Simultaneously, in a culture that takes pride in women’s rights and professional achievements, females are commonly portrayed as sexual commodities.
—Demand Report, Shared Hope International1
“Consuming pornography is an experience of bought sex. . . . In a very literal way, pornography is advertising for trafficking, not just in general but also in the sense that traffickers and pimps use pornographic images of victims as specific advertising for their ‘products,’” says Catherine Mackinon, a professor at Harvard Law School.2
She goes on to explain that the addictive hunger porn creates gives way to a drug-like addiction, distorting one’s views of sexuality. Viewing porn trains the mind to not only expect sexual gratification on demand, but the addictive nature of this psychological phenomenon drives a person to more escalating content and violent content to create the same high.3
One sex buyer (often referred to as a “trick” or “john”) interviewed said, “Yes, the woman in pornography is a prostitute. They’re prostituting before the cameras. They’re getting money from a film company rather than individuals.”4
Melisa Farley, director of the nonprofit Prostitution Research and Education, says, “When men use pornography, in that process they are trained as tricks. Pornography is men’s rehearsal for prostitution. Pornography is cultural propaganda which drives home the notion that women are prostitutes.”5
A 2007 study interviewed 854 women and men in prostitution in nine countries. Among their findings were that almost half (49 percent) reported that traffickers took pornographic photos of them while they were in prostitution; 47 percent were upset by the buyers’ attempts to make them do what they had previously seen in pornography.6 Additionally, pimps often use porn to “train” their victims in sex acts.
I like to call pornography the gateway drug for purchasing a sex-trafficked individual. Let me be clear though: I am not saying that anyone who views porn will eventually buy a prostitute, nor am I purporting that all porn is straight up human trafficking. But the connection is clear, and porn is a much closer cousin to sex trafficking than it has been perceived in the last few years. I have never heard of a defendant who has been arrested for buying prostitution who has not previously and regularly viewed porn.
The average age when children first encounter pornography is eleven years old.7 This online sensationalism has fast become the illicit sex education for our young people. “Ninety percent of eight- to sixteen-year-olds in the United States, Canada, Britain, Europe, Japan, and Australia have viewed porn online while doing homework. Eighty percent of fifteen- to seventeen-year-olds have had multiple hard-core exposures. One study of thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds by the University of Alberta found that one-third of boys viewing porn did so ‘too many times to count.’”8
Many parents have taken precautions to guard their children from viewing pornography. Some have placed their home computer in a common area so others can see what the user is viewing or have installed anti-porn software. Others feel their open relationship with their children results in transparency between them. In reality, 50 percent of teens say they would change their online behavior if they knew their parents were watching.9
For the parent who hopes to keep their teen from pornographic websites, it is imperative that they have their child’s passwords and regularly monitor accounts. It is also important to let your kids know that you are watching their online usage and will continue to monitor. Additionally, if you find your child has been visiting inappropriate sites, communicate love, acceptance, and forgiveness and not condemnation. A parent who comes alongside to help will have a greater chance of protecting their children than one who lays down rigid rules or shames them. There will be a list of more resources to help your children at the end of this chapter.
It is no wonder we are dealing with a high rate of dating violence in teens. In fact, the violent and sensational nature of porn informs the young and developing mind that sex consists of outlandish and violent acts where body parts, not people, are the basis for sex. Viewing sex as the exploitation of body parts in this manner is a golden path to commercial sex.
Some antislavery proponents believe that sex trafficking is responsible for more slaves than all other types of human trafficking combined. “Sex trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under the age of eighteen years,” explains a fact sheet published by the Administration for Children and Families division of the US Department of Health and Human Services.10 “As defined by the TVPA [Trafficking Victims Protection Act], the term ‘commercial sex act’ means any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.”11
Appallingly, the pornography sector of sex trafficking has reached pandemic levels worldwide, with victims forced into various forms of commercial sexual exploitation, including pornography, stripping, live sex shows, prostitution, and mail-order brides.12 To meet this growing demand, traffickers deceive, coerce, and kidnap unthinkable numbers of women, children, and men, whom they funnel into sex trafficking. Indeed, findings reported in the US House of Representatives’ “End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005” reveal that 100,000 to 300,000 United States children under eighteen are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation every year.13 And that doesn’t take into account the many thousands of young women and men eighteen and over who are trafficked into lives of degradation and pain.
The pornography business preys on these unsuspecting, vulnerable women and youngsters, as well as some young men, in order to satisfy the cravings of their mostly male customers (although females are viewing porn in rapidly increasing numbers).
