Changing the Narrative on Teen Sex Trafficking
george orwell once wrote
if thought corrupts language then
language can also correct thought
a bad usage can spread by tradition and
imitation
even among people who do and know better
as a writer and a speaker i spend a lot
of time thinking about words
and i try to be very careful in how i
use them i was a little girl and didn’t
understand what a word meant
instead of simply telling me my father
would always make me go and look it up
in the dictionary
to this day when i choose my words i
always make sure to look them up first
and you may be surprised with just how
many of the everyday words
we use have definitions that we may not
necessarily expect
for example if you look up the word
commerce a word we commonly use to
describe the buying and selling of goods
you’ll find that the definition also
includes sexual intercourse
i don’t know how you feel about that but
i have to admit that it threw me off a
bit
to think that the concept of
commodification of women’s bodies is so
ingrained in our culture
that merriam webster’s thoughts included
a reference book
was a bit shocking to me
but the practice really is as old as
time
as is the debate with how comfortable we
are with the thought of commercial sex
as a trade
while some have found the practice to be
liberating there are many who would
argue that reducing a woman’s earning
potential
to the value of her body is about as
empowering as saying
a woman’s rightful place in life is
barefoot and pregnant
to them commercial sex dehumanizes and
objectifies people by
reducing them to items that can be
bartered
it’s the marketing of the human body as
a recreational tool
to be enjoyed by whoever has the dollar
to spare
even if it is a topic that you would
prefer to shy away from
messages promoting a transactional view
of sexuality and relationships parade
every aspect of american society
whether it’s the young woman being
taught to marry rich and linda lover
will buy her expensive gifts
or it’s the constant bombarding with
messages that sexuality is the key to
fulfillment
i grew up in the south so in addition to
receiving all of these messages
i also heard a great deal about fast
girls
these were girls who dressed or acted in
a certain way that was
more mature for their age or more
commonly girls who were involved with
older men
sadly many people find it appropriate to
shift responsibility from
the adults who take advantage of a young
girl to the girl who was actually taken
advantage of
some people even managed to do it in the
same breath by saying things like
what kind of a man would want to be with
a child but
quickly follow it up with well that’s
what happens when little girls run
around being fast
i happen to be one of those young girls
as early as 12 years old when i hit
puberty and my body started to develop i
began to receive attention from older
men
i remember walking home from school and
having men blow
horns and lean out of their car windows
making suggestive comments to me
in my mind their attention qualified me
as more than just a little girl
i started viewing myself as one of those
girls who was mature for my age
and bought into the hype that aj nothing
but a number
and what was i supposed to think really
any parent who was slipped up and said a
curse word around their child knows that
we learn by emulating and that isn’t
limited to the home we learn from our
peers we learn from
what we take into the media we learn
from our cultural beliefs
and in a world where sex sells and
thirst traps are an easy way to get
attention
what do we really expect from young
people
and damaged daughters the history of
girls sexuality and the juvenile justice
system
lisa pascal describes in great detail a
history
of condemning wayward girls for sexual
immorality that extends
way back to the 19th century punishments
were given with
little to no consideration of whether
the sex was coerced or the girl was a
victim of
incest there was always an underlying
belief that the girl must have done
something to invite the sexual encounter
and that isn’t limited to the juvenile
justice system
in the 1940s criminologist benjamin
mendelsohn and hans von hindtek
went on to cultivate an entire school of
thought implying that
victimization could best be viewed on a
spectrum
in some cases some of the blame for an
offense could actually be placed on the
one who was offended
or in layman’s terms she was asking for
it
nearly 100 years later we are still
dealing with the ways that victim
blaming
has permeated our legal system up until
1994 in my home state of tennessee a 40
year old man could avoid a statutory
rape conviction
for having sex with a 14 year old girl
as long as he could prove that she was
promiscuous
and it was just in 2013 that the
tennessee court had to rule that a 42
year old man could not excuse his sexual
abuse of a 14 year old
because as he claimed she consented and
was therefore an accomplice
somewhere in the middle of those two
developments in 2004
as a 16 year old runaway i was arrested
and tried as an adult
for killing a 43 year old man who picked
me up for sex
all throughout my court procedures i was
referred to as a teen
prostitute there was actually a moment
in my trial when the prosecutor created
a naked photo that my trafficker took
with me
in front of the jury as further proof of
why they should condemn me to a life of
imprisonment
more than 10 years i walked around in a
prison of shame with the title of
prostitute and all of its inherent
stigma
attached to my experiences i couldn’t
even find space to process the sexual
trauma that i had gone through because
over the years i had developed this
little hiding space in my mind where i
went to whenever the topic came up
to this day even hearing the word teen
prostitute sends a feeling through my
body that’s like nails grading across a
chalkboard
in the years since my arrest
neurodevelopmental research has
come up with a ton of findings about the
teenage brain and
how it works differently from adults
when making decisions and
solving problems in short the part of
the brain that allows them to be
level-headed
isn’t fully developed they can make
reasonable decisions
in situations where they don’t feel
under pressure and have ample guidance
but
they’re more likely to react without
weighing consequences and
be susceptible to the influence of
others in situations where emotions are
heightened
it’s how an otherwise reasonable and
level-headed teenager can seem mature at
the dinner table when
discussing plans for college but
immediately go upstairs and film himself
eating tide pods because his best friend
challenged him to do it
add to that the power and balance
between adults and minors and it’s clear
to see
how teen susceptibility to be influenced
