Written by Hysen Sisco
Morality in Media’s new website, StopTraffickingDemand.com, is dedicated to exposing the links between pornography and sex trafficking. Through this website, we hope to help the anti-sex trafficking movement by increasing the volume of materials and educating the public on all aspects of the issue. We will consider this a success if one person comes to understand and ceases to purchase sex from prostituted women and children. Here are some true stories submitted it the site that clearly show the how pornography and trafficking are intertwined:
Karen
Men often filmed themselves having sex with me during the 9 years I was trafficked in Brooklyn. Sometimes they would bring porn with them and demand I do to them what was in the porn.
Aisha
This didn’t happen all of the time, but sometimes guys would bring a porno and insist we turn it on and watch it together. Then they would demand I copy what the girls in the movie were doing.
Once I screamed because I tore so bad when he tried to shove a hanger up me like he saw in the porno. He beat me telling me to shut up, but I couldn’t keep going. He left me there bleeding. A lady at the motel took me to the hospital where I had to get 12 stitches.
Former ‘Porn Star’ Genevieve
The abuse and degradation was rough. I sweated and was in deep pain. On top of the horrifying experience, my whole body ached, and I was irritable the whole day. The director didn’t really care how I felt; he only wanted to finish the video.
I thought my agents were there for me, but in actuality, they didn’t care about me at all. After, I said I wasn’t going to do anything anymore, they began to threaten me and make me feel like I was just a money-making machine.
StopTraffickingDemand.com has many stories like these, and more come in everyday. If you have a story you’d like to share, please contact us. We will keep your identity anonymous, unless you request we share it. You are not alone.*
The links are real. Those who say otherwise are fooling themselves. As advocates band together to fight this societal plague, we can educate and help others understand that their actions have a real cultural effect. Together, we can reverse the affects of pornography on society and decrease the demand for prostituted women and children.
*If you are or have been a victim of sex trafficking, we also have many resources and access to groups that help survivors listed here.