Bitter Flowers: Chinese street girls in Paris

In the late 1990’s, China’s economy underwent rapid growth. The Northeast region of China became the frontier of this industrial transformation. Traditional manufacturing became obsolete and as a result, the rate of unemployment became very high. Unfortunately, most of the laid-off workers were women. Many of these women flocked to Paris hoping to make their fortunes, but hunger and homelessness forced them to work as prostitutes. In 2013, French director Nael Marandin wanted to tell the story of these Chinese prostitutes in Paris. Marandin had been volunteering with the World Health Organization for more than seven years, and he regularly provides medical and legal services to sex workers in Paris. Marandin’s 2015 film, She Walks(La Marchevse), surprised many audiences because it reveals the real life of the Chinese street girls.

According to the report of Le Parisien, on December 13, 2016, Paris police found a 39-year-old Chinese female corpse in an apartment in the Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth district. The deceased woman was recognized as a Chinese sex worker. She had been beaten before she was killed. This situation is not rare in France. By 2016, the number of Chinese ‘registered’ sex workers had reached 1,300 or more in Paris. But Government records indicate that the total number of Parisian sex workers consists of between 5,000 to 8,000. Chinese sex workers take up a big part of them.

During this period, an increasing number of Chinese women went to Paris because prostitution in France was legal until April, 2016. Many of these women came to France because they and their families were poor and believed that they could make a big fortune quickly. What's more, some women are making money for a luxurious life through prostitution. Whatever the purpose, Chinese sex workers are all trapped in the same dilemma. Eighty-six percent of Chinese sex workers admitted that they suffered at least one violent act from a customer. Most violence occurred when a sex worker insisted that the client should wear a condom.

Many cases are similar to the report in Le Parisien. On August 2, 2012, a sex worker from Jiangxi, China was strangled by a Palestinian young man after he refused to pay her. Besides physical harm, Chinese sex workers' property is also in danger. It is easy for customers to rob Chinese sex workers because these women exist in very fragile circumstances in France and it is difficult for them to protect themselves.

The primary issue is that almost all of the sex workers are without a required legal residence permit and, thus, cannot call the police or contact officials to ask for help . Second, local Chinese people distain the Chinese sex workers. Even if they beg for help, it is very possible that no one is willing to intervene. As a result, sex workers are forced to bear and digest the harm that they experience from society. What they believe is that they must endure pain and sorrow because they need money for their families or themselves. No matter what happens to their bodies or their hearts, Chinese girls will bite the bullet.

Prostitution is a topic relate to many fields of law including immigration law, administrative law and criminal law. From the angle of criminal law, Chinese sex workers are exposed to sexual assault, robbery and murder every day. French law punishes pimps and customers. The regulation of la penalisation des clients stipulates that the penalty for sex worker clients can reach 1500 euros, while the 'recidivism' of repeated transactions can be fined by up to 3750 euros. But punishing pimps and customers doesn't solve the problem. Sex workers have held demonstrations to protest the government's decision because they are losing customers.

In order to maintain their livelihoods, they have no choice but to cut prices, even to as low as 10 euros per trick. Occasionally, they are forced to engage in sex without condoms. What they express is that their desire for money is greater than their desire for legal protection. However, helping sex workers make money is not the duty of law. Another way of caring for sex workers that has emerged is 'Lotus Bus' in Paris. Lotus Bus regularly sends out free condoms to sex workers. Also, this organization holds AIDS prevention activities and other helpful programs for sex workers.

Besides France’s efforts, what are other ways to deal with Chinese sex workers’ problems regarding their livelihoods and the need to keep them away from the constant threat of danger. We need to address the root of the question. The source of this story goes back to human trafficking. More resources and money need to be put into preventing and punishing human trafficking. Another problem is the conflict between legalization of sex workers and punishment for their clients. Governments can assist sex workers by setting up career training programs to improve their professional skills. Courts are able to seal or eliminate records of sex workers if they stay in the training programs for a specific period of time. Another area for consideration is legalizing the contractual relationship between sex workers and customers as has occurred in Germany. This provides a means for sex workers to sue customers who refuse to pay for their services.

Bitter Flowers, which came out in 2017, is the latest movie regarding Chinese sex workers in Paris and was featured at various film festivals, such as Busan International Film Festival. Just like the name of the film, Chinese sex workers in Paris are living with sorrow and in darkness. Meanwhile, they dress like flowers to attract the attention of potential customers. Their difficulties push them to become stronger in the frigid Paris winter, but bitter flowers also need love and care to thrive.

Killing the “less dead”: Sam Little

It is an unfortunate reality that there are people who exist who find excitement and pleasure in killing. It is even more unfortunate that when these people turn the corner and become serial killers, they grow ever more aware of new methods to avoid capture. One method, however, that has remained a timeless strategy for killers seeking to remain undetected is to kill the “less dead.”

The term less dead applies to many victims of serial killers. It is used to define the people whom society has deemed less important. These are the marginalized groups - the people who attract less attention and whose faces networks decide are not worthy of broadcast. These are mostly people of color, sex workers, LGBTQ, and the poor.

These groups generally lack status and social standing and are ignored and devalued by the  community. Therefore the police tend to give only a cursory glance to the deaths or disappearances of those from marginalized backgrounds, if that. These women are the perfect victims for someone looking to kill without making headlines or attract the attention of law enforcement.

Through my next few blog posts, I will examine specific instances of marginalized women dying or disappearing at the hands of serial killers known or unknown. I will attempt to unpack how society has treated these crimes and if there has been any change in the last few years to how crimes like these are investigated. I also wish to use this space to give recognition for the victims of these crimes, many of whom have yet to see justice served against those who harmed them.

