DISCLAIMER: This post is rooted in a feminist/pro-feminist analysis, and as a result, it may lead readers to assume certain things about me politically and personally (e.g. that I am living, have lived, and will continue to live a responsible, pro-feminist lifestyle). The fact is, I committed a crime in January 2007, sexually violating a woman who was under my care as a resident advisor in college. I ask that you keep this information in mind when evaluating my comments in this post, as well as if you engage me in dialogue. Please read this post (listed as “Because you deserve to know” on the “ARCHIVES” page) for more information.
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CNN posted an article today regarding a child prostitution ring in Fort Worth, Texas. According to the article, several teenage gang members (male?) befriended teenage girls as young as 12 and forced them to perform sexual acts with men for money. Fort Worth police Lt. Ken Dean reported, “The gang apparently targeted runaways and other girls with unstable homes, and if the girls refused to have sex for money the members beat and sexually assaulted them and threatened their families.”
To anyone familiar with prostitution and human trafficking, there are several elements to this case that are quite common, or at least certainly more common that most American citizens would imagine. I hope this story opens the eyes of citizens of Fort Worth as they confront prostitution and the sexual exploitation of women and girls in their community.
If any readers are familiar with law enforcement and prostitution, I am wondering if you might share some information on common practices for confronting prostitution. My fear is that the Fort Worth case is merely getting national attention because children were being prostituted, whereas if women were being prostituted, law enforcement officers would be less concerned (perhaps even being more critical of individual “prostitutes” rather than the men who are responsible for their sexual subjugation). Please share your thoughts and questions by adding comments below.
I encourage all readers to be thinking about the girls in Fort Worth who have been prostituted. I know none of them personally, and of course, I have not experienced the sort of oppression they have known and felt. But I hope men can see these girls – and all human beings, for that matter – as deserving of love, peace, and perhaps most importantly, freedom. Freedom to be. Freedom to grow. And freedom to live without the threat of rape.
