Monday, July 16

Busy-person friendly way to fight pornography

Standing back from my past research on sex trafficking and its determinants, I have concluded that much of the demand for prostitution and sexual services stemmed from pornography, or at least was perpetuated by it more than anything else. Recognizing the destruction it wreaks on both men and women today, I have found an even deeper hatred being formed in my heart for the stuff and a passion to see it combated. I began to follow an organization called Morality in Media whose purpose is rather self-explanatory.

With little free time in the past many months, I was unable to join their efforts, but just recently they have opened up an avenue to combat porn which is busy-people friendly.

Check this out from Morality in Media:








"The .XXX domain that was established by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) last year did nothing but create thousands of new PORNOGRAPHY sites on the web.  Now the company behind the .XXX domain, ICM Registry, wants even more porn sites and is asking ICANN for permission to open three new domains, .PORN, .SEX, and .ADULT.  If you recall, ICM Registry originally proposed the .XXX domain so that all porn sites would be in one place on the web.  Well, that was never a possibility and now we know just what the true motivation of ICM is - lots more porn on the Internet.


There is a public comment period open for a short time right now to stop these new domains.

Please submit comments to ICANN for the proposed three new domains, .PORN, .SEX, .ADULT. It takes a few steps, but is so necessary.  My comment is here: http://bit.ly/PS74eA.  Please take time to make your comment and tell ICANN that there is no public interest of good to having more porn domains.  
  • 1st: Create an account here: https://gtldcomment.icann.org/comments-feedback/applicationcomment/login
  • 2nd: Confirm your account by checking email they send immediately
  • 3rd: Submit three complaints, one against each proposed new domain: ICM Registry AD LLC (this one is for .ADULT), ICM Registry PN LLC (this one is for .PORN), ICM Registry SX LLC (this one is for .SEX). I suggest you submit it to the “String Similarity – Evaluation Panel.
  • 4th: Type your comment.
...

P.S. Learn more about why the .XXX and other porn domains are a bad idea. There is a lot of confusion about this - we've cleared that up here."

Wednesday, January 11

Standing for truth: a few pages of hope

Anyone looking to take a stand against their local sex industry should read this article! Not only does it offer hope by detailing the story of a campaign that cut sex businesses from 175 to 63 in Louisville over a span of 5 years, but it offers incredible insight on how to do the same in your community.  Woohoo!

Standing for truth is the actual article published by Focus on the Family's magazine, Citizen.

Lessons from Louisville accompanied the printed version of Standing for truth and offers advice on how to "clean up your town."

Wednesday, November 9

A glance at "The John Next Door"

Just finished reading Newsweek's "The John next door." Enlightening, but very disturbing. After researching prostitution and sex trafficking for over a year, I was rather regretfully expecting to become desensitized to the horrors. Nope. It is ever just as awful. Even yet, I often find myself even more surprised by the hope that pops up frequently enough to establish itself. It's not over.


Last July, Newsweek published an article called "The John Next Door," recapping the results of a study done by clinical psychologist and researcher Melissa Farley, founder of the non-profit organization Prostitution Research and Education. The actual study 'Comparing Sex Buyers with Men Who Don't Buy Sex: "You can have a good time with the servitude" vs. "You're supporting a system of degradation",' examines whether results of previous prostitution-related research applies to all men or just those who purchase sex.  


It's an eye-opening study, and would be worth your time to read the entire Newsweek article, but I'll include some of the main and surprising points here as well.
  • In the study, non-sex buyers are defined as those who used pornography no more than once a month and did not frequent a strip-club more than twice a year, along with abstaining from purchasing lap dances, phone sex, escort services, or other services including sex. Sex buyers are those exceeding this definition on any level and can also be dubbed "johns."
  • The research found that sex buyers come from all walks of life, including those that are highly respected. From students to cops to pastors to nursing home residents, it seems no station or age is omitted. In fact, the researchers had a difficult time finding subjects who did not in some fashion purchase sex, hence the loose definition for non-sex buyers.
  • The majority of men purchasing sexual services from a prostitute are married or partnered.
  • Those men who engaged in prostitution and pornography were found to have unrealistic expectations for mutual relationships and to demonstrate greater violence towards and objectification of women.
  • Prostitution is the most dangerous "profession," with a life expectancy averaging 34 and a homicide rate 51 times higher than working in a liquor store, which is the second most dangerous workplace.