This brings me to the main focus of this first blog: Sam Little. Little is confirmed to have killed at least 34 marginalized women between 1970 and 2005. However, that number pales in comparison to the at least 90 women he has confessed to murdering during his lifetime.

Despite the fact the federal investigators in charge of identifying the victims have stated Little is one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history, he has not received the attention other serial killers operating around the same time have gotten.

For example, Ted Bundy was also active during 1970, the same time as Little. Bundy is a household name with countless documentaries and movies written about him (the most recent set to star Zac Efron) while Little is obscure and scarcely discussed. This is because the women Bundy killed were white college co-eds, and the women Little killed were almost exclusively sex workers of color.

To focus on his crimes in Los Angeles in particular, Little has stated in 1987 alone he killed six black women. Little then left Los Angeles to kill elsewhere, only to return between 1990 and 1993 to kill an additional five women and again in 1996 to kill four women.

One of these women, Guadalupe Apodaca, was found in an abandoned parking garage in South Central Los Angeles. This was almost exactly where the kidnappers of Patty Hearst, the famous white heiress, were gunned down in front of a media frenzy. There were no stories in the media about Apodaca’s death.

It wasn’t until April 2012 when Los Angeles detective Mitzi Roberts began to enter cold cases into DNA databases that Sam Little was connected forensically to Apodaca’s murder. As Roberts began to investigate Little, she noticed a disturbing trend in his convictions and crimes. While he was sentenced to lengthy prison terms for crimes like robbing a furniture store, when Little was found guilty in 1976 of “assault with attempt to ravish” for strangling, raping, sodomizing, and beating Pamela Smith, he was only sentenced to three months.

In these instances, society sent a clear message to Little and other killers: attack women of color and you’ll get a pass, but if you try to steal property you’re going away.

Little’s victims knew this themselves. One victim, Leila McClain, who was able to escape Little before he killed her told Roberts why she didn’t report the attack to the police. She said:

Ain’t nobody cared until that white girl (Melinda LePerre; Little was acquitted of her murder) turned up dead a year later. Didn’t nobody care about a black prostitute in Mississippi. No, ma’am, they didn’t.

This reality is something Little was acutely aware of. In an interview with a reporter in December 2018, Little revealed that the reason he chose women of color and sex workers was because he knew the police didn’t investigate those crimes. He was aware the rest of society didn’t seem to care if these women died. Little explained:

 I never killed no senators or governors or fancy New York journalists. Nothing like that. [If] I killed you, it’d be all over the news the next day. I stayed in the ghettos.

It wasn’t until someone finally did care that Little’s reign of terror came to an end. It is because of Detective Mitzi Roberts that the murders in Los Angeles began to be connected to Little. Roberts’ dedication in her investigation of Little revealed not only another confirmed murder victim in LA, but also multiple survivors of Little’s attacks, including Leila McClain.

It was with this dedication, and the courage of survivors like McClain testifying, that Little was finally brought to justice in 2014. After a lengthy trial filled with criminalists, expert witnesses, police officers, and pathologists, Little was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences.

Little’s crimes show us the pervasive impact racism and sexism have on the safety of women. Little was able to commit so many murders because he realized that if he killed women who society did not care about no one would even bother to look for him.

In my opinion, this case shows the importance of having women, specifically women of color work in investigative capacities. If it weren’t for the increase in female detectives such as Roberts, it is unclear how long Little would be able to remain an anonymous killer.

Although Little is serving three life sentences, there are still over 50 victims that have yet to be identified. The FBI has generated a list of these unidentified victims using descriptions from Little himself. This list can be found here.

Is Catherine MacKinnon "over the top" about prostitution?

Recently in class we considered some of the work of radical feminist, Catherine MacKinnon. I had come across MacKinnon before, and like many people, I initially regarded her views as 'over the top.' Why on earth, I used to think, do we need Catherine MacKinnon to give talks at Universities explaining why prostitution, for example, is wrong? We know that already and, certainly, in the Western World, no one these days would seriously try to defend prostitution as a way of life (in public at least), any more than they would seek to defend rape or paedophilia.

How wrong I was. With a quick bit of research, I discovered that former Playboy model, Kendra Wilkinson, had, in TMZ news in 2014, publicly called on the United States to legalize prostitution on the grounds that the sex is consensual. On foot of this, TMZ news undertook a poll of its readers on legalizing prostitution. The New York Daily News also carried an article in 2012 arguing that prostitution is a choice and legalization would help eliminate abuse of non-adult prostitutes and poor women. In 2013, Ole Martin Moen, Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oslo presented a scholarly critique in the Journal of Medical Ethics which maintained that "prostitution is no more harmful than a long line of occupations that we commonly accept without hesitation."

Time, then, to stand with Catherine MacKinnon. Whatever anyone thinks of her, the stark reality is that the vast majority of people who work as prostitutes are women - an estimated 90% in most countries. If, therefore, prostitution is a choice, and is as harmless as ethical scholars like Ole Martin Moen submit, then why aren't more men doing it?

Catherine MacKinnon has the answer. It is because prostitution is widely recognised as a form of sexual exploitation that violates fundamental human rights. It is because specialist international studies (e.g. Farley 2003) shows that most prostitutes suffer severe violence, including sexual assault and rape – often on a repeat basis. It is because in Europe, for instance, at least 1 in 7 prostitutes are victims of trafficking. It is because a large proportion (68%) of prostitutes suffer from PTSD, with a level of severity comparable to that experienced by Vietnam War veterans, as well as psychological dissociation (Farley, 2003). It is also because, for most women, prostitution is entered into as a last resort and is such a negative experience that they would prefer to escape it if they could (Farley 2003).

