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What is Sex

Trafficking?

The recruitment, harboring, transportation,


provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a
person for the purpose of a commercial sex act
where such an act is induced by force, fraud, or
coercion. (Trafficking Victims Protection Act)

early history

Although forms of slavery existed


before the 1400, the 1400s marked
the start of European slave trading in
Africa
Portuguese transported people
from Africa to Portugal and
used them as slaves

The US passed the Mann Act of 1910


forbids transporting a person across
state or international lines for
prostitution or other immoral purposes

common
patterns

promise of a good job in another country

false marriage proposals

sold by parents trying to earn money

random picks (grocery stores, malls, etc.)

facts
&
statistics

90% of victims are women/girls

50,000+ women are trafficked into the US


every year

occurs every 8-10 minutes

2 million children forced into prostitution


every year; half living in Asia

maximum jail time for trafficking is 20


years to life imprisonment, depending on
offense

January 11, 2011 was named National


Human Trafficking Awareness Day by
President Obama

Gayle Rubin introduces the concept of


the sex/gender system
This refers to a few
ideas:
1. Sex is biologically
determined

According to Rubin,
the sex/gender
system is a product of
social relations

2. Gender is a social
construct
3. Through a specific
set of
arrangements, sex
is transformed into
human activity

Understanding these
social relations can help
us understand how to
alleviate oppression

Rubin asks:

How are womens


material conditions
oppressed by social
relations in place in
society today?

Rubin also expands on the role of kinship in


society
Kinship [kin-ship]

(n.) family ties; social conventions


maintained through social relations

Kinship takes two forms:


Gift-giving

Marriage as an institutional practice


began because men would gift
women to other men

The incest taboo refers to who can or


cannot be married to whom
Or in other terms,

and
incest taboo

the

to whom can a woman


be gifted?

Rubins thesis +
Sex trafficking
The sex trafficking industry runs on the
notion that women are merely sexual objects
to be bought and sold to further the pleasure
and profit of men.
Very clearly outlined gender roles
Men = enforcers
are at play here.

Females = victims

We can determine, then, that this notion


stems from the idea of the sex/gender
system as women being inherently sexual
beings (and inherently less than men) simply
by virtue of their being women.
We can also argue that this system of buying
and selling womens bodies has evolved from
the practice of women being gifted to their
husbands.

The Cycle of sex Trafficking

Some World-Wide Statistics

Works Cited
Report for Women and Global Human Rights (
http://faculty.webster.edu/woolflm/trafficking.html)

Polaris Project, Sex trafficking in the US 2015 (


http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/sex-trafficking-in-the-us)

Presentat
ion by:
Sabrina Green
Sam Quinn
Kenadi Jefferson

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