The actual study shared a list of quotes by the sex buyers and the non-sex buyers which were as revolting as they were hopeful. I picked two to best encompass the general attitudes of each party:

Sex buyer: 

"The relationship has to stay superficial because 
they are a person and you're capable of getting to 
know them. But once you know them, it's a 
problem, because you can't objectify them anymore."

Non-sex buyer:

"Prostitution will probably damage your ability to have 
long lasting relationships afterward. It might be harder 
to bond emotionally - you might get used to objectifying 
women."

I was told once that good and evil are like a pendulum that swings at the same level each way. To the degree of one there exists the same opportunity for the other. You could look at this as discouraging, that evil corrupts things meant for good. True. But you could also look at it as this: where evil presides, there is as great a chance for good to overcome it. Yah? 

It's easy to read the article mentioned above and get discouraged by the attitudes, statistics, and quotes that reflect the view of so many men out there, but I am impressed by the number of men who have risen up against a sex-driven culture and fought and struggled for what is right when the torrents of society rage the opposite direction. Kudos, guys. Thanks for being real men.



Friday, October 21

Trafficking Training Tuesdays

F.R.E.E. International is an organization dedicated to finding, rescuing, embracing, and empowering victims of human trafficking, and is now hosting a trafficking training webinar every Tuesday in the month of October.  Featured speakers are experts on trafficking in the United States, with this week's training given by the Department of Homeland Security.


You can attend the webinar at 1pm CST at http://ag.adobeconnect.com/ministrydirect/.


If you can't make it at 1pm on Tuesday--fear not! The hour-long webinars will be posted on F.R.E.E.'s website for later review. For more information on the trainings and speakers, click here.

Tuesday, October 18

"Taken" or not: how people end up in modern-day sex slavery in America


After the thriller, Taken, was released in 2009 a frenzy went up among parents everywhere concerning the imminent danger of young French men hoping to share a taxi cab. Perhaps not, but a fear did seem to swell in regards to sending adolescents to Europe alone. People wondered whether the events depicted in the movie truly occur in real life and whether there is cause to be legitimately concerned about young people being “taken.”

It is not to say that events like those shown in the film don’t happen that way in the “real world”; they do. However, having masked men break into a luxurious home to forcibly steal wealthy young women is less likely to occur than other modes of entry into the sex industry, at least in the U.S.

First, consider that every industry involves some form of supply and demand and we could not expect less from the sex industry. Breaking down the economics of it a wee bit, we find that the supply refers to exploitable persons and the demand refers to why people want to exploit them. Exploitation happens in any number of ways and for any number of reasons, but for now we’re going to explore who is exploitable and how they are more commonly brought into the sex trade. Keep in mind that by “common,” we are referring to what is occurring in the U.S. and specifically Minnesota.   

There are several factors that contribute to a person being exploitable, such as race, socio-economic status, gender, age, immigrant status, and more. The average age for entering prostitution in Minnesota is 14 and the most targeted race for prostitution is Native American followed by other races of color although all racial groups are affected by the sex industry.  Teen runaways are especially vulnerable to being trafficked because they often have a pressing need physically, emotionally, psychologically or socially, and more likely a mixture of the four. Since homelessness is in most cases a direct result of running away from home, research tells us that a teen runaway will be approached by someone looking to exploit them within the first 36 hours of being on the streets.  This holding true would suggest that all homeless youth are highly at risk for exploitation. Additionally, previous history of abuse is another factor almost always accompanying victims coerced into the sex trade.

Traffickers or pimps look for people with vulnerabilities whether that vulnerability is economic, emotional, social, etc., since people with vulnerabilities are easy to manipulate. It may be as simple as a male pimp (females also pimp, but because males primarily take on this role, we will refer to traffickers and pimps as “he” for ease of speech as well as refer to victims as “her” since females are more likely to be trafficked sexually than males) scoping out a mall, school, shelter, or social gathering, finding a girl who is susceptible is some way and preying on that weakness. He tells her she’s beautiful or special. Maybe he promises her friends to hang with or a place to stay if she’s having a rough time. Once he takes her home with him, he might take any medications she has away from her as well as any IDs. That is one way to make her dependent on him; another way is to addict her to substances. And since he has been so kind to her and given her a home, friends, or food, it would be a little thing to ask for her to sleep with his friends in return for his provision. He toys with her heart, her mind, and breaks her down psychologically, physically, and emotionally until he can do with her whatever he pleases. 