Given these findings, only a fool or a fraud could seriously argue that legalisation would help eliminate abuse of non-adults and women. But then again, how do we answer the Kendra Wilkinsons of this world who believe that prostitution should be seen as a consensual activity? Yet again, the bulk of the evidence supports the Catherine MacKinnon position. Case after case and independent study after independent study (Orr 2001, Farley 2003, Brennan 2004) reveals that most sex workers enter the industry as a survival strategy.

In short, rather than consenting, it seems that the bulk of women are forced to prostitute themselves out of desperation. Hence, it is difficult to disagree with the Catherine McKinnon view that "the money coerces the consent, rather than guaranteeing it". It therefore genuinely does represent, as she argues, a practice, by-in-large, of "serial rape."

MacKinnon has attracted an abundance of criticism for her radical feminist stances on issues like prostitution. Yet the more I look around, and the more I research the subject, the more I realise that voiceless and exploited women and prostitutes really need people like her. They need her and people to persistently challenge the public defenders of the 'money for sex industry'. They need people like her to remind us how much prostitution reduces women to merchandise to be bought, sold and abused. Therefore, legalising it would reinforce their oppression by male-dominated societies and present a clear affront to the concept of gender equality. So, if viewing prostitution as a symbol of the disempowerment of women in a patriarchal society now makes me 'over the top', then I’ll take it.

Share the wealth: emotional labor and the essential confidant

Last week, I started my third year of law school, and the shock of returning to academia for the semester felt like a tempestuous sea on which I was a small rowboat. This particular week was more chaotic that those in the past, however, because my partner Benjamin was also beginning school. We were both lost on the tides of schedule upheaval with no sheltering port in sight.

Ben hasn’t been in school for many years, so this is a particularly difficult transition for him. “Ben’s transition is much more difficult than mine,” I told myself. This is my third year and I should be OK: he is the one that needs the extra support. I tried to give him that 'extra support,' but I struggled because of time obligations and my own state of emotional turmoil. Suddenly, I felt punishingly guilty.

Ben wasn’t wounded by this ‘egregious’ lack of support on my end – he just told me about school, and we talked things through, trying to sort his new priorities as best we could with little time. When I complained about my own transition, he listened patiently, and the listening didn’t seem to disturb him either. Nonetheless, I berated myself for not listening more and for not talking less.

By Wednesday, I was exhausted by my guilt. I mentioned the feelings to my carpool-confidant, Lily. Lily is a brilliant woman with a passion for gender studies, and she had a simple answer. It was a phrase that I’d never heard, but it rolled off her tongue like music to my ears: emotional labor. She said that, as a woman, I was used to doing the greater share of emotional work in my heterosexual relationship, and when I couldn’t live up to the labor I’d become accustomed to doing, I got overwhelmed.

The concept of emotional labor has been around for half a century, but recently came back to the forefront due to sex workers’ online discussion of it as an uncompensated but ubiquitous portion of their jobs. In her Guardian article, Rose Hackman describes emotional labor as encompassing the aspects of life that women appear “to better at:”

[W]e know where the spare set of keys is. We multi-task. We know when we’re almost out of Q-tips, and plan on buying more. We are just better at remembering birthdays. We love catering to loved ones, and we make note of what they like to eat . . .

These aspects of “remembering” and doting, Hackman argues, are not necessarily natural talents. Women have been socialized to see the underpinnings of our relationships and to work harder at maintaining them with support and intimacy. This socialization comes with a cost. As scholar Rebecca Erickson observes,

[o]ffering encouragement, showing your appreciation, listening closely to what someone has to say, and expressing empathy with another person's feelings (even when they are not shared)-day after day, year after year-represent emotion work of the highest order.

As I listened to Lily and later read these articles, I felt so validated! I had never even heard of emotional labor and yet I was living it every day. I had been living it from a very young age, and recall a mantra my mother (an exceptional emotional laborer) taught me in my tween years. When I didn’t feel like being cheery but had to be, Mama taught me to sarcastically think “showtime!” in my head and brace myself. She often used this tactic in her professional life in customer-service (another aspect of the fallout of this phenomenon is that low-wage ‘service with a smile’ jobs are predominantly performed by women).

We recently screened portions of Ken Burns’ documentary Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. In it, I saw both women steeling themselves for emotional labor. I watched Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s joie de vivre become feigned cheerfulness when she was under the stress of emotional labor, just as my mother’s would during the tail-end of a long shift. I saw Susan B. Anthony become reserved and withdrawn, the same way I do when under the same burden. These were powerful women who worked tirelessly for women’s rights, and yet they were bound by the same incognito emotional obligations that I am today.

However, I also saw these two female powerhouses help each other bear their emotional labor with respect and empathy, and this heartened me. Though I had been planning to denounce my emotional labor, as I watched Anthony and Stanton, I realized that I like many of the aspects of emotional work I do each day. It suits me.

Instead of pushing it away, perhaps the answer is to remember to share the workload. Women may be programmed to do more emotional labor, but we don’t have to go it alone. Try this today: tell a confidant something you’ve been mentally chewing on, something you wouldn't usually disclose. It can be as small as your shopping list. See if talking it through lifts your burden a bit. 

If you’re feeling really adventurous, go further than sharing emotional labor with those who already know it’s weight. If you identify as female, try sharing your emotional burden with a man.

Benjamin is a great example of a cis-gendered man who is already in solidarity with my revolution of emotional equity. He may not “naturally” take on as much emotional labor as I, but he has his ways of helping with the load. I don’t think I’d ever leave the house with breakfast or inflated bicycle tires if it weren’t for that man. Ben is unique, however. He was socialized as a middle child, taking on great emotional burdens for his family in his youth. 

