Sex Slaves in America

[eggbert]

I watched most of this documentary on MSNBC last night. It shows a very disturbing side of the escort "massage" business. It did not touch on t-girls, but I'm hoping that none of the girls here are subjected to the degradation that was shown on this video.

[TJT]

I saw it.

It's nothing new. Many of the working strippers I knew in the 70's/80's were property of various biker gangs. They got swapped around like cattle.

[justatransgirl]

Yes, I've seen that too. But let me present this, again.

Of the MILLIONS of dollars MSNBC makes off that show and others like it. How much of their income have they given to actually helping girls rescued from massage parlors, pimps, etc?

MSNBC is only about ratings and SEX SELLS and nothing sells sex better than a juicy prostitution story. If they really wanted to do something they would take those millions in ad revenue and use it to actually do something good.

The media exploits sex workers just as bad if not worse than any pimp or the police.

FYI - there is also an entire FBI Sex Crimes Task Force devoted to slave trafficing and explotiation of minors.

Hugs,
TS Jamie :-)

[loosenoose24]

Another reason I refuse to pay for sex. You never know if you're exploiting or perpetuating a malicious illegal trade

[slinky]

I did not watch this particular show, but the "human trafficking" angle which the Right wing anti-sex Moral Majority in this country are pushing with extreme prejudice is largely bullshit. (there have been a few issues where the extreme right has come up with an issue which they find an ally in principal on the extreme left and this is one of them: the radical Feminazi's are the other half here). One of the first articles to kick off this movement from the New York Times has been shown to be largely fabricated*.

The basic claims of the movement is that pretty much all prostitution involves "human trafficking" and that the women are being forced into it. What is not known by most is the amount of coersion which has been exerted by the US Government to gain a lot of the alleged evidence. For example, Bush slipped in a little addition to a foreign aid bill a few years ago which forces any country who wants US Foreign Aid to sign a "loyalty oath" which contains a clause that they will help stamp out prostitution in their country even if it is legal there. I had my house in the DR shut shortly thereafter, and one of the Supreme Court Justice's comment was "I don't know why this is happening, these business are not illegal" (they had Health Department visits every week, etc.). In India, the top support center for prostitutes lost their funding (and they were helping thousands of women with everything from housing to day care) simply because the head of teh place refused to denounce her women for their chosen profession.

I could go on and on, but - while I am not claiming that there is NO aspect of what was known as "white slavery" going on, the extent to which it is part of the business, pretty much all over the world (except for a few countries in Eastern Europe, and the under age tourist places in Thailand and a few other known "sex vacation" countries) it just plain is not happening to the extent which is being claimed in order to demonize prostitution by people who are morally against it and feel that anything the do is justified if they ge the ends which they seek.

* Peter Landesman titled “Sex Slaves on Main Street: the Girls Next Door.” (the following are clickable links)
Sex Slaves, Revisited (http://www.slate.com/id/2120331)
Trafficking in Politics (http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2007/trafficking_in_politics/)
you can find many many others just by looking.

[justatransgirl]

Another reason I refuse to pay for sex. You never know if you're exploiting or perpetuating a malicious illegal trade

No honey you refuse because you are 18 and probably could get paid yourself... giggle.

It's important to distinguish between professional independent escorts who are in the business by choice, and people who are being expolited. It's relatively easy to figure out.

For the most part AMP's (asian massage parlors - for those withouth the terminology) are involved in sex exploitation. Not all, but probably the majority. Most ghetto bordellos populated by illegal immigrant girls also fall into this catagory. As do many, not all street girls, particularly younger ones who often have piimps.

So if you stick to reviewed, known, professional girls you will be helping a deserving person who is working toward their future, not expoliting them.

PS: You wouldn't charge me would you?

Giggle,
TS Jamie :-)

[slinky]

Each group of sex workers points to another and says they are the exploited one's. There are plenty of "independent" girls who are exploited (in this sense) and plenty of girls working in "ghetto bordellos" who are not.

[Colorado Dan]

I would say these exposes are based on truth, but then blown WAY up! An example is the really great expose done by Dateline NBC on very young prostitution in Cambodia! That crap was really happening there, and pedos were swarming into the country in the mid 90s! Since all forms of prostitution was controlled by the military, nobody could do anything about it! It got SO out in the open that Dateline came in and did thier really good show! Which really embarressed the freely elected dictator Hun Sen! He arrested a bunch of the Mama-sans, and sent all the young girls back to Viet Nam ( no Cambodian would sell a child to a pimp)! By a year after the Dateline show ALL the under-age prostitution had been closed down!! They even raised the age of consent up to 18! BUT!!!!! To this day NBC still keeps showing that show and saying that nothing has changed in Cambodia! Which is an outright lie! I worked in Cambodia up till 2005!!!