“Trade – A Film Brings Sex Trafficking Home”

The Women’s Media Center reports on Trade, a new movie based on actual events. “Trade tells the story of Veronica, a young Polish woman, and Adriana, a 13-year-old Mexican girl, who are caught up in an international sex trafficking scheme to bring them to New Jersey and auction them off to the highest bidder.”

Trade makes it clear that traffickers do not operate in a vacuum. Theirs is a complex and determined industry, enslaving both women and children through coercion, violence, and drugs. It is painfully apparent in the film that there are often moments when everyday people could intervene – but choose not to…

…screenings were held in advance of opening weekend, one hosted by New York City’s local chapter of the National Organization for Women. At that event, NOW-NYC President Sonia Ossorio emphasized that trafficking is a part of the local economy, and described how individuals could make a difference by, for example, appealing to publications to stop publishing ads for unlicensed “massage parlors.” She also identified glaring inequities that the state law fails to address – for example, the prosecution and deportation of victims while “johns” face only a fine and are permitted to expunge the crime from their records.

See also:

Website for Trade

Ask the Valley Advocate to Stop Profiting from the Sexual Exploitation of Women
Personal Assistant Hiring attractive female 18-30 for back rubs, oral and more. Call anytime 413-233-xxxx…

While ads like these only take up a few pages in the paper or on the web, their financial impact is probably greater than they appear. Apparently it is common industry practice to charge commercial sex enterprises up to four times the standard advertising rates.

Over the past several months, we have delivered to the Advocate’s offices at Eastworks volumes of information about the link between escort ads and prostitution, the harms of strip clubs, and the fact that New York Press just decided to walk away from adult advertising. We have relayed our concerns directly to editor Tom Vannah. We have received no response. The ads continue. We invite you to join us in asking the Advocate to cease facilitating this business. Contact them here.

New Competitor to Craigslist Rejects Ads for “prostitution services and other questionable listings”

New York Times: The Girls Next Door; Worldwide Sex Trafficking; Role of Porn
In Eastern European capitals like Kiev and Moscow, dozens of sex-trafficking rings advertise nanny positions in the United States in local newspapers; others claim to be scouting for models and actresses…

Realities of Teen Prostitution Mock Notions of ‘Sex Work’, ‘Sex-Positive’, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Empowerment’; Media Glamorizes Pimps

Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations
The average age of entry into prostitution is 13 years…

Gloria Steinem at Smith: Cooperation, Not Domination
…there are more slaves in proportion to the world’s population–more people held by force or coercion without benefit from their work–more now than there were in the 1800s. Sex trafficking, labor trafficking, children and adults forced into armies: they all add up to a global human-trafficking industry that is more profitable than the arms trade, and second only to the drug trade. The big difference now from the 1800s is that the United Nations estimates that 80% of those who are enslaved are women and children…

Ricky Martin Campaigns Against Child Sex Trafficking

Sweden’s Prostitution Solution: Why Hasn’t Anyone Tried This Before?
In 1999, after years of research and study, Sweden passed legislation that a) criminalizes the buying of sex, and b) decriminalizes the selling of sex…

Prostitution is a form of male violence against women. The exploiter/buyers need to be punished, and the victim/prostitutes need to be helped. The Swedish government appropriated the funds for the country’s police and prosecutors, from the top ranks down to the officer on the beat, to be given intensive training and a clear message that the country meant business. It was then that the country quickly began to see unequaled results.