in emotional situations
make them inherently more vulnerable to
be preyed upon and less
capable of giving meaningful consent
when the trafficking victims protection
act was put into federal law it was sure
to define
any commercial sex act with a person
under the age of 18
as the most severe form of human
trafficking
just as severe as brutally forcing
defrauding or coercing someone into
trafficking
what a lot of people miss in the act is
that anyone involved in any way
whether soliciting or purchasing a
commercial sex act involving a minor
is guilty of sex trafficking
that means there’s no such thing as a
trick when it comes to teenagers
there’s only traffickers the fact that a
minor cannot consent to sex with an
adult is a key part of this
because of the difference in brain
function and power dynamic
youth are considered an intrinsically
vulnerable population
and sex trafficking when applied to
minors doesn’t require blatant
force fraud or coercion because the
force fraud and coercion is inherent in
the act
of taking advantage of a vulnerable
individual
but as a culture we have yet to fully
reconcile the term sex trafficking
victim
with the teens who have traditionally
been labeled fast or promiscuous
we essentially view these kids as asking
for it
and erase the fact that their children
responding to the influence
predation and manipulation of adults
children responding to the
hypersexualized messages that
our society is constantly feeding them
as much as we discourage victim blaming
when it comes to sexual assault
we still find a way to imply volition on
the part of these children
who are clearly being violated
much of that sense in the fact that not
everyone really understands
how sex trafficking really happens
contrary to popular belief
most sex trafficking victims are not
kidnapped at gunpoint and
locked inside of a room where they’re
made to sell their bodies crying
hysterically all day
while waiting for someone to come rescue
them
in fact the 2011 study by researchers
with baylor university analyzed press
releases and online media reports from a
nine year period
and found that fewer than 10 percent of
faces actually involved kidnapping
it’s predominantly the psychological
holds the manipulation
that often lure youth into the life
in all actuality many female victims of
domestic minor sex trafficking share an
experience that’s similar to my own
you meet a guy he listens he gets you he
draws you in
promises you the world and before you
know what you’re ready to sacrifice at
all in order to be with the man that you
love
there’s almost nothing he can ask you to
do that you would tell him no because
he’s finally giving you the attention
and the affection that you’ve always
wanted
until of course he doesn’t and by that
time you learned to make excuses for him
by blaming yourself
and once you’ve got to the point where
you’re desperate for him to love you the
way that you thought he did in the
beginning
he has you right where he wants to
and it’s there that you become trapped
in a cycle where you believe your best
is never good enough
and you will never be more than what he
says you are
the life of a person involved in the
world of sex trafficking is not pretty
and 99 of the things they have to resort
to in order to survive
won’t place them on the ideal end of any
victimization spectrum
we still seem to struggle with wanting a
victim to fit a certain mold before we
actually see validity in their
victimization
as a matter of fact you’ll be
hard-pressed to find any talk about the
experiences of young boys who are just
as susceptible to being exploited
as young girls our culture has shaped us
in a way that we’re more comfortable
embracing social media narratives about
unmarked vans snatching innocent girls
off the street and forcing them
into sex slavery when in reality
we should be less worried about
suspicious white vans in our
neighborhood
and more worried about the blatant
whitewashing and victimization that we
perpetuate in our communities
it all comes back to the power of the
language that we choose
when we label these kids as prostitutes
or promiscuous
instead of sex trafficking victims and
exploited youth not only does the stigma
of that word determine how they’re
perceived by the community but
it actually works to marginalize them in
a way that keeps them trapped in the
same
cycle that abusers use to control them
in the first place
so what does all this mean for the fight
to end sex trafficking
if we don’t know what a victim of sex
trafficking looks like
how can we stop it
in 2017 researchers in georgia found
that 57.2 percent of individuals in
their study believe that
there are just some teens who choose to
prostitute themselves
this is a study of mandated reporters
individuals whose work puts them in
constant contact with children and who
are required by law to report suspected
sexual abuse a different study published
findings in 2019 that discuss the lack
of clarity of what constitutes a victim
of minor sex trafficking
among service providers and the impact
that it had on service provision
one missed opportunity to identify a
victim of sex trafficking
is one missed opportunity to many
when the very people were put in place
to protect the young people fail to see
them as needing a protection
we have a serious problem it’s like your
doctor failing to see that a gaping hole
in your chest is cause for concern
and what’s worse is when you yourself
can’t see that the hole in your chest is
reason to seek out a doctor in the first
place
and that’s exactly what it’s like when
you can’t identify yourself as a victim
of sex trafficking because
the world around you tells you that that
word doesn’t apply to kids like you
in order for us to effectively combat
sex trafficking in our country we have
to change the narrative
it’s actually not that complicated
whether we’re talking about community
members
legislative bodies surface providers or
impacted individuals
the language that we choose the stories
that we tell the narratives that we give
life to
all shape our responses to sex
trafficking
if as george orwell said a usage of
language can spread by tradition and
imitation
even among people who should and do know
better than people who know better can
do better
and create new tradition by spreading
facts
if at the end of this video you just
take five minutes to have the same
conversation with someone else
you can play a role in reshaping the
norms surrounding the teen
sex trafficking epidemic
that is the glitter project the
grassroots learning initiative on teen
trafficking exploitation and rape
and that is how we can begin to create a
society
where boys and girls are not goods to be
sold
victimization can’t be viewed on a
spectrum
and there’s no such thing as a team
prostitute