The moment I heard that we were reading an article about sex tourism I'll admit I was quite interested, for prostitution and illegal sex slavery is something that I had studied before in Sociology classes and I find the subject intriguing. As college students, we seldom are exposed to prostitution and the global sex trade that plays a role in our economy. I was struck by this article primarily because it shed light on the fact that sex tourism is not merely a shrouded and clandestine industry; rather, it is a massive business that, as the article explains, "connect[s] cities to global forces shaping sex tourism"(546). In this way, sex tourism is not an end, but essentially a means to an end, because it serves to globalize cities and sex workers in a way that the economic, tourist, and production industries do across the world.
I should take a moment to share a personal experience I had in another Sociology class, Deviant Behavior and Social Control (227) (I'll add that the story is rather heavy). We often had speakers come to class and speak on issues of societal deviance, such as homelessness, drug abuse, bi-sexuality, etc. One middle-aged, "normal-looking" woman came to our class to speak about sex tourism and illegal prostitution within the United States. She described her life as a normal college student in Boston; while she had a rocky relationship with her parents and often dropped out of school for weeks on end, she loved to go to parties and had a fairly wild lifestyle. She attended a party with a male acquaintance one night. She told us the last thing she remembered was sipping on a beer with a few strangers. The next thing she recalled was waking up in a brightly lit room with a man raping her; she pushed him off and grabbed clothes she recognized were hers and sprinted outside to find herself in a basement of an office building. She heard a female voice screaming, "how is she awake?" The woman ran outside to find herself in a quiet suburb of Boston, where a cab passed and she jumped in.
The cab driver later told her that it was two years after she had attended the party; she had been kept comatose for two years as a sex slave to unknown strangers. She also said that there were markings all over her body, and she assumed she had travelled a lot within the states (even internationally). My class was completely stunned. I had never heard such a shocking story that seemed as if it could happen to anyone.
While this story does not touch on the global business of sex tourism that the article describes, I think it connects to the fact that so much of our society we are unaware of. I'll admit that while reading the article I felt rather ignorant. I had no idea sex tourism existed on such a great scale, which was an equal shock in hearing this young woman's story.
Blair I really enjoyed reading your post. I like when you said: "In this way, sex tourism is not an end, but essentially a means to an end, because it serves to globalize cities and sex workers in a way that the economic, tourist, and production industries do across the world". That is a great way of putting it and I agree sex tourism is a means to an end. Also the example you used about the story in your class was really intense. It is stories like those, like you said that can happen to anyone, that really stress the importance of this problem.
ReplyDelete^Ry Hormel
DeleteThe story you shared made me think of the movie called "Taken" with Liam Neeson. In this movie, Liam's daughter travels to Europe, where she ends up being abducted and forced to work as a sex slave. What I think is interesting about this movie in relation to your post and to the article, is that the movie has the danger and deviance occurring overseas (even the buyers of the women are foreign). This leads Americans to conclude that our society is very removed from the problem of sex trafficking, when in reality, as your story illustrates and the article explains, we are not.
ReplyDelete-Ellie
John G - Blair I was very intrigued by your post. First off, your right in saying how we as college students seem so distant from the sex tourism phenomenon. Its weird to think that this is a $20 billion dollar industry (as Keith pointed out in his post). It is built to appeal to men, and I am thankful that prostitution is only legal in one state in the US. Anyway I found your story fascinating about the woman who lost 2 years of her life. Thank god she's even alive, but its stories like that that really make me wonder how the concept of sex tourism is acceptable on moral grounds. It is so similar to Taken like Ellie mentioned and its freaky to hear a real life version of that as it feels so much more real when not in the movie theaters.
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ReplyDeleteBlair, that story is so crazy and really scary. Something like that could happen almost anywhere in the world. I also think its interesting that she did not come out and say that happened as her opening statement. She told you how normal her life was and proceeded to tell her life story, this connects to Meg's comment about how these are real women we are talking about, that have lives and families. Clearly in this situation that girl was not making the choice to become a sex slave, but these situations do happen and this is a real issue.
ReplyDeleteTina-Seretta
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ReplyDeleteWow Blair your post makes a severely poignant connection. The fact that this woman's story stems from a seemingly normal lifestyle of partying and being young to turning into something horrifying unthinkable really does underscore our (Americans) disconnect from this domestic issue. It is sad that we have one of the most powerful governments that does not listen to its people. I think in order to understand and change problems outside of this country, we need Americans to see that we are doing similar tragedies in our own nation. We are committing crimes that many people think can only ever happen outside these safe borders, but that is far from the truth.
ReplyDelete-Molly B
Oh wow, that's an incredible story, Blair. That's the first time I've ever heard of something like that actually happening in real life. I knew it happened in movies, like in Kill Bill where Uma's character is comatose for 4 years and the staff at the hospital receive payment for allowing "customers" to have sex with her unconscious body. I can't even imagine the shock she felt when she realized that two years had passed. Her family must have been worried sick.
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