In the
box office thriller, Taken, Pierre
Morel is the director who has now made millions on showing us what it’s like to
see a loved one taken by force into the sex trafficking industry and sold to
greedy, selfish, and corrupted people to be abused for entertainment and sexual
gratification. Many of us wish that there was a real life Bryan Mills who could
single handedly put an end to commercial exploitation of individuals, but not
even William Wilberforce was able to completely end slavery for the whole world
in 1833 when the British parliament passed his bill to ban transatlantic human
trafficking.
However,
the bill did lead the way on this issue and has set the standard ban almost all
countries have now adopted (Human Trafficking).
This was a remarkable accomplishment for an individual and for our society, yet
laws alone cannot stop the human trafficking industry. This industry exists
because our current society either associates with or participates in the
market that feeds it.
Human
trafficking is considered a form of slavery, and slavery is the process by
which in individual is placed under the domination of another. Slavery is
nothing new to current society; records as early as 2500 B.C.E. show how enslavement
was implemented in the Sumerian Civilization (Coffin 11). However, culture has
changed over the course of history, and what was current in the Sumerian
Civilization and what was the current form of slavery during the American Civil
War is not quite what it is now. The most current form of slavery is human
trafficking for sexual purposes (Rodriguez and Hill). Statistics estimate up to
27 million men, women, and children are currently enslaved worldwide (U.S.
State 7), more than at any other time in human history (Guay).
Why is
slavery so vast and why is sex trafficking culturally relevant? Could it be
that innovators advertise old news in a relevant way to create new commerce?
For example, mankind has often wanted or needed to travel for survival,
discovery, conquering or other purposes. Therefore, innovators were able to design
things from the wheel and the chariot, to boats, motor vehicles, planes, and so
on, to meet the demands for travel. Humanity has a natural inclination to
travel and innovators have cultivated a market for profit from selling vehicles
and plane tickets permitting our traveling demands. Likewise, exploiters are
now using slavery in a relevant way to meet demands of the twenty-first
century.
When
America was in the nineteenth century, cotton was a big industry and many land
owners employed slavery to assist in the farming of this product. The society
at this time mainly employed manual labor because it was culturally relevant.
Between the end of the twentieth and now into the twenty-first century, we see
a society with more freedoms and more technological advances. One of those
technological advancements came in the form of computers with the ability to
connect to each other via the World Wide Web (Internet).
With the
explosion of the internet over the last two decades, came the proliferation of
one of humanity’s most natural inclinations: the desire for sex. Mankind’s
natural inclination for sex is understood in the natural process of
reproduction. However, reproduction is technically a benefit of sex as an
outcome for biological success. Therefore, sex is more than just reproduction
for humans, and the natural desire for it can be easily illustrated through the
sudden increase of internet pornography.
Pornography
can be defined as “material that contains explicit sexual subject matter
intended to arouse sexual excitement (Online
Pornography).” Once again, the explicit use of human imagery for
sensuality isn’t a new novelty (Coffin 96 and 112), but nudity is more
culturally relevant because of the internet avenue used to promote pornography.
Statistics estimate pornography is searched for 68 million times daily, and
that our society spends 97 billion annually on this content (Internet
Pornography Statistics. Why is this so significant to human sex trafficking? Because
in an exploiter’s mind, where there is a desire, there is potential for
business.
If a business wants to profit from what they have to sell, they
will evaluate whether or not people will pay for the product before it goes
into mass promotion and production. When we take a look at these numbers, it
becomes evident internet pornography is a huge industry. Human trafficking is
also a large industry. In fact, it is the third largest and fastest growing
criminal enterprise in the world (Rodriguez and Hill). Profits from human trafficking are
estimated to be around $44.3 billion annually, with the majority of that coming
from sex trafficking (Human Trafficking). It stands to reason, then, that
pornography contributes to the sex enterprise for human trafficking because it
is sex trafficking only in a different medium.
Victims of sex trafficking are forced, abused, and coerced into this labor and
are bought for pleasure. Likewise, pornography is viewed for pleasure, at the
expense of the people exposed online. People may volunteer their bodies to be
filmed or photographed (Wallance), or they may
be coerced (Cleveland); nevertheless,
association with or participation in pornography validates using the image of
people for private pleasure of the viewer. And if the image is validated,
what’s going to stop a person from taking it a step further and validate raping
a woman who was trafficked? Will the law stop them? It hasn’t yet.
Pornography is not the only cause for sex trafficking, but it does
contribute to trafficking as a gateway for what industry can do with people.
However a vital key for industry is not just the product, but also the profit. Our
society operates under a universal medium for trade called money. The more
money you have the more things you can acquire in your name. The less money you
have the more money you need to survive. Because money is such a necessity for
society and is also a tool for gaining power and influence, it is sought after
by just about everyone.