Although pornography has historically glamorized the idea of being a “porn star,” that myth is not reality. Former porn star Shelley Lubben was in the industry in California from 1986 to 1994. She has this to say about it: “The California pornography industry is a destructive, drug infested, abusive, and sexually diseased industry which causes severe negative secondary effects on female and male adult industry workers as well as the general public.” Lubben has founded a nonprofit called The Pink Cross, which offers help to those wanting out of the porn industry.14
Former porn star Jersey Jaxin describes the horrific experience like this: “You are a number. You’re bruised. You have black eyes. . . . It’s not pretty . . . on set. You get hurt. . . . You can say anything you want and they don’t listen. They have another scene to go to. It’s all about the money. They’ve forgotten who they are and they don’t care who they are hurting.”15
I have edited her statement to avoid graphic details of the repeated sexual abuse and its resulting injuries. Needless to say, the injuries inflicted in violent porn are real.
Buyers of sexually exploited people try to convince themselves that they’re committing a victimless crime—if they even consider it a crime at all—and that willing participants are receiving pleasure. They’re wrong on both counts. Many of the people on film are not there voluntarily. And most are treated like slaves, as you will see in the true story about Haley* and her mother, Renee.*16
Slaves, Not Models
Haley’s voice on the phone was more excited than Renee had ever heard it. “They like me! No more working retail for me, Mom! I’m going to be a model!” Just the tone of Haley’s voice made Renee happy for her. Since her graduation from high school two years earlier, Haley had struggled to get money for college tuition and books. She wondered what kind of college classes she could take to prepare her for the modeling career to which she really aspired.
Like all parents, Renee wanted the very best for her daughter. Together they had carefully checked the modeling agency ads, weeding out the ones that looked even the slightest bit shady.
“I go back tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. They want me to sign a contract! They said they have a client who is nationally known and I’m exactly what the client is looking for. Oh Mom, I can’t believe this is happening to me! They’re going to fly me to Los Angeles right away to begin training, and I’ll be making anywhere from five thousand dollars to twenty thousand dollars a month! Are you happy for me?”
Renee was happy for her daughter. Even so, she had some concerns. She worried that Haley would become thin and unhealthy. And even though she and Haley had carefully checked out the recognized agency, she realized that there would be no accounting for unscrupulous employees who did not share the upstanding principles the agency advertised.
Still, the last thing she wanted was to squelch Haley’s joy. Renee knew that Haley had always wanted to be a star. As early as kindergarten, she had longed for a microphone so she could sing and dance. By her early teens, it was evident to all that Haley was a beauty from head to toe. She had done a couple of small modeling jobs and loved the camera. Even so, she never seemed to be able to get her big break. Now someone had seen the talent and beauty that had been Haley’s trademark her whole life. Not only could she finally become all she wanted to be, but she would be paid great money. And that would help more than Renee even wanted to admit.
Renee had raised Haley by herself since her daughter was just four, after Haley’s dad left them. With no outside help, financially or otherwise, she and Haley had managed to muddle through, becoming in the process an inseparable team who were as close as mother and daughter could be.
Although for years Renee made good money as a manager in a large software firm, she had lost her job eight months prior due to the recession. To get by, mother and daughter had sold many of their belongings. The house, car, and many of their valuable possessions were gone. In the minimized world with which they had become acquainted, tuition and paying for Haley’s college expenses were out of the scope of necessities. So the job offered to Haley appeared to be a godsend.
That night, Renee prepared Haley’s favorite chicken cacciatore dinner with extra sauce, and the two laughed and dreamed about how life would be when Haley made it to the big time. Haley tried to describe everyone she’d met at the agency, happily adding that she’d already spotted some gorgeous male models.
As Renee tried to sleep that night, the darkness seemed to bring with it all the worries that can haunt a mother. The next morning as they were bustling around their rented apartment, she asked Haley if it would be okay for her to stop in at the agency. She wanted to meet all the new folks Haley was dealing with for herself.
“Mom! I’m an adult, I’m fine!” Haley exclaimed. “But I would like you to meet everyone; you’re going to love them. Why don’t you stop in about 4:30? We should be finished with the paperwork by then.”
Renee couldn’t wait for the end of the day. Everything about the agency had checked out, but this was her baby. Well, not her baby anymore, but her only child. She would die before she would let anything happen to her.