The previous scenario is one example of a more common form of entry into sex trafficking in the U.S. than abduction. It’s called manipulation. Although manipulation is more frequently the method of choice, there is no set formula for creating victims of sexual exploitation. It occurs in many ways and takes many forms.

Curbing the supply of exploitable persons is important in ending modern-day sex slavery and can occur through financial aid to services and programs for victims or at-risk persons, although monetary aid only goes so far. Many are at-risk  because they find little value in themselves and are in search of someone to validate their worth. Identifying those at-risk in your neighborhood, workplace, or school and pursuing them with love, treating them relentlessly as a human being who holds value and purpose simply because they are a person, many meet a deeper thirst than a program of service can quench. It seems logical that, if worth is indeed one of the root issues here, the more people finding sincere validation and acceptance, the fewer who will do anything for it.

5 ways to fight modern-day slavery wherever you are


The Star Fish—based on the story by Loren Eisley

I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, far away motion. I saw a youth, bending and reaching and flailing arms, dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin.


As I approached, I sadly realized that the youth was not dancing to the bay, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea. I asked the youth the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," the youth replied. "When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea."


As the youth explained, I surveyed the vast expanse of beach, strectching in both directions beyond my sight. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the youth's plan became clear to me and I countered, "But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference."


The youth paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said, "I made a difference to that one."

Get the picture? The point is, there isn’t a superman. No one gets to save the world single-handedly and in one day, unless you're Jesus. Making a difference is as simple as one person being what they are and giving what they can.  So on that note, here are five ways YOU can make a difference when it comes to fighting modern-day slavery wherever you are:

1. Put up posters in multiple languages in public places or print information on cup holders at coffee shops (for ideas of what to put on a poster, click here).
2. Write articles and letter to the editor for local newspaper and newsletters.
3. Commit to abstaining from all forms of commercial sex (including porn, strip clubs, escort services, etc.)
4. Volunteer at a local direct services organization and post a sign with an 800 number for victims.
5. Share the reality of sex trafficking by hosting an awareness/fundraising gathering at home or work (for resources to do this, contact the author).

These ideas were taken from an Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center event and the Breaking Free training hosted in Duluth. To follow-up with these ideas or to find more, contact the author or comment below. 

Pimps, traffickers, and the cost to the community

To some, human trafficking is a phrase that in two words tells how their life or the life of someone they loved was destroyed. To many, human trafficking lists another thing to fight or another issue to solve. And to others, human trafficking is what they call their business. 

These we call traffickers or pimps and it is important to understand that not only is trafficking their business, but business is all it is about. Where some may see a person, these see a commodity. In fact, there are entire books written on how to pimp or to give tips on preying on weaknesses and learning how to manipulate and beat people into submission. With 27 million people being trafficked in the world today, bringing in over $32 billion in profits a year, human trafficking is now the fastest growing black criminal industry in the world. Because of its magnitude, it is critical for those choosing to stand against trafficking to understand who or what they are exactly against.

The second session of Breaking Free’s Tuesday training focused on understanding pimps and traffickers. These people, usually male but at times female too, could perhaps be considered expert “controllers.” They use various forms of torture to psychologically, physically, and emotionally break down their victims. Tuesday’s speaker, Joy Friedman, recounted several accounts of such torture. One story told of a woman being doused in gasoline and having lit matches dropped only feet from where she stood. These “games” are used by traffickers to make it clear that the trafficker, not the victim, holds the key to the victim’s life and death. The victim is not their own; they are property of another. Pornography is also used blackmail for girls and can often be considered torture according to federal definition. Torture of these kinds or worse is the norm for those living in this kind of bondage.

On average, a pimp in the U.S. can make up to $600,000 per year on just 4 women or girls. These women and girls are considered his “stable” and must meet a profit quota each day or face being raped, beaten, or worse. Such quotas usually range from $500-$1,000 a day, forcing women to service more than 10 “clients” or “johns” daily. Girls are starved, beaten, addicted to various substances, and through other means forced into compliance with the pimp’s demands.


If it sounds gruesome, well, it is. And what sadly makes it more difficult to hears is that this is not something that is just happening thousands of miles across the Atlantic or on some Thursday night documentary. 8,000-12,000 women and children are expected to be involved in prostitution on any given night in Minnesota. Each has a completely different story. In fact, there's a good chance that last night somewhere along your route from home to work someone was being sexually exploited. Yes, this happens here.