place where newsworthy, exploited little girls combine with forgotten boys to make up a roughly $40 million industry…In the last 11 years, the FBI’s Innocence Lost National Initiative brought together more than 400 law-enforcement agencies nationwide to collaborate with communities to recover and assist more than 3,400 children…The initiative resulted in roughly 1,450 convictions…
Sexual fantasies are involved, all right, but they aren’t those of criminals; they’re in the sick minds of cops and FBI agents who are happy to destroy the lives of peaceful adults in order to fulfill them. I’m not sure where that ridiculous “3400 children” number comes from, but the actual number of underage sex workers, mostly 16 or 17 (the real meaning of “exploited little girls”) who have been arrested (the real meaning of “recovered”) since the beginning of the lugubriously-named “Innocence Lost” pogroms is less than 1200, and a slightly-higher number of men charged with “pimping”; given that the conviction rate on these bogus charges is roughly 4%, that makes the number of convictions somewhere below 100. Of course, that’s only pimping convictions; given that over 15,000 adult sex workers (all women; male sex workers are charged as pimps) were also arrested in these operations, 1450 convictions wouldn’t be at all surprising. But to equate throwing adult women into prison (for having sex for taboo reasons) with locking up slavers goes beyond dishonesty into the realm of Stalinesque evil.
…Human trafficking stands as one of few issues in this country nobody can call “polarizing.” It’s fucking horrible. The end. That the people we sell here in the United States think their circumstances are normal, are terrified to leave or don’t know they’re victims or survivors…doesn’t make this acceptable, it makes it…modern slavery…
Translation: The “authorities” are the arbiters of what is normal, and if you disagree that you’re a victim or a “survivor”, we’re going to label you as one anyway and “rescue” you by subjecting you to a terrifying deception, tearing you away from your life and locking you in a cage until you learn to accept our opinion without question.
…No 13-year-old girl — the average age of recruitment for a female prostitute — or 12-year-old boy dreams of becoming a prostitute, raped 20 to 48 times a night…Seven years after recruitment, studies show he or she will most likely be dead…
Though the “average age” idiocy has remained the same, note that the number of clients (labeled “rapes” here) per night is now fluctuating wildly; some “trafficking” porn lists numbers as high as 110, while others claim numbers more within the bounds of reason, like 5. This one splits the difference with a range of 20 (ridiculous) to 48 (wholly absurd but not an egregious violation of physical laws). I’m still trying to track down the origin of the “average life-span of 7 years” myth; given that another commonly-circulated idiocy is that the average whore dies at 34, one wonders how fanatics can subtract 13 from that and arrive at 7. But I guess math isn’t important when FEELS are at stake. And I’m not even going to comment on the saccharine pap that what children “dream” of has any bearing on adult employment opportunities.
“Regardless of what…some people actually experience in real life…There’s a lot of victimization, whether it’s rape, beatings, torture, you name it…isn’t it pretty reasonable to assume maybe people are being forced…to be in it rather than volunteering to be in it?”
Denver cop Dan Steele says you shouldn’t believe what actual sex workers tell you; his wanking fantasies involve raping and torturing whores, therefore we’re all enslaved. Q.E.D.
…They’re sold on a circuit…[that] brings the exploited into towns for male-dominated events and operations such as conferences, sports games and construction or mining projects…
Note the denial of women’s agency; we “are sold” and “are brought” rather than travelling under our own power, because of course women are too stupid to make our own business and travel arrangements. So was I “trafficked” on my tour “circuit” last summer? Or did I magically gain the ability to use Priceline once I stopped “selling my body”?
…“We’re in the middle of the country, and that makes us a destination state but also a transit state,” says [“trafficking” profiteer Amanda] Finger. “With I-25 and I-70 connecting us to the coast or to the borders, we sit right in the middle of a lot of action…”
King of the Hill! Have you figured out yet that “trafficking” fans will claim anything as an excuse to declare a given city a “hub”?
