I’m pretty sure an actual 18th century African American slave, forced to be born, live, die, have children, who will then live and die, all under lock and key in the same plantation, dragged from their home, made to work 18 hour days when the harvest was due, physically branded with a mark burned into their skin, sometimes beaten to death or near death for making a small mistake, etc etc... would be pretty surprised at making a comparison between that and (in SOME cases) a single mum who, desperate to make ends meet, becomes a prostitute. I’m willing to bet @quixote9 isn’t black…
You are making a salient point using the transatlantic slave trade as an example. However it is not only about black and white, racism and the transatlantic slave trade.
Russia, Eastern Europe and the Balkans are sources for vast numbers of trafficked women into Western Europe and beyond. There are more people living as slaves today than have ever been enslaved in the history of the planet.
It is not unusual for vulnerable people to be enslaved but not to be classed as having been trafficked (and to thus access help that trafficked persons are eligible for) because elements of their treatment do not fit with the definitions stated in the Palermo Protocols.
Labour trafficking is a massive problem internationally and effects men and women. I mention this as it is often overlooked as people seem much more interested in sex trafficking ( a fact anti-slavery and anti-trafficking organisations occasionally comment on).
Sex trafficking and labour trafficking are appalling and unacceptable, obviously. In Africa and Asia mind boggling numbers of people are enslaved working in filthy, insanitary conditions down mines, in dangerous factories, on ships, in leather tanning factories, in all kinds of horrible, life threatening situations comparable with the transatlantic slave trade.
Then there are the huge numbers of women enslaved as domestic servants working for “madams” in the Middle East, many of these women are subjected to violence, including sexual violence, they cannot access their passports or escape, they live in a hellish situation. I have friends who have endured and survived this kind of life.
If anyone is interested in learning more about labour trafficking there is a heartbreaking documentary on the BBC that I would recommend highly. It includes an interview with a former soldier from the French Foreign Legion who was enslaved and who suffered terrible beatings and torture because, being a tough guy, he repeatedly stood up against his oppressors. His name is Mariusz Rycaczewksi and I cried my eyes out watching this documentary partly because I identified with him more than I have ever identified with sex trafficking survivors, even though I am a sex trafficking survivor. As complex human beings we identify with others for all kinds of reasons and for me, as someone who is still taking a metaphorical beating every day for stating up against abusers my heart went out to this man.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00085r7/panorama-the-hunt-for-britains-slave-gangs
to say any kind of sex work or prostitution is slavery is disgusting and offensive in my opinion.
As someone who was groomed, manipulated, threatened, tortured and trafficked and who subsequently, for some time, worked as a sex worker without a pimp, I agree with this 100%.
The problem I have with some of the feminist perspectives I read here is that they are very binary in their thinking with no room for nuance, which is interesting to me.
The accepted narrative seems to be that women who sell sex are either victims in need of rescue or bad women, traitors to their sex, who harm other women with their behaviour.
Why is the collective opinion on this that women are divided in a binary nature of good women / bad women?
This seems to me to be just a pseudo-feminist styling of the Madonna / whore split.
After I escaped from my pimp I worked as an escort for a while, maybe 2-3 years. I had no proper qualifications, had no way to pay the rent, buy necessities etc. so I worked as an escort until I was able to re-train. Does that make me a traitor to my sex?
What about the single mums who engage in transactional sex to keep the bailiff from the door? Are they traitors to their sex? Which side of the good woman / bad woman divide do they fall on? How about the student from a poor family who escorts so she can pay for an education she otherwise would not be able to afford? Where exactly do you draw the line?
It it possible, do you think, that sometimes some women who sell sex are neither victims needing to be saved or bad women who deserve expulsion from the sisterhood?
In the days following my escape I stayed at the home of a businessman who was the friend of another sex worker. He told me that he had paid for sex many times when he was in the Navy, but that he only had sex with women who demonstrably wanted to have sex with him and that on many occasions, having had long conversations with the women concerned, he had simply hugged them and paid for their company. It can be lonely in the Navy apparently, and, for this man at least, the company of women was more important than the sex. For the 2 weeks or so that I stayed at his flat he never touched me or made a move towards me. He was a lovely man and if I ever met him again I would love to thank him for the help me gave me, which undoubtably saved my life.
I am not claiming that this man is typical of all men who pay for sex. I have perused the Punternet and Punterlink websites and I appreciate that there are plenty of predatory, misogynist, entitled men paying for sex. I just believe, for all kinds of reasons, that things are much more nuanced and complex than some feminists believe.
As with so many difficult issues in life there are many shades of grey and things are very complicated. People are complicated. It always interests me when people split issues into binary categories as it usually, in my experience, indicates an unwillingness or inability to think.
And thinking is good. Obviously