Sex trafficking revolves around male dominance and financial profit.

[seabeyond]

Women have been subjected to sexual violation and sexual exploitation through such means as virtual reality, online pornography, and online sex trafficking. The internet and online communities have been used as means to objectify members of the female sex. The abuse of the internet has subjected women to unwanted sexual harassment.Sexual exploitation is “a practice by which a person achieves sexual gratification, financial gain or advancement through the abuse or exploitation of a person’s sexuality by abrogating that person’s human right to dignity, equality, autonomy, and physical and mental well-being; i.e. trafficking, prostitution, prostitution tourism, mail-order-bride trade, pornography, stripping, battering, incest, rape and sexual harassment. Sexual exploitation preys on women and children made vulnerable by poverty and economic development policies and practices; refugee and displaced persons; and on women in the migrating process. Sexual exploitation eroticizes women’s inequality and is a vehicle for racism and "first world" domination, disproportionately victimizing minority and "third world" women. Sexual exploitation violates the human rights of anyone subjected to it, whether female or male, adult or child, Northern or Southern.”

*

Internet pornography is a controversial topic. Pornography involves the sexual exploitation of women for the benefits of male pleasure and desire. The internet has aided in the existence and increase of sex industries. Pornography also directly relates to sexual violence, especially violence against women’s human rights.Internet pornography exists to satisfy the quench of male pleasure and desire. Men have the power and decision making in social, political, and religious institutions. Their “definition and control of female sexuality constructs and regulates women and girls’ sexual activity. There is a global culture of sexual exploitation in which women’s bodies are used to market consumer products and where women and girls themselves are products to be consumed. Currently, the global sex industry is estimated to make US$52 billion dollars a year. The global sexual exploitation of women and girls is a supply and demand market. Men create the demand and women are the supply.” [8] Women have what men want. Men want to control what women have and in doing so, pornography has become graphic and plays off the extremes of male desire. Pornography is a process of dehumanization in which women are turned into objects of the man’s desire. Pornography has become a part of human life and it happens to women, in real life. “Women's lives are made two-dimensional and dead. We are flattened on the page or on the screen. Our vaginal lips are painted purple for the consumer to clue him in as to where to focus his attention such as it is. Our rectums are highlighted so that he knows where to push. Our mouths are used and our throats are used for deep penetration.” [7] Objectifying women in this manner is a form of dehumanization. Women in pornography are no longer seen as human beings, but rather objects that are used to please men’s fancies. “The pornographic object is a particular kind of object. It is a target. You are turned into a target. And red or purple marks the spot where he's supposed to get you. In pornography we literally see the will of women as men want to experience it. This will is expressed through concrete scenarios, the ways in which women's bodies are positioned and used.” [7] Women in pornography act and position themselves in certain ways in order to gain male patronage.

Pornography also brings humiliation to the female sex. In pornography, men have the power to control how women are portrayed. They have the power to objectify women and do with them as they please. “Men use sex to hurt us. An argument can be made that men have to hurt us, diminish us, in order to be able to have sex with us--break down barriers to our bodies, aggress, be invasive, push a little, shove a little, express verbal or physical hostility or condescension. An argument can be made that in order for men to have sexual pleasure with women, we have to be inferior and dehumanized, which means controlled, which means less autonomous, less free, less real.” [7] Pornography makes the woman seem unreal. The graphic images displayed in pornography make it seem that a woman has no feelings or true power and freedom of her own. She is the property of male dominance and control. “Pornography plays a big part in normalizing the ways in which we are demeaned and attacked, in how humiliating and insulting us is made to look natural and inevitable.” [7] Because violent pornography has become a mainstream form of entertainment, violence against women (rape, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, etc) has become a common image. “One of the harmful ideas that is at the core of all pornography, including so-called ‘soft-core’ as well as ‘hard-core’ porn, is that all women are sexually available to any man, at any time, and in any way he wants. This propaganda reinforced men’s (and via them, women’s) conceptions of the ‘inherent’ dominance and subordination in sexual and other relations between the sexes. Pornography affects men’s ideas about women and thereby their treatment of them.” [11] The recurrent images of male dominance in pornography have influenced the male mentality of the female sex. From these pornographic images, one becomes aware of the gender hierarchy that exists. Men control women not just physically, but mentally and socially as well. Women mentally think of ways they can present themselves in order to gain the male attention. They also must act a certain way in social situations in order to conform to the male desire.