Ben has also worked in customer service for two decades. Perhaps the next step in the emotional-labor revolution is this: enlist the emotional light-weights in our lives to work front-of-house in busy restaurants. That will give them a high-velocity dose of the meaning of “showtime!”

Minor's Prostitution in Switzerland Banned in 2013

In Europe, there is still a debate regarding whether prostitution should be legalized or not. I also have some difficulty to decide between the two principal arguments. On one side, legalization allows a better protection of sex workers, which is more than necessary regarding the danger of this occupation and the abuses that are committed. On the other side, I can’t see it otherwise than an exploitation of human beings that should be banned. Whereas the discussion is complex, it appears much easier to decide when we are talking about minors’ prostitution. The answer seems clear: children should be legally protected from prostitution. If someone would have asked me five years ago if the prostitution of minors was legal, I would have sworn that it was not possible in Switzerland … And I would have been wrong. Indeed, until 2013, the prostitution of minors aged between 16 and 18 was legal.

How that could be possible in 2010 in a western, supposedly developed nation? That seems crazy, but it was possible due to two factors combined together. First, prostitution is legal, contrary to the US, and only the forced prostitution is illegal. Second, the age of consent, which is the age at which a person is deemed legally competent to consent to have sexual intercourses, is fixed at 16 years old, as it is in most of US states.

Fortunately, in 2010, The Swiss Federal Council, approved the 2007 Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (or “Lanzarote Convention”), which took effect on July 1st, 2010. The modification of the Swiss Penal Code necessary to respect the terms of the convention was adopted in September 2013 and took effect on July 4th, 2014, which means legislators took 4 years to produce a law stating that requiring the services of minor prostitutes is a crime.

This situation was qualified as “ gap in the law” when it came to the attention of the public through the media, but I can’t prevent myself from thinking we did not legislate on that earlier because it was mostly a feminine problem. As often, these questions take years to solve and don’t seem to be taken seriously as a real problem.

Feminist responses to the mainstream appropriation of BDSM: Part 1

Now that E.L. James’ novel Fifty Shades of Grey has been released as a major motion picture, feminist perspectives on BDSM sexual practices have gained renewed attention. BDSM stands for bondage/discipline, domination/submission, and sadism/masochism. (For a general overview, visit this page.) The popularity of the Fifty Shades trilogy is largely due to this type of sexual content. Recently, BDSM has been commercialized and appropriated by the mainstream culture more than ever before. The fact that Target and other national chain stores are selling Fifty Shades-branded products illustrates this. Obviously, feminists are concerned that any structural inequalities reproduced within BDSM relationships are being overlooked by the average American. The possible harm resulting from this is currently a point of debate among feminists and other voices in the media.

Sex-negative and anti-BDSM feminists posit that we cannot disregard the presence of inequality and the “false consciousness” described by Catherine MacKinnon, and BDSM encounters are often not any more consensual than regular ones. However, sex-positive feminists think that an awareness of BDSM aids in discussing consent, recognizing non-heteronormative lifestyles, and breaking rigid gender roles. Those who label themselves sex-critical attempt to reconcile both views within a nuanced framework, while accepting the idea that more research is needed. Although one can understand why individuals within the three theoretical camps choose to either protect or reject BDSM practices, it can be difficult to take a stance on the issue.

One of the difficulties in forming an opinion is predicting how BDSM will evolve. The entertainment industry has chosen to promote one of the more harmful variations of a BDSM lifestyle. Fifty Shades of Grey adheres to traditional, gendered constructions of sexuality. It shows only the submissive female/dominant male coupling. The male character has wealth, power, and experience, while the female character is a student and a virgin. At times, the plot points seem to involve stalking. In fact, the plot was originally a piece of Twilight fanfiction, and Twilight has been criticized for romanticizing a predatory relationship. Furthermore, a sex contract is used in Fifty Shades as a stand-in for consent. Some people seem content with this pop culture version of BDSM without further educating themselves on actual practices and domestic violence. However, several BDSM communities have denounced this inaccurate portrayal of BDSM and its careless treatment of consent. Some anti-pornography and domestic violence groups think that selective appropriation of BDSM practices and terminology can be used to conceal sexual and physical abuse.

The current uncertain legal status of BDSM divides opinions as well. Canadian radio host Jian Ghomeshi attempted to diffuse accusations that he assaulted several women by framing the assaults as BDSM encounters. Most people did not buy this excuse, and he was forced to leave his show. Although some have taken this as evidence that BDSM will not suffice to cover sexual violence, the law rarely offers all women the protection they expect. Contrast the Ghomeshi scandal with Canada's treatment of a female judge whose nude photos were released without her permission. There have been many low-profile BDSM cases in which the woman was allegedly assaulted, but the courts chose to gloss over consent issues. In these cases, the women negotiated sex contracts or met someone through an S&M dating website. The courts interpreted the initial agreements of consent to excuse unwanted contact or injury that occurred during encounters. BDSM itself violates laws in several states, but participants and feminists could probably agree that many states complicate the matter by not updating their codes or protecting sexual expression enough. Some think that sex contracts will not be enforced by courts, and cannot be, due to inherent power imbalances that cannot be separated from them. For a recent Harvard Law Review article on sex contracts, visit their site.

Within BDSM communities, many individuals communicate requests clearly and obtain verbal or written consent for each act precisely because the law is unpredictable about sexual expression. Sex-positive feminists think BDSM is a good model for consent. Please see this earlier post in our blog. Many LGBT and gender queer groups support BDSM because it broadens views on gender. However, it does not eliminate them. In part two, I will discuss whether radical feminists are correct to be concerned about sexism and gender issues in BDSM communities.

