It's not all about sex

There are many forms of human trafficking that most people aren't aware of because the dominance of sex is everywhere including in the media where it further perpetuates this notion that sex sells. Unfortunately, just portraying sexual slavery does not do justice to the overall issue of human trafficking.

How most people nowadays obtain information is the media, and it plays a huge role for raising awareness on many issues, including human trafficking, an issue that is pretty staggering in numbers. The U.S. State Department, which releases a report on trafficking each year, estimates 1.1 million people are smuggled across borders each year, the vast majority of them women and children. Global profits from trafficking victims around the world are as high as $32 billion per year, according to U.N. figures. These figures, statistics, and numbers, are just that, a numerical value, while daunting is unreal to many people.

Within the last couple of years, there has been a lot of media focus towards sex trafficking since around 2004/2005. In 2005, Lifetime Television aired a film called “human trafficking” one of the first times that mainstream media had done an extensive job on portraying the issue. While like many of lifetime movies, it did raise the important issue, some considered it to be stereotypical in portraying the traffickers and victims. The film set in the phillipines, also portrayed the country to be poor and a host to the international sexual slavery.

Around the same time, MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking), an award-winning multimedia initiative which was launched in Europe in aims to raise awareness, especially among the youth, about the of human trafficking and exploitation that is becoming more prevalent

In 2006, Ricky martin , pop music star and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, testified at congressional hearings in Washington about human trafficking and urged congress to do more to stop the global issue.

In 2007, Academy-award winning actor Kevin Kline came to the United Nations to promote a film on human trafficking which officials hope will raise awareness about the alarming and largely unknown problem. Kline's new film "Trade," based on a 2004 magazine article, follows the abduction of a young Eastern European woman and a 13-year-old Mexican girl who are roped into an international sex ring .

Following this trend, popular television shows Law and Order :SVU and CSI NY aired episodes recently. Episodes “underbelly” and “hothouse” of SVU and CSI NY’s “She’s not there” raised issues of young women becoming sex slaves.

The most recent film “Taken” also went along the same theme of young women being sold and “taken” as sex slaves. "Taken," while attempts to show the gritty side of sexual slavery and kidnapping ends up sensationalizing sex, very similar to the 90s grunge rock and roll scene, where drugs and sex are prevalent. We are told these things are bad, but the way it is portrayed and sold is glorified. In the same way, when a young girl is put in a glittering bikini and put on a stage for rich european men to pay for... it similarly sensationalizes this very serious issue.

While awareness of the issue of human trafficking is being raised to a larger audience through these different outlets, it also is worrisome because the focus shifts more and more towards sex and sensationalizes sex trafficking and forced prostitution. It’s true that sex trafficking of young women and children is the most dominant type of human trafficking, making up 79% of all human trafficking as stated in the “global report in the trafficking of persons.” While portraying the issue of human trafficking , making the issue “sexy” in the media while it is eye catching, often oversimplifies the issue by stereotyping not only the issue itself, but also by stereotyping victims by their race and economic status. According to Amanda Kloer, the author of “end human trafficking”, the media focuses on these words “ child, sex slave, chained, forced, kidnapped, virginity, corruption, conspiracy.” She states,” They are words that leap at your eyeballs and wiggle into your memory. But breaking human trafficking down to mere words loses the truth: that slavery is a complex and growing institution that we support and that we allow to flourish”

It is important, while the media continues to raise awareness on the issues regarding human trafficking, to truly bring justice to the victims, proper measures must be taken to present the issue from a critical point of view. It is important to responsibly portray the issue righteously rather sensationalizing it.

There needs to be a shift from the focus of sex, to the idea of forced labor, and other forms of human trafficking as well.