The 40 Day Challenge Part 1: Run From

Yesterday we read about how pornography impacts our views of women and hurts the performer. Today we’re going to take this to its logical conclusion: pornography feeds into sex trafficking.

Pornography comes from the Greek words porne, meaning “prostituted woman” or “prostitution”, and the word graphos, meaning “writings.” If we can begin to comprehend that what is depicted in pornography is not simply sex or sexuality, but commercial sexual exploitation, we can begin to rightly appreciate the negative and corrosive effects of this content.

Porn drives demand for sex trafficking.

According to Shared Hope International’s report on the demand for sex trafficking, pornography is the primary gateway to the purchase of humans for commercial sex.

Catherine Mackinon, a professor at Harvard Law School, says that “consuming pornography is an experience of bought sex” and thus it creates a hunger to continue to purchase and objectify, and act out what is seen. 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.”

In addition, viewing porn and masturbating ends up short-circuiting the sexual process. It trains the mind to expect sexual fulfillment on demand, and to continually seek more explicit or violent content to create the same high.

As Victor Malarek put it in his book The Johns, “The message is clear: if prostitution is the main act, porn is the dress rehearsal.” Pornography becomes a training ground for johns/tricks. When pornography is the source of sex education for our generation, the natural outcome is a culture of commercial sex and sex trafficking.

Porn actors are exploited.

Porn actors and actresses are often construed as no different from those who chose to have any other career in the entertainment industry. In reality, though, many of those involved in pornography are victims of sex trafficking. The book Renting Lacy, which tells the stories of the victims of sex trafficking, reports that sometimes acts of prostitution are filmed without the consent of the victim and distributed.  On other occasions victims are trafficked for the sole purpose of porn production. According to those who were in the business of pornography, there are times when girls are held captive on porn sets or driven under the command of a pornographer or agent to and from the sets, which would fit the definition of “harboring and transporting.” According to Donna Hughes, “porn and internet sex shows are markets for trafficked victims.”

Even when entrance to the porn industry is technically voluntary, former porn actress Jan Meza explains that the actors and actresses do not know what they are agreeing to, or after their initial agreement they can’t get away. Federal law is clear that initial consent does not preclude the possibility of the individual being victimized. Pornographers, like other pimps, learn how to exploit economic and psychological vulnerabilities to coerce them to get into and stay in the sex industry.  They may threaten or use alcohol and drugs to induce compliance, which is included in some state definitions for coercion.

Worse, many performers are minors. Shared Hope International estimates that one in five pornographic images online is of a child. The prominence of this speaks to the very “severe” nature of the porn industry. Even among the material that is not deemed “child pornography” you can find individuals under the age of eighteen.

Porn is sex trafficking.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), which created our current federal legislation against sex trafficking, defines sex trafficking as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.”  Their definition of a commercial sex act is “any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.”

Pornography qualifies as a commercial sex act in two ways. First, the production of pornography involves payment of individuals to perform sex acts before a camera. Performers in the industry (or their johns) are paid for the different films or photo shoots. Because they are produced by recording actual events, real men, women, and children are actually engaging in sexual acts, often repeatedly to get the desired shot. In this way, the production of pornography is without question a case of commercial sex acts, in this case performed on camera.

Secondly, “consuming pornography is an experience of bought sex.”  As Catherine Mackinon put it, “porn is used as sex (masturbation). Therefore it is sex.”  Further, it is a commercial sex act in this sense because money or other items of value (clothes, cars, alcohol, drugs, etc.) are exchanged on account of this sexual experience for the consumer. The pornographers are receiving direct monetary benefit from providing this sexual act.

Having understood the interconnectedness of pornography and sex trafficking, we must resolve to no longer erect false distinctions between pornography and sex trafficking. In seeking justice for those who are commercially sexually exploited, accepting and using pornography is not an option.  It’s time to understand the reality of pornography and act accordingly.

Today’s content was adapted from an article by former PureHope intern Ana Stutler.