The internet has encouraged the exponential growth of the sex industry. “Over the past ten years, the Internet has emerged as the premier forum of the international sex trade. All over the world, men can now buy, sell, or view women from the comfort of their own homes. With the click of a button, they can access live sex shows, strip clubs, interactive pornography, and mail-order bride catalogues, or enter discussions about the best ways to purchase prostitutes, sex slaves, and pornography.” [5] This is not a one-sided relationship because the internet does benefit and profit from an increase in sex industries. “The sex industry has fueled technological innovation and e-commerce, and has financially supported nearly all of the largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and search engines.” [5] The internet has found new ways to reach customers of pornography. It has also discovered “new ways of commodifying women and sexualizing violence.” [5] These customers “use chat rooms, newsgroups, and email to share information about where to buy prostituted women and children, post pornographic pictures and videos, and broadcast sexual abuse in real time. Pimps and criminal syndicates use the Web to advertise and display various forms of sexual violence, including sex tours, live strip/sex shows, pornographic images and movies, and escort/marriage services, and to recruit unsuspecting women for these purposes.” [5] The anonymity of the internet also allows many of these partakers in pornography a chance to get involved without being caught or detected. The ongoing creation of various pornographic website has become a mainstream commodity. Competition among these websites has caused an escalation in graphic, violent pornographic images like rape and torture in order to attract loyal customers. The increase in patronage has also directly increased internet sales and benefits. Online sex industries would not survive without the internet and vice versa. The online sex industry is valuable to the survival of the internet.

http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/kmarume/linear%20version%20of%20hypertext.html

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this is a young college student in very liberal santa clara, calif. those old prudy rad fems. smart woman. gonna check out more of her site.

[ChazII]

1. A survivor's story

http://www.hookersforjesus.net/news.aspx?parentnavigationid=13472

Tricks, johns, pimps are the one's who need to be facing jail time.

Seabeyond, thank you for making more people aware of sex trafficking. It's sad that this is not in GD.

[seabeyond]

2. i think about the time of slavery and think, who are the people that allowed, who are the people

that stayed quiet. people today, people on this forum have all kinds of things to say about slavery. all kinds of recrimination to those that participated.

tell me.... what is the difference today? besides having a greater understanding that we are all human beings, deserving of a life, what is different today knowing that the internet pornography takes away rights and freedom of others by control and dominance, for money, for those that watches the entertainment.

as a lifetime humanist i look at what is happening today. the information and knowledge, knowing that lack of control of internet is escalating SLAVERY of women and children and people on this board, those holding up their value, are helping to escalate the imprisonment of so many without a care. with excuses and validation.

i do not get it. i do not understand how a person can validate their want over the need of someones freedom.

i will read your link. thank you. it is always good to see you.

[Tumbulu]

3. well said

and I agree completely!

And I cannot believe that it is not seen this way.

It is slavery, if not worse.

[seabeyond]

4. i cant either. actually, i can. slavery didnt click with me until a couple weeks ago

my husband is the one that brought it to my attention a handful of months ago. then, a couple weeks ago it clicked.

and now i cannot get beyond it for anything.

[MadrasT]

5. Oh.

“One of the harmful ideas that is at the core of all pornography, including so-called ‘soft-core’ as well as ‘hard-core’ porn, is that all women are sexually available to any man, at any time, and in any way he wants. This propaganda reinforced men’s (and via them, women’s) conceptions of the ‘inherent’ dominance and subordination in sexual and other relations between the sexes. Pornography affects men’s ideas about women and thereby their treatment of them.” The recurrent images of male dominance in pornography have influenced the male mentality of the female sex. From these pornographic images, one becomes aware of the gender hierarchy that exists. Men control women not just physically, but mentally and socially as well. Women mentally think of ways they can present themselves in order to gain the male attention. They also must act a certain way in social situations in order to conform to the male desire.

Ties in directly with the examples I provided with the other thread where these men think and act as if they are absolutely entitled to be serviced by me, just because they want to fuck...

[seabeyond]

6. oh, is right. i have seena difference in behavior of men

with the escalation of accessibility to porn. and this is certainly one of them. this is the point when we have been saying our women are pornified. because they take what they are being continually fed in porn and bring it to RL and all women and worse, girls.