Ah, the uncomplicated ease of growing up in a rich and developed nation. My public education left me with the impression that slavery was a thing of the past. It had been abolished … it was illegal to own another person. I was happily ignorant of the fact that while I played in the sun, children (and adults) in other parts of the world were forced to work in mines, dimly lit factories and even in the sex trade. That last one was probably the biggest and latest shock to my naïve sensibilities.
Slavery takes many forms and is known by many euphemisms, but it is still going strong. I just want to unmask one form of slavery that hides in plain view. In case you didn’t know, the sex trafficking of humans is the fastest growing and most lucrative form of slavery today. Maybe we’ve all seen enough TV to realize that most prostitutes don’t choose their profession, but many of us are still happily naïve about the realities of the sex industry.
Pornography in all its forms is slavery. It is gaining wider and wider acceptance in our society. It’s rapidly being mainstreamed and normalized. The proliferation of web-connected devices has made it more readily available and to increasingly younger ages. What many people don’t realize is that pornography is in bed with the slave trade. The biggest lie of pornography is the lie of consent. Is some pornography produced by people who freely consent? Undoubtedly, but you will never know which you are viewing. There are no scrupulous producers of pornography; what they can’t pay someone to do, they will coerce someone to do. And it’s all mixed together on the internet. If you have viewed or payed for pornography, you have touched the sexual slave trade. That’s a jolting statement, but it’s true.