Sometimes Skepticism Isn’t Enough
Renee walked in the door of the agency at 4:30 p.m. sharp. The friendly receptionist seemed to be expecting her and, after a warm welcome, brought her to one of the back offices where Haley sat with two staff members. As Renee walked in, the agency employees quickly looked at each other before giving her a warm welcome. “I can see where Haley gets her looks. The fruit didn’t fall far from the tree! Which one is the mother and which one is the daughter?” All four laughed. As young looking and gorgeous as Renee was, the question was still ridiculous.
The staff members quickly recapped how excited they were to have found and signed Haley, then began talking to Renee about joining the agency as well. The money they promised after initial training had been completed was unbelievable. Drawing on her financial background, Renee asked some key questions to verify the legitimacy of the offer and the operation. The answers all seemed believable.
A quick photo shoot followed to see how Renee would do in front of the cameras. By 7:00 p.m. both Haley and Renee had been signed. They headed home with tickets in hand and prepared to fly to Los Angeles that weekend. Before departing, they gave away most of the possessions they had left, putting only keepsakes and a few irreplaceable items in storage. Less than a week after Haley’s initial meeting at the agency, they boarded the plane, still reeling from their luck. Who knew such financial success could find them so quickly?
At LAX, an attractive man with their names on a small whiteboard met them as they exited the revolving door that led to the baggage area. They soon discovered that he was as amiable as everyone else they had met at the agency.
Upon their arrival at the mansion where they would be living, the caretaker collected their identification and passports in case a trip had to be scheduled while they were on a job. “That’s what agents do to help their clients,” the caretaker explained. It seemed odd at first not to be carrying any ID. But as the days went on, Renee and Haley found that between makeup, wardrobe, photo shoots, and other appointments, their schedules were packed so full that they didn’t seem to need ID or even money, for that matter. The agency paid for all their expenses.
The deal seemed to be getting better and better. The only discordant note was that porn was played much of the time on the house televisions. They were told not to worry. A division of the modeling agency made porn flicks. The divisions, however, were not as separate as initially indicated. Before the week was out, the agency had Haley in nude photo shoots “to build her portfolio and get her comfortable with the cameras.” Renee was asked to do some of the risqué photo shoots as well, but because of her age and business experience, they also began training her to recruit other models.
Renee and Haley were disturbed about the porn and uncomfortable with some of the agency requests, but thoughts of their big paychecks at the end of the month made them play along. Payday finally arrived. Mother and daughter opened the envelopes containing their checks with enthusiastic anticipation, only to feel like they’d been blindsided. Neither of them had been paid a dime. Instead, all of their expenses, which the agency had subtracted from their earnings, had been itemized on their pay stubs. Airfare, agent fees, rent, food, transportation, hair, wardrobe, nail salon, makeup and the consultants who told them how to apply it—everything had been bought and paid for on their tab. At the end of the first month, both Haley and Renee owed the company more money than they had earned.
When they approached the caretaker in dismay, she told them that the recruiters had explained all this to them. The fact that such a conversation had never taken place didn’t alter the bleak reality that now confronted them. The caretaker then reminded the mother and daughter of the contracts they had signed and told them that they were required by law to at least pay back their debts before they could leave, something they later found out was untrue. “The agency has given you so much,” the caretaker concluded. “You haven’t even allowed yourselves time to make it big. Why, you’re still just learning the business!”
When Renee and Haley expressed concern that the bills were adding up faster than the earnings, the caretaker told them there was a way to make greater money, which could get them out of debt. If Haley was willing to act in more nudes and graduate to sexual actions—and possibly even do some escort dates—the agency would significantly increase her wages and her mom’s. Renee flatly refused, but Haley stepped forward anyway. “I’ll do it,” she said. That evening, Renee was called to an impromptu late-night recruiting session so she would not be able to voice her objections as Haley was led off to her first hard-core porn shoot.
Porn Industry Recruitment
The above story was constructed from the real-life experiences of a midwestern mother and daughter who escaped one day when the mom, who was trusted to recruit, accompanied her daughter on a “modeling job.” They are currently still in hiding in the Pacific Northwest because they have heard that the agency that recruited them has put out a contract on their lives.
Here are some of the facts about agency techniques that the two documented after making their escape from the industry:17
The Damage
Pornography in general—and this kind of violent pornography in particular—is on the rise thanks in large measure to the internet. Every year brings the release of 13,000 more porn films that generate $93 billion in annual revenues at the expense of the women and children being sexually exploited on film.20
Distribution on the internet has propelled this turn to “gonzo” pornography, a genre that focuses on “body-punishing sex,” to use the words of Gail Dines, author of Pornland. This horrific on-screen violence is so pronounced that “you’ve done virtually everything you can to the woman’s body short of killing her,” says Dines.21
I have heard of everything from severe injuries to death as a result of the severe violence that is now commonplace in pornography. This money-driven industry uses real people’s lives to cater to the large number of internet users who are viewing porn in record numbers.