Finally, here are two additional resources before I move onto part two: if you want to read several interesting studies on pornography, visit this site. To learn about individuals who do not experience sexual attraction, visit the Asexual Visibility and Education Network.

Sex trafficking- America's dirty little secret

This past week, California passed Proposition 35 by an overwhelming 81% of voters. Proposition 35 increases prison terms for convicted human traffickers, requires convicted human traffickers to register as sex offenders, requires all sex offenders to disclose their online accounts, and increases fines for human trafficking convictions (however, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco said that civil liberties groups had raised “serious questions” about whether the online disclosure requirement violates freedom of speech and blocked enforcement of this portion of the law on Wednesday).

One of my Feminist Legal Theory classmates brought Prop 35 to our attention during our class discussion on Wednesday and expressed her dismay that the legislature has only recently taken up the issue of human trafficking. In fact, California didn’t enact a law making human trafficking a felony until 2006, and Prop 35 is the next step in increasing penalities. I noted that human trafficking is not something the media discusses with any frequency either, despite the fact that the United States, and California in particular, are international human trafficking hubs. Why don’t we hear more about human trafficking in the news? Professor Pruitt suggested that human trafficking is America’s “dirty little secret.”

In Misery and Mypoia: Understanding the Failures of U.S. Efforts to Stop Human Trafficking, Jennifer M. Chacon defines “human trafficking” as the migration of individuals across or within national boundaries for the purpose of performing labor, including sex work, under “coercive conditions,” including deception, abduction, or debt bondage.

"Human Trafficking in California," a report by the California Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery Task Force, called California “a top destination for human traffickers” due to its international borders, major harbors, airports, and large immigrant population. The report states that traffickers lure victims from foreign countries to the United States with the promise of good jobs and better lives, and then force them to work under brutal and inhumane conditions in industries including pornography, prostitution, and servile marriage.

Traffickers recruit victims from inside the United States as well. A recent Fox News article reported that pimps lure minors through social media, targeting those from dysfunctional families and offering them gifts. In June, under the FBI’s “Operation Cross Country,” 79 child sex slaves (2 boys and 77 girls) were freed from their captors in 57 different cities across the country.

Several articles suggest that human trafficking and sex slavery in the U.S. are little known secrets. An NBC News article entitled “Sex slaves, human trafficking…in America?” tells the story of two young women from the Ukraine who were forced into stripping in Detroit by men that they thought were placing them in summer jobs. During the year before they were able to escape, they were subjected to physical, mental, and sexual abuse, and controlled by threats of violence against their families.

A Vanity Fair article from last year called “Sex Trafficking of Americans: The Girls Next Door” suggests that human trafficking and sex slavery are closer to home than most Americans think. The article estimates that there are currently 300,000 young American girls entering the sex industry and that their ages are declining drastically. “The average starting age for prostitution is now 13…I call them Little Barbies,” said Rachel Lloyd, executive director of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services in Harlem, New York. Krishna Patel, assistant U.S. Attorney in Bridgeport, Connecticut said

“I’d always dismissed the idea of human trafficking in the United States. I’m Indian, and when I went to Mumbai and saw children sold openly, I wondered, Why isn’t anything being done about it? But now I know—it’s no different here. I never would have believed it, but I’ve seen it. Human trafficking—the commercial sexual exploitation of American children and women, via the Internet, strip clubs, escort services, or street prostitution—is on its way to becoming one of the worst crimes in the U.S.”

Hopefully the passage of Proposition 35 will raise overdue awareness about human trafficking in the United States not only in California, but across the country, and cause us to think twice when we see a young girl in a short skirt and stiletto heels standing on the street corner.

5 reasons why sex worker’s rights matter for all of us

Feminists having conflicting views on sex work, ranging from the positive attitude of the feminist sex workers who pithily titled their anthology “Whores and Other Feminists” to the negative attitude of Andrea Dworkin who described her experience with prostitution as “gang rape punctuated by a money exchange.” However, feminists generally agree on sex worker’s right to be free from rape, physical violence, and harassment. In this post, I want to discuss why sex worker’s rights matter for all of us, whether or not we or our loved ones have ever been involved in sex work.

1. Because no one should be treated the way sex workers are treated
This is the most fundamental reason sex worker’s rights matter. No one should be gang raped at gun point and then told by a judge that what they suffered was merely “theft of services.” No one should hear a judge say that he would be "hard put" to give somebody a life sentence for picking them up, taking them to the woods, sexually assaulting them, and killing them. (Molly Ivins, Molly Ivins Can't Say That Can She? 79 (1992))*. No one should be an easy target for rape and murder because society doesn’t care or thinks they deserve it.

*This judge was actually explaining his light sentence in a homophobic murder case, but apparently saw a golden opportunity to take a swipe at sex workers as well.

2. Because of the risk of being accused of being a sex worker
The risk of being seriously accused of being a sex worker is rare for most women but does exist. It is a particular issue for women who are trans or black or both; black trans women frequently find themselves harassed by police as potential prostitutes for simply “walking while trans.” However, any women who violates female norms by going out too late at night (scroll to “curlygirl26”’s post) or carrying too many condoms may be targeted.

More common is the metaphorical accusation of being a sex worker. Women who dress the way they want, love sex too much, or marry someone “too” much older or wealthier than them risk having the “whore” label thrown at them. The stigmatization of sex workers becomes a useful tool for policing all women’s behavior.

3. Because of the risk of becoming a sex worker
Although pro and anti-sex work feminists disagree over whether forced and coerced prostitution is the norm or the exception, both sides agree that at least some sex workers do not voluntarily enter the profession. Sex workers may be trafficking victims or runaways from abusive homes desperate for a place to sleep or eat. Some may simply be people who cannot find other jobs due to sexism which pays women less and places the primary burden of raising and supporting children on them or due to transphobia, racism, sexism, classism, or ableism that makes finding and keeping jobs difficult. Whatever the reasons, as long as a significant number of sex workers aren’t in the job voluntarily, none of us can be confident that sex worker’s rights will not personally affect us or our loved ones.