…With a rough total of 1.5 million human trafficking victims at any given time in the United States alone…
Where does this number come from? What relationship does it have to “300,000 trafficked children” and “30 million slaves worldwide”? Does the author of this mess, Brandy Simmons, know or care? Given the abysmal level of mathematical ability she demonstrated above, I somehow doubt it.
…Human trafficking is in your food, clothes, neighborhood, your favorite ethnic food restaurants…
Ethnic restaurants, natch. But Brandy isn’t a racist, no sirree; it’s not her fault that McDonald’s doesn’t “traffick” people. Except that it does.
…many cases…begin…with a simple call from someone whose “gut feelings” about a person or situation proved right…
They’re of course “proved right” by the cops arresting whoever’s accused. So if you see something, say something!
…Some studies say an average sex worker will have 800 sex partners in a year…
That’s actually pretty reasonable; I averaged about 700 a year and street girls do more. But does Brandy do the basic math to recognize it doesn’t jibe with her claim of 20-48 per night (i.e. 7300 – 17,500 per year)? Please tell me you don’t need me to answer that.
…“We have 12-year-old boys being recruited to be pimps, just like we have 12-year-old girls being recruited to be victims,” says [“trafficking” profiteer Brad] Riley…“When a 12-year-old has seen tens of thousands of images that objectify a woman, that [creates]…this appetite that’s not appropriate or healthy or respectful to women. When that 12-year-old gets to be 25, it’s much easier for him to be a buyer, and a trafficker will prey on that”…
Yes, Brad says sexy TV commercials cause “sex trafficking”; savor the neofeministy, end-demandy goodness. Do we really need to research Brad to find out how he feels about porn, glamour modeling, or even miniskirts? No, I don’t think so. And I wouldn’t be shocked to find he’s anti-abortion as well; after all, we’ve gotta “protect” women from going down that human highway to the underground “sex trafficking” empire, even if we have to “traffick” them into prison to do it.
Are you sure The Rooster isn’t some Colorado version of The Onion?
I mean, it would explain the OTT hyperbole and names like ‘Amanda Finger’ of ‘The Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking’.
Recruiting 12yo boys as pimps?
Why would you want to recruit commercial competitors at all, much less ones as probably unreliable as 12yos?
Look at the titles of the article down the right-hand sidebar or check out ’12 Things You Really Want for Christmas’.
It’s gotta be satire.
If it is, it’s an outstanding example of Poe’s Law.
It’s not. The Rooster is clearly marketed towards hipsters, hence the verbiage.
‘The Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking’, which is popular enough for Google to autocomplete when I bothered to look it up, was founded by five people who were initially starting Polaris Project- Colorado. Brad Riley of iEmpathize is a self-described “non-profit innovator”. Ha! Yeah. I bet a lot of things are invented and “transformed” in his non-profits, such as the whole $50,000 supposedly raised by the company toward this anti-trafficking initiative…since 2009. $50,000 over five years? Hmm….
That’s as wild-eyed an article as I’ve read in some time. All the sex workers I’ve known beat the 34 yo average (It’s a miracle!), even the one with a heroin addiction. Though I never knew my favorite place for fish & chips was into exploitation and human trafficking. That counts as an ethnic restaurant, right? Here they are telling me they go to ASU and all the while it’s sex trafficking. While we’re on the subject of conspiracies, anybody have the number for the International Jewish Conspiracy? I figure it would be better paying, and if you’re going to join one, may as well be with the one that has the best breakfast.
You don’t need to phone the International Jewish Conspiracy.
They can use that Satanic Kabbalah stuff to read and control your mind. Look at what they did to Madonna. She was such a good Catholic girl before …
BTW, Maggie. According to my anecdotal experience, a disproportionate number of Australian sex workers were educated in unisex convent schools.
Is it like that in the US?
I don’t really know about the fractions here, but I was educated in such a school and so was another prominent sex worker activist who shares my initials.
