Frontline’s “Sex Slaves” hits close to home

The documentary, "Sex Slaves" that appeared on Frontline is a great investigative report and seems to be quite accurate.  This past summer, I've been to both Spain, and Odessa,  Ukraine.  In Spain, I've met this student from Turkey who asked me where I was from. When I told him that I am Moldovian but live in the U.S., he told me that if I ever go to Turkey not to ever reveal that I am from Moldova because people will automatically assume that I am a prostitute.  After my trip to Spain, I went to Odessa, Ukraine with my sister and my brother-in-law because that is his native country. Odessa exhibits a wide gap between the rich and the poor.  In one city, you can witness BMW's and cellphones and feel sorrow from the poor teenagers selling watermelons on the streets.  It is a city and yet a small village. After seeing this documentary and seeing the streets I've walked on and the port I took photographs at, did it really hit me that this place is a perfect location to transport humans to Turkey, being that it is right across the black sea.  We also had a friend from Moldova visit us in Ukraine because we couldn't visit our native country because we were scared that we might get killed in return for money these people might rob us off.  She told us about several women from our village who were trafficked. People know about it, she explained to me as I asked her if everyone knows what is happening in Turkey, then why do people fall for it?; but the economy is so bad and they don't understand how bad the circumstances can become, they agree to go abroad. They agree to go abroad in hopes of helping their families and putting food on the table but in reality, they may never see their children again.  Reading the comments on the website for the documentary, I was absolutely disgusted by one viewer who said that most of these women go to Turkey voluntarily.  They go to Turkey on their will but they are tricked into why they are being imported there. They think they will be waitressing there and they have no idea what awaits them. Even when I was living in Moldova, my parents and many parents went to countries such Poland, Italy, Romania to sell goods and to work because the pay in Moldova is not enough to feed the entire family. This is a popular method to make money and I had no idea that human trafficking took place there since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many of these people may indeed, not know. They may not be educated or have a choice to go to school because money is needed more than education.

4 comments April 7, 2006

Is pornography really a choice or force?

Lecture 12 discussed pornography as a form of prostitution and intertwined it with human trafficking, asking us whether pornography is a choice or is it force? Unfortunately, with the increasing cases of human trafficking, the line between freedom of choice andcoersion is blurred. The story told to us in the lecture about the 19 year-old girl from Nigeria is one of many ordinary examples in today's society. Many of these women who are being trafficked to industrial countries are promised education or a career but are actually fooled into prostitution. Upon arrival into the industrial countries, these women are beaten, raped, and have their passports taken away. Their families are threatened if these women attempt to run away. The women who are victims of human trafficking are clearly prostitutes not by choice. These women do not even get paid for having sex. The money they are promised to make actually go to pay the so called travel and document expenses. As human trafficking increases, the feminist concept of pornography encourages violence against women must increase as well. Interesting enough, in my social psychology book, I've read that not all pornography encourages aggression against women. Non-violent pornography elicits a pleasant emotional response and low levels of sexual arousal. Pornography and violence are only associated when men who have been predisposed to sexually offend- thus, sexually abused, most likely during their childhood. This has been also pointed out in the lecture.  Only then are these men most likely to be affected by pornographic exposure. Violent pornography on the other hand is associated with aggressive thoughts. However, according to social psychologists,Paik and Comstock, violent pornography only affect heteresexual relationships.

The pornography actors we witness on our televisions today who make $600-$3,000 per scene did not choose this career by choice because if they had other options, they would've chosen another field. It is most likely that these porno stars come from low-class, poor families where they were not able to receive adequate education. In the Talent, part II lecture, some of the women reveal the reasons behind joining the industry: economic survival and insecurity. Many of these porn stars work in the industry because they were never able to go to college and this is an "easy" way to make money and an opportunity to pay for school and go to college. However, one of the things these porn stars make a mistake in is that after being porn stars, it will be more difficult to get a good job. Thus, whether these actors are trafficked or are so called volunteers, they are in the industry by either physical force (trafficking) or circumstantial force.

Add a comment April 7, 2006