How Sex Trafficking And Exploitation Blend In With Today’s Mainstream Porn
This week’s post is a guest article courtesy of Fight The New Drug. Click this link to read the complete article.
Fight The New Drug publishes a lot about the behind-the-scenes of the pornography industry, often times revealing the abuses that happen when the cameras are turned on, and off. We back our claims with references to numerous studies and researchers’ investigations.
Yet, when we shed light on the abuses that go on within the industry, these are some of the most common objections in response from people who cannot believe that porn and exploitation are tied together:
So basically…
1) Porn performers enthusiastically agree to whatever they end up performing on camera, and even like it.
2) They’re free to leave whenever, and only do whatever they’re comfortable with.
3) They get paid, so mistreatment is just part of their job, just like every other job has its downsides.
Here’s the catch—these arguments don’t exactly represent reality.
The pornography industry, as we’ve shown time and time again, is built on a fallacy that perpetuates violence [1] and stands as an accepted and promoted industry that gets away with abuse that is neither desired nor permissible in any other context. As Las Vegas Police Vice Lieutenant says, “there’s a lot of opportunities to blend in” [2] when it comes to sex trafficking…and porn in “legal” areas.
“Blending in” is the biggest problem. When the “legal” stuff is recorded, consumable cases of abuse and the performers aren’t even aware they are sex trafficking victims, how easy is it for the exploitation iceberg underneath to thrive? Especially when the abuse it imitates is filmed, packaged, and marketed on an exceedingly extreme but acceptable market?
That’s the issue with all three arguments above: sex trafficking and other forms of exploitation blend right in with what’s mainstream, normalized, and celebrated in our sex-obsessed society.
[1] DeKeseredy, W. S. (2015a). Critical Criminological Understandings Of Pornography And Violence Against Women: New Directions In Research And Theory. International Journal For Crime, Justice And Social Democracy, 4, 4-21.
[2] “Tricked.” Netflix.