US in denial about sex slavery
Prostitution is still commonly viewed as a “victimless crime” even though prostitutes are often enslaved. Kristen Powers writes at the New York Post:
Hollywood glamorizes the “happy hooker” and the media deceive by portraying the exception (the woman who is enjoying the “high life” as a prostitute) as the rule. The reality is much more gruesome.
Just last week, the FBI rescued 48 teenagers, some as young as 13, who were working in the illegal sex trade. Suffice to say, they weren’t taking bubble baths at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel with a Richard Gere look-alike.
Rather, young girls – and sometimes boys – are held hostage by a pimp, who forces them to turn tricks or auctions them off to the highest bidder.
Right here in America.
Consider: Had that FBI sting last week come a few years later, many of those rescued girls would be over 18, and people would argue that as adults they “chose” to become prostitutes – and the girls would be treated as criminals.
In fact, they’re still simply sex slaves. And it is slavery, because they never see a dime of money from the pimps, and they have no freedom of movement.
Ms Powers has spoken with many advocates fighting human trafficking, all of whom said their greatest frustration is that government is unwilling or unable to enforce already existing laws against modern-day slavery.