4. Because our governments are complicit in the exploitation and abuse of sex workers
It’s fairly well known that the Japanese government during World War II set up brothels of Chinese and Korean “comfort women”, who the government had forcibly trafficked into prostitution. It’s less well known that the U.S. “liberators” also used "comfort women" supplied by Japan after its defeat and that the U.S. military and South Korean governments have continued to exploit Asian and Eastern European prostitutes in South Korea into the present day.

Less overtly, government efforts to prevent prostitution often simply end up harming the safety and health of prostitutes instead. Cambodia has recently come under fire from Human Rights Watch for arbitrarily arresting, beating, and raping prostitutes. Unfortunately, this type of police abuse of prostitutes is hardly restricted to Cambodia, as reports by sex workers and LGBT rights organizations in the U.S. attest.

Even when the law is applied “correctly”, without corruption, it can pressure prostitutes into remaining in prostitution when they do not wish to do so. Many prostitutes struggle to escape prostitution because they are dogged by their criminal record. This includes prostitutes who were actually trafficking victims- laws permitting such victims to erase their records are relatively recent and not universal. Then there are cases like Sara Kruzen, who was jailed for killing the man who trafficked her into child prostitution. Trafficking victims who try to escape must weigh the danger of remaining in prostitution against the danger of landing in jail, which carries its own risk of physical abuse and sexual assault.

5. Because discrimination against one group of women puts all of us at risk
Underlying the abuse of sex workers are the same sexist stereotypes that are used to justify abuse against all women. She’s had sex with men for money before, she must have consented to do so this time. She wasn’t raped, she’s just mad she didn’t get paid. It’s too bad she was raped, but what did she expect standing on a street corner all night/going to a hotel with a man/soliciting for men on Craig’s list.

Twist these justifications just a little and they easily apply to non-sex workers. She’s had consensual sex with dates before, she must have consented to sex this time. She wasn’t raped, she’s just mad he didn’t call her back. It’s too bad she was raped, but what did she expect going to that part of town/going out that late at night/letting him into her apartment/going on a date with someone she barely knew.

Justifications for abusing sex workers presume that once women cross some line of “correct” behavior, they are acceptable targets, and that line can move. As long as it is acceptable to abuse some women, all women are at risk.

Sex trafficking and spatial isolation: part 2 of 2

Two weeks ago I wrote a blog post analyzing sex trafficking within the framework of “spatial isolation," a concept discussed at length by UC Davis Law Professor Lisa Pruitt. In my previous post I discussed how spatial isolation exacerbates the problems that sex trafficking victims face. I applied this framework to an actual situation reported by the New York Times (“NYT”). Continuing my analysis of sex trafficking within the framework of spatial isolation, in this blog post I will argue that: (1) spatial isolation results in lack of anonymity for sex trafficking victims; (2) spatial isolation, as manifested through sex trafficking, reinforces the public/private divide for women; and (3) an understanding of spatial isolation may be used to assist recovering victims of sex trafficking.

In the context of rural communities, Professor Pruitt has stated that the lack of anonymity that results from spatial isolation and low population density in these communities restricts rural women’s autonomy. Accordingly, “[s]uch diminished privacy may, for example, deter women from reporting crimes.” (Gender, Geography, & Rural Justice, p. 359).

In the NYT article, Ms. Iana Matei, a sex trafficking activist, states that she admires former victims for their strength in continuing their lives. As an example of their strength, she says that “[w]hen they are back in school and all the boys are offering them money for oral sex because they know, that’s not easy.” Much like in the rural context, I think that lack of anonymity resulting from spatial isolation negatively affects the autonomy of sex trafficking victims. First, when young girls and women are spatially isolated from their hometowns or native communities, their absence is probably very noticeable, especially in a context such as school. Second, though a girl or woman may live in a fairly populated city, on a day-to-day basis she is also part of a smaller, more immediate community.

Considering these localized areas as the basic unit of community, her absence from her normal surroundings likely magnifies the lack of anonymity that she must experience. As a result of this lack of anonymity stemming from her conspicuous absence from familiar areas such as school or the local community, when she does return she may face sexual harassment from those that know her and about her victimization.

Regarding the public/private divide, Professor Pruitt argues that “[b]y relegating women to a sphere that is both conceptually and spatially private, society limits their access to knowledge and power.” (Gender, Geography, & Rural Justice, p. 363). Thus, the private sphere has been “the critical ‘locus of women’s oppression and exploitation’.” (Gender, Geography, & Rural Justice, p. 365). According to Professor Pruitt, the private sphere encompasses the household, but not public institutions such as the market and politics. (Gender, Geography, & Rural Justice, p. 365).

Sex trafficking further reinforces the public/private divide for women through spatial isolation. At its core, sex trafficking exploits victims through forced prostitution. Prostitution necessarily involves sexual acts. Sexual activity is probably universally considered a “private activity.” That is, people generally have sex within the confines of private spaces, not in public areas. Thus, sex trafficking relegates girls and women to the private sphere. By being both literally and conceptually isolated from the public, captors limit victims’ access to knowledge and power to escape their situation.

