So why aren’t we paying attention to the rest of it?

It’s estimated that there are at least 40 million human slaves alive today. This includes 25 million people in forced labor and 15 million people in forced marriage. Slavery occurs in every region of the world.

Women are disproportionately affected by human slavery– 28.7 million or about 71% percent of these people are women and girls.

As a woman, and as someone who is voluntarily employed in the sex industry, this is an issue that’s particularly close to my heart. As part of an effort to educate myself about the good and bad in my own industry, I’ve been reading a bit about commercial sex trafficking.

While doing this research, I’ve run across a lot of information about other kinds of human slavery happening in the world. I’ve been wondering why I haven’t been hearing more about other kinds of human slavery.

Forced labor is being forced to work under threat or coercion

and it generates profits of at least $150 billion dollars per year.

One-quarter of victims have their wages withheld, 17% have been threatened with physical violence, 16% have experienced acts of violence, and 17% have had their family members threatened. 7% of victims also reported sexual violence. This type of intimidation and abuse is how people are forced to work.

Forced marriage is generally forced labor and sexual coercion under the guise of “marriage.”

88% of percent of forced marriage victims are female, and 37% are children. Of the child victims, 44% are forced to marry before the age of 15.

Until recently, I had no idea how many people were forced to work in the agriculture and manufacturing industries, or how many child brides there were in the world.

Forced sexual exploitation accounts for a relatively small percentage of human slavery, at 4.8 million people or 12% of the 40 million people enslaved globally.

Besides involving sex, it’s not a whole lot different from the rest of human slavery. Being forced to work is still being forced to work, regardless of what kind of work you’re being forced to do. Often the same methods are used to coerce and intimidate victims.

So why does sex trafficking get so much more media coverage? Why can 12-year-olds still get married in the United States? Why doesn’t Lifetime make a movie about rescuing women who are being forced to work in agriculture or manufacturing?

Sex Sells

Duh.

I’ve found that sex sells better when there’s a fantasy involved; maybe one about a man rescuing a woman.

It’s a great mental image…

Burly FBI agents kick down the door of a seedy brothel, carrying damsels in distress over their shoulders. The helpless women blink their delicate, dark-expanded pupils in the sunlight.

Pimps in purple velour jogging suits are led out one by one, their gold chains and diamond watches confiscated and zipped into evidence bags. The bony, shivering victims are wrapped in emergency blankets and given warm mugs of hot chocolate.

“It’s going to be alright now,” says a fireman.

…except

not all sex workers are being forced into their labor.

They don’t all have pimps, and they aren’t all being exploited. Many of them really love sex (and money), and not all of them want to be rescued. I’m also pretty sure that 0% of them want to go to jail.

You see, in the real world, it’s the sex workers who are often the ones led out in handcuffs, whether they are victims of exploitation or not.

At the very least, a sex worker might be put in the unfortunate position of having lost their livelihood, as well as their sense of security, independence, and bodily autonomy.

Handcuffs or no, if someone busted into the strip club where I work to try and rescue me, I would be pissed.

Our focus on the sex industry is not based on the gravity of the problem relative to the global human slavery problem, but rather on a cultural obsession with sex, a history of puritanical repression, and the notion that women need to be rescued from the burden of deciding what to do with their own bodies.

Keeping sex work illegal doesn’t make sex workers safer

and it won’t end forced labor in the sex industry.

Much like prohibiting drugs does not stop drug use, and drives a violent black market; prohibiting sex work does not stop people from buying or selling sex– it just makes them less safe while they do it.

Focusing disproportionately on the sex industry when addressing the human slavery problem does not help to address the problem of human slavery, and it does not help sex workers.

It also creates a false justification for taking away a fundamental freedom that belongs to every human being: the right to do what you want with your own body, for love or money.

All of these issues need attention

It’s clear that anyone being forced to do any kind of work under the threat of violence is a threat to everyone’s fundamental human rights.

I think it’s incredible that we still condone things like forced labor or forced marriage as a species.

Shouldn’t we be past this by now?

Let us slip out of our archaic attitudes about sex, and focus on the real issue: protecting basic, inalienable human rights.

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Originally published on medium.com on September 1st, 2019.