Apropos of today, I guess I should start marking off the days on my calendar, eh?
This is one of those thorny questions that’s difficult to put into words, but it comes to my mind whenever one of these articles pops up, particularly today with the sarcastic use of the phrase “if you see something, say something”.
Under current criminalization, even if the idea repulses them, clients cannot say anything should they inadvertently encounter a coerced sex worker, because to do so would open them up to prosecution as well.
However, imagine for a brief moment if prostitution were to be completed decriminalized. Upon encountering what may be a coerced client, would clients still be reticent to say anything?
The reasons for the above question are twofold. First, no human is a mind reader, therefore to flat-out ask “are you being coerced?” runs the risk of insulting and denying the agency a person whose nonverbal signals have just been completely misread by the client.
Second, saying something would most likely end up with involvement with law enforcement and unless a drastic, unfathomable change in police practice occurs at the same time as decriminalization, doesn’t this break the longstanding tenet here of ‘never call the police for ANY reason’?
In the Netherlands, where prostitution is legal and regulated there are campaigns targeting clients of sex workers to report possible forced prostitution. You are right, it’s tricky, and although “indicators” such as “the sex worker seems tense and nervous” or “doesn’t seem to enjoy her work” do not always point to coercion, apparently there have been results. See for example a short report from the campaign of an anonymous hotline called Report Crime Anonymously – http://www.meldmisdaadanoniem.nl/english/human-trafficking/. The current campaign of the same organisation is targeting both sex workers and their clients to report suspicions of abuse and control (see http://www.meldmensenhandelanoniem.nl/en/1). Of course, neither clients, nor sex workers need to report anonymously, since prostitution is legal in the country, but many people prefer to stay anonymous.
On an unrelated note, I had to think of the recent signs put up throughout Amsterdam by the health inspection, warning tourists not to buy cocaine from street dealers because it could be heroin (see http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/02/you-will-not-be-arrested-for-using-drugs-what-a-sane-drug-policy-looks-like/)
That was a hell of a rant.
“..shouldn’t believe what actual sex workers tell you.” with respect to the risks involved in sex work.
I was involved in a discussion about sex trafficking on another site (I provided a link to one of Maggie’s stories about how it is overhyped). Someone had the stupidity to state that “people in an industry are not good sources for safety information within that industry”. Because apparently when you work in an industry you’re obviously ignorant of the safety hazards of that industry. Some external expert has to be consulted. And where does this external expert get his data? From the people in the industry. The fact that the idea that filtering safety information through some third party somehow makes the “unreliable data” from the worker in the field in question become “reliable” is ridiculous seems to have eluded the person I was talking with. And apparently, Officer Steele is of the same mold (in his brain).
I think that person is an example of the phrase ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ because it sounds like they’re conflating conflicts of interest with on-the-ground experience. Let’s be charitable and presume by ‘people in an industry’ they are referring to the people leading (or claim to lead) that industry. If it’s an industry that makes those leaders a lot of money, they are likely to say ‘of course this industry is safe! No problems here!’ even if there is copious evidence to the contrary.
But that’s not what’s happening here. There are no ‘leaders’ of the sex work industry who can claim to represent all of the myriad of sex workers who may work alone, in groups, out of their home or traveling.
For instance, do we believe someone like Dennis Hof when he starts spouting off about sex work? Like him or not, he is in the industry but I doubt any person truly concerned about the well being of sex workers would consider him a reliable source.
In a legal industry, the leaders are not the ones who take the physical risks, anyway. The people actually taking them might be inclined to exaggerate or downplay them for various reasons, but that’s why you take verifiable data to assess said risks (workplace injuries and deaths statistics, for instance).
Well, they may or may not “rescue” some 17 year old “child” here and there, but the more important thing is that it empowers the moral arbiters, and probably gives them some good sexual fantasies.
Reblogged this on SaneSurvivor.