Despite these barriers resulting from spatial isolation, spatial isolation as a conceptual framework can be used to help assist victims of sex trafficking. Ms. Matei and other sex trafficking activists are countering the spatial isolation of sex trafficking as well as its resulting effects. NYT reported that, “[u]ntil a few years ago, Ms. Matei’s shelter [] was the only one in Romania for victims of traffickers, though the country has been a center for the trade in young girls for decades.” Moreover, child welfare services would routinely ignore these victims. Ms. Matei stated that she obtained an apartment for sex trafficking victims, and that is how she began her activist work.

As revealed by NYT, sex trafficking victims in Romania remained spatially isolated from help because the resources simply did not exist. Therefore, in both a physical and psychological sense, victims were isolated from those who may have the means, inclination, and training to help them. Shelters like the one that Ms. Matei opened counteract spatial isolation by providing a physical location and healthy support network for sex trafficking victims. In this way, shelters serve as a safe space that provide both material and psychological support. In short, by identifying the causes and effects of spatial isolation in the sex trafficking context, one may be able to help victims recover a life of normalcy.

Sex trafficking and spatial isolation: part 1 of 2

The New York Times (“NYT”) recently profiled Iana Matei, a leading advocate who helps female victims of human sex trafficking in Romania. The article gives a broad overview of the sex trafficking industry in Romania, its effect on victims, and Ms. Matei’s efforts to bring victims back to a sense of normalcy.

In a recent session for “Feminist Legal Theory,” a class that I am taking in law school, my professor, Lisa Pruitt, assigned readings regarding feminism and rural women. These topics are of particular interest to Professor Pruitt, who has written extensively on both. The assigned readings discuss one theoretical framework that I think may have particular relevance in the sex trafficking context: spatiality.

Although Professor Pruitt relates spatiality with respect to rural women, as I read the NYT article, it occurred to me that this concept may also help to explain the victimization process of sex trafficking. In the rest of this blog post I will attempt to draw connections between the NYT article and Professor Pruitt’s theoretical framework regarding spatiality.

The beginning of the NYT article briefly discusses a fifteen year-old prostitute’s decision to escape her captors. The article mentions that she had tried to escape before and had been beaten severely; Ms. Matei was unsure whether the girl would have the courage to try again. This scenario is probably not uncommon within the trafficking industry. Regarding rural women, Professor Pruitt has argued that their “spatial isolation” from neighbors and law enforcement exacerbates the problems of domestic violence. (Gender, Geography & Rural Justice, p. 359.)

I believe that spatial isolation from law enforcement and outsiders similarly aggravates the helplessness and dependency that a trafficking victim may feel towards her physically abusive captor(s). The fifteen year-old girl in the NYT article was probably hesitant to try to escape again because her spatial isolation from anyone able or willing to help likely rendered an escape attempt ineffectual. Spatial isolation in the trafficking context is further illustrated by the fact that once girls and women are forced into the industry, “they are sold to gangs and locked up in brothels or forced to work the streets.”

Related to the idea of spatial isolation is the concept of “spaces of dependence.” One scholar, Kevin Cox, has defined spaces of dependence as “the idea that some socio-spatial relationships are interchangeable within a given space but difficult or impossible outside that space.” (Gender, Geography & Rural Justice, p. 360.) Professor Pruitt has argued that the concept of spaces of dependence may help explain the lack of mobility among rural women. Extending this argument, I believe that spaces of dependence may partly explain the helplessness and inability to escape for victims of human trafficking.

First, in the case of a girl or woman who has been working in the same brothel or on the same streets for a long period of time, she may eventually cope with her situation by becoming accustomed to her local streets, clientele, or routine. However, if removed from her area of knowledge and familiarity and forced into prostitution in a new location, she may not necessarily be able to adapt easily to a new and unfamiliar place.

Conceptually speaking, a victim’s knowledge and understanding of her surroundings may be substantially filtered through the lenses of prostitution and sex trafficking. Even if she attempted to escape on her own or to seek help from authorities, her ability to effectively attain this help may be hampered by the fact that her local knowledge depends on mechanisms of oppression – sexual servitude, physical abuse, enslavement, and isolation. Thus, she may not have the confidence or knowledge to seek outside help in order to escape her circumstances.

Professor Pruitt has stated that “[e]mpirical research shows that rural women rely heavily on social networks for material assistance (e.g., babysitting services, transportation, and even assistance with paying bills), as well as social and emotional support.” (Gender, Geography, & Rural Justice, p. 361.) Similarly, victims of sex trafficking probably rely on their social networks – captors and other victims – for material assistance (e.g., money, transportation, protection, housing), as well as for social and emotional dependence. In this way, spaces of dependence apply to both physical and metaphorical spaces.

In part two of this blog post I will discuss: (1) lack of anonymity resulting from spatial isolation in the sex trafficking context; (2) sex trafficking as an example of the public/private divide reinforced through spatial isolation; and (3) using spatial isolation as a theoretical framework to assist recovering victims of sex trafficking.

One step forward for Canadian sex workers, two steps back for their US peers

Two important legal transitions have occurred lately in the realm of sex worker rights in the US and Canada. In Ontario this week, a judge issued a ruling that essentially decriminalized the acts that made prostitution illegal. This same month, court battles in the United States over Craigslist's Erotic Services internet site lead the site provider to remove the controversial sex worker utilized section and replace it with the word "censored". While Canada seemed to move forward in line with other progressing Western attitudes regarding the attitudes towards criminalizing sex work, it appears the United States digresses to again attempting to control individual's rights of the use of their bodies.

The issue of sex work is a deeply moral issue. Sex is complicated and eternally wrapped up in morality and personal value systems. The power of sex has translated into intense morality debates around the profession of sex work. The judge in Canada clearly began to distinguish morality from legal responsibility while considering this case, as she was quoted in the National Post as saying,

It is important to state at the outset what this case
is not about: The court has not been called upon to decide whether or not there
is a constitutional right to sell sex or to decide which policy model regarding
prostitution is better,” Judge Himel said. “Rather, it is the court’s task to
decide the merits of this particular legal challenge, which is whether certain
provisions of the Criminal Code are in violation of the Charter.