Pornography videos hurt more than just those women, men, and even very young children who are forced to participate. Fifty percent of the international sex-trafficking victims in a 2001 survey said that pornography was used to “educate” them into prostitution.22 In addition, customers will regularly expect the sex-trafficked individuals they frequent to perform the sex acts they have viewed the “actress” on the screen perform.
How will the easy accessibility and increasing frequency of porn in general—and violent porn in particular—influence the sexual behavior of the boys and men who watch it? Only time will tell, but it clearly spreads the message that violence toward women is not only acceptable, it’s stimulating.
Money over People
Pornography “legitimizes the buying and selling of women’s bodies,” says Dines.23 And that’s big business. According to a 2004 ABC News report, there’s more money in porn than in the National Football League, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball combined. 24 That’s understandable when you realize that some of the nation’s most recognized corporations profit from bringing porn movies and other productions to the small screen in homes and hotels across the country.
Fighting Fire with Fire
If money is the motivator for the producers of pornography, why not hit them in the wallet? That’s part of the rationale behind a recent move toward what is termed a “clean hotel” policy. A company or government entity creates a policy that none of their dollars will be spent for employees to stay in hotels that offer pornography services.
Employees of Winona County, Minnesota, for example, are no longer allowed to stay in hotels that offer pay-per-view pornography. Chuck Derry, cofounder of the Minnesota Men’s Action Network, says Minnesota spent $8 billion in 2005 for costs related to sexual violence, three times what the state spent on costs related to drunk driving. In the meantime, Minnesota hotels collected $500 million in revenues off of their pornography offerings.25
Voting with our dollars in this way forces free enterprise to change the way business is done. And that moves all of us forward in terms of recognizing—and reclaiming—each other’s humanity.
Going the Extra Step—Engage!
Victims of human trafficking, even those being trafficked in pornography businesses, often believe that no one cares about them or their daily suffering. Traffickers and slaveholders are adept at diminishing a person’s sense of self-worth and convincing their victims that no one really does care about them. Often victims are told that they are simply being paid for what others are doing for free. That type of talk for the purposes of control and manipulation sets a victim up to stay in the clutches of the trafficker. A victim’s subsequent belief that no one will help them is often bolstered by previous deceit and betrayal—sometimes from those closest to them. Consequently, it becomes difficult for victims to trust those who are really trying to help them. Also keep in mind that victims will test anyone trying to help them and will require continued assurance that the ones offering assistance can be trusted and are willing to make the healing trek with them over the long haul.
If you see something that looks like it could be human trafficking, notify local law enforcement or call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text “HELP” to BeFree (233733). This hotline will help you determine if you have encountered victims of human trafficking.
Help for Those with an Appetite for Porn
I would be naïve at best if I didn’t acknowledge that of those reading this book, some have struggled with one degree or another of pornography addiction or have known someone who has fought that temptation. As you have seen in this chapter, that struggle affects nearly every one of us on one level or another.
There is some good news in this. You are not alone in the battle, and there is help and hope to believe everyone can be free. Below I have listed some places where you can get help for yourself or loved ones. Many of these resources are drawn from http://pornharmsresearch.com/resources/resources-addicts/, and there you can find even more resources from which to choose.
Research Sources and Help for Pornography Concerns
Compulsion Solutions, http://compulsionsolutions.com
Cure the Craving, http://curethecraving.com
Feed the Right Wolf, http://www.feedtherightwolf.org
Fight the New Drug, http://www.fightthenewdrug.org
International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals, http://www.sexhelp.com
Recovering Couples Anonymous, http://www.recovering-couples.org
Sex Addicts Anonymous, http://saa-recovery.org
Sexaholics Anonymous, http://www.sa.org
Your Brain on Porn, http://yourbrainonporn.com
Religious-Based Recovery Programs
Catholic Support Group for Sexual Addictions Recovery, http://www.saint-mike.org/csgsar
Dirty Girls Ministries, http://dirtygirlsministries.com
Jewish Child and Family Services, http://www.jcfs.org
Muslim Family Services, http://muslimfamilyservices.org/site
Pure Desire Ministries, http://www.puredesire.org
XXX Church, http://www.xxxchurch.com
Filtering and Accountability Software
Covenant Eyes, http://www.covenanteyes.com
Open DNS, http://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/parental-controls
SpectorSoft, http://www.spectorsoft.com
For Discussion