People are not just trafficked for the love of sex. Individuals
are sold, forced, deceived, and coerced into this industry because of the money
that can be obtained. A study performed by the International Labour
Organization estimated in 2011 that there were 456 million workers “living
below the $1.25 a day poverty line (The Millennium 8).” This is a
recipe for unfortunate circumstances because individuals in poverty may be
deceived by the “job” they took, when in fact they are trafficked for sex.
Parents or other adult relatives may sell children into this industry because
of the state of poverty they live in. Brothel owners make their financial gain
after initially purchasing, coercing, or forcing the individual into their
establishment and then repeatedly selling the victim for sex.
I’ve never been in a brothel, but I saw one from the outside. I’ve
never talked with a brothel owner or a parent who has sold their child into
slavery, but I did e-mail an organization who rescues sex trafficked victims
from brothels and this is the report I received: “Traffickers can be anyone and
everyone, including law enforcement and government officials. Especially where
the countries have corrupt systems in place, again, it takes it back to money
and the lust for more. A lot of girls who come through our program have
mentioned ‘it was this nice lady who knew my aunt and uncle.’ They usually give
false promises of a job in the city working in a restaurant (USA Office).”
You see, the desire for money will compel a relative, a government
official, or a business agent to turn over another human to be victimized by
the sex trafficking industry. But not even the love for money or the desire for
sex can be attributed as the only causes for human sex trafficking. First there
must be a demoralization of an attitude toward human life. It is not possible
to maintain a sense of dignity and self-worth within the context of a humble
attitude and associate or participate in the things that cause sex trafficking.
To place value on oneself and maintain humility generates a perspective of
equality or less than to others. In which case, if an attitude of self-worth is
sustained by an individual it would be outside the confines of their ego to get
involve in an industry prone to take advantage of them. Therefore, to keep a
humble opinion of oneself within the context of that self-worth, they would not
sell, force, deceive, or coerce another human of equal or greater value into
that which they cannot go.
Alternatively, when this barrier is broken and one allows their
pride to impose the idea that individual self-worth is more important than
others, they lose grasp of their own mortality and the basis of which humility
was derived, thereby initiating the ego needed to devalue life and become the
source from which contribution to sex trafficking can be made. In other words,
if a man maintains a sense of dignity and self-worth within the context of
dominance, he will engage either by association or through participation in the
things that cause sex trafficking. A
historical narrative written on the life of Jesus of Nazareth records him
putting it this way: “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up
in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in
his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks (The Life
Application Study Bible Luke 6:45).” In essence, if what is defined as “good”
by Jesus is put in our thoughts, our actions will be “good.” But if we put
“evil” in our thoughts, very simply, our actions will be “evil.”
Thus the vast number of
people enslaved and the cultural relevance of human sex trafficking are a
result of these three causes stated above. The industry hangs on these three
causes because if an individual ever allows his pride to elevate his self-worth
over another human being, he will use his dominant ego to enslave, denigrate, and or robotize
people for selfish pleasure. He cannot have both humility and self-worth and
treat others in hostility. However, he can still desire sex and remain humble
because of the mutual partnership of marriage. He may also desire money and
remain humble because money is the universal tool of trade and can be gained
through submission of work without lowering self-worth. However, take humility
out of the equation and a proud man can attain finances through associating or
participating in sex trafficking. Take humility out of the equation and a proud
man may desire sex outside the partnership of marriage because his dominant
opinion of himself permits him to treat others as though they have something to
offer him. This selfish motive can either lead to association with sex
trafficking by viewing pornography or by direct participation.
Works Cited
Cleveland,
Stephanie. "Pornography Is Harmful to Women." Feminism. Ed. Christina
Fisanick.
Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing
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Coffin,
Judith, et al. Western Civilizations Their History & Their Culture. 17th
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Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 2011. Print.
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Justin. "Economic Development Causes Slavery." Slavery Today. Ed. Auriana
Ojeda. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. At
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"Human
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Ed. Louise I. Gerdes. San Diego: Greenhaven Press,
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Rodriguez,
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Stats & Services.
Reports and Publications. LED. March 2011. Web. 15 Oct 2013
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-
bulletin/march_2011/human_sex_trafficking
“The Millennium Development Goals Report 2012”
UN.org International Labour Organization.
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The
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Stream, 1997. Print.
USA Office,
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2013. E-
mail.
U.S. State
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2013 http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/192587.pdf
Wallace,
Benjamin. "Online Pornography Creates a Unique Creative and
Entrepreneurial Outlet
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E. Nelson. Detroit: Greenhaven Press,
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