She did find that the Charter violated rights of citizen sex workers, specifically the section of the Criminal Code that she found

force[d] prostitutes to choose between their liberty interest and their right to
security of the person

Judge Himel considered other nation's laws regarding the criminalization of sex work, and in line with the trend of legal progression in industrialized nations like the Netherlands and New Zealand, chose to force the hand of change for sex work politics in Canada.

Sex workers in the United States were not so lucky as to experience the validation of social progress this month. In the midst of a continuing legal battle over a section of adult ads on Craigslist, the internet site provider pulled the section off the web. This section of ads was frequented by adult service providers, many of whom now must find new and possibly riskier ways of advertising their services.

Losing access to the private and generally safe(for the sex work profession) venue of Craigslist is a strong blow to the dignity and safety of sex professionals. Melissa Petro, who briefly used Craigslist for sexual business transactions, wrote about her experience in the Huffington Post and offers that the closing of this site harms sex workers more than it protects them.

The simple fact is that people do have sex for money--many different kinds of people for many different reasons, people as varied as those looking to buy concert tickets, sell a collectible or adopt a pet--and these people will continue to. Whether the choice to do so is being dignified and protected with its own forum..

remains up to Craigslist to decide amidst deep legal and moral controversy.

In general, most countries that have decriminalized the sex trade have seen an increase in safety in the profession despite certain morality argument of the contrary that decriminalized prostitution will lead to rampant disease and moral disintegration. I hope Craigslist has the strength to be the new standard setter in the United States. If Craigslist will uncensor the adult ad section, it will be taking a progressive step in legal evolution mirroring other growing and legally improving ideologies. Maybe the court system in the United States won't turn out to be ready for such change and growth as the Canadian court system was but Craigslist certainly is in a position to encourage the leap of change.

Thought Provoking Interview with Former Dominatrix on NPR

On Monday night I listened to this interview on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124369913

At first I was just listening to the charming voice of Melissa Febos, and her brand of warm and psychological take on the four years she spent as a professional dominatrix, while she put herself through college, used and then quit using heroin. But then it got me thinking about how much she dared to open up and risk her now-professional career as a creative writing professor. Certainly, I have my own emotionally charged issues with pornography and sex for sale, which are probably grounded in my own insecurities about my body and image thereof. The interview, on the other hand, made me admire Ms. Febos, at the very least for her kudos and for being able to use her experiences and talk about them publicly, even write a memoir about them. Which is altogether problematic for me, because as a feminist, I should take a definite stance against the exploitation of women in any form whatsoever. I suspect there is a difference between the rejection of all forms of prostitution and the acceptance of individuals' extraordinary life stories, but the line, I fear, is a thin one to draw here.

Is this the long-sought connection between the environment and women?

Don't miss Leslie Kaufman's story in the New York Times about Mustang Ranch, the brothel in northern Nevada, and the restoration of the Truckee River.

Female Criminality

Until the mid-1970s, women who commit crime was a subject unstudied and rarely acknowledged by dominant the field of criminology. Since then, the field has opened up considerably and some excellent and broad work has been done on the types of crimes women commit, and why they commit them (see scholars such as Carol Smart, Joanne Belknap, Kathleen Daly). Men remain the majority of people arrested and incarcerated; when we think of the prison crisis we usually imagine men in horrific and overcrowded prisons. However, the question of female criminality has gripped me; there are so many ways in which feminist theory intersects with criminality, yet I find that it remains a small area of discussion within larger feminist discourse.

Working at a public defender’s office during my 2L summer, I was immediately drawn to many of the women who came into the office. Colloquially, what became apparent was the number of (young) women who had children and were the head of their households, and the types of crimes they were committing. Most of the crimes had to do with economics; petty (misdemeanor) drugs sales, prostitution, petty theft. The economic marginalization theory essentially posits that women are more apt to commit crime when their economic well being is low or on the decline. From 10 weeks of basic observation of a busy, urban criminal court, this seems to me an accurate and real indicator of female criminality at the misdemeanor level.

One of the most stunning stories I heard was of a mother of three teenage children who had been arrested for embezzlement (several hundred dollars) from her job as a cashier at a big box store. She had stolen the money over the course of several days to pay for her daughter’s funeral; her daughter had been murdered by her boyfriend the previous week and this woman did not know how she was going to pay for the funeral. The absurdity of her situation struck me on so many levels; a woman working to support her children has no extra funds for an emergency in her life (her position at a big box store reminds me of the struggle of Barbara Ehrenrich and her co-workers in Nickel and Dimed) and she was now facing criminal charges for being poor and without resources.

Though I feel particularly drawn towards women in the criminal justice system, I also feel that an understanding of economics and poverty is essential to analyzing criminality. There are so many ways in which the criminal justice system affects the lives of poor people; through frequent interactions with the police, through probation, through friends and family in incarceration. The list goes on. There is something about the body of a poor woman (and often times a poor woman of color) that becomes a subject of the state and police power. Female criminality and the paternalism of the criminal justice system to me represent some of the most intense forms of patriarchy. The criminalization of prostitution is just one example; whether women choose to be sex workers or feel compelled to the work for economic gain or survival, they are patronized by men and then punished by a patriarchal system that says “we’ll use you, and then make you a criminal after we’re done.”

Clearly, the field of female criminality is much too large for one blog post, but I do think that the criminal justice system has a stark effect on the lives of women and I hope that this becomes an area of law that starts to become a larger part of feminist legal theory discourse.