The Evil Behind the Smiles

[doowopbloopy]

The Evil Behind the Smiles
By Nicholas D. Kristof

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

Western men who visit red-light districts in poor countries often find themselves surrounded by coquettish teenage girls laughingly tugging them toward the brothels. The men assume that the girls are there voluntarily, and in some cases they are right.

But anyone inclined to take

Comments

[nothingmuch]

i don't know how to feel about kristof's likening sex trafficking to slavery when legit slavery definitely still exists today.

Sex slavery seems like legit slavery to me.

[estoid]

Yeah... I agree.

[omiscully]

I agree.

[doowopbloopy]

but idk, i feel like by him calling it slavery, it's brushing aside "actual" slavery. there are definitely stupid enough people out there who believe that the sun and moon rises/sets on kristof and once they read this article, they'll believe that modern day slavery = sex trafficking and that's IT.

plus, i feel like the egregiousness of sex trafficking is downplayed when you call it slavery, if that's possible. idk, maybe it's just weird for me. i just get an iffy feeling about it.

[nothingmuch]

Define "actual slavery."

[doowopbloopy]

ie: what's happening in Haiti, other Caribbean islands and in different sections of Africa where kids are taken from their parents and sold to do hard labor.

yes sex trafficking is a type of slavery, just like you can say how kids in uganda who are kidnapped and turned into child soldiers are also enslaved. but i feel like we need to separate ALL of the different kinds of slavery and NOT put it all under one big term - because it just means that other individual types of slavery end up being forgotten.

in my eyes, sex trafficking = sex trafficking. child soldiers = child soldiers. yes, you could say they're slavery. but at the same time, they're different because they have different aspects to it. we need to identify those different components and battle them differently.

[nothingmuch]

ie: what's happening in Haiti, other Caribbean islands and in different sections of Africa where kids are taken from their parents and sold to do hard labor.

So getting raped all day every day is not legitimate slavery because it's not "hard labor?" O_o

yes sex trafficking is a type of slavery, just like you can say how kids in uganda who are kidnapped and turned into child soldiers are also enslaved. but i feel like we need to separate ALL of the different kinds of slavery and NOT put it all under one big term - because it just means that other individual types of slavery end up being forgotten.

How does it mean the individual types of slavery are forgotten? I don't get it.

[doowopbloopy]

in my town/area/schools, at least, people represent America, at large, very well in terms of intelligence level and they can't comprehend that there is more than one type of slavery. so when you say sex trafficking = slavery, they forget about all other types of slavery that exist in the world and they focus on JUST sex trafficking = slavery.

read my comment in reply to estoid below and maybe you'll understand what i mean?

[estoid]

When someone is held against their will, has no freedom, and is used to service other people, I'd say that's slavery. Sex slavery is just a subset of other slavery.

[doowopbloopy]

like i said in comments below:

sex trafficking, to me, should be separated as a subject and not lumped together under the all-encompassing umbrella of the term, slavery. it's so much more prevalent/well known than any other types of slavery that calling it slavery just makes it - and all other forms of slavery - idk, less of what it is.

[estoid]

I see the point you're trying to make, but I still don't buy it. I've met a lot of people who don't think that slavery even exists anymore, and none who think only sex slavery exists. They are different forms of slavery, but they're still all slavery. Would you have this kind of reaction if it was about child soldiers? I feel that women's issues are so often considered "not as significant/important" so why should sex trafficking be any less of slavery than child soldiers? I would really like you to think about that one.

Whether or not you feel that they shouldn't be grouped together, using the word "actual" implies that this isn't slavery at all, which it is. It may not be the only kind, but it IS actual slavery. Women are being held against their will, trapped in hotel rooms and not allowed to leave. That is slavery, no, not the only kind, but it IS slavery.

[doowopbloopy]

maybe it's because i grew up on long island, land of the JAPs (jewish american princesses, just in case, on top of you thinking i'm a misogynist, you'll start to think i'm a racist too), idiots and pretentious assholes, but i know a LOT of people who think slavery is done with. so in 9th/10th, i forgot when, grade, there was a miniseries with mira sorvino (sp?) that came out about sex trafficking and we had to watch it for honors english/ap euro and all of the kids were like, "OMG WAIT, THAT'S SLAVERY!?" and there are SO MANY people i know who think that, just because our darling (racist) abraham lincoln "freed" slaves with the emancipation proclamation, slavery no longer exists in the world

[doowopbloopy]

p.s. sorry for the long comment. just wanted to say my side because everyone's jumping on my ass.

[fimh]

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm what?

[mikkeneko]

what about is not actual slavery?

[kali921]

What about sex slavery doesn't fit into the larger category of slavery in general?

Nothing, that's what.